CONDITIONS OF COW-PROTECTION

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Gandhian Scholar

Gandhi Research Foundation, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09415777229, 094055338

E-mail- [e-mail];[e-mail]

 

 

 

 

CONDITIONS OF COW-PROTECTION

 

 

 

 It has been a matter of sorrow for me to have taken up the burden of cow-protection during the ending years of my life. But there need be no sorrow when burdens come not of one’s seeking but when they seek one irresistibly. And so has been for me the case with cow-protection. Recently at Ghatkopar, Bombay, I had the occasion to visit the institution of the humanitarian society ably managed by its secretary Sjt. Nagindas. It is now conducting an experiment in dairying with the laudable object ultimately of replacing the ill managed and disease breeding private dairies of Bombay which are situated in the heart of the city and where there is no exercise ground for the cattle, and where the best cattle are prematurely given to the butcher’s knife. But though the institution is ably managed, it has some inherent defects to which upon its invitation I had to draw the Society’s attention. Incidentally I ventured to lay down the conditions of cow-protection which are well worth repeating:

 1. Every such institution should be situated out in the open where it is possible to have plenty, i.e., thousands of acres, of open ground capable of growing fodder and giving exercise to the cattle. If I had the management of all the goshalas, I should sell the majority of the present ones at handsome profits and buy suitable plots in the vicinity except where the existing places may be needed for mere receiving depots.

 2. Every goshala should be turned into a model dairy and a model tannery. Every single head of dead cattle should be retained and scientifically treated and the hide, bones, entrails, etc., should be used to the best advantage. I should regard the hide of dead cattle to be sacred and usable as distinguished from the hide and other parts of slaughtered cattle, which should be deemed to be unfit for human use or at least for Hindu use.

3. Urine and dung in many goshalas are thrown away. This I regard as criminal waste.

 4. All goshalas should he managed under scientific supervision and guidance.

 5. Properly managed every goshala should be and can be made self-supporting, donations being used for its extension. The idea is never to make these institutions profit-making concerns, all profits being utilized towards buying maimed and disabled cattle and buying in the open market all cattle destined for the slaughterhouse.

 6. This consummation is impossible if the goshalas take in buffaloes, goats, etc. So far as I can see, much as I would like it to be otherwise not until the whole of India becomes vegetarian, can goats and sheep be saved from the butcher’s knife.

Buffaloes can be saved if we will not insist upon buffalo’s milk and religiously avoid it in preference to cow’s milk. In Bombay on the other hand, the practice is to take bufffalo’s milk instead of cow’s milk. Physicians unanimously declare that cow’s milk is medically superior to buffalo’s milk and it is the opinion of dairy experts that cow’s milk can by judicious management be made much richer than it is at present found to be. I hold that it is impossible to save both the buffalo and the cow. The cow can be saved only if buffalo-breeding is given up. The buffalo cannot be used for agricultural purposes on a wide scale. It is just possible to save the existing stock, if we will cease to breed it any further. It is no part of religion to breed buffaloes or for that matter cows. We breed for our own uses. It is cruelty to the cow as well as to the buffalo to breed the latter. Humanitarians should know that Hindu shepherds even at the present moment mercilessly kill young male buffaloes as they cannot profitably feed them. To save the cow and her progeny and that only is a feasible proposition the Hindus will forgo profits from the trade concerning the cow and her products, but never otherwise. Religion to be true must satisfy what may be termed humanitarian economics, i.e., where the income and the expenditure balance each other. The attainment of such economies is just possible with the cow and the cow only with the assistance of donations for some years from pious Hindus. It should be remembered that this great humanitarian attempt is being made in the face of a beef-eating world. Not till the whole world turns predominantly vegetarian is it possible to make any advance upon the limitations I have sought to describe. To succeed to that extent is to open the way, for future generations, to further efforts. To overstep the limitation is to consign the cow forever to the slaughter-house in addition to the buffalo and the other animals. Hindus and the humanitarian societies in charge of goshalas and pinjrapoles, if they are wisely religious, will bear the foregoing conditions of cow-protection in mind and proceed immediately to give effect to them.