It is not recommended to offend a cow in India
The authorities of Maharashtra, India's second most populous state, legislatively banned in March the consumption and storage of beef for food. In addition to a fine of 10,000 rupees ($160), cow meat can lead to imprisonment of up to 5 years! India's President Pranab Mukherjee, who according to the constitution must approve state laws, ignored the protests and signed the 'anti-beef' law.
In the month since the document was signed, the first police raids took place in Maharashtra on butcher shops, stores, supermarkets, and meat processing plants. The law enforcement's catch was meager, which is understandable: the vast majority of the state's population are Hindus, who revere cows as sacred animals. However, there are also those who were fined, which caused some protests. True, there are not that many protesters, which at first glance may seem strange.
There is a stereotype that the overwhelming majority of India's population does not consume meat. In reality, only 40% of the country's population of 1.2 billion consider themselves vegetarians. Meat is traditionally consumed not only by Christians and Muslims, but even by representatives of certain Indian castes.
It is Europeans, fascinated by Eastern exoticism, who often do not know this, which sometimes leads to curious incidents. One of the authors of this article was once with a tourist group in the Indian state of Rajasthan. Here, in a house near one of the attractions, we witnessed a very unusual sight for India. An old man at the door of his house was cooking something like a barbecue. One of the tourists, a German by origin and a butcher by profession, identified the meat as beef with an experienced eye.
Taking the old man for a Christian – because who else could cook beef in India? – the German citizen immediately congratulated him on the upcoming Easter holiday. In response, the old man explained with dignity that he was not a Christian but a Hindu belonging to the Rajputs. 'Sons of kings' or 'gatekeepers of India,' as representatives of this warrior caste, which for centuries defended the subcontinent from invasions of foreigners, are respectfully called to this day. The Rajputs are among the few Hindus who are prescribed to eat meat. Meat, as is believed in India, ignites passions in a person. And that is exactly what a warrior needs. By the way, the meat the old man was frying turned out to be not beef but buffalo meat.
The buffalo, unlike the cow, is not considered a sacred animal in India. Some traders have been using this circumstance for some time, importing beef products into the country, including into the state of Maharashtra. It often happens that products are not imported but prepared locally. It is more profitable: after all, free 'raw material', i.e. cows, roam everywhere in India – in many states, it is forbidden by law and, importantly, by tradition not only to kill but even to scold these animals. Hindu radicals have repeatedly attacked trucks delivering 'suspicious' meat and also tried to block meat processing plants, where, by the way, mostly Muslims work.
The problem is further sharpened by the fact that among followers of Islam, as well as among Christians in India, there are traditionally many people from 'lower' castes. Alas, the caste division in the country and the prejudices associated with it, although legally prohibited, have not disappeared.
In Maharashtra, such attacks have traditionally been numerous. Probably, it is a matter of the state authorities' position. They, of course, do not encourage the rioters, but they treat them, let's say, with a certain degree of understanding. It is no coincidence that the Chief Minister (something like the head of government) of Maharashtra, Sudhir Mungantiwar, publicly advised beef fans to switch to goat meat and chicken. It is only a pity that not everyone can follow this advice – purely physically.
Among those dissatisfied with the ban in Maharashtra, a notable part were zoo workers. After all, to avoid complaints from law enforcement, they had to switch the predators to white meat. But chicken, zoo workers who feed lions, tigers, leopards and other predators claim, their charges eat without much appetite.
To protect cows more reliably, they began to keep... dossiers on them in Maharashtra. The authorities of the city of Malegaon, located 270 km from Mumbai (Bombay), the administrative center of the state, appealed to cow owners with a request to photograph the cows and submit the pictures and other information about them to the police.
'After the introduction of the new law, cow slaughter has almost completely stopped,' boasted Sunil Kadasne, one of the police officers of Malegaon, to the Hindustan Times. 'This program will help us stop all cow killings, track animals and find stolen ones faster and more effectively.'
Other states are starting to follow Maharashtra's example. In March, the ban on beef was tightened in the northern state of Haryana. Now there, trading in beef can also land you behind bars.