Holy Cow

[Guest guest]

One must be able to demonstrate what one holds close to one's heart,

otherwise one

is risking to be labeled a hypocrite. What do you observe about the

conditions of cows

in India?

 

I may sound a bit provacative but I am never malicious in my intent. Please

think carefully

and answer why the cows were regarded as holy in ancient India. And why are

we giving

only a sentimental lip service today, with nothing much to show through our

actions for those

sentiments?

 

-

Dharam Dev Singh <dharamdev

<Ramakrishna >

Friday, February 18, 2000 2:24 PM

Re: [ramakrishna] Wat and What

 

 

> Dharam Dev Singh <dharamdev

>

> On 18 Feb 2000 14:08:34 -0000 vinaire writes:

> > vinaire

> >

> > " Holy Cow " is such an outdated moral that still is followed in India

> > because of

> > the inertia of the mind that prevents it from reevaluating it in a

> > new unit of

> > time.

> >

>

>

> What is the matter with regarding cows as holy?

>

> govinda jaya jaya gopala jaya jaya

> radha-ramana hari govinda jaya jaya

>

> This name " govinda " indicates that God enjoys giving pleasure to cows,

> and " gopala " means that He is the protector of the cows. Now it's true

> that

> the cows on earth are not exactly like the Surabhi cows, but they none

> the less

> require protection. The cow is exactly like our mother, except that she

> gives

> her milk to anyone. The bull is the representative of dharma, his four

> legs

> representing truthfulness, mercy, cleanliness, and austerity.

> What kind of society takes milk from the cow and then kills her?

>

> -Dharam Dev

[Guest guest]

On Fri, 18 Feb 2000 20:31:35 -0500 " vinaire " <vinaire writes:

> " vinaire " <vinaire

>

> One must be able to demonstrate what one holds close to one's heart,

> otherwise one

> is risking to be labeled a hypocrite. What do you observe about the

> conditions of cows

> in India?

>

> I may sound a bit provacative but I am never malicious in my intent.

> Please

> think carefully

> and answer why the cows were regarded as holy in ancient India. And

> why are

> we giving

> only a sentimental lip service today, with nothing much to show

> through our

> actions for those

> sentiments?

>

 

 

Here in America I do whatever I can to help cows, but this is obviously a

big problem. I think the best thing I can do is always remember Govinda

and chant His names loudly.

 

As for what's going on in India, read on:

-------

 

FROM THE INDEPENDENT

 

INDIA, Feb 15 — Heading: " Exposed: The Wholesale Wide-Scale Barbaric

Treatment and Slaughter of Cows in India Today "

 

The following is an article from British newspaper " The Independent "

 

How India's sacred cows are beaten, abused and poisoned to make leather

for high street shops

 

By Peter Popham in Delhi 14 February 2000

 

They are supposed to be sacred animals. Revered above all other beasts by

Hindus - ranked as high as Brahmin priests, the " twice-born " , for their

sweetness and generosity - cows still tramp the streets of most Indian

towns and cities, mingling with the traffic, nosing through the rubbish

skips in the markets, roaming deserted highways at night.

-------

-------

 

“The arrival of Hindu nationalists in power both at the centre, where

they are the leading party in a coalition, and in a number of states, has

also enhanced the protection which cows receive. ”

 

 

-------

-------

 

 

 

 

They are huge but very docile. The native breed is creamy white in

colour, with a distinctive hump. Sometimes a pious Hindu can be seen

feeding a roadside cow with a carrot or chappati. Rarely are they the

butt of anger or impatience.

 

And a fleeting appraisal from the comfort of a tour bus might suggest

that India's cows have survived the country's patchy modernisation

unscathed. But a campaign to be launched tomorrow by People for Ethical

Treatment of Animals (Peta), backed up by The Independent's own

investigation, reveals the Indian treatment of its holiest animal as a

scandal of cruelty, greed and corruption.

 

The cow's special status in India is enshrined in law. With the exception

of two states, the slaughter of cows and calves is totally forbidden,

whatever the reason and at whatever age. Bulls and bullocks and

she-buffaloes are protected up to 15 years of age.

 

The arrival of Hindu nationalists in power both at the centre, where they

are the leading party in a coalition, and in a number of states, has also

enhanced the protection which cows receive. Between 1995 and 1999, the

Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of Delhi gave

390 acres of land and more than 160,000 for the setting up of gosadans or

shelters for cows.

 

But all this apparent reverence and protection masks a trade in cows and

cow products which involves unbelievable barbarity and cruelty.

 

Much of the abuse stems from the fact that the trade in and slaughter of

cows is almost entirely clandestine and illegal - but the authorities

which should be stopping it are routinely bribed to let it continue.

There is, therefore, no scrutiny or regulation of the trade anywhere

along the line.

 

Although Hindus hold the cow in special esteem, and Jains regard all life

as so sacred that they try to avoid hurting insects, investigations show

that all India's major communities are complicit in the cruel treatment

of cows.

 

Hindu farmers allow their cows to be taken for slaughter. Muslims butcher

them using primitive techniques in appalling conditions. Hindus, Jains,

Sikhs, Muslims and Christians all profit.

 

And because much Indian beef finds its way to the Middle East and Europe

from Kerala and Bangladesh - " we took up a lot of the slack from Britain

caused by mad cow disease, " says one authority - and leather products

made from Indian cow hide are sold in High Street shops such as Gap, the

British consumer is also unknowingly benefiting from the abuse.

 

Thanks to the lobbying of Hindu nationalists, the slaughter of cows has

been banned in all Indian states and territories except West Bengal, in

the north-east, and Kerala in the far south. One result of this is

secret, hole-in-the-wall cow abattoirs dotted around the country,

especially in Muslim quarters of towns and cities. But the main result is

an appalling traffic of cattle.

 

" There is a huge amount of trafficking of cattle to both West Bengal and

Kerala, " said Mrs Gandhi, Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment in

the present government and a veteran campaigner against animal abuse of

all sorts. " The ones going to West Bengal go by truck and train and they

go by the millions. The law says you cannot transport more than 4 per

truck but they are putting in up to 70. When they go by train, each wagon

is supposed to hold 80 to 100, but they cram in up to 900. I've seen 900

cows coming out of the wagon of a train, and 400 to 500 of them came out

dead. "

 

The trade exists because of gross corruption, Mrs Gandhi says. " An

illegal organisation called the Howrah Cattle Association fakes permits

saying the cattle are meant for agricultural purposes, for ploughing

fields or for milk. The stationmaster at the point of embarkation gets

8,000 rupees per train-load for certifying that the cows are healthy and

are going for milk.

 

" The government vets get X amount for certifying them as healthy. The

cattle are unloaded just before Calcutta, at Howrah, then beaten and

taken across to Bangladesh by road. Bangladesh, which has no cows of its

own, is the biggest beef exporter in the region. Between 10,000 and

15,000 cows go across that border every day. You can make out the route

taken by the trucks by the trail of blood they leave behind. "

 

Even more horrifying is the transport of cows to the abattoirs on the

border of Kerala in the extreme south of the peninsula. Mrs Gandhi says,

" On the route to Kerala they don't bother with trucks or trains: they tie

them and beat them and take them on foot, 20,000 to 30,000 per day. " All

Kerala's slaughter houses are on the border. " Because they have walked

and walked and walked the cattle have lost a lot of weight, so to

increase the weight and the amount of money they will receive, the

traffickers make them drink water laced with copper sulphate, which

destroys their kidneys and makes it impossible for them to pass the water

- so when they are weighed they have 15kg of water inside them and are in

extreme agony. "

 

Ingrid Newkirk, President of Peta, followed one of the caravans of cattle

stumbling towards Kerala. " It's a hideous journey, " she writes in the

forthcoming issue of Animal Times, Peta's journal. " To keep them moving,

drivers beat the animal across their hip bones, where there is no fat to

cushion the blows. The cows are not allowed to rest or drink. Many cows

sink to their knees. Drivers beat them and twist their battered tails to

force them to rise. If that doesn't work they torment the cows into

moving by rubbing hot chilli peppers and tobacco into their eyes. "

 

When they finally make it to the slaughterhouses that stand on the Kerala

border, the end they confront is unspeakable, Mrs Gandhi says. " In Kerala

they also have a unique way of killing them - they beat their heads to a

pulp with a dozen hammer blows. A well-intentioned visitor from the West,

trying to improve slaughterhouse practice in Kerala, exhorted them to use

stun guns, saying that the meat of an animal killed in this fashion

(rather than having its throat slit) tasted sweeter. The stun guns that

she left behind quickly broke and fell into disuse, but the belief that

the meat was sweeter took hold - which explains this horrible method of

slaughtering. "

 

The sentimental attitude towards animals prevalent these days in the West

is alien to traditional India, as to the rest of Asia. But respect and

reverence for all life is fundamental to Hinduism - most Hindus are

vegetarians even today - and the prevailing attitude is enshrined in the

Gandhian word ahimsa, " do no harm " .

 

Yet greed, poverty, ignorance and absence of regulation and supervision

have brought India's cows to the point where their treatment is on the

threshold of becoming a major international scandal.

 

At root it is a political issue. The ban on cow slaughter has been a

fundamental plank of the Hindu nationalists for many decades - but a

plank with which to bash cow-eating and cow-slaughtering Muslims, not to

improve the lot of the actual cows. The apparent beneficiaries of the

agitation, the cows, were of mainly symbolic importance.

 

Copyright " The Independent "

 

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