Can the other Indians eat their beef in peace? What the next 20 years are going to be?

  

1. With the stringent action taken by Sri Yogi Adityanathji, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh against the illegal abattoirs, a Pandora’s box has been opened. This fact, (coupled with the lynching of a person to death who was allegedly part of a cow slaughter business) assumes additional significance. Most ardent beef eaters are aware that very many times they get only buffalo meat and not real beef. Of late, many states have virtually made it impossible to slaughter  Oxen/ cows unless they are past their prime. But the beef markets around the world put a premium on beef from younger animals, as they are the best in terms of quality. Brazil , Australia, New Zealand lead the rest in global  beef trade.

                     

2.  The sub-continent (Akhand Bharat) which extended from the state of Kandahar in the west to Bengal in the east, (bordering Burma )and was bordered in the north China, and surrounded by ocean on south. It was  essentially a  pastoral and agricultural civilisation. Originally all the inhabitants of the land (including the people who came to be later known as Brahmins) were confirmed non-vegetarians. During the Copper Age and soon after the Stone age,  the most preferred meat of the most privileged Akhand Bharat resident was horse meat. The sage Ashwa, a person domiciled in the state of Gandhar is supposed to have bred different type of horses including one specially meant for meat. If the horse meat was not available the resident preferred bushmeat. In many ways, it was  a healthy food option even though a modern day environmentalist will call it barbarous. If the first 2 options were not available then the people were not averse to having pig , goats or cows depending on their availability and the personal preferences. Justice Mr Markandey Katju a Kashmiri Brahmin domiciled in Uttar Pradesh  is one of the staunch adherents of the traditional Brahmanical preference for beef.

3. The biggest challenge to Hinduism and its Varnashrama Dharma initially came from Jainism and Buddhism. The emergence of Jainism all over India clearly meant that non-vegetarianism is not an option at all. Jains believe that killing an animal that has a central nervous system and hence feels pain is against the tenets of nonviolence; which is part of the basic spiritual structure of Jainism. Buddhism did not show a preference to vegetarianism or non-vegetarianism. A Buddhist monk should eat whatever is given by his disciple without any specific choice. Though a Sikh may be a non vegetarian, the Gurudwara Langar will only serve vegetarian food.

4. A substantial part of south Indian Brahmins become vegetarian over a period of time. On the other hand, north Indian Brahmins particularly  Kashmiri, Bengali, Orissa and even those from Konkan are not averse to red meat or at least fish as a medicine or  food. But ,of late, even a section of the Christian community is turning vegetarians (if you discount the consumption of fish) purely on health grounds. The reason for preference vegetarianism was due to the spiritual renaissance in Hinduism. Actually the worst  credible threat to the dominance of Hinduism in India came from Jains . Many of the Tamil kings had accepted Jainism and in fact Jains had to suffer lot of persecution in the hands of Hindu kings. During the  10th Century AD, the reformers of Hinduism in decided to absorb the best parts of Jainism and Buddhism and make them part of Hindu tenets.

5. Buddhist challenge to Hinduism spiritual dominance of India received a great beginning with the great Indian king Ashoka Devanampriya become a Buddhist after a victorious war. He persuaded his sister and daughter to become Buddhist disciples and formally exported Buddhism to Sri Lanka.From there it spread to other parts of the world. However, since Buddhism and Jainism are godless religions, it could not provide a credible challenge to Hinduism which provided a choice of  several  gods having different characters and qualities comparable to the human beings hailing  from plural back grounds. Hence even though Buddhism became a dominant faith in Srilanka , Thailand ,  Cambodia , China and Japan, the number of Buddhist and Jains in India has never been very substantial . In any case as per Indian personal laws  a Jain,a Buddhist or a Sikh ,  will be treated as a Hindu.

6.  In the last 1000 years, India witnessed the arrival of Christianity and Islam on a largest scale. These two religions because of their novel modern ideology provided a credible alternative to Hinduism. When India became Independent, and when it lost a substantial part of  its Muslim population, the ratio of Hindus, Muslims and Christians was 90% Hindus, 2% Christian and another 8% of Muslims.

7.Even at that time, everyone wanted India to be a secular country, India is not a  Hindu republic as opposed to Pakistan which declared themselves to be the land of Pure and an Islamic country. At the time of independence, 10 % of the Indian population comprising of Christians and Muslims had a distinct preference for consumption of beef. In addition,a substantial part of the Dalit and the Adivasi population had no qualms about the consumption of beef. The SC and STs constitute about  22.5 % of the Indian population. If you add Christians and Muslims roughly one third of India's population at the time of independence had a  distinct preference to beef as part of their dietary preference. However, the ban on cow slaughter has always been part of the Hindu agenda. The Shankaracharya of Puri, one of the influential Indian mutts held a record of a fast for 72 days consuming only Ganges water. Though this fast could not achieve anything concrete,  the fast by Vinoba Bhaveji received an assurance from Congress government (then headed by Mrs Gandhi) and amended the Indian constitution and included a New Directive Principles of State Policy, namely the desirability of a total ban on cow slaughter. Since then, literally and figuratively, a lot of water has flown under the bridge. South Indian states became the biggest consumers of meat. States like Gujarat and Rajasthan became greatest votaries of vegetarianism.                                                                                                                                  

Due to various factors, even the meat eaters amongst the Hindu started avoiding beef. States like Maharashtra, Gujarat,  Rajasthan have made cow slaughter a very difficult  proposition. But even amongst Hindu nonvegetarians there have been a lot of people who like beef  produced in Brazil . As of now the  American continent, Australia and New Zealand are dominating the beef market. In Europe, the cattle ranching survives only because state subsidies.

9. India today has become a member of WTO and hence has committed reduce its tariff on foreign goods with the hope that Indian goods can have a similar privilege in the global market .It is common knowledge that India and China are one of the most population dense regions in the world. While Chinese eat virtually everything, the Muslims don’t eat things that are haram. Hence even though one witnessed sacrificing of cows on busy Uttar Pradesh towns before independence, such practices were socially banned by the post Independent Indian Secular republic. It is in these circumstance the Indian Constitutional Directive Principle of total ban against cow slaughter assumes additional significance.

                                                        

                                                                               

10.  The states of Kerala, Tamilnadu, Karnataka , Andra Pradesh  and Bengal and other North Eastern States will never support this Directive Principle  as they are major consumers of Beef. In fact they would prefer more hygienically slaughtered tender beef made from younger cows or bulls . Considering that India has more bovine and angulate population than what the Indian land can reasonably sustain ,on a long term, basis any complete ban against beef will be economically and environmentally disastrous . Considering that the ever increasing  dairy industry produces almost 50 % of bull cubs for which the industry has no use except as a slaughter animal. Progressive Farmers have stopped using oxen as animals of power and they are now being replaced by diesel engines. Hence the need for culling excess cow population is all the more imminent than it was before the onset of White Revolution.

                                     

11.  The states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and even West Bengal have most of the  unauthorised slaughter houses. Both the Supreme Court  and National Green Tribunal had been repeatedly demanding the different state governments that they should ensure the closure of these unauthorised slaughter houses. Many Municipal Corporations in UP are running their slaughter houses India is one among the top meat exporters in the region . If the present closure of unauthorised slather houses results in streamlining the butchery business, it can be a great and better opportunity for Indian meat exports.

                            

12.  It is gratifying to see that High Court  of Uttar Pradesh included the right to food of one's  choice as part of right to life . Hence the law of slaughter of animals for food should be suitably liberalised to facilitate the growth of red meat trade. One should not lose sight of the fact that a substantial part of the Indian population hailing from all religions pursue the business of meat trade and they should have right to continue, if they wish . Any other option would be disastrous for India even though the vigilante justice will make beef and pork consumption lower than the present levels .If Hindus can demand that beef must be banned because it is against Hindutva  then the Muslims  can also demand that pork must be banned because it is haram. In a secular state, no state can impose a law on people restricting or stipulating their dietary preferences. Let everyone eat what they like and let me not claim that you should not eat what l do not  like. It is as simple as that.