Beef: The New Four Letter Word

Beef just refuses to go away from the country’s political menu. It is the new four letter word that has divided the society as if it were scythed through by a super sharp cleaver.

A few decades ago in the late 1960s and early 70s a bunch of Union Ministers were derided for being part of ‘kitchen cabinet’. Those were the Indian polity’s early days of unabashed sycophancy and that too around a woman leader. In this day and age such a remark would have been considered downright sexist.

Now forget kitchen cabinet, it looks like the whole Indian politics just does not want to get out of the kitchen. It has become a place where patriotism is stirred up and cooked for public consumption. And woe betides anyone not using the ‘right’ ingredients!

The reason for this huddle in kitchen happens to be the humble cow, the inheritor of kamadhenu legacy, which is blissfully ignorant of all this hullabaloo. For this animal is more worried about the next meal as rising urbanization and dwindling grasslands have dealt a body blow to its food sources. Nowadays the daily grind consists of foraging waste bins and garbage yards for anything edible, amid plastic bags and paper packets, which it accidentally chomps in, leading to health disasters.

While it struggles to keep its emaciated body and soul together, its human masters are at each other’s throats to decide how it should die!

Also Read: Bangalore Beat

Under Holy Cow's Shadow: A Buffalo's Lament

I am told even in United States, where colour of one's skin is a polarising factor, there are towns, military regiments (courtesy Bob Marley popular number Buffalo soldier...) football teams and even universities named after me. But in India every student studying Hindi in his or her tenth class has to mug up the popular proverb - kala akshar bhains barabar (loosely translated it means an illiterate person). Other Indian languages also don't treat me kindly and I figure in phrases used to convey, ugliness, sloth and sloppiness. My jet black skin is something this acutely pigment obsessed country could never come to terms with, though they never had any problem in devouring what comes out of my udder!
 
So thanks to this deeply ingrained prejudice I have to live in the shadows of my fair skinned cousin the cow - which is worshipped as the earthly embodiment of the Kamadhenu - a mythical animal believed to be the source of all prosperity. For bulls in most Shiva temples there is the statue of Nandi, which is also worshipped with great reverence.
 
As for me the only reference in Hindu mythology is as a vehicle of Yama, the god of death. If there were social media those days forget getting 'like' or 'followers', I would have been trolled and reported for abuse by cow lovers.
 
Whether it is newspaper ad of some dairy major or on a tin of ghee or butter it is always the cow that enjoys pride of place. I never figure in any of them.
 
However, what baffles me most is that despite this big time belittling the dairy farmers in the so called cow belt rely heavily on my milk. The reasons vary from milk quality and output to their very survival in the business. Firstly milk flowing out of my udder has higher amount of fat and the overall output better than what my privileged cousin offers. Moreover compared with cows we are not very finicky regarding food and hence rearing us is much more cost effective. No wonder we command a high price in the market, and some of our high milk yielding Murrah cousins get sold for prices on par with some luxury car brands.
 
Then of course there is the ticklish issue of ban on cow slaughter. Even at the risk of sounding naive, I often wonder why no such ban for me? Ultimately the burden of providing meat, leather and even milk falls squarely on my shoulders. Quite ironically once the ban is imposed, the demand for cow tapers off. The dairy farmers, though not as cutthroat as the wily banias, are practical people and definitely factor in the costs cows may incur once they stop producing milk. Hence they gradually switch to rearing buffaloes. On the other hand states where cow slaughter is allowed dairy farmers continue to prefer cows.
 
The issue of cow slaughter is again being flogged with some more states issuing a ban. It would only mean more dairy farmers relying on me (India is already home to half the number of buffaloes in the world) for milk; beef exporters and tanneries for my flesh. In short I am the de facto Kamadhenu in most parts of the country.

Another intriguing factor is that there is ban on sale of beef only in domestic market, but not on exports, which of course is a cash cow no government, even with purest of shakahari DNA, can afford to renounce. Last year beef exports stood at $4.3 billion and is expected to increase this year, notwithstanding the current government's aversion to 'pink revolution'. Hence, the long arm of law is only meant for those who do the lowly task of transporting cattle in trucks and trying to sell it in the dusty, flea infested local markets, while well heeled exporters are left untouched.

In addition to tanneries, the beef industry also sustains other lesser known businesses such as bone crushing and powder industry, horn processing industry, blood processing, animal fat and soap industry, which employ large number of people.

Also Read: Bangalore Beat