The slaughter and consumption of cattle in India is controversial due to the revered status of bovines among adherents of Dharmic religions like Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.R Ganguli (1931), Cattle and Cattle-rearing in Ancient India, Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Vol. 12, No. 3 (1931), pp. 216–230How Brahmins Lived by the Dharma, Early Buddhist texts, translations, and parallels, Sutta Central
Though it is an acceptable source of meat in Abrahamic religions such as Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, many Hindus abstain from consuming beef due to cattle's high regard in Dharmic divinity.[a] ; [b] The association reflects the importance of cattle in Hindu and Jain culture and spirituality, as cattle have been an integral part of rural livelihoods as an economic necessity across Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist societies, along with council-hoods in India.; Cattle slaughter has also been opposed by various Indian religions because of the ethical principle of Ahimsa (non-violence) and the belief in the unity of all life.Marvin Harris (1990), India's sacred cow , Anthropology: contemporary perspectives, 6th edition, Editors: Phillip Whitten & David Hunter, Scott Foresman, , page 201, Quote: "First, the ban on cattle slaughter is part of the general doctrine of ahimsa, causing no hurt to living beings. It is not only cattle that are protected by ahimsa, but other animals as well." Legislation against cattle slaughter is in place throughout most states and union territories of India.
On 26 October 2005, the Supreme Court of India, in a landmark decision, upheld the constitutional validity of anti-cattle slaughter laws enacted by various state governments of India.
20 out of 28 states in India had various laws regulating the act of slaughtering cattle, prohibiting the slaughter or sale of beef. The states of Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Kerala, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and West Bengal, and the union territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu and Puducherry have no restrictions on cattle slaughter. The ban in the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh was lifted in 2019. Meat on the bone, carcasses and half carcasses of buffalo are prohibited and are not permitted to be exported. Only the boneless meats of buffalo, goat, sheep and birds are permitted to be exported.
The laws governing cattle slaughter in India vary greatly from state to state. The "Preservation, protection and improvement of stock and prevention of animal diseases, veterinary training and practice" is Entry 15 of the State List of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India, meaning that state legislatures have exclusive powers to legislate the prevention of slaughter and preservation of cattle. Some states permit the slaughter of cattle with restrictions like a "fit-for-slaughter" certificate which may be issued depending on factors like age and sex of cattle, continued economic viability etc. Other states ban cattle slaughter outright, while the remainder have no restrictions., Quote: "... and shall, in particular, take steps for preserving and improving the breeds, and prohibiting the slaughter of cows and calves and other milch and draught cattle." On 26 May 2017, the federal Ministry of Environment imposed a ban on the sale and purchase of cattle for slaughter at animal markets across India, under Prevention of Cruelty to Animals statutes, although the Supreme Court of India suspended the ban on the sale of cattle in July 2017, giving relief to beef and leather industries.
According to a 2016 United States Department of Agriculture review, India has rapidly grown to become the world's largest beef exporter, accounting for 20% of the world's beef trade based on its large water buffalo meat processing industry. Surveys of cattle slaughter operations in India have reported hygiene and ethics concerns. According to the United Nations's Food and Agriculture Organization and the European Union, beef consumption per capita per year in India is the world's lowest amongst the countries it surveyed.Meat consumption, EU OECD (2016) India produced 3.643 million metric tons of beef in 2012, of which 1.963 million metric tons was consumed domestically and 1.680 million metric tons was exported. In 2012, India ranked fifth in the world in beef production and seventh in domestic consumption.
History
Antiquity Archaeological evidence for cattle slaughter from Bronze and Iron Age India are abundant. These periods yielded butchered and cooked bones of the Indian humped cattle (Bos indicus) from several excavations, including that of the Harappan civilisation, suggesting ritual or dietary use of beef. These include finds from Surkotada, Bhagwanpura, Tarkhenwala-Dera, Lothal, Kalibangan, Rakhigarhi, Kanmer, Malwan, Nagda.
Indian religions The majority of scholars explain the veneration for cattle among Hindus in economic terms, which includes the importance of dairy in the diet, use of cow dung as fuel and fertilizer, and the importance that cattle have historically played in agriculture.Animals and Society: An Introduction to Human-animal Studies, Margo DeMello, p.314, Columbia University Press, 2012 Ancient texts such as Rig Veda and puranas highlight the importance of cattle. The scope, extent and status of cows throughout during ancient India is a subject of debate. According to D. N. Jha's 2009 work The Myth of the Holy Cow, for example, cows and other cattle were neither inviolable nor revered in the ancient times as they were later.Jha, Dwijendra Narayan. The Myth of the Holy Cow. London/New York: Verso 2002 Grihya-sutra recommends that beef be eaten by the mourners, after a funeral ceremony, as a ritual rite of passage. According to Marvin Harris, the Vedic literature is contradictory, with some suggesting ritual slaughter and meat consumption, while others suggesting a taboo on meat eating.
The protection of animal life was championed by Jainism, on the grounds that violence against life forms is a source of suffering in the universe and a human being creates bad karma by violence against any living being. The Chandogya Upanishad mentions the ethical value of Ahimsa, or non-violence towards all beings.Tähtinen, Unto (1976), Ahimsa. Non-Violence in Indian Tradition, London: Rider, , pp. 1–6, 107–109. By the mid 1st millennium BCE, all three major Indian religions – Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism – were championing non-violence as an ethical value, and something that affected one's rebirth. According to Harris, by about 200 CE, food and feasting on animal slaughter were widely considered as a form of violence against life forms, and became a religious and social taboo.Marvin Harris (1990), India's sacred cow , Anthropology: contemporary perspectives, 6th edition, Editors: Phillip Whitten & David Hunter, Scott Foresman, , pages 201–204 Ralph Fitch, a gentleman merchant of London and one of the earliest English travellers to India, wrote a letter home in 1580 stating, "They have a very strange order among them – they worship a cow and esteem much of the cow's dung to paint the walls of their houses. They eat no flesh but live by roots and rice and milk."
Cattle have been a symbol of wealth in India since ancient times.
Hinduism
According to Nanditha Krishna, the veneration of cattle in ancient India during the Vedic era, the religious texts written during this period called for non-violence towards all bipeds and quadrupeds, and often equated killing of cattle with the killing of a human being, specifically a Brahmin. Nanditha Krishna stated that the hymn 8.3.25 of the Hindu scripture Atharvaveda (≈1200–1500 BCE) condemns all killings of men, cattle, and horses, and prays to god Agni to punish those who kill.ऋग्वेद: सूक्तं १०.८७, Wikisource, Quote: "यः पौरुषेयेण क्रविषा समङ्क्ते यो अश्व्येन पशुना यातुधानः। यो अघ्न्याया भरति क्षीरमग्ने तेषां शीर्षाणि हरसापि वृश्च॥१६॥"
According to Harris, the literature relating to cow veneration became common in 1st millennium CE, and by about 1000 CE vegetarianism, along with a taboo against beef, became a well accepted mainstream Hindu tradition. This practice was inspired by the belief in Hinduism that a soul is present in all living beings, life in all its forms is interconnected, and non-violence towards all creatures is the highest ethical value. Vegetarianism is a part of the Hindu culture. God Krishna, one of the incarnations (Avatar) of Vishnu, is associated with cows, adding to its endearment.
Study shows ancient Hindus ate meat-heavy food. Many ancient and medieval Hindu texts debate the rationale for a voluntary stop to cow slaughter and the pursuit of vegetarianism as a part of a general abstention from violence against others and all killing of animals. Some significant debates between pro-non-vegetarianism and pro-vegetarianism, with mention of cattle meat as food, is found in several books of the Hindu epic, the Mahabharata, particularly its Book III, XII, XIII and XIV. It is also found in the Ramayana. These two epics are not only literary classics, but they have also been popular religious classics.
The Mahabharata debate presents one meat-producing hunter who defends his profession as dharmic. The hunter, in this ancient Sanskrit text, states that meat consumption should be okay because animal sacrifice was practiced in the Vedic age, that the flesh nourishes people, that man must eat to live and plants like animals are alive too, that the nature of life is such every life form eats the other, that no profession is totally non-violent because even agriculture destroys numerous living beings when the plough digs the land. The hunter's arguments are, states Alsdorf, followed by stanzas that present support for restricted meat-eating on specific occasions.
The pro-vegetarianism sections of these Hindu texts counter these views. One section acknowledges that the Vedas do mention sacrifice, but not killing the animal. The proponents of vegetarianism state that Vedic teachings explicitly teach against killing, its verses can be interpreted in many ways, that the correct interpretation is of the sacrifice as the interiorized spiritual sacrifice, one where it is an "offering of truth (satya) and self-restraint (damah)", with the proper sacrifice being one "with reverence as the sacrificial meal and Veda study as the herbal juices".Paul Deussen (1921), Mahabharata XII, pages 471-473, 423-437, 764-765, 791-792 (in German) The sections that appeal for vegetarianism, including abstention from cow slaughter, state that life forms exist in different levels of development, some life forms have more developed sensory organs, that non-violence towards fellow man and animals who experience pain and suffering is an appropriate ethical value. It states that one's guiding principle should be conscientious atmaupamya (literally, "to-respect-others-as-oneself").