A Call To Sip Gaumutra Puts The 'Holy Cow' In The Spotlight Again

"We have requested organisers to ensure devotees do aachaman with cow urine before allowing them to enter garba pandals. Aadhaar card can be edited. However, if a person is a Hindu, he will enter the Garba pandal only after aachaman of gaumutra and there is no question of refusing it," Verma reasoned. He added that the aachaman – a practice of ingesting ‘holy’ water to ‘purify’ the body before rituals – has great significance in Sanatan culture.

The statement, made by BJP’s district president in Indore Chintu Verma, has reignited the debate around the cow, as the animal finds itself in political discourse again and again. Congress has slammed the call, terming it a new tactic of polarisation by the saffron party. Subsequently, Verma withdrew his statement saying it was his “personal view” and not a “compulsion or restriction”.

Meanwhile, a local right-wing Hindutva organisation in Bhopal demanded that Garba organisers should allow entry to only those who worship 'Varaha' (boar), the third avatar of Vishnu, so as to keep away members of other communities. The participants, they said, should also be given `panch-gavya' – comprising cow's urine, dung, milk, curd and ghee – as these conditions will prevent the entry of those who don’t believe in Sanathan dharma or consider Varaha avatar as unholy. 

Over the years, cow urine has been marketed heavily in the name of ‘purity’ and sold in all forms of products and concoctions, paving way for what doctors have warned to be pseudoscience. Claims have been made by spiritual leaders and politicians that it also cures debilitating diseases like cancer but there has been no scientific evidence. 

The Ministry of AYUSH, which was begun in 2014 under the BJP government, has been vigorously campaigning for research on cow products, which it says have medicinal properties. In 2019, BJP leader and former Bhopal MP Sadhvi Pragya had stirred a storm when she claimed that gaumutra “cured” her breast cancer. She had also urged people during the pandemic to drink cow urine to prevent Covid-19.

Recently, a major controversy erupted in Andhra Pradesh over the 'adulteration' of laddus after beef tallow was allegedly found in the ghee which was being used to make laddoos at the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam temple in Tirupati. The finding drew ire from political and religious leaders who called for strict measures to protect the sanctity of temples.

Until a decade ago, cow politics had not gained as much significance as it has today. However, with the rise of Hindutva nationalism, cow protectionists have found an evolved platform for mobilisation, legislation and vigilantism.

In an earlier column for Outlook, Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd wrote that the theory of the ‘holy’ cow has become the ‘State theory’ after the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-backed BJP came to power in 2014. “Nobody is allowed to eat cow meat, but one can eat buffalo meat as much as one wanted to and export it as well. The taste of buffalo meat does not find a mention in any cookbook, although writing about it does not send the writer to jail,” he wrote. 

Shruti Gangapatya wrote in an article for Outlook, “The narrative built over hundreds of years about the cow being the mother of Hindus worked well to attract more people to the movement and gain sympathy for the work.” 

“This love for the animal,” she adds, “is so deeply rooted among the majority of Hindus that they see nothing wrong in the activities of gau rakshaks. The same thought labels Muslims as cow killers and eaters.”

This becomes particularly stark in cases where a person from the Muslim community is tortured, harassed, beaten up or their house is demolished over alleged consumption or transportation of cow. 

In light of the latest incident, Outlook looks back at its 6 February 2023 magazine issue titled ‘Cow Prescription’ to trace back the many incidents, the lies and half-truths around the ‘holy’ cow that has pushed the animal into the political discourse.