Understaffed, overburdened ASI has a lot on its platter

Understaffed, overburdened ASI has a lot on its platter

By Jawhar Sircar

(Published in the DNA on 28th July,2017)

Nations, even those born yesterday, take immense pride in showcasing their past, often with large doses of exaggeration to establish their ‘ancient’ ancestry: by utilising odd archaeological finds here and there. In contrast, a civilisation like India that is over five millennia old appears to falter in projecting its rich heritage. The oldest sites of our Harappan culture, like Lothal or Dholavira, look so dull when compared to the other three contemporary civilisations, namely, Egypt, Mesopotamia and (later) China. The problem with India lies partly in its cultural genes, in the sense that while we love epics and myths, we care less for internationally accepted historical evidence.

The problem is further aggravated by the sheer plentitude of our archaeological wealth and our consequent inability to handle so much.

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has done yeoman’s service for over 150 years by digging out the history that we had blissfully forgotten. The grand Buddhist stupas and the meticulous urban planning of Mohenjodaro and Harappa are good examples. It is a different matter altogether that the same India that invented domestic sanitary latrines in the Indus Valley then defecated all over the place for the next several millennia. The ASI has the unenviable task of managing some 3,700 sites, from deep within forests and up in the hills, to those that lie in blazing plains, with its meagre and stretched manpower. The question is whether we really need to control so many monuments, as many of them can safely be de-notified with no great harm befalling us. We have, for instance, too many medieval Kos Minars or large milestones that flaunt neither exquisite architecture nor represent any irreplaceable history. Strangely enough, we have even to look after the grave of Brigadier General John Nicholson who seized Delhi from Indian troops during the first War of Independence, so ruthlessly and mercilessly that his statue there still carries a naked sword: to cut into pieces any ‘native’ who may still dare him.

In most ASI sites, all that we see near the old or dilapidated structures are blue enamel signboards announcing, rather pompously, that they are ‘centrally protected’ without either telling us why and what it represents. When we are lucky enough to chance upon the name and other details of what the monument is all about, we have to suffer some inscrutable, faulty bureaucratic language. Millions who go past a rather plain-looking minar at the crossing of Mathura and Lodhi Roads in Delhi are hardly aware that this Subz Burj ‘pepper pot’ is actually one of the first three Mughal buildings ever built in India. This magnificent style of Indian architecture finally culminated in the Taj Mahal, which is India’s most famous monument, whether a yogi-turned-chief-minister likes it or not. When Aurangzeb arrested Shah Jahan for the treasury’s bankruptcy on reports received from traditionally myopic accountant-generals, little did he realise what splendid returns his father’s grandiose investment would ultimately give us. ‘Returns’ remind us of how heritage management and their fancy marketing tactics fleece us of precious euros, dollars and pounds abroad as we take selfies in front of these must-see spots. Why can’t this success be replicated when we have better historical sites or much more variety compared to similar looking European castles and cathedrals?

No ASI officer would ever dare to suggest that some of its stodgy and crowd-less palaces and forts be put to lively commercial use by converting them into hotels and resorts, like those by the “princes’ in Rajasthan and MP.

There is a partially-written ban within ASI about such ideas. The erstwhile princely families, who still love to be called ‘Royal Highnesses’, were lucky that their properties were outside ASI’s Act and control. Heaven should not fall if we handed over many small and inconsequential ASI monuments to local communities or to INTACH units, with proper MoUs, so that ASI concentrates on the really important ones and the next tier. This would get heritage lovers involved: to take better care and to ‘market’ them.

(Please CLICK HERE to read the article on DNA Website)

     How the poison spreads - Bengal is sitting on a powder keg

                                            By Jawhar Sircar

                    (Published in The Telegraph on 26th July, 2017)

None can forget the painful scenes of mindless violence that followed the Partition, but as Govind Nihalani's iconic film, Tamas, showed, all that one needed to start a riot was to kill a particular animal and place its carcass before a place of worship. The business of riots is not really mindless, but what surprises old 'district magistrates' like us who have handled 'riots' is why they are allowed to recur and feed the new cult of communalism that has penetrated Bengal. Riots like those in Telinipara, Jagatdal and Chapra were quite bad but they died down because of prompt and determined handling, and because political parties did not politicize them with unconcealed relish. Unlike in western India, in Bengal, in spite of differences, there is just too much in common between religious communities which normally deprive riots of the hatred that is so essential to sustain them.

Yet, this same state is now consistently bandied as the bastion of communal hatred where things have turned so bad that the majority needs to be rescued immediately from the terror of the minority that is abetted by the local government. Denial and protestations are not enough to stop the rot if the state is to remain one of the last few enclaves of secularism, which, incidentally, is a much hated word in many other parts of India. The trend and regularity of communal outbursts here are worrisome, and the narrative that is getting embedded is that one community leads them because it is pampered too much. This is the most dangerous of all psychological tactics because half-truths are mixed with Machiavellian intentions to ensure that the enraged victim community swings into immediate action and retaliates, which, of course, is less noticed. As the recent unprecedented 'religious' parades with threatening swords show and some recent electoral results prove, time may be running out. One has absolutely no quarrel with political choices, provided they are not secured through sectarian hatred and violence as these run counter to the Constitution and harm the wonderfully successful experiment in multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic, multi-religious coexistence.

It may be time to re-examine the need for symbolic public gestures made to instil confidence in one community, when they are systematically exploited and branded as pandering to only one religion. During a recent visit to Dhaka, I found a beautiful Madhubani art scene of Ram-Sita on the walls outside the university's college of fine arts. Fundamentalists scream themselves hoarse at what they consider to be overt idolatry, but Sheikh Hasina Wajed's government is much too tough for them as she has the power to jail and execute those who murder others in the name of religion. Wajed has frequently exercised this power to sustain secularism amidst real threats, but the Indian Constitution does not confer such strength on chief ministers in our federal polity.

Let us not shy away from more unpleasant realities. The fact that immediate and demonstrative punishment was not meted out to the perpetrators of the mayhem in Kaliachak in January 2016 and in Dhulagarh in December that year rankles even those who swear by secularism. Mistakes like these were enough to sustain those who live off hatred and the consequential votes. Baduria is another classic case, where those who indulged in vandalism should have been picked up as soon as sufficient armed forces were available, irrespective of their religion. With every passing hour, the new but well-managed industry of hate relayed exaggerated accounts to every kind of media platform. What the active telegraph of whispers and rumours did not mention was that the other community had also retaliated within a day or so, and the 'newsman's code' that prohibits the naming of communities actually strengthened the impression that the community that started the mayhem was uncontrollable. It is apparent that the police-politician nexus at the panchayat and thanalevels that had been nurtured by the Left and had caused its downfall is still firmly in place. New dimensions appear to have been added, like cattle smuggling and strongmen's exclusive zones. I got tired of explaining to my political bosses before I left them in 2006, to face their complete and incredible obliteration, that short-term tactic only creates an illusion of strength. It may be better to lose a few MLAs and voters than to lose it all. An immediate message must emanate that communal incidents will invite a terrible retribution that is sharp and colour-blind.

In Kaliachak, the rabid comments of a minority-baiter set off the conflagration while in Baduria it was an objectionable Facebook item that exploded. Those who led the mobs felt that they could not let the hotheads take over and thus indulged in public competitions of excesses. This is where the administration needed to give a knock on the thick heads who have no idea how their acts of vandalism endanger their own community in other parts and how they pave the path for the enemies of secularism to take over. These self-styled leaders of communities are not caricatures: they are the essential feedstock on whom the hate-mongers thrive. A government that has established its concern for minorities really does not require people who are usually not held high in their own community and survive mainly through their political proximity.

Facebook is no more a social platform: it is now that dangerous provocative animal of Tamas, the dark night. A national spokesperson of India's ruling party got caught when she tried to pass off scenes of violence from Gujarat in 2002 as those from Baduria. Another leader from Haryana used a pathetic Bhojpuri film still of a woman being disrobed in public to claim that it was from Bengal. So desperate was an MP recently that he tweeted a photo perverting a news item into a lie of how a Hindu girl was stabbed to death. So determined is this 'fake news' enterprise to poison minds and to grab power at any cost that lie-busters had to come up to expose their bluff through net platforms like 'Alt News'. Yet, millions of unknowing victims continue to lap up and re-circulate whatever comes on WhatsApp and other such media, even as they insist that Nostradamus had predicted 400 years ago that Narendra Modi would arrive. A large part of Twitter has been hijacked by trolls, who have driven out many a sensible voice from this medium.

The point is not that all who speak for our plural state are saints - which is ridiculous. The important point is those who seek to destroy it are worse. A disaster called Pakistan does not deter these votaries of 'one religion one state', and how they seek to completely marginalize members of the minority community remains a mystery, however fearsome be it. Common citizens like us welcome any battle for Bengal that is fought on issues of good governance and through a healthy debate, not on how to divide communities.

(Please CLICK HERE to read the article on The Telegraph's Website)

No one has empowered the present generation to endanger our heritage pooled in over centuries

No one has empowered the present generation to endanger our heritage pooled in over centuries

                                                     By Jawhar Sircar

                                 (Published in "The Hindu" on 21.07.2017)

The problem with parliamentary democracy often lies in its inscrutable legal jargon. By the time one gets to know the real purport of a Bill, it is all over and done with.

We need, therefore, to act real fast to convince our lawmakers not to rush through with further amendments to the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (Amendments and Validation) Act, 2010.

If passed, it will shatter the much-laboured protective circle that was installed around our monuments only seven years ago, after centuries of indifference. The nation realised that it had to act tough if it was to save the part of India’s priceless built heritage that had not yet been mauled by urbanisation, greed or insensitive development projects.

The law was, therefore, amended in 2010 to declare the immediate circle of 100 metres around these monuments as strict ‘prohibited zones’. For the first time, no one was permitted to build or rebuild: not even ubiquitous and omnipotent government authorities.

The present Bill before Parliament seeks to restore the ‘majesty’ of government.

I happened to be around as Secretary of the Culture Ministry seven years ago when this protective law was put in place and I faced the same criticism: why can’t government projects be on a different footing?

Lessons and experiences

We went through the lessons and experiences of advanced countries and found that more history-conscious nations too had to use very strict laws to protect their heritage that they could never rebuild without some critical loss. We realised that in India, this law has to be even more stringent or else it would be treated as just one more ‘negotiable instrument’.

Our collective heritage has been pooled in by several generations over many centuries and millennia. No one has empowered the present generation to destroy or endanger this bequest. From my four decades in government, it is clear that its rusty cutting edge, the tribe of inspectors, tehsildars, thanedars and crafty clerks can pervert every well-meaning decision to make quick bucks or to misuse some megawatts of power that a new notification bestows on them.

The upper echelons need to be extra sensitive and realise that every exception that they make further empowers these dreadful hyenas who are so thick with local leaders and business sharks.

A recent parliamentary committee report pointed out that even with so much legal protection, 93 encroachments have actually come up in the Qutub Minar zone in the Capital. This could never have happened without the collusion of local leaders and officials. And a large number of our monuments are simply ‘missing’.

It is difficult to believe that the world’s fastest-growing economy cannot spend a little more to skirt a road project around the tomb of the father of Indian secularism, Akbar, in Agra so that it passes beyond the prohibited 100-metre zone. Or is Akbar being given a message?

Will we be so tolerant if a busy flyover or a ground-shaking train line rubbed past Kashi Vishwanath or the Sri Ranganathaswamy temple and disturbed their gravitas?

Rani ki vav is an outstanding architectural masterpiece of Chalukyan Gujarat. It is not only ‘Hindu’: it also nurtures the revered waters of River Saraswati.

Can the proposed railway line in Patan that one hears of take a little detour so that India does not lose the World Heritage status that it earned with so much toil for Rani ki vav? Are a hundred metres too much to plead for?

Please Click Here to read this article on "The Hindu's" Website

        A creeping emergency - The Gujarat brand of established fear now haunts India

                                                  Jawhar Sircar

                                   The Telegraph, 27th June, 2017

As a defining moment, the twenty fifth of June of 1975 has more than secured its position on the timeline of Indian history. While the Congress prays hard to just forget the ignominy of Emergency, the prime beneficiaries of this tragic phase, namely the Yadav-led socialist parties, are burping after feasting on power for several decades. As the most fearless and uncompromising opposition to India's Emergency, the Akali Dal earned lucrative political rewards, but the most interesting contender is the ruling party. It is hell-bent on appropriating all credit for everything remarkable, whether in the past or at present. It uses its proven skills in creative engineering of collective memory to craft an alternative narrative with selective use of historical facts. True, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh did fill jails with its swayamsevaks during the Emergency and also took good care of their families as none else could, but we need to clear the air on the oft-repeated charge that the sangh's supremo, Balasaheb Deoras, had tried desperately to meet Indira for a deal. The records that the Intelligence Bureau chief, T.V. Rajeswar, and others have referred to need to come out.

India is the only third-world nation in that vast swathe from Morocco to the Philippines that has successfully kept its army within barracks. But one really wonders how long we can, with the unprecedented idolizing of the military's heightened role in Kashmir where the crisis gets aggravated with each passing day. And, the undeclared war with Pakistan keeps up the desired jingoism to foment fierce nationalism. The whole of the free world, except die-hard sangh supporters, seriously feels that the genie of authoritarianism may have escaped from the bottle that we sealed in 1977. The mindset is so eerily similar although the strategy is now more 'mature'. On November 8 last year, the prime minister did not require to formally invoke any 'financial emergency' under Article 360 when he declared unilaterally that 86 per cent of our currency was worthless. Crores of Indians lost billions of productive hours in queuing before ATMs and banks and the after-effects are still visible, as cash-strapped farmers are shot dead in Madhya Pradesh. Even after the elections in UP were won on this self-righteous crusade against black money, no one really knows how much of the ill-gotten wealth was really unearthed, to justify the death of a hundred hapless citizens during the demonetization exercise. It established the new rules of the game that desired results can still be obtained without going through formal legal declarations that invite unnecessary furore from a pampered democracy. In fact, the ongoing methodical leash on civil liberties and free thought is less messy than Sanjay Gandhi's tantrums.

The holy cow was a master-stroke that ignites passions and justifies the systematic and repetitive lynching of members of the minority community, thereby bludgeoning the 67-year-old established practice of plurality. Once this principle of outsourcing violence without retribution made its gash on the body polity, the next logical step of murder-at-will followed, as young Junaid learnt through his tragic death on a Delhi-Mathura train. It is no more safe to look like like a 'typical' member of the minority community or to profess the hated creed of secularism. The narrative of the times screams that since the nation has reposed its faith in the 'great leader' and successive elections have reinforced his mandate, any doubts on the absolute infallibility of his reign are either anti-national or evidence of other grievous inadequacies. Even though no sensible person can condone proven subversion if any, the fact is that JNU's genetic restlessness became a red rag to the storm-troopers of ultra-nationalism. Those who hardly participated in the freedom struggle and are reported to have had severe reservations about our tricolour in 1947-1948 now ensure that every Indian proves his nationalist credentials in public or faces their wrath. The boss of a trusted national media is amazed at the 'debate over freedom of expression' and declared it is the "schizophrenia" of the unseated elite within the national capital city.

Unfortunately, he scored a self-goal when he declared that it is "fed by social media and some media outlets". It is tragic to see how unsuspecting millions are fed with unending streams of anti-minority hate-news and venomous post-truth lies on WhatsApp each day and the alacrity with which internet 'troll' devils have forcefully evicted liberals from Twitter with intolerable abuses. Swati Chaturvedi laid bare the nexus between the ruling party's social-media wing and troll brigades that 'manufacture followers' in lakhs. From a recent shuddering experience on Twitter, one deciphers even traces of linkages with professional intelligence agencies, as items that are not in the public domain are also fed to trolls. Never before has India seen such steamrollering of free opinion through layers of systematic terror.

The next strategy tamed the same free press that tore down the earlier regime through every event, from Anna Hazare to Nirbhaya. So dramatic has been the domestication of Indian journalism that we can count the fearless few on our fingers. Three tactics must have worked: the adroit management of barons, the silent takeover of media houses by friendly capitalists and, of course, crude storm-troopers who symbolize the totally-intolerant right-wing from the dreadful 1930s. Sadly, the so-called 'reasonable rightist' journalists have also become miserly with facts, after they were loaded with favours. There is now no need for the faltering constitutionalism of Rajiv Gandhi, who had sought to control mails and 'defamation' through laws that were then drowned under protests. One can get better results at present without even touching the law-book.

Even Indira Gandhi's paranoid FCRA of 1975 has come home to roost as thousands of non-governmental organizations are debarred from seeking foreign contributions to survive and their domestic supporters are terrorized by bullies. Thus, while the organizations of relentless crusaders like Indira Jaising and Teesta Setalvad are starved, big donations from rich overseas supporters of Hindutva to the obvious party are fully legitimized. Like Indira Gandhi, personal loyalty matters most and Narendra Modi confabulates endlessly with hand-picked, but squirming, bureaucrats, who are terrified of his hire and fire rule, while his ministers shiver in their darkness. The Prime Minister's Office has gained more control than it ever had during the Emergency era, proving thereby that similar mindsets require similar hegemonic structures. The sad victim, however, is the Constitution's cabinet system, and the old demand for a 'presidential system' is voiced periodically: the last being from Modi's trusted bureaucrat-factotum. Indira Gandhi created fear in instalments, while Modi just replicated his successful Gujarat brand of established fear smoothly over the entire nation.

Such fear and the 'one leader' syndrome do not augur well in a democracy. One can tolerate the hogging of all credit for completing projects of the earlier government, like the Kochi Metro or the longest road tunnel in Kashmir, but the mind-boggling populism and orchestrated hero-worship are quite scary. He is certainly not the first prime minister who appears petty, but liberals feel that some of those bear hugs with which he embarrasses every foreign dignitary could do better in India. We need an assurance, for all democracies die without dissent.

        (Please CLICK HERE for article on The Telegraph's website)

Not the most sporting of nations: Sports have never been integrated into India’s social fabric

Not the most sporting of nations: Sports have never been integrated into India’s social fabric

Jawhar Sircar

DNA,20th June,2017

A pall of gloom has descended upon India since Sunday evening and knives are out for those who shamed India. The Virat Kohli-Anil Kumble differences will be ripped apart now and the CBI or Enforcement Directorate may actually be tasked to find out which bookies may have sold the game away. And not without reason, because public memory is still fresh about the sentence that Pakistan’s Mohammed Aamir was handed in Britain in 2010-11, along with two of his teammates. Not that India or some other cricketing nations are too far behind in playing games with games, but some players in the three nations on this subcontinent are either more vulnerable or much too greedy. At a time when Indo-Pak relations are on the verge of an explosion (God forbid!), this defeat could be viewed by incensed populaces on either side of the border as ‘round one’ of ‘Kargil 2’. Pathos, anger and frustration are all quite natural, especially when taunting green flags and jeering faces leap out from the Oval to invade 150 million television homes in India.

But, to what extent? Are we taking games too seriously? Or, is it that we just cannot handle either defeat or victory? History and sociology may help us with some answers. The Indian value system emphasised a lot on obedience, subservience to fate, duty to one’s family, virtues of procreation and enjoyment, acquisition of wealth, personal purity, yoga and personal discipline, strict dietary taboos and so on. But unlike other societies, India hardly ever encouraged physical prowess, adventure or competitive sports. We do, of course, have some wrestling but it is restricted to a tiny section of male pehlwans. We read of how the Kshatriyas jealously guarded archery from doubtful aspirants like Karan and how Ekalavya had to pay with his right thumb for daring to excel in an upper-caste elite sport. But, frankly, one sees no evidence of Kshatriyas organising sporting contests, once the Mahabharata was over and done with. Tribals, on the other hand, were more devoted to archery and organised regular hunting meets, but their increasing integration into the mainstream meant that they lost many such traditional skills. What about kabaddi or other village games? We are not saying that no one ever played games: we are simply stating that we did not value sports as highly as many European or African societies did and do. Kerala had rowing contests, though not as glitzy and poly-packed for tourists like now, but we are nowhere near world-class in this sport. Sherpas took to mountaineering as a necessity for survival and livelihoods, but until the white man arrived to challenge the sheer cliffs, mountaineering was hardly given the status of a macho sport.

But why? We must understand that, occasional wars notwithstanding, society in this subcontinent was not basically geared towards warfare as a regular inevitability. Invaders had, thus, quite a walkover in most cases and a Porus offering battle to Alexander or a Rana Pratap standing up to Akbar were so rare that they are the stuff of legends. Some ethnic groups were more ‘martial’ as the British discovered and exploited, but even among them ‘sporting events’ were not central to existence. We were hardly a sports-crazy nation until colonial games brought the Lagaan-best out of us. Football and cricket were lapped up and hockey made us famous, many decades ago, and did bring a tiny spot of cheer in London on the same Black Sunday.

But Brahmanism injected a me-only gene, not only when the priest encouraged us to fight our way into overcrowded temples and pray only for one’s own family and well-being, but also to trample on and hurt other equally selfish worshippers, with impunity. This me-only trait comes out in the silvers and bronzes and rare gold medals that we win, as almost all are for individual excellence: shooting, wrestling, sprinting, boxing, archery, et al. A nation of 128 crores cannot get eleven Indians to play football as a team, though Manchester United, Real Madrid and Arsenal are household names. Cricket is different as it is overheated with several crores and offers vicarious wars, but the fact is that though we lust to win everywhere, we are still centuries away from accepting sports for their own sake. We need to learn how the Battle of Waterloo was actually won years ago on the playing fields of Eton, where teamwork and good cheer were imbibed forever.

            (Please CLICK HERE to read article on DNA's website)

Andaman’s Cellular jail holds lessons for the current Indian polity

           Andaman’s Cellular jail holds lessons for the current Indian polity

                                               Jawhar Sircar

                             Published in DNA, 8th May, 2017

The new game of appropriating national leaders who are long dead and gone as ‘Hindu nationalists’ is rather interesting. It competes with the pastime, popularised in the early decades after Independence, to absorb all divergent streams of the national movement under one banner of the ‘Indian National Congress’. This leads to eulogisation and ‘canonisation’ and here, one must examine the recent attempt to foist Vinayak Damodar Savarkar as the most noteworthy icon of Andaman’s infamous Cellular Jail.

Some MPs raised this issue in Parliament recently, alleging that all other freedom fighters were ignored as the chief tourist attraction of the jail; that the sound and light show, focussed only on Savarkar. They called it the “deification of one individual who finally compromised with the British”, but we may recall that Savarkar’s elevation had already begun in 2003 when the Vajpayee government named the Port Blair airport after him.

Not all may be aware that the most feared leaders of the First War of Independence of 1857, who were not hanged, were actually sent to remote Andaman islands to die. For instance, Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi, who had declared Jehad against the British in 1857, was sent to Kala-Pani in 1858, along with the first batch of 309, in which half were Muslims who at that time were not asked to produce their certificates of patriotism. Khairabadi died there in 1861 and a few years later, 87 prisoners of the 238 who tried to escape, were hanged.

The Cellular Jail came up only in 1906 and its strategy was to isolate prisoners in ‘solitary confinement’ cells as a means to break their spirits. This hardly ever succeeded, except in remarkable cases like that of Savarkar. Publications Division’s 1975 archival volume mentions his plea to the Viceroy in 1913 and several others. “If the government in their manifold beneficence and mercy release me, I for one cannot but be the staunchest advocate of constitutional progress and loyalty to the English government.” It may be appropriate to clear the air before the father of Hindutva is valorised further.

Bhagat Singh, on the other hand, wrote to the British in 1931 saying that “we had waged war and were, therefore, war prisoners. And we claim to be treated as such... and shot dead instead of to be hanged.”

Savarkar was definitely a luminary in this jail, but so were Batukeshwar Dutt and Yogendra Shukla who had been Bhagat Singh’s close and fearless comrades. Bhai Paramand, the founder of Punjab’s Ghadar Party, who was convicted in the First Lahore Conspiracy Case was imprisoned here as were Ananta Singh and Ganesh Ghosh of the Chittagong Armoury Raid fame and Savarkar’s own brother, Babarao. With so many heroes around, it puzzles us as to why the hospital constructed in the 1960s near the Cellular Jail was named after Gobind Ballabh Pant, who was never detained there. This ‘appropriation’ is as bizarre as fringe Hindutva elements lionising Sardar Patel, for it is he who arrested RSS leaders and banned the outfit for some time.

Sharad Pawar raised a storm recently on April 11 when he quoted Savarkar as having said: “cows should not be a burden on farmers, if anyone eats cow meat then I don’t hold him guilty”. This is startling and we need to know all the facts, so that he is rescued from controversy and the real Savarkar claims his rightful position. History is not just sending WhatsApp messages fabricating half-facts with palpable falsehoods, but it is a corpus that has to be referred to frequently, for total clarity.

                    (Please CLICK HERE for article of DNA's website)

Beef Is Not Just A Religious Issue

Beef Is Not Just A Religious Issue 

Jawhar Sircar 

(Telegraph, 5th June 2017) 

 While politicians quibble over whether the legality of the recent rules issued by the Central government curbing the movement and trade in cattle of all types and even camels, we may like to take a look at the big picture. The oft-quoted Art 48 of the Constitution is one among the many unrealised 'Directive Principles': desirable when able. Its talks of banning the slaughter of milch and draught cattle, but the point is no one advocating this patently uneconomical idea. We need to understand that even the best of cowsbecome a burden to poor farmers after their lactating period is over. So do old draught animals. Most farmers, many of who are strict vegetarians, therefore, sell them off so that other humans and cattle can be better looked after. One needs to consider the impact of stopping or restricting these sales on the economics of the milk industry. For instance, the Gujarat's cooperative milk federation alone has 36 lakh milk farmer-members and also caters to countless more. The past sadly whispers that every time government takes such "gigantic steps" to tinker with the economy, it had to step in soon with a new subsidy scheme, that forced more taxes on those who pay. The enforcement of one's own values or political agenda on other hapless fellow-Indians can succeed upto a point, especially at the hustings, but then someone has to pay. 

24 States have already legislated under their powers drawn from Entry 15 of the "State List" and most have banned cow slaughter. Only Kerala, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim permit the slaughter of non-milch cows and old draught animals. As most states are in the North-East, is it wise for a responsible Centre to alienate them even more, by determining what they should eat? The longest road bridge alone cannot cover the emotional chasm that exists and many nurse a lot of pain and alienation from the entity they call "India", where they are beaten up, periodically. It is best not to forget that several in this region had taken to arms and it took super-human efforts and lives to bring in normalcy. India is a multi-cultural federation that has worked so long because the delicate balance was respected.

 Each culture has the right to choose it's own values and even it's special animal, though few go to the extent of venerating it as in India. We have to understand that abhorrence for beef was the prime 'cultural trench' that insulated Hindus from the paramount Islamic power and influence for half a millennium. But then, it is insane to kill fellow humans to emphasise love for go-mata and impose a narrow version of a historically-tolerant religion. The vigilantes get away only because of the indulgence of Hindutva-professing governments. Many noticed the unusual silence of the great and over-articulate leader on this terrible business of outsourced terror. But brazenness with which the Centre sanctified the encroachment into dietary preferences can only be the harbinger of more to come. 

 The votaries of 'Hindi Hindu Hindustan'overlook the fact that most of India lies beyond and will remain different. We may choose to discount Ambedkar's well researched facts on the prevalence of beef in Indian culture or even a historian like DN Jha. We may dismiss the beef-eating habits of the torch-bearers of Sanskrit culture in the Vedic age as lies or aberrations. But how can we deny that large sections of confirmed Hindus still eat beef? Estimates vary and even the Central government's own NSSO Round of 2011-12 estimated that 1.25 crore Hindus ate beef, which is obviously an understatement. In several anti-Brahmanical cultures like the 'real Dravidian' ones and in many counter-cultures all over India, sociallyoppressed communities not only take beef, but organise public beef-eating events to assert their autonomy. All Hindu beef-eaters cannot be branded pejoratively as 'low', because this survey revealed that nearly 30 percent do not fall in that insulting category. In fact, over 7 percent were actually from the so-called 'upper castes' and surprisingly, only 40 percent of Muslims and 25 percent of Christians mentioned that they ate beef. While NSSO's projections imply that some 4.4 lakh tons of cattle meat was consumed in India, international statistics estimate that local consumption was approximately 22 lakh tons. India also exported an estimated 24 lakh tons and it is doubtful whether these large numbers are understood by demon-itisers. 

 In 2015, India was the world's largest exporter of bovine meat ahead of its competitors, Brazil and Australia-New Zealand. This was possible because most Indians do not touch it and Indian meat exports gave us more than crore $5 billion or Rs 34,000 crores. It may be sensible to factor some hard economics into this emotional debate. After all, we strain every nerve to balance our adverse foreign trade account and then fail to make ends meet. We are home to the world's largest buffalo population and its sacrifice was (and still is) religiously sanctified during the worship of the warrior goddess. Only the naive believe that once the goddess was propitiated, the buffalo carcasses were left for animals to devour. In fact, we need to be grateful to those who flay these carcasses, as it is certainly not a pleasant job at all. Instead, sponsored goons are let loose to thrash the flayers. In July 2016, a video of vigilantesbeating quite mercilessly four carcass-flayers in the model state of Gujaratwent viral and the Dalit community struck work, leaving dead cattle unattended. The public health crisis that led to immediate appeasement should be an eye opener to those who preach irresponsible Hindutva. 

Experts estimate India's cattle population to be some 25 crore in number and state that the number is stable as it replenishes itself. Every year, 4 percent dies a natural death and another estimated 4 percentof is slaughtered. But, while there are some 1600 registered slaughter houses, the unregistered ones are many times more. Hygiene is a severe problem everywhere and in some northern states, licenses are arbitrarily suspended by municipalities in deference to 'sentiments'. We must realise that every twist and turn in this legal-illegal game usually results in huge bribes to inspectors, babus and politicians. Interestingly, the by-product of meat, leather, gave us more in exports, ie, $6.5 billion or Rs 45,000 crores. But the bad news for 25 lakh people who are directly involvedis that exports fell by 10 percent in the last financial year. Then, we have another 40,000 to 48,000 crore rupees in our domestic leather manufacture and trade. The high decibel 'Make in India' campaign may like to consider these numbers as this industry is being choked, for votes. 

Those who really love the cow could begin by taking good care of aged cattle, after giving the farmers their dues. Finally, could not the preachers take up immediately, through their shakhas and bhakts, a campaign not to touch leather shoes, bags and belts, as these come from cows?

(Please CLICK HERE for the article on The Telegraph's website)