Accurately speaking, the sacred cow revered by Hinduism is the Indian tumor cow, not the buffalo. In the eyes of Christians, every part of the cow is full of God. Christians often crawl in the mud in front of cows and pray devoutly; In some festivals, people kneel in the dust raised by passing cattle, breathe freely, and smear cow dung on their foreheads, doing everything possible to get "good luck".
Cattle is closely related to Indian politics, and the attitude of a political party towards cattle affects the turnout rate among Hindus. India provides the guiding principles of federalism and constitution for the reference of state legislatures. Article 48 stipulates that cows should be protected and the slaughter of cows and calves is prohibited.
Because Hindus worship cows, they don't eat other milk-producing livestock, so India has the largest number of livestock in the world, and the number of cows alone currently exceeds 300 million, ranking first in the world. Americans love beef, but the number of cattle in the United States is only over 90 million, ranking fourth in the world. Many religions have their own dietary taboos. It seems that Indians don't eat beef because of their religious beliefs, but there are more little-known stories behind it.
A devout Hindu will say, "Cows are not only gods, but also mothers", so killing cows and eating them is tantamount to killing mothers. Of course, it is difficult for laymen to understand this feeling. When your mother is old, will you send her to the butcher? When outsiders criticize the problems caused by sick cows, they will hear their answers like this.
Cattle have a very close relationship with an Indian farmer. The body can be used as a pack animal and a draught animal, feces can be used as fuel, and milk is a nutritious food. Even though Gandhi, the father of India, was a vegetarian, he didn't even drink milk at the end. From the perspective of life, it is beyond reproach that cows are like farmers' "parents", so many farming peoples also have the habit of worshipping cows. However, the worship of cattle in contemporary Hinduism has reached its peak, forming a peculiar landscape.
Cattle have the highest status. Hindu theologians preach that it takes 86 reincarnations from the devil to a cow before it can be reincarnated into an adult. If a person kills a cow, it is tantamount to committing a crime and must go back to the original level and start from scratch.
199 1 year, India initiated market-oriented reforms and ushered in a wave of religious revival. Fundamentalists pushed the worship of cattle to a new peak with their religious fanaticism. They believe that all the problems in Indian society at present can be attributed to the deviation from religion and tradition. As long as we adhere to the traditional values of Hinduism, all problems will be solved.
All Hindu sects recognize the authoritative position of the Vedic Classics, and medicine based on the Vedic Classics is called Ayurveda. Folk monks and Vedic doctors spare no effort to publicize the medical value of cattle. Influenced by fundamentalist Hindus, they all believe that cow dung and urine have a powerful health care function and can cure all diseases.
Some enterprises have found business opportunities to produce food, health care products and medicines related to cow dung and urine, which seems to be a dynamic industry. Their consumer groups are mainly low-income and low-educated people, and rural areas are also a broad market for cow dung and urine industry. The radical Hindu organization "World Hindu Congress" has established a research center for cow dung and urine drugs, which specializes in developing various "magic drugs" that claim to cure intractable diseases. The most popular cow dung urine health care product is made of cow dung, cow urine, milk, ghee and curd, and is called "Pancha Garvia".
Religious worship of cattle will lead to the taboo of fasting beef, and activists even actively participate in the movement to protect cattle. Large-scale riots caused by cow protection can be traced back to the end of 19, and contemporary violent incidents related to cow protection are endless. Indian Muslims and Christians eat beef and mutton, and the "untouchables" left over from the caste system live at the bottom of poverty. There is no taboo to eat beef in order to obtain protein. But Muslims and Christians can't kill cows in front of Hindus. Dudley can only take the dead cow and drag it home before he dares to deal with it quietly. Nevertheless, violent conflicts caused by misunderstanding still occur from time to time.
On June 5438+ 10, 2002, five Dateli men went home carrying the carcasses of cattle bought from neighboring villages in Gargar town near New Delhi. They are engaged in traditional tanning, which is a legal way for them to obtain cowhide. A group of high-caste Hindus listened to the rumor that someone tried to skin a cow, so they killed it. They surrounded five men in Park Jung Su and lynched them. Gila Koshore, the supreme leader of the World Hindu Congress, simply said: "According to our Hindu scriptures, the life of a cow is very important." It sounds as if the lives of five Dali people are not as valuable as a cow.
20 15 10, riots broke out in agra, manipur state in the northeast. I heard that four people were going to kill the cows and skin them. Hindus gathered and were seriously injured, and two of them almost died. Then the mob gathered more than 500 people to start a riot, beating, smashing, looting and burning to protest the killing of cattle. The government used the army and police to suppress them. Afterwards, the owner of the cow came out to explain that his cow died of natural causes and he gave it to others.
On the one hand, it is embarrassing to worship and protect cows. On the other hand, India has the largest number of sick cattle, old cattle and disabled cattle in the world. They wandered about the city and the countryside. This can be regarded as a "merit" to protect cows, but it also shows that many poor farmers can't continue to raise cows because of economic pressure, so they can only let them die, causing social problems.
The sacred cow is an important tool used by Hindu revivalists to fabricate history for present purposes. The doctrine and tradition of banning beef actually evolved later, and it was not innate. This is an embarrassing fact that fundamentalists are unwilling to face directly at present, and even those who claim to follow the scriptures will be furious when they hear these facts.
From the 5th century BC/Kloc-0, Aryan tribes with lighter skin color migrated from the grasslands in southern Russia to the Iranian plateau and the grasslands in Central Asia. Some of them invaded India from the northwest and met with the resistance of the indigenous people with darker skin color (probably Dravidians). The whole process of conquest lasted for hundreds of years, and Hindu culture, namely "Vedic culture", was the fusion of conquerors and local culture.
In order to solidify the political system in which a few foreign conquerors and nobles ruled the majority of aborigines and Aryans, the caste system came into being. Priests or religious scholars, namely Brahmins, are at the top of the caste, and military leaders, namely Khrushchev, are at the second level, which constitutes the spiritual and political ruling class. The agriculture, industry and commerce belonging to the civilian class are called Vedas, which are in the third grade, and the people who are mainly aborigines constitute the fourth grade sudra class. Later, there appeared a "untouchable" other than the fourth class, that is, Dapu Rongsu, who was engaged in tanning, slaughtering, cleaning toilets and burial.
As 1.0 version of Hinduism, "Brahmanism" has gradually taken shape, and Brahmins constantly use religion to strengthen the ruling order, especially to maintain their highest position in the caste.
Aryans were originally nomadic people. According to the Vedic classics, their main activity is that Brahmins lead sacrifices and Khshatriya directs actions. They eat not only meat, but also beef and mutton. There are three medical codes in Vedic medicine: Raja Collection, Miao Collection and Simba Collection, which were written by three ancient "medical sages". "Three Medical Codes" also says that "beef and beef soup" are good medicines, and tallow can cure rheumatism.
Faced with these facts, contemporary Vedic doctors, drug dealers and religious revivalists say nothing to believers. Many Indian intellectuals educated in modern social science and natural science don't believe in the myth about cattle, let alone the medicinal value of cow dung. Dr. Haji, a historian at Delhi University, once wrote a book "The Myth of the Holy Cow", which listed in detail the facts of eating beef in ancient Indian society. The president of the World Hindu Congress retorted that in ancient times, only low castes ate beef, and Brahmins never ate it. Historians only make cognitive mistakes when they are "ignorant". Dr Haji's book was banned by the People's Party government, and radical right-wing youths claimed to assassinate him. For a time, Dr. Haji could only stay in the school apartment and stay indoors.
In fact, Mahabharata, one of the two great epics of Hinduism, says that beef is a delicacy and a "prize" awarded by tribal leaders to soldiers and subjects. On the contrary, in ancient times, noble Brahmins were the main force to kill and eat cattle. How do the people at the bottom consume this luxury? Cattle are also usually sacrificed at sacrifices. Brahmins preside over the slaughter ceremony, and the gods can enjoy the most important part and the rest can be shared with people.
Later, the Brahmin custom of worshipping cows and forbidding beef evolved, and its roots were related to environmental changes and religious competition.
Aryan tribes have changed from nomadic life to farming life. With the growth of population, a large number of forests and grasslands have decreased, and more and more land has been reclaimed, because the farming life of eating whole grains can feed more people in a unit area and further expand the population.
Once the agricultural lifestyle changes, the relationship between farmers and cows will be closer. Cows are farm animals, grain is the staple food, and milk is the livelihood. With the decrease of uncultivated land, the space for raising cattle has become narrow, and in the case of shortage of land resources, the contradiction of "competing for food" has appeared from the beginning. If grain is used as feed to raise cattle, although it is beneficial to the health of cattle, the conversion ability of cattle to feed is far less than that of pigs and sheep. Pigs can convert 35% of energy in feed into meat, sheep can only convert 13%, while cattle only convert 6.5%. A piglet will gain a pound of meat every 3 to 5 pounds of food, and a calf will gain a pound of meat only if it eats 10 pound of feed.
Therefore, under the farming mode, the role of cattle has been greatly strengthened. With the increasing population density, the economic cost of raising and eating cattle has become higher and higher, which is the fundamental reason why the phenomenon of eating beef by ordinary people has generally decreased. Only wealthy Brahmins and Khrushchev can continue to eat beef, but they can't share it with tribal members as they did in nomadic times.
In terms of ancient science and technology and productivity, when the population exceeds the environmental carrying limit, the overall living standard will decline, and wars and plagues will easily break out, and the contradiction between population and resources will be adjusted in this way. Around the sixth century BC, the Vedic countries entered a period of great turmoil.
The gap between the rich and the poor is too large, and the caste contradiction is sharp. Vedas, who have changed their eating habits, are quite disgusted with the Brahmins' lifestyle of slaughtering animals and eating meat in large pieces, because temples often ask them to donate animals, and if they don't donate animals, they have to provide services. Under the destruction of war, drought and famine, the civilian class deepened their hatred of Brahmins. There is also a differentiation among the higher castes. Khrushchev took control of the military and political power and rose in status. I am quite dissatisfied with the Brahman's superiority over myself, and I am also drooling over the Brahman's vast land and wealth.
Crisis promotes reform, and more and more Brahmins realize that if they don't change their teachings, they will be eliminated by the times, and they have changed from cattle butchers to protectors. Brahmins gradually preach that gods don't eat meat, and the words about sacrifice in the classics are just a symbol and metaphor. In order to promote giving up eating beef, they also began to create more reasons to worship cattle in the name of religion.
The Reformation played a magical role. Hinduism first consolidated the basic disk, and finally defeated Buddhism after nearly a thousand years of game, because Buddhism advocated not killing at most, but did not require people to worship cows. Brahman's initiative to worship cattle is obviously more suitable for the public's appetite.
The era of unification of Indian native dynasties is relatively short. From the Sultanate of Delhi in the12nd century to the Mughal Empire, the last dynasty, the ruling class was Muslim, and later the Mughals entered the British colonial era. Under the rule of "dissidents", Hindus, who account for the vast majority of the population, highlight religious customs as the best tool to strengthen their identity. In modern times, with the rise of Hindu nationalism, the worship of cattle was pushed to a peak.
On the surface, the origin of the Hindu custom of worshipping cows and forbidding beef is the natural result of religious belief, but in fact it is the result of the reform of ancient Hinduism to cope with the crisis and conform to popular habits. This habit of the masses is related to the change of life and economic model, which has been strengthened under the condition of deteriorating resources and environment, and the reformed religion has in turn continued to consolidate people's habits.