Cattle slaughter in India

A controversial phenomenon due to cattle's status as adored and respected beings to adherents of Dharmic religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism.

[2][3][4][5][6] Though it is an acceptable source of meat in Abrahamic religions such as Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, most Indian citizens abstain from consuming beef due to cattle's high regard in Dharmic divinity.

Subsequent heat processing during the bone removal operation is believed to be sufficient to kill viruses causing foot and mouth disease.

[42][43] According to United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization and European Union, India beef consumption per capita per year is the world's lowest amongst the countries it surveyed.

[51] 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.

[59] 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.

[60] 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.

[71] Jains have led a historic campaign to ban the slaughter of cows and all other animals, particularly during their annual festival of Paryushana (also called Daslakshana by the Digambara).

Though historians doubt translation capabilities of Tezkereh-al-Vakiat by a British officer, Major Charles Stewart, there is enough hint that the early Mughal emperors were averse to cow slaughter for beef.

This may be linked to the Bhakti movement that developed before the rise of the Maratha Empire, states Copland, where legends and a theology based on the compassion and love stories of Hindu god Krishna, himself a cowherd, became integral to regional religiosity.

"[116] Cow slaughter was opposed by some prominent leaders of the independence movement such as Mahatma Gandhi, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai, Madan Mohan Malviya, Rajendra Prasad and Purushottam Das Tandon.

[145] In contrast, cow-cherishing, Krishna-worshipping rustic piety, state Susan Bayly and others, has been popular among agriculture-driven, cattle husbandry, farm laboring and merchant castes.

[11] According to Simoons and Lodrick, the reverence for cattle among Hindus, and Indians in general, is more comprehensively understood by considering both the religious dimensions and the daily lives in rural India.

[157] According to Britha Mikkelsen and other scholars, cow dung produced by young and old cattle is the traditional cooking fuel as dung-cakes and fertilizer in India.

[157] The cow is sacred in India, states Harris, not because of superstitious, capricious and ignorant beliefs, but because of real economic imperatives and cattle's role in the Indian tradition of integrated living.

[161] The Supreme Court of India, in February 2017, ordered the state governments to stop the illegal slaughterhouses and set up enforcement committees to monitor the treatment of animals used for meat and leather.

[174] According to a Reuters report, citing IndiaSpend analysis, a total of "44 Indians – 39 of them Muslims – have been killed and 124 injured", between 2010 and June 2018 in cow-related violence.

It reads, "The State shall endeavour to organise agriculture and animal husbandry on modern and scientific lines 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.

Faruk v. State of Madhya Pradesh, the Supreme Court has held that, "A total ban [on cattle slaughter] was not permissible if, under economic conditions, keeping useless bull or bullock be a burden on the society and therefore not in the public interest.

[85] In May 2016, Bombay High Court gave the judgement that consumption or possession of beef is legal under Article 21 of Constitution of India, but upheld the ban on cow slaughter in the state of Maharashtra.

In February 2017, the Court ordered a state governments to stop the illegal slaughterhouses and set up enforcement committees to monitor the treatment of animals used for meat and leather.

[161] The Court has also ruled, according to a Times of India report, that "it was evident from the combined reading of Articles 48 and 51- A(g) of the [Indian] Constitution that citizens must show compassion to the animal kingdom.

The strictest laws are in Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand, where the slaughter of cow and its progeny, including bulls and bullocks of all ages, is completely banned.

Although some members were keen on including the provision in the chapter on Fundamental Rights but, later as a compromise and on the basis of an assurance given by B. R. Ambedkar, the amendment was moved for inclusion as a Directive Principle of State Policy.

[199] Vinoba Bhave went on an indefinite fast from 22 April 1979 demanding that the Governments of West Bengal and Kerala agree to enact legislation banning cow slaughter.

[200] In 1981, the question of amending the Constitution by introducing a Bill was again examined by the Government, but, in view of the sensitive nature of the issue and owing to political compulsions a "wait and watch" policy was adopted.

The legislation seeks to ensure that permission for slaughter is not granted to areas that are predominantly inhabited by Hindu, Jain, Sikh and other non-beef eating communities or places that fall within a 5-km radius of a temple, satra and any other institution as may be prescribed by the authorities.

The move to re-criminalise beef consumption and sale on the grounds of environmental activism in India, was overturned by the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.

Slaughter of bulls, bullocks and adult buffaloes was permitted on obtaining a "fit-for-slaughter" certificate provided cattle is over 12 years of age or is permanently incapacitated for breeding, draught or milk due to injury, deformity or any other cause.

[201] The Act permitted the slaughter of bull or bullock on obtaining a "fit-for-slaughter" certificate provided it was over the age of 15 years or had become permanently unfit for breeding, draught and any agricultural operations.