By Peter Fernandes
“Holy cow”, “holy smoke” is a slang colloquially used in the English speaking world. However, in India, it has a completely different tone. It adds cultural connotation as well as religiosity. The cow is elevated to the realm of worship in Hinduism. The importance to the cow is not found in the holy text, like Vedas, but is derived from a socio-cultural context. The context was Brahmins wanted to show their superiority by refraining from consuming beef. They conveniently placed an explanation, that is, the utility of cow elevates it to sacredness. If the perception is correct that Hinduism is a way of life, and not religion per se, the importance to cows and other material objects like rivers, trees, etc., takes its place in India’s mainstream society because Hinduism is the religious tradition of most Indians. This causes difficulty, as it does in any society that tries to arrest reason and the faith of people who do not hold a world view similar to the majority. In such a scenario, tensions are bound to arise, but this tension can never be logical lifted, because it is premised on absurdity.
The faulty logic that calls cows holy causes many ills in society. To hold their hegemony over those of lower-caste, the upper-caste baptized many ‘ordinary things’ declaring them into extra-ordinary. In other words, they made them holy to deprive people from the lower-caste, the use of those things. The lower caste people cannot cross the path of the upper caste, or use the well-water, for example. Hinduism’s influence on Indian society has caused great injustice to the rest of the society. Man is at the pinnacle of creation. All other created beings are subject to man, for man is the only creature endowed with a rational soul – reason and freewill, and destined for eternal life. Only the rational being is capable of asking questions related to his destiny, such as, “Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going?” These questions arise from a deepest quest of a human soul, which is for ultimate redemption, and therefore, these questions have a logical conclusion, which sets man free.
Recent atrocities inflicted by “Cow vigilantes” on people of lower-castes leave a stigma on human society. It is an irony and tragedy that animals are treated with respect, but human beings are dehumanized. How could a civilized society tolerate such atrocities? Even the bystanders were just spectators, when poor people were mercilessly bitten in broad daylight. We have entered into a frightening era, when the mainstream is governed by dubious reason and faulty beliefs, and those in the rest of the society are left to fend for themselves. India is a hypocritical country. India is among the top beef exporting countries (their gods can be consumed by foreigners, in order that they can in turn worship another god – dollars), but the powers that will not allow their own people to have access to beef. Most people in India wear leather shoes and other leather goods, which are made from cow skin. Where is the logic? In a poor country like India, domillions go hungry, naked, homeless or jobless because the holy cow demands it? Or is this a manmade tragedy?
Some have reacted to the rigmarole of brahmanical superiority by expressing opposition that embark upon weaning away millions of people from the brahmanical fold. That these are subject to torture is for all to behold. RSS and BJP, trying to uphold the orthodoxy of Hinduism based on the caste-system, are up in arms against those challenging the faulty logic. When will man rise above the ordinary, tries to segregate people, rather than embracing all as children of God? It is an abomination to consider some in human society as children of a lesser god. Remember man, that worship, sacrifice, prayer is an act of reason. Reason seeks nothing but truth, and God is the first and ultimate truth. What puts man at the pinnacle of creation is that he is endowed with reason – the image and likeness of God. Therefore, when the whole premise of “holy cow” is based on irrational logic, a reasonable conclusion cannot be drawn, but violence will result. And that means holy cow is not so holy after all.
