Muslims should end cow slaughter once and for all in India

Eid-ul-zuha or Bakra eid is going to take place on November 7, 2011 and likewise (akin to the previous years) whole of India is apprehensive of an impending danger, if not more. What is the reason behind this apprehension? After all it is a religious festival and being a Sovereign, Secular, Democratic Republic, Union of India enables every citizen of India to conform to his/her religious belief and practice it without any fear or coercion! This happens to be the core belief of any sane Indian but what he/she remains ignorant of happens to be the missing link behind bloody rough-and-tumble every year. Bakra eid has become the greatest embodiment of cow slaughter, a saga getting more and more prominent hurting Hindu sentiment majorly.

Here is a small note on Eid-ul-zuha. In a nutshell, this festival, on each year, is celebrated on the 10th of the month Zilhaj, of Islamic calendar. Why is it known as Bakra eid also? The sole reason behind this is that, in accordance with Islamic tradition across the globe, each Muslim, capable enough to earn beyond a specific limit, has got to slaughter a goat or sheep (bakra), or any other animal big halal animal and dish it out into three parts. What’s the division then? While the owner keeps one part, the other two parts go to his relatives and impoverished human beings respectively.

The day has another great significance too. Eid-ul-zuha, to cut a long story short, does denote the event of Ibrahim when he was ready enough to sacrifice his child for the sake of God.

Had the celebration remained up to this, it would have been best. But in India problem begins and heightens with the Muslims’ insistence to sacrifice and slaughter cows instead of (traditionally) goat or bakra hurting Hindu sentiments a great deal. Don’t the Muslims know the Hindu grievance in this regard? Hindus and Muslims have been living in India for more than a millennium side by side; any such justification of dearth of knowledge, hence, falls flat.

The reality is that cow happens to be the most sacred animal to Hinduism known hitherto. Lord Krishna was himself a cowherd while bull is the one and only vehicle of Lord Shiva. Cow, as a result, is no longer an animal but does epitomize Hinduism in its entirety. Here are a few anecdotes to authenticate the sanctity of cows in ancient Hindu scriptures as well. In Mahabharata, Bhishma says: "Cows represent sacrifice. Without them, there can be no sacrifice…Cows are guileless in their behavior and from them flow sacrifices…and milk and curds and butter. Hence cows are sacred...." As per him, cow is nothing other than a surrogate mother as she renders milk to human beings for the whole life.

Even in Puranas, ancient Hindu scriptures, copious references of sanctitude of cows are present. It is said there in glowing terms that nothing is more holier-than-thou than the gift of cows. "There is no gift that produces more blessed merit." Lord Rama was given a wedding gift of thousands of cows and bullocks when he married Sita.

Cow was elevated to divinity in the Rig Veda as well. In Book VI, Hymn XXVIII attributed to Rishi Bhardwaja extols the virtue of the cow. In Atharva Veda (Book X, Hymn X), the cow is formally designated as Vishnu, and `all that the Sun surveys'.

All the aforementioned instances are enough to corroborate divinity of cows in Hinduism and certainly among Hindus and how any harm to her ever can hurt Hindu conscience. Why do not Muslims call slaughtering cows on Eid-ul-zuha or Bakra eid a halt honoring such a Hindu conviction then? Islam emanates from Arabic culture and cow remains absent in that part of the globe. The word Bakra, therefore, in no way relates to cow; it can surely be replaced by goat or sheep or any other animal in the Indian context.

The time has come for Muslims in India to revere the Hindu mindset and put a stop to cow slaughter (becoming more and more prominent) once and for all.