I feel it a privilege as a citizen of this great country India and as a true son of Bharat Mata to write about the duties of a citizen belonging to this great nation.
It’s very important and necessary for every Indian to be cordial, amiable and understanding of our fellow citizens in the country.
One should understand the feelings, problems, belief and faith of the fellow citizens of this country. Every citizen should accommodate the fellow citizen in every way possible to help the society, the state and the country to attain peace, development and growth to our potential. In this pretext, I would like to delve into the recent cow slaughter ban promulgation.
An overwhelming majority of 85 per cent of our country worships the cow and her progeny and considers cow as ‘Gomata’. This faith, belief, sentiment and culture requires the ban of cow slaughter which in turn will please the majority to the hilt and will help to develop an amiable and cordial relationship between the majority and the minority.
Let’s not forget that the cow slaughter ban was very much in existence in the past. Recalling back to the history, the Moghul Emperor Babar saw the wisdom of prohibiting the slaughter of cows as and by way of religious sacrifice and directed his son, Humayun, to follow this example. Similarly Emperors, Akbar, Jahangir and Ahamed Shah, prohibited cow slaughter. Nawab Hyder Ali of Mysore made cow slaughter an offence punishable by cutting the hands of the offenders. Three members of the Gosamwardhan Enquiry Committee set up by the UP government in 1953 where Muslims in the anonymous recommended a total ban on slaughter of cows and her progeny.
Our country may be economically poor when compared to some of the rich nations. But, from the point of view of cultural values, we are the richest nation. One of the greatest values of our culture is the sense of gratitude. Our culture has another value to the effect that “there is no God greater than Mother”. Among the Muslims too it is said “Maa ki Paun ke Neechay Jannat hai” means there lies a heaven beneath the feet of the mother.
In view of this, the status of motherhood is given to the cow. It’s incorporated in the following verse
“Bhuktava thrunani shuskani
Peetva thoyam Jala shayath
Dugdum dadati lokebhyaha
Gava vishwasya mataraha”.
Cow eats dry grass, drinks water from the tanks or other water resources and gives milk to the humanity. Therefore, the cow is the mother of the world.
From the cow and her progenies milk, curd, butter and ghee the richest food is prepared.
The cow’s dung and it’s urine is extremely useful to the mankind and it is considered as sacred and holy. It’s a matter of distinction that cow dung and its urine is considered as holy, while other animals and mankind however great they are is discarded (Thajya).
Kautilya’s Artha Shastra, 2300 years ago, which constituted the constitutional laws of ancient India states thus “vatso vrusho dhanuschaivamavadhyam means slaughter of cow, calves and bullocks are prohibited.
As a result of all these the founding father of our great nation headed by Shri Ambedkarji included Article 48 in our Constitution as directive principle of the state policy in the Part 4 of the Constitution which prohibits the slaughter of cows and calves and other milch and draught cattle.
The great Muslim leaders who were the members of the constituent assembly than agreed to include the Article 48 in the Constitution. Inspite of this, thousands of cows and her progeny is being slaughtered mercilessly and our highest values of distinction has become the victim of dirty electoral politics.
The usefulness to mankind and the Economy of the country
Cow and her progeny sustains the health of the nation by giving the life-giving milk an essential ingredient of a scientifically balanced diet.
Bullocks are essential for our agricultural based economy for they give more power than any other animal.
Bullocks plough the fields: drawing carts to take agricultural produce from the fields to farmer’s house and to agricultural market.
Dung and urine is cheaper than artificial manures. The artificial manures kills the soil while organic manure of dung and urine enriches the soil. The urine of the cow and her progeny is a wonderful pesticide and it enhances the yield. The dung smeared on the grounds and the walls of the warehouses protects food grains and other products from insects and termites. The dung and urine is extremely useful for the production of biogas. A two handful of dung is sufficient to produce biogas to light up a household as well as to cook for the family for a day.
In fact it’s an established fact that cow and her progeny is the backbone of the Indian agriculture economic system.
JC Kumarappa the great economist and advisor to Mahatma Gandhi and the first Indian Union Cabinet member said that “India should adopt the cow economy and not the coal economy.” Cow and her progeny in every stage of life produce 3500 kg of dung, 2000 liters of urine, 500 qubic feet of biogas, 80 metric ton of organic fertilizers. The value of the above contribution is placed at Rs 23,000 per year. According to the report of the National Commission of Cattle came out with the following fact. A bullock which is beyond 16-year of age can produce three tons of dung, 343 pounds of urine in a year manufacturing 20 cartloads of composed manure sufficient for manuring four acres of land for crop production. Cow and her progeny even after the age of 16 years can produce 5000-6000 dung cakes. If one bullock is slaughtered for its meat can sustain a butchers trade for only a day and for the next day another bullock has to be slaughtered but if a bullock survived for five more years after the age of 16 years it can provide employment for one person throughout. The commission also put out the facts that urine and dung is used in the preparation of vermi-composed and pest repellents. In some cases the urine and dung is used in the preparation of medines too. If you put together the income of all these it is Rs 33 per day, while the expenditure involved to take care of these animals is only Rs 20 maximum per day.
Even otherwise can one butcher somebody who has served you for 16 years and still serving. Don’t we have our sense of gratitude?
Legal Aspects
When UP, MP and Bihar promulgated the cow slaughter ban in 1950 the following case will enlighten us of justice. Mohammed Hanif Quresh and others V/s state of Bihar and others in 1959 SCR 629, the court upheld the legislation which said that, no one produced the evidence, affidavit or Quran or any of its verses requiring the sacrifice of the cow and her progeny. It was also noticed from the judgment majority of the Muslims not sacrifice cow and her progeny on Bakr-id.
State Bengal and others V/s Ashitosh Lahari in 1995, the judgment said that the court has noticed that sacrifice of any animal by the Muslims for the religious purposes on Bakr-id does not include slaughtering of cow as the only way of carrying out their sacrifice. Its neither essential nor necessarily required as their part of ceremony.
On the contrary, the Hindus on specified days like Deepavali, Makra Sankranti and Gopastami worship cow and her progeny -bull, bullocks and calves. Infact majority of temples in India, bull and Nandi are regularly worshipped.
Supreme Court of India in its historic judgment by seven judges bench, Appeals numbers 4937- 4940 1998 State of Gujarat V/s Mirzapur Moti Kureshi Kasab Jammat and others/It has upheld
– Constitutional validity of banning of slaughter of all aged cattle.
– Usefulness of aged cattle.
– Need for organic manure.
– Power of the state to bring legislature banning the aged cattle slaughter.
It also upheld that the fundamental right of butchers has not being violated by banning of slaughter of aged cattle.
Issues before the nation and the people
It is argued that right of the people to consume whatever they want and carry out any profession they liked is curtailed.
The meat is also eaten by a part of Hindus
I would like to put forth the following reasoning to my Muslim brethren-In a Muslim colony if a pork shop (pig) is put up we would definitely protest as the pig is the most hated and banned animal. Anything of the pig whether blood, excreta, or even the smell would spoil the sanctity of the colony and accordingly the society and government will never allow such shop in the colony to function. On the other hand, cow and her progeny is revered and worshipped by 85 per cent of people in India. We Muslims as good citizens should respect the sentiments, faith, belief and culture of the majority and should support cow slaughter ban which will bring about great brotherhood.
Secondly, Hindus eating cattle meat, I would put it at three per cent of 85 per cent and the reason for that could be either they were forced to eat or induced to eat with ulterior motive of segregating them from Hindus or for the converting of such Hindus and finally to divide and rule, a policy adopted by the British.
It’s a vote bank dirty politics played by some political parties and the pseudo-secularists wanting to use this issue as their launching pad to gain popularity opposing the ban.
Haven’t these politician representing the people of our nation time and again taken oath to abide by the Constitution? And isn’t Article 48 a part of Constitution aren’t these people committing treachery against the country and the people?
Why the necessity of reintroduction of this law while it is already existing
Firstly the existing law is very vague and cannot be strictly implemented. It is not possible for anyone to make out which meat belong to which animal, when it’s butchered and cut.
If somebody is caught red handed the punishment, for such a offence is only six months of simple prison or a maximum fine of 500 to 1,000 rupees.
The material and vehicle carrying the contraband cannot be confiscated in spite of it being a crime.
The culprits time and again get away with a bail all the time.
Moreover, these kinds of incidences cause communal riots and disharmony in the society.
To tie all these loose ends and plug the loopholes, a proper legislation is very much required.
While ending this article I would like to quote our Father of the nation the great Mahatma Gandhiji.
“Hindus will not be judged by their tilaks, not by the correct chanting of the Mantras, not their pilgrimages, not by their observance of caste rules, but their ability to protect the cow. I will not kill a man to protect a cow nor kill a cow in saving a human being, be it ever so precious. It is not possible to save those animals that are a burden to a land or perhaps, even a man, if he is a burden. Cow slaughter and man slaughter are in my opinion the two sides of the same coin.”
(The writer is former chairman, Karnataka Minority Development Corporation, Member of Task Force Wakf Board )
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