RSS’s new approach for cow protection: A handbook telling Malayalis why not to eat beef

May be it was the beef festivals that did it.

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Kerala, where people have been protesting with beef festivals every time there is a lynching over the question of beef, and where a large number of people spoke out against the union government’s notification on cattle slaughter rules, is the home of a new drive: This time, it’s the RSS that’s on campaign mode, unsurprisingly, for cow protection.

A handbook titled ‘Madangam Gramathilekk, Gowilekku, Krishiyilekku, Prakrithiyilekku’ (Let’s return to the village, the cow, farming and nature) has been brought out by RSS Kerala for sensitising people on the need of protecting cows.

The book insinuates that beef eating makes people fall sick, claiming that the only people who have benefited from beef festivals are drug manufacturing companies.

“The turn-over of the drug manufacturing companies in the country in 1948 was Rs 12 crore. It rose to Rs 300 crore in 1971 and in 1990-91 the price of drugs sold across the country was to the tune of Rs 4300 crore,” the book says.

“Kerala, which is the land of people who eat beef the most in Bharatham, has now become patients’ own land. Hospitals have flourished like mushrooms and are still houseful,” it says.

What more it even goes to the conclusion that the greed for beef is the cause for the ‘distress that we are going through now.’

“Apart from sensitising on beef eating, it is an attempt to make one aware about cow protection. It is not that we oppose eating of beef, but there are certain issues one should be aware about it,” an RSS source told TNM.

So what exactly are these issues? Here are just some of the issues that the book raises:

1. Red meat causes colorectal cancer: As per American Institute for Cancer Research, the book says, the use of red meat increases the chance of contracting bowel cancer.

2. The fat in the meat may cause plaques in the blood vessels to heart and hence to hemorrhage and to stroke.

3. Beef eating also increases the chance for type 2 diabetes.

It also goes into ‘cultural’ reasons for not eating beef. “As per the report of the National Commission appointed by the union government in 2002, beef is not the cultural food of Islam considering the fact that beef is not available in plenty in Saudi Arabia. There is legislation in England against selecting butcher as people’s representatives,” the book goes on to add.

Then how did beef eating become a habit in India? Well, when in doubt, blame the British. “British East India Company brought a new education system to India and taught us that Aryans used to eat beef. Before 1760 there was no slaughter house in India. Before this period, drinking, prostitution and killing of cows were considered as sins in India,” the book claims.

With quotes by Swami Vivekananda, Amritanandamayi, and even the life experiences of Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro, the book stresses on the need to protect cows, and on their importance in human lives.