Banning Of Cow Slaughter- Red Meat Revolution

- Lalrinthari Zadeng & Lalrinsanga

Cattle slaughter in India is historically a tabooed subject, cow being a sacred animal in the Hindu religion.  It is considered holy and is worshipped by the Hindus. Up to 24 out of 29 states currently have various regulations prohibiting either the slaughter or sale of cows. The execution of the law differs from state to state depending on the political atmosphere while there are some states in India which has no regulation on cow slaughter. Recently in Maharashtra, one of the most populous states in India has banned killing of cows which undermines the value of secularism. Prior to the introduction of the bill by the Hindu Nationalist Party, the banning of slaughtering and selling of cows nationwide triggered a huge debate across the country and it has become a truly sensitive issue, thus making it a stiff law to enforce.

Before we get deeper into the subject, it is important to understand what secularism means. Secularism meansequal treatment of all religions by the state. Thus, the implication of being a secular state is the freedom of a citizen to follow any religion for that matter. India being a secular democratic country, the population consists of considerably diverse range of multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-religion inhabitants scattering all across the country in which the majority of the religious communities are Hindus. In August 2014, the Government of India decided to introduce a bill banning the slaughter of cow and sale of beef across India which created uproar of people from North Eastern States and beef eaters in India hurting their religious sentiments. The proposed bill is believed to have been partial to cows as it is divine in Hinduism while many considered it as a tasty meal. The Muslim community businesses is jeopardized by the banning of cow slaughter because beef industry in India is principally run by the Muslim and are also the biggest beef consumers. Now many have been left jobless and there's an ongoing protest and debate against the proposed bill across the country with little success. If we look at the NE India scenario, predominantly Christian states, where there are no rituals as idolizing a specific animal and most of the NE people are beef eaters, the banning of cow is an upsetting issue. There has been a mass protest over the proposed bill all over the country and in a Christian state like Shillong, a group of people staged their protest by organizing a ‘beef party’ during one of the BJP leader visit. In response to this, Keith Wallang, a protester in Shillong said, “I am sure a bill as this, even if passed, will not be implemented in our region for obvious reasons. As far as I am concerned, religion is a personal choice and should not influence any decisions that would affect other choices.” “And on the lighter note, I’d rather eat the cow than let it graze on the roads”, he added.

Questions could be imposed as to ‘why other religious communities like Christians, Muslims and other communities who rely heavily on the cheap meat for protein are discriminated?’ Not only that, ‘why banning a sacred animal of the Hindus which helps farmers in their agricultural activities and while many rely on selling beef for their livelihood?’ This otherwise could threaten the jobs of many if it is promoted nationwide. Banning a food item is never a good idea on any grounds which could attribute to the upheaval in terms of religious norms in India especially in a case like banning cow slaughter just because it is “Banned in Hinduism”. It is irrelevant for the government to prohibit cow slaughter only because it is banned in Hinduism imagining the chaos it would cause if idol worship was to be banned in India simply because it is banned in Christianity and Islam. It is just senseless as it seems to try and ban cow slaughter while many cows are straying around the streets of India unguarded, depositing cow dung on the road thus causing unhealthy environment. This is also a big economic issue taking into account the economic contribution of beef marketing in India; India is one of the top beef exporters in the world which makes banning of cow slaughter, an unsound decision. Cow skins are also used for leather industry which is booming in India. The total consumption of beef in India is extremely high as compared to other meat because of its cheap and highly rich protein content; in such scenario as this, banning of cow slaughter will have a high impact on the lifestyle of the citizens and is an infringement on the fundamental rights.

Beef consumption presently in Mizoram context is quite large. We have beef sellers scattered in the market all over the State. What will happen if it is banned in Mizoram? It is very common for most of the restaurants in Mizoram to serve beef to their customers and especially the vendors who sell rolls don’t have any other meat in their menu except for beef. Lalrinsanga, who owns a restaurant in the heart of Aizawl city says,  “Beef is the second most expensive meat in Mizoram after prawn, but most of our customers are beef eaters and beef rolls are more on demand than chicken and other meat rolls; if it is banned in Mizoram, it will surely be an offset for our business. Though there are readymade packages of beef available in the market, it is quite expensive to buy it in bulk and we rely heavily on the local butchers". "Banning of beef in Mizoram will leave many people jobless, whose income is solely from beef selling. It could reshape our economy of many families and also Mizoram at large" said Vanlalruata, a beef seller in Aizawl.

      This has become a really complicated issue which is considered by many as Hindu religion-biased and an action towards creating unwanted arguments unless it is proven by all other religious communities. ShailpikBiswas from Kolkata, a Hindu himself, made a statement on this case saying that, “It is ridiculous and I think there are bigger issues at hand that can be given more attention such as stopping environmental damage and deforestation”.  While the most critical issues are being neglected, the cow issue is given utmost importance.  If this is all about protecting animal rights, why does it have to be partial to cows and not to other animals which are no less different than cows? And as a citizen of a secular country, I think I can eat, drink and consume what I want owing to the fact that I have my own rights without the government telling me what to eat and what not to eat.