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British origin of cow slaughter in India
by Guest Mon Oct 26, 2015 10:23 am
http://www.dawn.com/news/1214457/british-origin-of-cow-slaughter-in-india
This may be a little extraneous to our theme. More to point might be the query: how did beef become the Muslim’s diet?
It was not the staple diet in the places of origin of the Delhi Sultans and the Mughals. They ate mutton, camel meat, chicken, fish, geese, antelope and other game. Also, contrary to the popular belief, they ate plenty of vegetable. How then did the converts, who constitute 80-90 per cent of the Muslim population, develop a taste for cow?
Atal Bihari Vajpayee invited famous Gandhian scholar Dharampal to research the origins of cow slaughter in India.
Based on original British documents at India House in Britain, Dharampal and his assistant T.M. Mukundan submitted their study in 2002.
The title of the book gives the story away: The British Origin of Cow Slaughter in India.
The thesis is straightforward: the rapid increase in the number of the troops following the uprising of 1857 caused an increase in the number of slaughterhouses to provide beef for the soldiers. The “bakar Qasab”, so far employed largely in the sale of mutton, was transformed into “Qasai” for the slaughterhouses.
Here was a situation custom made for the authors of Divide-and-Rule. British officers could easily point to the Muslim Qasai whenever Hindu-Muslim tensions were required.
Queen Victoria gave the game away in a note she wrote on Dec 8, 1893 to her Viceroy, Lord Lansdowne: “Though the Muhammadans’ cow-killing is made the pretext for the agitation, it is in fact directed against us, who kill far more cows for our army, etc. than the Muhammadans.”
In a speech in Muzaffarpur, Gandhi developed on this theme: “If we cannot stop cow slaughter by the British, we have no right to raise our hands against Muslims.”
The tradition of beef eating, established in the shadow of the British Raj, acquired its own momentum after the British left.
That was colonialism taking advantage of Hindu-Muslim tension.
Today a very political majoritarian project is beaming the searchlight on the Muslim as the “Melecha”, in the alley of beef eaters.
This may be a little extraneous to our theme. More to point might be the query: how did beef become the Muslim’s diet?
It was not the staple diet in the places of origin of the Delhi Sultans and the Mughals. They ate mutton, camel meat, chicken, fish, geese, antelope and other game. Also, contrary to the popular belief, they ate plenty of vegetable. How then did the converts, who constitute 80-90 per cent of the Muslim population, develop a taste for cow?
Atal Bihari Vajpayee invited famous Gandhian scholar Dharampal to research the origins of cow slaughter in India.
Based on original British documents at India House in Britain, Dharampal and his assistant T.M. Mukundan submitted their study in 2002.
The title of the book gives the story away: The British Origin of Cow Slaughter in India.
The thesis is straightforward: the rapid increase in the number of the troops following the uprising of 1857 caused an increase in the number of slaughterhouses to provide beef for the soldiers. The “bakar Qasab”, so far employed largely in the sale of mutton, was transformed into “Qasai” for the slaughterhouses.
Here was a situation custom made for the authors of Divide-and-Rule. British officers could easily point to the Muslim Qasai whenever Hindu-Muslim tensions were required.
Queen Victoria gave the game away in a note she wrote on Dec 8, 1893 to her Viceroy, Lord Lansdowne: “Though the Muhammadans’ cow-killing is made the pretext for the agitation, it is in fact directed against us, who kill far more cows for our army, etc. than the Muhammadans.”
In a speech in Muzaffarpur, Gandhi developed on this theme: “If we cannot stop cow slaughter by the British, we have no right to raise our hands against Muslims.”
The tradition of beef eating, established in the shadow of the British Raj, acquired its own momentum after the British left.
That was colonialism taking advantage of Hindu-Muslim tension.
Today a very political majoritarian project is beaming the searchlight on the Muslim as the “Melecha”, in the alley of beef eaters.
Guest- Guest
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