The birth of India as a nation may have taken place in 1947, but the birth of India as a society took place ages ago.Hinduism in fact is the only religion that has no founder unlike the other religions in the world And fact of the matter is that Hindus worship the cow as their mother and while they may not care for the welfare of the cow, they have never stooped down to the level of enjoying its meat as a delicacy.
But in the new age of ‘You tube’, ‘Facebook’ etc where winds of change are billowing across our nation which has an extremely young population, there has been a clash of old versus the new and beef is now the integral part of the discourse. “Who is the State to tell me what I should eat and what I should not? Who is the State to tell me that I can’t kiss in public? Who is the State to tell me what I can write and what I should not, even if it is offensive to certain sections of the population? Who is the State?” are some of the questions being bandied about regularly in the media now.
Lord Acton said that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. By extension, we can say that absolute freedom also corrupts absolutely. The foundation of society is moral values based on religion and not the constitution which itself is derived from religion. Society will collapse with the decay in morals and the same cannot be encouraged in the name of freedom of choice.
Which Indian in his/her right mind will support a young couple publicly kissing and then justifying it in the name of freedom? What will it lead to next? Public sex or incest in the name of freedom? Where does the buck stop? But restricting the scope of our article to the consumption of beef, do Hindus eat beef? Many people are celebrating their right to beef consumption by organizing ‘beef festivals’ and then saying that many Hindus eat beef, especially in Kerala.
No Hindu eats beef! A beef-eater cannot be termed a Hindu. Period! Some things are not just up for debate. What is a democracy? Will of the majority! Out of 100 people, there are 80 Hindus out of which 20 pseudo-Hindus eat beef. That leaves 60 Hindus who still respect the cow and are pained at beef becoming an item of delicacy in this land of sanatana dharma.
In deference to their wishes, in keeping with the spirit of democracy, can’t beef be banned? At the same time, people who resort to violence over this issue should be dealt with sternly for the life of each and every Indian is precious irrespective of the community which he belongs to. Would a Mussalman cease to be a Mussalman or a Christian lose his religious identity if they stop consuming beef? For them, it’s just a delicacy, but for millions of Hindus, it is an emotive issue. And the issue has to be decided on that basis.