The Moo-ment You’ve All Been Waiting for…

…because who can resist a cow pun?

As you no doubt know, cows are a sacred animal in Hinduism, symbolic of the divine and of the abundant generosity of nature. As a result, they are “protected” in the sense that they are never slaughtered or eaten — at least by Hindus. Since some 80% of Indians are Hindu, the cow occupies a special position in Indian culture. This translates out in a number of different ways. It means, for example, that it is difficult to purchase beef in any market — I know it is “available” in some areas (i.e. predominantly Muslim areas) but I have never – not once – seen beef in India. McDonald’s exists in India, but Big Macs do not. And since Muslims do not eat pork, pork is also not easily available in India. (And since neither Hindus nor Muslims drink alcohol, alcohol is also not easily available in India — although it is much more available than beef or pork.) So what to get at McDonald’s if not a Big Mac? How about a chicken Maharaja Mac, or a McAloo Tikki (sandwich with a fried potato and peas patty), or a McSpicy Paneer sandwich?

The veneration of cows is most noticeable not from the absence of beef, but from the presence of cows on the roads. I see many (many!) cows each day here and so I’ve had more occasion to think about cows in the past couple of months than I ever have before. In particular, I think about cows on roads.

I always expect the cows to move out of the way of vehicles, which just shows how inexperienced I am. A cow at rest remains at rest; a cow in motion at a constant velocity remains in motion at a constant velocity. The drivers know Newton’s first law and plan accordingly. That is what happened in the scene above (the truck went around) though unfortunately I do not have the “after” picture. Goats, by the way, do not follow Newton’s law and they can be a challenge to drivers — changing direction and speed capriciously, though not in any discernible reaction to the vehicle. Dogs are okay because they are smart enough to get out of the way of on-coming vehicles (usually).

Cows roam around all day. At night they go home. So although they seem like “stray” cows, they do have homes. Their owners let them out early the morning, they forage for food all day (slim pickings, as you can see in the photos above) and then get rounded up at night.

Obviously, some places are better than others for foraging. The cows who live close to campus for example, have a much better “spread” than those who live in my neighborhood. Apparently they are not really supposed to be on campus — the campus security personnel can round them up and put them in a holding pen and only release them to their owners once their owners cough up a couple hundred rupees. I’ve never seen a holding pen much less cows in a holding pen!

The cows are sacred, but also valuable because they provide milk. The cows provide milk, mind you, the bulls do not. So the bulls are mostly useless unless they are needed for plowing or you want more baby cows. But they can’t be killed, so what to do with them? From what I’ve heard, people mostly abandon the bulls — and they are left on their own to just forage for themselves. It is a mitzvah (brings good karma, if I may recklessly mix religious tenets) to feed cows, so people will often put out kitchen scraps and other stuff for them to eat. (I don’t buy “local” — raw — milk. Although it is easily available, you can’t help but wonder what these gals have eaten!)

It seems like it might be dangerous to be wandering around amongst a bunch of cows and bulls, but they all seem pretty docile. A while back I was walking along and a cow was walking toward me. I wondered, “Who has right of way?” Suffice it to say, it was not me.