LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
COW-KILLING IN INDIA.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR." j SIR,—Your interesting artiele, headed "The New Danger Reported from India," in the Spectator of September 16th, does not mention the fact that the cow-killing in that country which really exasperates the Hindoos and causes riots, is not the ordinary killing in slaughter-houses to meet the demand for beef, but the sacrificial slaughter of the cow in private houses at the annual Mahommedan festival of the Bakhar Eed, in commemoration of the sacrifice of the ram caught in the thicket by the Patriarch Abraham. Though the Hindoos have a religious and sentimental horror of the slaughter of cows, which is strong and real to a degree difficult to be understood by Englishmen, yet in this matter, as in many others, they very readily put up with things they dislike, if the said things are not thrust under their noses. If some show is made of hanging up a " pardah," or curtain, they will ignore what goes on behind, and feel that their honour is not affected. The public slaughter-houses established out- side most Indian towns provide this "pardah," and I do not remember a case in which cow-killing therein has caused a riot. The ease of the sacrificial slaughter is very different. There is nothing in Mahommedan scripture or tradition which requires that a cow should be sacrificed ; on the con- trary, in other Mahommedan countries a goat, sheep, or camel is ordinarily chosen. But vulgar Mahommedans in India seem to have always thought that by selecting a cow as the victim they made the religious merit of the sacrifice greater, because they thereby showed their contempt for the religious prejudices of the idolatrous Hindoo. In former days, however, the Mahommedans rarely cared to risk annoying the Hindoos unnecessarily. Mahommedan governors felt the political importance of humouring the Hindoos in small matters ; and in most places there were no police, and few, if any, troops at hand, and the Mahom- medan population, which was generally in a minority, felt that, if riots began, they would probably not end without much loss of life and property. But under British rule the case is changed ; the Mahommedan knows that, whatever his motive may be, if he is not infringing the law, he will be pro- tected in doing as he pleases by the full strength of our police, backed, if necessary, by troops which are quickly available. He is fond of religious excitement, and not averse to a little not too serious fighting. So he goes in for the sacrifice of cows with a light heart, and often with much unnecessary show and bravado. The cow is brobght into the town and marched through the bazaars adorned with paint and garlands. The blood of the sacrifice is often allowed to run out of the courtyard of the inivate house into the gutters of the public streets. This is, of course, thrusting cow-sacrifice under Hindoo noses, but not to a degree which would be held by a Magistrate to be intentional insult of a punishable kind. It is certain that of late years cows have been selected for the sacrifice in far greater numbers than was the case formerly ; and the main cause of this I believe to be that the vulgar Mahommedans of a bigoted kind are as glad to annoy the "Undoes as ever they were, and also feel that they can do it more safely. There is also another cause, which is, that cows are cheaper relatively to sheep and goats than they used to be; this has no doubt also had some effect. When we annexed the Punjab we found that, as is more or less the case even now in all Hindoo native States, all cow-killing had been pro- hibited under the severest penalties, and that the feeling among Sikhs and Hindoos against any change of the law was exceedingly strong. Lord Dalhousie said he would rather have a third Sikh war than give way on the point; so an edict went forth that outside every town where a demand for beef was put forward by any sec- tion of the community, a public slaughter-house for cattle must be erected, in which, and which alone, all slaughter of cattle should be conducted. This rule has been maintained up to date by a regulation which has legal effect,—it prevents the sacrifice of cows in private houses ; and the result is, that the Punjabi Mahommedans either sacrifice them in the privacy of the external slaughter-house, or, which is com- moner, they select another animal as the victim. It is perhaps a pity that the same rule was not made as we annexed other parts of India. Nominally, we took over the Empire of Hindostan from the Mahommedans ; but as a fact, our most important and hard-won conquests were from Hindoos, such as the Mahrattas, Goorkhas, Rajpoots, and Sikhs. The Mahommedan Empire was effete and a mere name when we began to advance far inland, and all over India the Hindoos had got the upper-hand. If we bad not stepped in, it is very doubtful whether the Mahommedans would have ever regained power ; they would certainly not have done so without the aid of a large Mahommedan in- vasion from beyond the Indus, and the chance which such an invasion would have had of success would have been small. The old invasions succeeded because undisciplined hordes fought against undisciplined hordes of poorer material ; but the Mahrattas and Sikhs had learnt to some extent how to drill and manceuvre troops according to the European military system. The Sikhs conquered and held all the Afghan country outside the mountains. But to return to our cows. It is true, no doubt, that though cow-killing riots up to date have been almost always caused by cow-sacrifice, certain men have for some years past been endeavouring to base upon the same feeling a movement against all killing of cows. A few of these men may be mere pious Hindoos, but the guiding spirits and originators are men whose real motto is " Hindostan for the Hindoos," and who are quite as hostile to British rule as to the Mahommedans. The Reis and Ryot is correct when it says that some of the National Congress party are secretly at the bottom of this movement. There is plenty of evidence to the fact, and these Congress-men often say openly in Congress proceedings and papers that the Hindoos are fools to make so much of a few sacrifices by the Mahommedans, and to ignore the continual slaughter of cows in the public shambles for the supply of beef to British soldiers. My own view is, however, that the Mahommedans have up to the present been as much in fault, and that both parties equally require to be kept in order.—
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