India’s new “cow science” exam politicizes sacred animals, critics say

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The optional exam will take place annually, primarily for school and university students, although the general public can take it, said Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog (RKA), a country agency set up in 2012 to protect cows at the Ministry of Fisheries, Livestock and dairy.

“The science of cows needs to be explored,” said RKA President Vallabhai Kathiria said a news conference on Tuesday. “I’m a cancer surgeon myself, so I can attest to that.”

“Even if a cow doesn’t give milk, cow dung and cow urine are so precious,” he added.

An opposition member of the Indian National Congress Party, Priyank Kharge, criticized the move on Twitter.

“These jokers want to explore ‘the science of the cow’ during the pandemic and don’t give a damn about the scientific protocols that companies have to follow while vaccinating the entire population,” Karge said. referring to India’s emergency approval earlier this week of two coronavirus vaccines.

Cows are a controversial topic in India, and many of the country’s majority Hindu population consider the animal sacred. Most states have banned slaughter.

Political momentum to enforce these bans has increased since Prime Minister Narendra Modi – whose Bharatiya Janata (BJP) party is strongly aligned with conservative Hindu nationalists – came to power in 2014.

People suspected of killing cows or even eating beef were killed in violent attacks in the country. A large number of these people include Muslims. But the vigilant killings of cows in India have been ignored or covered up by authorities since Modi came to power.

Clean and smart

RKA has launched a study guide for the 54-page exam, which includes topics such as the “religious significance” and “medical significance” of cows.

“The cow is a living legacy not only of Hindus, but of humanity,” the document states. “In world traditions, the cow represents fertility, prosperity and life and is often called the ancestor-mother, perhaps because it was the first mammal to be domesticated by man.

The document claims that the activity of the large-scale slaughterhouse leads to major earthquakes, an unproven statement that suggests that the pain of mass slaughter can generate enough stress to trigger a seismic reaction.

It is also claimed that native (Indian) cows produce the best milk quality on earth, compared to “exotic cows”.

“The quality is not good at all, but the quantity is higher,” says the Jersey cow. a breed normally associated with high quality creamy milk.

According to the document, native cows are “smart enough not to sit in dirty places” and are also more emotional than Jersey cows. “Whenever an unknown person approaches the cow though (Indian), she will immediately stand up,” the document states.

Propaganda tool?

Photographer and activist Sujatro Ghosh, whose 2017 series of photos of Indian women wearing cow masks went viral on social media, called the exam “another propaganda tool for the Hindu national government.”
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“After the rise of the far-right government in India, the cow became a political animal,” Ghosh said. “The cow is used as a tool to divide people, and the exam is seen as a way to put the cow on a pedestal. These politicians don’t care about cows, they only care about politics.”

During the 2014 national election campaign, Modi made a promise to end a “pink revolution” – an expression he used to describe the slaughter of cattle across the country.

Other BJP MPs have taken a step further.

“I promised to break the hands and feet of those who do not consider their mother’s cows and kill them,” Vikram Saini, a lawmaker for the state of Uttar Pradesh, said at a March 2017 event.

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