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Rumour has always been a weapon for the anti-cow slaughter movement. Reuters/File
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Looking back
The targeting of Muslims on the issue of beef is ironic also
because it was one of their representatives in the Constituent
Assembly who had declared their approval for a ban on cow-
slaughter in the 1940s. The only condition he suggested was that
the Constitution should specifically mention that the ban had
been imposed to uphold the religious sentiments of Hindus and
not because of economic reasons, all of which they claimed were
dubious and difficult to sustain logically.
This plea arose from two types of arguments cited by the votaries
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This plea arose from two types of arguments cited by the votaries
of the cow protection movement. There was the religious
argument that the cow shouldnt be slaughtered because it was
an object of veneration among the Hindus from time
immemorial, which is why beef was a taboo food item for them.
This myth has been punctured through several scholarly studies
over the years, not least by BR Ambedkars 1948 work, The
Untouchable and Why They Became Untouchables? Ambedkar linked
the status of Untouchables to their eating the meat of the dead
cow.
Economic rationale
In the debate in the Constituent Assembly, Pandit Thakur Dass
Bhargava and Seth Govind Das proffered economic reasons to
demand the ban on cow slaughter. Bhargava said,
To grow more food and to improve agriculture and the cattle breed
are all inter-dependent and are two sides of the same coin. [ ...] The
best way of increasing the production is to improve the health of
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Saadulla said there were thousands of Muslims who did not eat
beef, and that cattle for the agriculturists among them were as
useful for them as they were for their Hindu counterparts. To
quote Chigateri,
Syed Saadulla questioned the argument that Hindu reverence for the
cow was always re ected through a taboo on slaughter, arguing that in
Assam, when there was a shortage of cattle and a prohibition on the
slaughter of milch or draught cattle, it was Hindus who resorted to
slaughtering cows with the argument that the cattle were
unserviceable and dead weight.
But at the dawn of a new era, India wanted to hide from the world
the irrationality that had a pull on its citizens and their leaders.
It chose the language of rationality to introduce cow-protection
in the chapter on the Directive Principle of State Policy. Call it a
classic example of Indias penchant to find the middle path.
Nevertheless, Ambedkar is mostly credited for saving India the
blushes of becoming the only country in the world to extend the
fundamental right to an animal.
Cloak of rationalism
Thus came into existence Article 48, which still reads, The State
shall endeavour to organise agriculture and animal husbandry on
modern and scientific lines and shall, in particular, take steps for
preserving and improving the breeds, and prohibiting the
slaughter of cows and other milch and draught cattle. But this
compromise did not satisfy the Hindu Right, which wanted a
total ban on cattle-slaughter.
The Supreme Court has upheld the notion that the cow was held
in reverence by the Hindus, prompting legal luminaries, such as
Upendra Baxi, to say the judges perhaps hadnt been rigorous in
examining this sweeping proposition. However, the Supreme
Court has also ruled that a ban on the slaughter of bullocks and
bulls, despite being old age and no longer economically useful,
Ajaz Ashraf is a journalist from Delhi. His novel, The Hour Before
Dawn, published by HarperCollins, is available in bookstores.
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