A gift from the gods: bottled cow's urine

[Guest guest]

Here's an interesting article that appeared on news.telegraph.co.uk.

 

The specific link is:

http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/09/02/wcow02.xml

 

 

 

A gift from the gods: bottled cow's urine

By Julian West in New Delhi

(Filed: 02/09/2001)

 

HINDU nationalists in India have launched a marketing exercise to promote

cow's urine as a health cure for ailments ranging from liver disease to

obesity and even cancer.

 

The urine, which is being sold under the label "Gift of the Cow", is being

enthusiastically promoted by the government of Gujarat, one of three states

in India dominated by Hindu nationalists.

 

The urine is collected daily from almost 600 shelters for rescued and

wounded cattle set up by the Vishwa Hindu Parisad (VHP), or World Council of

Holy men, as part of a government cow-protection programme to save the

country's sacred, but often maltreated, beasts.

 

Advertised as being "sterilised and completely fresh" it is available for 20

rupees (30p) a bottle at about 50 centres run by the VHP in Gujerat, from

200 of their outlets in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, and at fairs and

religious festivals throughout India.

 

It also comes in tablets or a cream mixed with other traditional medicinal

herbs. Demand is currently outstripping supply.

 

Dr Jadi Patel at the VHP's headquarters in Ahmedabad said: "It's very

popular because the results are very good, but we've got a shortage." He

explained that the cow protection centres had been formed after the last

grand gathering of saddhus, or holy men, to save cows from "unofficial

slaughter by Muslims".

 

Killing cows is illegal in most Indian states but there are an estimated

32,000 illegal abattoirs and 13.7 million cows are believed to be

slaughtered by Muslims for the leather industry.

 

Animal rights activists in India also claim that the doe-eyed, hump-backed

white Brahma cattle that are to be found on almost every Indian street are

subjected to various abuses, including forced pregnancies to produce more

milk.

 

The cow protection commission was set up to protect the holy cows, and

research conducted by doctors involved in the project revealed that the

cows' urine had medicinal properties.

 

The idea of using it came from the central Indian headquarters of the

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the powerful Hindu nationalist ideologues

behind the country's Bharata Janata Party (BJP), where five scientists are

researching its beneficial effects.

 

Like all devout Hindus, RSS members believe that all cow products are

sacred. Ghee, or clarified butter, is used in Indian cooking and to light

lamps during temple ceremonies, and milk is commonly poured over sacred

idols as an offering.

 

The healing properties of cow dung and cow's urine are also mentioned in

ancient Hindu texts. The research conducted by doctors at the cow-protection

commission indicates that the urine can cure anything from skin diseases,

kidney and liver ailments to obesity and heart ailments.

 

Although most Indian doctors view the medicines as eccentric, several

advocates of the treatment have come forward in Gujarat, have come forward

to support the doctors' claims.

 

They include Vidhyaben Mehta, a 65-year-old woman with a cancerous tumour on

her chest who has been taking cow's urine for the past three years. She says

she is no longer in pain and has survived in spite of medical predictions

that she would die two years ago.

 

So enthusiastic is the Gujarat government about its cows' urine medicines

that it has asked the Indian Institute of Management to compile a database

of traditional cures and verify the Hindu nationalists' findings.

 

The academics have also discovered that cow's urine is an extremely

effective pesticide and plant fertiliser and are now developing for human

consumption new drugs that contain the "gift of the cow".

 

Prof Anil Gupta at the institute said: "This isn't just a religious thing.

If it's useful we shouldn't stop it simply because we think it has religious

connections."

 

External links

 

Gujarat Government

 

Urine drinking and urine shampoo - Hinduism Exposed

 

Urine therapy - Heartland Healing Centre

 

The Times of India

 

© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2001.