It is said that we human beings connect instantly with a revolutionary. We love a rebel - a brave entity taking a stand against a mighty unjust institution - the stuff what many movies are made of and we lap it up with aplomb and joy be it a Christian Bale as Dark Knight or Akshay Kumar as Gabbar. In short, we love our vigilantes and we love them from the bottom of our hearts because somewhere in a parallel universe, it is us who we see as reflections - a small timid boy who can't stand up against his bullies in school or a hapless servant who can't stop bearing the insult of his unruly masters because she has four kids to feed or an everyday young professional who can't quit on a job that sucks the very life out of him because he has a dream to build and bills to pay - all this oppression and injustice is what makes us worship our heroes who stand up against the 'capitalist glutton'. Funnily, rules change somewhere in between in an effective display of cognitive dissonance as the topic shifts to Gauraksha and a chance to sabotage a nationalistic government's work presents itself in an 'Intolerance Returns' screening when a car registered seven hundred kilometers away travels to the a constituency considered a stronghold of the breeder of the famed Lutyens ecosystem just to beat up few people!
Going back a bit - being an agrarian community, Bhaarat has a lot to thank to its cattle citizens. Cattle has been our life source and hence the economic utility which logically leads to a need to protect and cultivate cattle, thus 'Gauraksha' - the breeding, protection and economic harvesting of cattle to meet a family's needs like a mother cares for her children - Gaumaata. Given this importance, a strong reasoning was must for the masses to believe and no reason as great as religion tends to imbibe the value of obedience resulting into cows being elevated to the 'God-like' status. We can connect with this thought by exploring a few examples on how non-vegetarian food is discouraged during the month of Shravan with the underpinning reason being it the mating season for animals or how a simple habit of bending over to touch the feet of elders or God is in essence a continuous lesson in humility and fantastic ritual for a good spine or the reverence to Tulsi which actually acts as a vital component of our immune system. In a culture that accepts manifestation of the divine energy in every form, how can cows not be Gods? The happy story though started to wane as global demand for cattle meat rose creating inroads even in a nation whose culture reveres animals and believes in 'Satwik Aahar' bereft of the 'Tamasic' effects that meat brings along. Naturally as the truth of the Sun above and the Earth below is the truth of the fundamental establishment in Economics - Supply and Demand. A widening gap lead to a better prospective payout and we has a nation started sinking lower and lower to gratify our desires for meat and money at the expense of other sentient beings - painfully captured in two videos - Kerala Cattle Smuggling Documentary and Supply across the borders. Truly so, free choice is not so free if it infringes on the free choice of others.
Now I am not a religious man, I am a strong proponent of free market economics, a firm believer against the 'Culture of Bans' and an avid student of Chanakya's Arthashastra. While humans might be the priority, Chanakya has not overlooked the place of cattle in a Kingdom. He has also stressed it as a duty of the King to be a caretaker of the cattle citizens as well even though one can argue that the final objective was the kingdom's prosperity. A very important observation here is that it is also a part and parcel of the state's duties/responsibilities to ensure 'Gauraksha'. When the state fails, vigilantes arise; when the state goes hand in glove, desperation reaches new levels. It is the perverse ignorance of the King's Duty as a Gaurakshak by a political establishment dominated by the I(A)NC since freedom in a continuation of legacy of sorts of Islamic appeasement initiated by M.K.Gandhi during the Khilafat movement that has pushed for the need of vigilantism
Every cause has free loaders who benefit from the flowing water leaving the troubles to be taken up by the sincere labourers but does that render the very cause hollow? We have had scores of Jaichands in the past and now as well in the form of foreign funded NGOs pumping money or local traitors in the form of I(A)NC/Naxalite Left leaning cabal waging war to dismember the threads that continue to hold this culture together - its Vedic teachings, its Hindu traditions and its Divinity - Dharma! Yet, the cause for Vishwa Guru Bhaarat is intact and much stronger than it has ever been since 1947. Thugs in the guise of Gaurakshaks are undeniably a cause of concern, but does that take away the great work done by Gaurakshak Seva Kendra, Samitis and other bodies just because we believe that cutting up cows is fine but ill treating dogs is not? How can kittens be cute but chickens or goats worthy for torturous slaughter? This blog is not about animal rights though that is one topic I can go to war for but this blog is about the dichotomy of the human mind and the collective failure of our intellectual reasoning - Viveka! Paul Bloom on his talks on morality calls it a flawed concept for this very reason because our concepts on cruelty, ethics and parity are corrupted with our perceptions - our affection towards a dirty pig and a cuddly puppy can be poles apart but how can that be extrapolated to an acceptable cruel death for one and a warm bed for other? To a young metro generation which has been weaned away from our roots through common adulteration of booze, money, luxury, drugs and discos, Gauraksha indeed becomes a retrograde cause where the tale of Chola King Manu Needhi Cholan killing his own son to deliver justice to a cow of his kingdom holds no traction. There is one question though that I present:
If you support a Batman in his fight against the power echelons of a corrupt Gotham or a Che Guevara proudly displayed on Tees for his Cuban revolution or a Bhagat Singh in his fight for Indian Independence or a Gabbar whose wife fell victim to the nexus of shady malpractices in construction and/or healthcare, why can't you support a Gaurakshak for scrapping and clawing to protect one of the many threads being torn apart from the fabric of Hindustaan?
Jai Hind!
1 comment:
You said it right.
We can and need to get tough with the goons posing as GAURAKSHAKS, but as a civilized society and nation we do need to protect all cattle from a life of misery and painful slaughter. It would have been great if the govt. of the land took it as their duty to protect the cattle citizen of the nation, ......... indeed then no Gaurakhaks would be needed, but till then we must hail all the Gaurakshaks who work within the legal framework to stop cruelty in breeding transport and slaughter of any and all animals.
Can we think of slaughter only for domestic consumption. Forceful Induced breeding and the excessive slaughter will stop?
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