Sentience

July 20, 2020 - The Daily Pioneer

The Cow in Indian Politics

A naive and simple quadruple, the cow, exercises considerable influence in Indian politics. Since primordial times its economic worth and religious significance has been acknowledged.

That the predominance utility alone has assigned the cow the religious nuance in Hindu religion is very hard to believe because in India since ancient times a variety of birds, animals and even reptiles are revered and they have been associated with different deities indicating thereby a deep understanding of the inter-dependence of different species in the ecological system.

The cow has been traditionally considered as ‘mother’ and it’s slaughter has been discouraged. An effort to indicate any specific time or period as the beginning of the traditional cow worship in India would practically lie in the realms of speculation. The cow veneration in ancient India probably originated from the pastoral Aryans in the Vedic period, whose religious texts called for non-violence towards all bipeds and quadrupeds, and often equated killing of cow with the killing of a human being, especially a Brahmin.

Continue Reading at:

The Daily Pioneer