NP: Jagdish Aarohi on world's largest sacrifice: Beastly Instincts

[Guest guest]

*A very touching story of a veteran campaigner against Gadhimai.*

**

*Beastly instincts by **JAGDISH AAROHI *

 

 

 

http://myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details & news_id=12011

 

 

 

Twenty years ago, I first visited Gadhimai Jatra, a festival that is held

every five years in my native Bara district. I was interested in photography

and wanted to take some good pictures of Nepal’s indigenous culture. I did

not fulfill my mission. Instead, I became a tireless campaigner for the

abolishment of animal sacrifice.

 

 

 

I was not born a campaigner. I was born in Kalaiya, headquarters of Bara, in

a vegetarian, quiet, middle-class farming family. I mainly worked as a

farmer but enjoyed doing a little bit of social work in my free time. I

never thought I would be the one to carry placards and distribute leaflet to

devotees at the world’s largest killing fields of sacrificial beasts.

 

 

 

Three to four days after the massacre, people start fleeing the Gadhimai

venue because of the nauseating smell that starts to emit.The first thing I

witnessed at Gadhimai was the killing of five different kinds of animals as

in panchabali: Buffaloes, goats, pigs, roosters and rats. The animals’

throats are slit with a knife. It is not done quickly. The animals die a

slow and extremely cruel, violent death while the priests sprinkle the blood

across the image of the deity and its surroundings. Legend has it that the

longer it takes for the animal to die, the happier the goddess will be.

 

 

 

The whole affair stunned and nauseated me. I never knew that such kind of

cruelty existed. But the worst was yet to come. Right after the completion

of panchabali sacrifice comes the buffaloes’ turn. Drunken slaughterers—they

are made to drink as a sane person cannot do such a task—enter the fenced

yard where around 20,000 buffaloes are kept. Wielding swords, axe and

khukuris, the men start randomly hacking the buffaloes’ necks.

 

 

 

The sword-bearers cannot chop off the buffaloes´ heads at one go because of

the thick size of its necks. To make their task easier, the hackers first

cut the buffaloes’ hind legs after which the animal falls on the ground.

They then start hacking the neck until the head is separated from the body.

It takes 20 to 25 swing of the sword to annihilate a big buffalo. The

suffering the animals go through is unimaginable.

 

 

 

After witnessing the Gadhimai carnage, I started having terrible nightmares.

I would see blood wherever I turned to look.

 

 

 

After I regained my senses, I vowed to campaign against such killings at all

cost. Come what may, I would not give up. True to my vow, I have been

campaigning and voluntarily working to improve the conditions of animals for

the past 15 years.

 

 

 

If the Gadhimai organizers have their way, one can encounter the horrendous

scenes on November 24 and 25. This time, the organizers want to set a world

record by killing half a million animals. The unfortunate animals will

include 20,000 buffaloes, goats, pigs, chickens, ducks and pigeons as well

as mice and rats. According to the rules of the Gadhimai festival, all

creatures that are brought here must be killed within two days.

 

 

 

The last Gadhimai festival held in 2004 saw 20,000 buffaloes sacrificed.

Interestingly, the Gadhimai committee keeps the record of the number of

sacrificial buffaloes because the devotees have to pay to get their animals

beheaded. This year, the committee expects this number to cross the 25,000

mark. The committee, however, does not keep records of other animals or

birds because of the sheer overwhelming numbers.

 

 

 

No sane person can endure such barbaric killings. But that is not all. Three

to four days after the massacre, people start fleeing the Gadhimai venue

because of the nauseating smell that starts to emit. Cars, rickshaws and

cyclist start taking alternative routes. It is the people living in nearby

localities who suffer the most. While the temple area turns into a breeding

ground for disease, many fall sick. It takes months for the smell to go

away.

 

 

 

I think there is hardly any other country that can be compared with Nepal

when it comes to gruesome killings and bloodshed of animals. The extreme

cruelty has been going on unabated. There are many other smaller-scale

festivals like Gadhimai where panchabali and mass sacrifice is practiced.

These are not even reported in the media.

 

 

 

The government’s apathy towards activists’ repeated pleas to stop animal

sacrifice comes at a time when Nepal faces outbreak of diseases like swine

and bird flu. Only recently, tens of thousands of chickens and ducks were

culled in eastern Nepal because of bird flu. What’s more, Gadhimai’s

gathering of over two million people itself can invite looming pandemics.

Considering the lack of public health and sanitation facilities at the

venue, a national calamity could be imminent.

 

 

 

Why is the civil society keeping mum about the issue? Where are the role

models who stop animal sacrifice in their own family, clan or neighborhood?

Should we let our leaders get away by letting them say: ‘Gadhimai is too

sensitive an issue to address’?

 

 

 

Animals cannot speak for themselves. Until now, it has been the priests

speaking for them: Bring more, kill more animals. Few seem to realize that

the Gadhimai organizers plan to raise millions through tenders and beheading

fees. Animal sacrifice is a big business. For how long will we remain mute

and let this inhuman killings in the name of religion continue?

 

 

 

jagdishaa

 

 

--

Lucia de Vries

Freelance Journalist

Nepal - Netherlands

 

 

 

--

Lucia de Vries

Freelance Journalist

Nepal - Netherlands