Cow as Rajyamata: Savarkar as non-Vegetarian

Prof. Ram Puniyani :

Cow has been playing an important emotive issue in Indian politics for the last three decades or so. Cow is propagated as a Holy animal. She has the status of mother for many and Hindu Nationalist politics has used this to the hilt in polarizing our society. Hindutva ideologue, Savarkar brought to fore the term Hindutva as ‘whole of Hinduness’ and not just Hindu religion. This was the premise on which RSS formulated its politics and the goal of Hindu nation, which it has been pursuing relentlessly from the last close to a century. Last three decades have been very beneficial for the RSS politics as the emotive issues raised by this organization are dominating the political scenario in the country.

This came to the fore yet again recently (October 2024). On one hand the ruling coalition of Maharashtra led by BJP; declared Cow (only indigenous breed, called as Desi Gay in popular parlance) Rajyamata-Gomata (state mother- Cow mother). This surely has been done with an eye on forthcoming Maharashtra election. In Maharashtra as per popular perception BJP seems to be having not a very strong chance. In recently held Parliament elections it fared badly and since then it has resorted to such antics, which are polarizing to the core.

As a matter of chance around the same time one Karnataka Minister made a statement that Savarkar, the  father of Hindu nationalist ideology; was not against cow slaughter and did not regard Cow as sacred but a very useful animal, “At an event in Bengaluru organized to mark Gandhi Jayanti, Dinesh Gundu Rao claimed that Savarkar was not only a meat-eater, who consumed beef, but also propagated the practice publicly.”

The Congress minister, Dinesh Gundu Rao said that Savarkar, despite being a Brahmin, did not adhere to traditional dietary restrictions and was a modernist, “Savarkar was a Brahmin, but he ate beef and was a non-vegetarian. He did not oppose cow slaughter; in fact, he was quite a modernist on that topic." That Savarkar ate meat is well known. In one of the famous visits of Gandhi to Savarkar in London, when he was raising support for his work in South Africa, he visited Savarkar. Savarkar was preparing his dinner.  He was frying prawns, and offered them to Gandhi who declined as he was a strict vegetarian.

Savarkar also stated that Cow should not be worshipped. Author Vaibhav Purandare stated that, “Savarkar held the view that the cow is only a bullock’s mother, and while there is no record of him eating it, he was not averse to eating beef,” the writer of ‘Savarkar: The True Story of The Father of Hindutva’,… at the Bangalore Literature Festival. Purandare said that Savarkar’s position was rather complicated on the issue of cow protection as he was of the opinion that if one deliberately killed cows to spite Hindus then it was a problem…However, he believed that if it was just for the sake of eating because you like it, then it is okay,” added the writer.

As far as Cow and holiness is concerned a lot has been written about the sacrifice of cows during Vedic period. Swami Vivekananda in his various writings points out that Cow was sacrificed in the Holy rituals and eating it was not taboo. “You will be astonished if I tell you that, according to old ceremonials, he is not a good Hindu who does not eat beef. On certain occasions he must sacrifice a bull and eat it.”
[Vivekananda speaking at the Shakespeare Club, Pasadena, California, USA (2 February 1900) on the theme of ‘Buddhistic India’, cited in Swami Vivekananda, The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Vol. 3 (Calcutta: Advaita Ashram, 1997), p. 536.]

It is also to be noted that, “…it is corroborated by other research works sponsored by the Ramakrishna Mission established by Swami Vivekananda himself. One of these reads: “The Vedic Aryans, including the Brahmans, ate fish, meat and even beef. A distinguished guest was honored with beef served at a meal. Although the Vedic Aryans ate beef, milch cows were not killed. One of the words that designated cow was aghnya (what shall not be killed). But a guest was a goghna (one for whom a cow is killed). It is only bulls, barren cows and calves that were killed.”[C. Kunhan Raja, ‘Vedic Culture’, cited in the series, Suniti Kumar Chatterji and others (eds.), The Cultural Heritage of India, Vol 1 (Calcutta: The Ramakrishna Mission, 1993), 217.]

Ambedkar’s studies also point in a similar direction, the historian of Ancient India Professor D. N. Jha, based on his scholarly work, Myth of Holy Cow points out that there are verses like Atho Annam via Gau (Cow is veritably food). It was the struggle between Buddhism and Brahmanism that Cow was later given the status of Mother, Holy etc. This was part of the resurgence of Brahminism and attack on Buddhism in India whereby Buddhism was wiped out from India. Later during the freedom movement as the Muslim and Hindu communal politics surged; the pig and cow were used by these political tendencies to strengthen themselves. Throwing pork in the mosque or beef in the temple was used to instigate communal violence which strengthened these divisive tendencies. Lately throwing beef in temples deliberately to provoke violence has also come to the fore.

As the Cow slaughter ban has been brought to surface and starting from Akhlaq to Junaid to Rakbar Khan have been done to death on this issue, the fright among Muslim community is peaking. The phenomenon has been tormenting the minority community. Harsh Mander the well-known humanist has floated Caravan- a- Mohabbat to sooth the families of victims of lynching.  It is only Muslims who are targeted, the other beef eaters in North Eastern states (Kiran Rijiju conceded he eats beef), Kerala and Goa have been spared.

The Maharashtra Government has very cleverly called only ‘indigenous Cows’ as Rajyamata, and not the other cows. India is gradually peaking in beef export. Interestingly in author Vijay Trivedi’s Book on Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Haar nahin Manunga, tells us that once when Vajpayee was eating beef in America (page 236) he was reminded about this by his table partner. Vajpayee smiled it away saying that any way it is not Indian Cow, so where is the problem?