{"id":12287,"date":"2016-07-20T05:55:43","date_gmt":"2016-07-20T05:55:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/globalpress.hinduismnow.org?p=12284&preview_id=12284"},"modified":"2016-07-20T05:55:43","modified_gmt":"2016-07-20T05:55:43","slug":"counterview-hinduism-has-well-establshed-traditional-system-of-disposing-of-dead-cows-says-vhp-invites-dalit-ire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/?p=12287","title":{"rendered":"COUNTERVIEW: Hinduism has “well-establshed, traditional system” of disposing of dead cows, says VHP, invites Dalit ire"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Sangh Parivar \u201ccultural\u201d arm, may have triggered a major controversy by declaring that the \u201cHindu religion has a well-established system of disposing of cows and other animals who die a natural death\u201d, and this has been a part of the Hindu “tradition.\u201d<\/div>\n
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<\/a>Issued by the VHP’s Gujarat unit general secretary Ranchhodbhai Bharwad on July 19, the statement has been made in order to \u201ccondemn\u201d the Una incident, in which four Dalit youths were tied to an SUV and beaten up with iron rods for seeking to skin a dead cow.
\nSaying that one cannot equate what the Dalit youths were doing in Una with cow slaughter, it adds, \u201cWe condemn in strongest possible terms efforts atrocity committed by by certain elements in this context.\u201d
\nIn an immediate reaction, Rajesh Solanki, a senior activist with the Ahmedabad-based Dalit Hak Rakshak Manch (DHRM) has called the statement \u201chighly objectionable\u201d, insisting, \u201cThis atrocity of disposing of dead animals was imposed on Dalits by Manu’s caste system.\u201d
\nAddressing the VHP leader’s statement, he insists, \u201cWhatever you do, you will now have to take care of the last rites of the mother cow\u201d, referring to the Dalits’ massive protest by refusing to dispose of carcasses of cow as part of the protest against the July 11 Una incident.
\nThe VHP statement comes, ostensibly, ignoring huge amount of literature already available on how disposing of cow and other animals is part of the caste occupation of a section of Dalits by heredity associated with the job of tannery.
\nDalits in the job of this work are quoted as saying that that \u201cthe holy cow is alive, it is divine\u201d, but \u201cthe moment that animal dies, it ceases to be sacred.\u201d Arun Kumar, a sweeper in a notified area in Odisha is quoted<\/a> as telling well-known scribe P Sainath: \u201cThose who worshipped it while it was alive will not touch it. They are desperate to get rid of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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VHP statement<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Another Dalit, Bijoy Sindhur, says he \u201csurvives\u201d on the disposal work. “I have been doing this utava kaam – lifting of carcasses – since I was a child helping my parents. And on my own for nearly 10 years. The last cow I lifted was a few weeks ago.”
\nWell-known Dalit write Kancha Ilaiah says, \u201cThe Dalits have had to pay an enormous price \u2014 of remaining untouchables \u2014 for removing carcasses from villages and towns for thousands of years. They had to pay the price of remaining illiterate and insecure for building up the leather economy of India.\u201d
\nIlaiah quotes Dr BR Ambedkar, father of Indian constitution, as saying that in ancient India the Dalits could not imitate the savarnas in giving up beef-eating, because they “could not afford it\u201d, adding, \u201cThe flesh of the dead cow was their principal sustenance. Without it they would starve.\u201d
\nDr Ambedkar further says, \u201cCarrying the dead cow had become an obligation though originally it was a privilege. As they could not escape carrying the dead cow they did not mind using the flesh as food in the manner in which they were doing previously”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Sangh Parivar \u201ccultural\u201d arm, may have triggered a major controversy by declaring that the \u201cHindu religion has a well-established system of disposing of cows and other animals who die a natural death\u201d, and this has been a part of the Hindu “tradition.\u201d Issued by the VHP’s Gujarat unit general secretary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12287"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12287\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}