123. Mad cow slaughter rioters in Punjab towns. P S Remesh Chandran

123

Mad cow slaughter rioters in Punjab towns

P S Remesh Chandran

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum
 Article Title Image By Stephan Seeber. Graphics: Adobe SP.

Cows in India are considered as a gift from gods to man. In the ancient Indian culture they were given the status of mother and most civilized Indians still worship cow as their mother. This is not an Ode To The Cows here but certain undeniable facts cannot be forgotten. Millions of cows are being slaughtered all over India for flesh and bones in spite of there existing the Cow Slaughter prevention Act passed by the Indian parliament. A few decades ago in Kerala there lived a saint by the name Narayana Guru who was a great teacher and composer of immortal songs in Malayalam, Tamil and Sanskrit. He was the saint who was responsible for the most dramatic and permanent changes in the South Indian social structure by causing the untouchables to get intensely educated. Because he was not English-educated, he sent Dr. Palpu to England for English education who later became a very noted physician in Kerala. It was after reading the beautiful poems of this saint and becoming exhilarated by inspiration that the most famous poet of Kerala Kumaran Asaan began to write poems. It was a time when poverty and scantiness of food caused eating flesh among Keralites and this question of permitting the slaughtering of cows was much debated. One of his disciples asked the saint this very question: Teacher, why can’t we kill and eat a cow when there is no food for us to eat and there are cows there in plenty? The saint asked his student another question: Do you have your mother now? The student answered: No, she died a few years ago. Then came the next question from the master: Did you eat her or did you bury her? The disciple fled. This was the question that closed this subject. There are sacred relations in human society which mankind wants to keep. Who will eat their mother except cannibals?

Article Title Image By Markus Schultes. Graphics: Adobe SP. 

The viruses responsible for chikungunya and dengue that kill thousands of people each week complete their life cycles in the body of dogs which is basic science. Without dogs there is no dengue even if mosquitoes try hard. Why don’t they kill and eat dogs which are the animal reservoir hosts to these viruses as they do in the Philippines and Thailand? When these useless dogs are killed, thousands of fatty rich Indian memsahibs suddenly rise up, move governments and courts and obstruct dog killing because dogs give them sexual pleasure. When cows are butchered, there is nobody there to speak for her because cows cannot be used for sexual abuse. When this obnoxious bone crushing factory came to be established there, someone in the village administration, health or the pollution control board accepted bribes or they all, or else how can this factory come to be licensed? They are the first to be arrested and prosecuted for plotting communal riots. Remember the Sepoy Mutiny when some animal fat started it. There is not one family in Punjab that has not lost a son in the subsequent brave freedom struggle. Do not anyone rouse those patriots again.

Article Title Image By Kien Nguyen. Graphics: Adobe SP. 

[In response to news article ‘Cow slaughter riots in Punjab towns’ on 11 June 2012]