As a cow, life in India is happy.

It is well known that Hindus worship cows and monkeys, which have god-like status.

In the streets, temples, and outskirts of the city, you can see leisurely and carefree "sacred cows" and arrogant and domineering "sacred monkeys" everywhere.

It is common for cows to roam around and block traffic, and monkeys to bully vendors and harass people, but Indians have a very high tolerance for these two fetishes.

To be precise, the "holy cow" revered by Hinduism is the "Indian Zebu", not the buffalo.

In the eyes of believers, every part of the cow's body is filled with gods.

Believers often kneel on the mud in front of cows and pray devoutly; during some festivals, people also kneel in the dust raised by the cattle after they pass by, breathe freely, smear cow dung on their foreheads, and do everything possible to get "

Blessing”.

Cows are inseparable from Indian politics, with a political party's attitude toward cows affecting its vote share among Hindus.

India is a federal system, and the Constitution provides guiding principles for reference by state legislative bodies. Article 48 of it stipulates that dairy livestock should be protected and the slaughter of cows and calves is prohibited.

Since Hindus worship cows and do not eat other milk-producing livestock, India has the largest number of livestock in the world. The number of cows alone currently reaches more than 300 million, ranking first in the world.

Americans love beef, but the number of cattle in the United States is only more than 90 million, ranking fourth in the world.

Many religions have their own dietary taboos. Indians' refusal to eat beef seems to be due to religious beliefs, but there are more unknown stories behind it. A devout Hindu will say: "Cows are not only gods, but also mothers."

Therefore, killing and eating cows is tantamount to matricide, and it must be difficult for outsiders to understand this emotion.

"When your mother gets old, will you send her to the butcher"?

When someone outside criticizes the problems caused by sick and old cows, you will hear them respond like this.

Cows have a very close relationship with an Indian farmer. Their bodies can serve as beasts of burden and farm animals, their excrement can be used as fuel, and milk is a nutritious food. Although the founding father of India, Gandhi, did not even drink milk when he finally became a vegetarian.

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From a life perspective, it is understandable that cows are like "food and clothing parents" to farmers, so many farming people also have the habit of worshiping cows.

However, the contemporary Hindu worship has reached its peak and formed a unique landscape.

Cows have the highest status. Hindu theologians preach that from the reincarnation of a demon to a cow, it has to go through 86 reincarnations, and it can be reincarnated as an adult again. If a person kills a cow, it is equivalent to committing a sin.

You have to go back to the first level and start over.

In 1991, India launched market-oriented reforms and ushered in a wave of religious revival. Fundamentalists used their religious fanaticism to push Niuzou worship to a new peak.

They believe that all the current problems in Indian society can be attributed to the departure from religion and tradition. As long as we adhere to the traditional values ??of Hinduism, all problems can be easily solved.

All Hindu sects recognize the authoritative status of the "Vedas", and the medicine derived from the Vedas is called "Ayurveda". Folk monks and Vedic doctors spare no effort to promote the medical value of cows.

Under their influence, fundamentalist Hindus believe that cow feces and urine have powerful health care and medicinal effects and can cure all diseases.

Some companies have discovered the business opportunities and produced food, health products and medicines related to cow dung and urine. It has become a vibrant industry. Its consumer groups are mainly low-income and low-educated people. The cow dung and urine industry is also in rural areas.

Vast market.

The radical Hindu organization "World Hindu Congress" has established a cow dung and urine drug research and development center to develop various "miraculous drugs" that claim to be able to cure difficult and complicated diseases.

The most popular cow dung and urine health product is made from a mixture of "cow dung, cow urine, milk, ghee, and curd" and is called "Panchagavya".

Religious worship of cows has led to the taboo of abstaining from beef. Radical believers even actively participate in the cow protection movement.

Large-scale riots caused by cow protection can be traced back to the late 19th century, and contemporary violent incidents related to cow protection are endless.

Muslims and Christians in India eat beef and mutton. The "Datli (untouchable)" class left over from the caste system era live at the bottom of the poor and have no taboo on eating beef to obtain protein; but Muslims and Christians certainly cannot be treated as such.

Slaughtering cows in front of Hindus, Daltli could only obtain the carcasses of cows that had died of old age and disease, and dared to dispose of them quietly after dragging them home.

Despite this, violent conflicts resulting from misunderstandings still occur from time to time.

In Ghajjar town near New Delhi, in October 2002, five Daltli men carried a cow carcass purchased from a neighboring village home. They were engaged in traditional tanning industry, which was their legal way of obtaining cow hides.

A group of upper-caste Hindus, believing a rumor that "someone wanted to skin a cow, killed it", surrounded and lynched five Dalit men.

Upon hearing this, the supreme leader of the World Hindu Congress, Kirila Keshur, only said lightly: "According to our Hindu holy scriptures, the life of a cow is very important." It sounded as if the lives of five Dalits were less than one.

Cows are valuable.

In October 2015, a riot broke out in Agra, a city in the northeastern state of Manipur.

After hearing that four people wanted to kill and skin the cows, Hindus gathered and beat them seriously, two of them almost died. Later, the mob gathered more than 500 people to initiate a riot, smashing, looting, and burning to protest the cow slaughter. The government mobilized the military.

The police suppressed him.