The way to save cow in Bihar- Mahatma Gandhi

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar

Gandhi Research Foundation, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09404955338, 09415777229

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The way to save cow in Bihar- Mahatma Gandhi

 

 

 

 The visit of Maulanas Mahomed Ali and Azad Sobhani and me to Bihar was undertaken in order to check the growth of misunderstanding on the cow question. We delivered many speeches at many places. The substance of one speech of mine I am able to give to the reader by the courtesy of a friend who took down the notes. At the commencement of his speech Mr. Gandhi referred to the touching of the feet which had become embarrassing, and said: People do these things in a spirit of hero-worship, and in Bihar particularly there is an abundance of that spirit. People even talk of an avatar. As a Hindu, I believe of course, in avatars. I believe that in the pursuit of his plan, God sends His special messengers on earth, upon whom the effulgence or the glory of God specially shines, and who in our Shastras is known as avatars. But that is not the case here. In my view, the condition of India is such, that there can be no coming of an avatar at this time. We must first purify ourselves and the country by hard, strenuous work on right lines, before we can even think of an avatar. And in India, what we want now is not hero-worship, but service. We want more and more servants for the country. The swaraj that we want does not mean, that on the destruction of the present raj, somebody else’s will be established, whether he be a Gandhi, or to take the names of my brothers, a Maulana Shaukat Ali and a Maulana Mahomed Ali. We know that whatever may have been the case in past days, India is so wide awake now that there can no longer be any repetition of these things. We do not want that there will be one man to rule and everyone else to be his slave. We have had enough of slavery. What we want is to inspire the people with our own faith, and a living desire to serve the country. We want that every Indian be transformed into a Gandhi, a Maulana Shaukat Ali and a Maulana Mahomed Ali; and then the swaraj of our dream will be realized in its entirety. My submission to you, therefore, is, that you do not put obstruction in the way of the easy prosecution of our work by the touching of feet or unnecessary shoutings and jayajayakars. It is unthinkable, that a whole crowd of people can touch me. But when those who are near me begin to fall at my feet, the crowd is tempted to follow suit, and indescribable confusion follows. So those who are near me should never touch my feet. They should not even bow low before me. Not only do I not like these things, but there is a possibility of my getting seriously hurt. I desire the country to move with a speed greater than the speed of the Punjab Express. We have got to attain swaraj within this year, so that we may celebrate its attainment in December next. I implore you once again not to do anything that may hinder the smooth progress of our work, for it means nothing but so much loss to the country. I now come to the question which has really brought us to your place. As soon as I set foot here, I inquired whether there was peace between the Hindus and Mussulmans of this place. It was no small gratification to me to hear, that there was no misunderstanding between the two communities at Sasaram. But I am told that there is no earnestness about Congress work here. The Congress Committee and the Khilafat Committee that are in existence do very little work. My request to these two Committees is that they put more energy into their work. I wanted to inquire about many other things, but I was so tired that I could not do so. On the question of cow-killing, I say that with the Hindus it is their dharma to protect the cow. The Hindus have many differences amongst them as regards religious belief, and religious and social customs and practices; but on the matter of the protection of the cow all Hindus are united. And I go so far as to say, that the cow question is the central and common fact in Hinduism, which differentiates it from all other religions of the world. In India the need for the cow is very great. Not only do the people drink her milks but her male offspring is used for cultivating the land. The Hindus reverence the cow as they reverence the Brahmin. But the case is not so outside India. So there is no prohibition in the religion of our Mussulman brothers against the slaughter of cows. And if a Mussulman brother slays a cow, for instance during Id, on what ground can a Hindu raise his hand to strike him? Is he enjoined by the Shastras to kill a fellow-man in order to save a cow? There is really no such injunction in the Shastras; but on the contrary it is against the Shastras to do so. No Hindu raises his hand against an English brother, because he eats beef; nor does he prevent thousands and thousands of cows being led to the slaughterhouse for the use of Englishmen in India. What I mean to say is this; in order to save the cow you can only sacrifice your own life; you cannot take another’s life, nor can you even cherish anger against him. My brother Maulana Mahomed Ali in one of his speeches today said one thing on this matter, which I realize as very true. He says that three fourths of the responsibility for cow-slaughter in India lies with the Hindus; and the Mussulmans are guilty of only one-fourth. For the cows that are slain really come from Hindu custody. I have actually seen in Bombay shiploads of cows being sent out from India for slaughter in other lands. It is the Hindus that do cow-selling business, and not the Mussulmans. And my brother’s suggestion that if an artificial price of say a hundred rupees for each cow could be set, cow-slaughter will automatically diminish, seemed to me to be very practical. It all depends upon us. In Bombay one cow given for the Tilak Swaraj Fund was sold for five hundred rupees and another for a higher sum. If the shraddha of both the buyer and the seller is sufficiently roused, all this is quite easy and practicable. My submission to the Hindus, therefore, is, that if you are really anxious to save the cow, does not quarrel with our Mussulman brothers, but live with them in peace. Do not try to force their hands. Give yourselves up wholly to their service in this hour of their sore need without asking for a return. I look upon the Khilafat problem for the Mussulmans in the same light as the cow problem for the Hindus. It is my firm belief that the solution of one will automatically lead to the solution of the other. I do not say this in a spirit of bargain. If our offering of service to our Mussulman brethren be genuine and spontaneous, if we really sacrifice our lives for the safety of their religion, I have no doubt, that another law higher than the law of contract will operate, and solve the cow problem in India. I wish to touch on another matter, before I close. I have come to know, that there are about five hundred families of Mussulman weavers in this place. But as they are looked down upon by fellow-Mussulmans, there is a tendency amongst them to give up their calling. It is absolutely necessary, that we check this tendency. Amongst us, Hindus, social distinctions based on karma do exist. But so far as I know, Islam does not recognize such differences. Mussulman society is based upon the theory of perfect equality. So it does not at all appear to me reasonable that these julahas should be discredited in society. There is nothing dishonorable in the profession of weaving. In my opinion, the two most essential things in India, the things on which the existence of India depends, are agriculture and weaving. They are like the two lungs of a living being. If one goes wrong, if it is diseased or rotten the other lung may do duty for a time no doubt, but cannot keep up life for long. So it has been with India. She has been weakening in proportion to the decay of her weaving industry. And the programme of swadeshi, which we have started, is like the cure of a diseased lung, so that waste may be repaired, and new blood may flow into it making it healthy and strong. The moment we come to realize this absolute importance of agriculture and weaving for India, we shall lose all sense of contempt for the agriculturist or the weaver. We shall, then, see that they are objects of the highest regard. We must recognize that without the help of our weavers, there can be no success of swadeshi in India. By swadeshi I mean that every province must produce its own cloth. If you depend upon Bombay for your cloth, that will be no swadeshi for Bihar. My appeal to the Congress Committee therefore, is that it should lose no time in distributing charkhas to every home in Bihar. When that is done, every home becomes a spinning factory at our disposal. And with the production of yarn on this scale we can easily hope to see every lane transformed into a weaving factory. The question is very urgent for the whole of India, but more especially for Bihar. For of all the provinces of India Bihar is the poorest. I have included Orissa under Bihar here. But if we take them separately, Orissa comes to occupy the lowest place, and Bihar comes just above it. I gathered my idea about the extent of poverty in Bihar, when I was engaged in my work at Champaran. I came to know then, that the women in Bihar had in most cases to be satisfied with a single piece of cloth; indeed, they had no cloth other than the one which they wore. They told my wife, they felt ashamed to tell me so directly,—that if I went to their houses, I would find nothing but old, worn out and tattered rags. They also said, “Gandhi asks us to bathe every day, but if we are to remain naked after washing the piece of cloth that covers our nakedness, we can’t do so even for the sake of Gandhi.” Such is the extent of poverty in Bihar. And if these women are given charkhas to work and paid two annas each for their daily labour, I have no doubt that they will take up the work in right earnest and pursue it with energy. I have known the indigo planters get work from them at the rate of six pice per head per day, and in that place if they find that the charkha yields them two annas daily, the thing will catch on automatically without any effort at preaching. These are the lines on which we have to start work immediately. I expect much from Bihar. I have some special claim upon her. I hope Bihar will not deny me that claim. I expect you all to explain the thing I have said to men of the villages. The villagers are not likely to understand these things, but you who live in towns have wider experience of the world. So it is your duty to make these things intelligible to the villagers. Three things are vital to this movement for swaraj, without the fulfillment of which we can never hope to make any headway in our struggle. First, there must be absolute Hindu-Muslim unity. There must be a feeling of brotherliness amongst the Hindus and Mussulmans. This is the first condition of the success of this swaraj movement. Secondly, this peaceful and non-violent movement must always be kept peaceful and non-violent. It is easy for a man who bestows even the least thought on the subject to realize that we shall never succeed by violence. If we draw the sword, that will be simply to our own undoing, if only because we do not possess the modern implements of warfare such as aeroplanes, etc. So you must under no circumstance disturb the peace. We must observe peace with English and among ourselves, co-operators and non-co-operators, zamindars and ryots, in thought, word and deed. And thirdly we must immediately boycott all foreign cloth and manufacture for our needs in our own homes and villages. Then we attain the power to achieve the three ends.

 

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Young India, 8-9-1921