Ram Puniyani
In the middle of April 2012 Osmania University (OU) witnessed
an unusual violence on the issue of eating beef. A section of dalit students’
were demanding that University Hostels should have beef on the menu. They also
organized a beef festival in which a large number of students ate beef biryani.
The festivity was not to last long as the ABVP, the student wing of RSS,
created rampage, a student was knifed, a bus was torched and ruckus was created
in the university. The Vice Chancellor of OU knelt to the aggressive cow
protectors and said that beef will not be introduced in the menu.
Just a month ago the in the Kurmaguda area of Hyderabad
a group of youth associated with Hindu communal group were arrested for throwing
beef inside a Hanuman temple, who later spread the word that Muslims have
defiled our temple and turned their guns against the hapless minority, torched
few buses. A little while ago the ruling BJP government in Madhya Pradesh had
introduced a bill prohibiting the consumption of beef in the state. Other BJP
ruled states in one form or the other are introducing legislations, which
prohibit the slaughter of cow.
The place where Muslims were butchered mercilessly
under the Chief mastership of Modi the ‘care of cow’ has gone one step up and state
has opened centers for cataract and dental surgery of the Mother Cow. The goal
of the Hindu state of Gujarat under Modi is to open more such centers so that
Mother cow does not have to travel more than three kilometers for accessing
these services, this while innumerable victims of Gujarat carnage, are yet to
recover from the trauma of the carnage, aided by the apathy of state.
So far most of these legislations and the accompanying
propaganda have been directed primarily against Muslim minority, which is
demonized as the butchers and eaters of ‘our holy cow’. The OU episode shows
the other side of the agenda of cow politics. While there had been cases of
murders of dalits on the pretext of skinning a dead cow (Jhajjar, Haryana) and
VHP defending the act saying that cow is too holy to spare the dalits. Still
primarily it is the Muslim community which has been the target of propaganda
emanating from RSS- Combine stable.
With dalits, the other target of RSS combine, the
issue is not just of identity. It is related to the livelihood and food habits
of dalits-Adivasis. The cow as a symbol of RSS combine has been in the fore
since the rise of communal politics during the British rule. As such the cow
has been in the forefront of communal battles of upper castes in India earlier
also. The Brahmanical reaction to rise of Buddhism was countered by putting
forward the symbol of cow. Some Dalit scholars hold that cow was cleverly
chosen and one of the reasons cow stole a march over the equally useful buffalo
was its color. It is not a coincidence that the dark skinned people have faced
the wrath of the elite in one form or the other.
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| A file photo of supporters eating beef biryani at the beef festival in Osmania University - Image Courtesy: Deccan Chronicle |
The scholars of Vedic India Prof D.N.Jha, Dr.
Pandurang Vaman Kane and champion of social justice Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, all have
pointed out that cow was verily eaten during Vedic period. With the rise of
agricultural society, and need for preserving cattle wealth; the religions-ideologies
promoting non-violence in the form of Jainism and Buddhism came up and campaigned
against senseless sacrifice of cow in Vedic yagnas (sacrificial ritual).
The current communal politics has twin agenda. At
surface it wants to subjugate the minorities and is using the emotive issues to
create a mass hysteria against minorities. Lord Ram and Cow are the major tools
of communal political mobilization. While the supporters of RSS combine
generously donate for the welfare of cow, it is the dalits who practically take
care of the grazing and other needs of Holy mother. Last some time a
pressure is being built up culturally and politically that beef eating
communities give up this integral part of their habit.
The food patterns are changing under intense
propaganda still as of now the consumption of beef in India is higher than that
of mutton and chicken put together. Its export is also a major business. The
RSS combine on one side aims to subjugate the Minorities and on the other wants
to maintain the status quo of social relationship of caste and gender. These
are subtle and overt maneuvers implemented through political and cultural
conduits. Attitude of communal politics to dalits has been a complex one. The
anti dalit violence of 1980 against reservation, the anti OBC violence of 1986 against
promotion of OBCs in jobs, and its strengthening of Kamandal politics (Rath
Yatra and the Babri demolition) in response to Mandal were a part of this.
At another level the strategy is to co-opt dalits into
Hindutva fold. From middle of decades of 1980s RSS has activated Samajik Samrasta
Manch (Social Harmony Forum) which has been mobilizing dalits around that. The
Gurus like Sri Sri Ravishanker have been saying that there should be harmony
between upper and lower caste, while he keeps quiet about the prevalent social
injustice in various forms. The aim of the communal politics is to maintain the
status quo of caste and gender.
Through Samajik Samrasta Manch the message of
undermining caste atrocities and social injustice is actively propagated. Supplementing
this is the cultural assertion and imposition of elite norms on the whole
society. Food habits are a part of culture and for large sections of dalits and
Adiviasis beef had been an integral part of their food. Incidentally there is a
vigorous campaign to promote vegetarianism and denigrate non vegetarian food
practices.
While the large section of dalits is struggling for
social and economic justice, a section of dalits is undergoing the process of
sanskritization as well. It is in this light that the symbols of dalit
assertion in the matters of food habits and cultural expressions are being
attacked openly. The compromised state apparatus is not able to stand up to
this onslaught of communal politics to preserve the social and democratic
rights of dalits and other marginalized sections of society, be it the matters
of their physical security, questions of equity and food habits. It is a
blatant attempt to manipulate culture, to impose elite norms, through
influencing the food habits, which are so much cultural in their nature.
It seems Mother Cow may be the major emotive weapon to
be used for the politics deriving its legitimacy from Hindu religions’
identity. Interestingly it reveals the twin goals of this politics. At surface
it is to reduce the minorities to a status of second class citizen and at
deeper level to subjugate dalits at social, political and cultural level.
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