Gau Raksha is not a new phenomenon in Bharat, as some people would like to argue. The Gau Raksha movement started way back in the late-19th century led by Swami Dayanand, and later it was also supported by the Muslims
Shaan Kashyap
It has been reported that scientists have taken the fight against HIV a step forward by demonstrating that cows can rapidly produce powerful antibodies after being immunised. This finding holds a promise to find vaccine against HIV. The study has been published in the world famous Life Science journal Nature. On the other hand, Minister of Environment, Dr Harsh Vardhan has announced that Bharatiya scientific research will demonstrate the importance of various cow products. The idea is to ‘settle controversies’ about the benefits of cow’s milk and urine, and scientists have been directed to come up with verifiable findings.
However, apart from the scientific research, we have seen sporadic instances of violence in the name of cow protection movement. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has regularly spoken against it and raised his concern on the issue. The Prime Minister has been saying, “Cow is revered as the mother in our country. Public sentiments are attached with the cow. However, people must know that there is a law to protect the cow and the violation of law is not an alternative.” Modi also acknowledged that such violence impact Bharat’s image in the world.
Between the above two positions of scientific significance of cow and the spark of vigilantes over its protection in the realm of law and order, the larger debate seems to be missing. What is it about the cow or Gau Mata which is so central to the everyday living of the Hindus? And since Hindu is Bharat, can we ever imagine the grandeur of Bharatiya culture without having Gau Mata at its core? We will substantiate here that Gau Raksha or Cow Protection is not a new phenomenon in Bharat, as some would like to argue. On the contrary, the Gau Raksha movement was the first mass movement in modern India during the late-19th century, and has persisted thereafter in some form or the other.
The Beginning
The first known cow protection movement began in the 1800s when Hindus were rallied in hordes to stop the slaughter of cattle. Arya Samaj founder Swami Dayanand Saraswati emerged as an early proponent of cow protection, who first published Gokarun•a?nidhi, a pamphlet in 1881, which circulated his concerns against cattle slaughter. In it, Saraswati stated the ‘economic’ favourability of cow protection. Saraswati later on went to establish a committee for the protection of cows called Gaurakshini Sabha in 1882. As he gave the call for a ‘return to the Vedas’, Dayanand also cited the first ‘shloka’ of Yajurveda to establish that there is a call not to kill any cattle because human being’s welfare is also associated with the well being of their cattle.
Even before Dayanand Saraswati, there have been records of Emperor Akbar prohibiting the cow slaughter at least in Punjab, and it was continued by Jahangir. This has been claimed by a historian Athar Ali who was based in Aligarh Muslim University. According to Athar Ali, the prohibition did not amount to suppression of any Islamic ritual. However, when the present times saw legislation for the prohibition of cow slaughter, Left-Liberal infested civic circles witnessed the greatest uproar. It is ironical that the same group characterises Akbar as a great and secular monarch based on actions such as prohibiting cow slaughter, but they brand the present regime as ‘communal’ for repeating it.
Much before all this, the Vedic literature upheld the concept of Ahimsa and the related concept of sanctity of cow. The earliest evidence off ‘pinjarpoles’ (animal hospitals) is from the reign of Emperor Ashoka, another secular monarch as claimed by Marxists. All foreign travellers also observed Gaushalas (cow shelters) and there are historic claims of their existence well before the twelfth century. In the early modern period, Marathas struggled against the Mughal rule and Shivaji upheld the ‘sacred’ duty of the ruler ‘the rightful lords of the realm’ to protect cow and the Brahman. The Khalsa rule of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in Punjab also prohibited cow slaughter and the azan.
Even Muslims Supported
Almost all historians across the political spectrum have agreed that the Revolt of 1857, called as the ‘First War of Independence’ by Veer Savarkar witnessed a united front of Hindus and Muslims against the British occupancy. Even then the issue of cow slaughter figured prominently. A letter addressed to the princes of India under the seal of Bahadur Shah Zafar on May 20, 1857 made a solemn appeal. The letter declared that, “the slaughter of kine (archaic plural of cow) is regarded by the Hindus as a great insult to their religion. To prevent this, a solemn
compact agreement has been entered into by all the Mohammedan chiefs of Hindustan, binding themselves that if the Hindus will come forward to slay the English, the Mohammedans will from that very day put a stop to the slaughter of cows.”
Another nationalist Muslim Mirza Samiullah Beg wrote to the Editor of Pioneer on January 15, 1912 expressing similar opinion on cow slaughter. He wrote “the moment that our country reaches to the stage of development when the cow-killing question and the Mohurram riots sink into insignificance before the higher and greater problems of our country, we may have the dawn of an era which leads to the desired ends.”
However, the larger Muslim community seemed to have never respected the Hindu sentiments over the sanctity of cow. No wonder this resulted in disharmony and violence. The alternative histories of freedom struggle are filled with communal tensions and rioting majorly on two issues, namely cow slaughter and music before the mosque. These histories have not been discussed openly by the historians.
A Persistent Question
Ever since the issue of Gau Raksha was institutionalised by Dayananda Saraswati in 1882, the question has persisted on the ground. The covertly secular polity of Nehruvian India has failed to fashion the overtly Hindu character of the ground politics. To state it simply, we have been made to believe by the Nehruvian intelligentsia that issues such as Gau Raksha only appear to fore when communal political parties break to the power. However, such issues have flourished at the ground level amidst people, ever since their inception. It is the myopic secular polity which fails to acknowledge their existence and significance.
It is not surprising that the Gaurakshini Sabha Movement had rapidly spread all over North India and to Bengal, Madras, Bombay and other central provinces after its inception in 1882. The organisation rescued wandering cows and reclaimed them for grooming in Gaushala. Across the India, signature campaigns were launched to mobilise the demand to ban cow slaughter. The movement was huge in magnitude of participation of people and the geographical expanse.
The wave of the cow protection movement, which has persisted as an active undercurrent in Bharat over the decades is not new, is not a post-2014 phenomenon. However, people are more enthusiastic about the raksha today, since we have a leadership which does not shy away from calling cow ‘the mother’.
It must be added that the same leadership had also alerted us that cow vigilantism and goondaism should be segregated in perspective. The former needs to be preserved while latter should be strongly condemned. Some anti-social elements should not be allowed to incite violence in the name of cow protection. The Hindu way of
living has always taught that noble causes require acting with noble methods and approach.
(The writer is a Modern History scholar)
