Beef Festival in Hyderabad University Campus

Recently University of Hyderabad saw some deadly clashes over a 'beef eating' feast. Students clashed and fought against each other.  Those who conducted the 'festival' claimed that eating beef was part of Dalit culture and hence attempt to suppress it was anti-democratic and anti-Dalit. Soon the media and the 'progressive' elements joined the chorus on expected lines. Eating beef is our cultural right they said. In a Pavlovian reaction Marxist historian D.N.Jha's book that claims that Vedic Brahmins sacrificed and ate cow, was dusted out and got quoted like a scripture by 'intellectual' debaters. Another attempt has been made at different levels to condition Dalit culture with beef eating. 

This raises a lot of issues. Beyond the political rhetoric is it true that beef eating is part of Dalit culture? Many 'scholars' at once bounce upon Dr.Ambedkar's book 'The Untouchables' in which he states that the resurgent Brahminism used beef eating as a tool to suppress Dalits who were actually those who refused to  reconvert to Brahminism.  Debatable as they are, Dr.Ambedkar's theory nevertheless rejects the racial origins of untouchability propounded by Dravidianists and Marxists. For example, Dr.Ambedkar says: “If the Brahmins are Aryans, the Untouchables are also Aryans. If the Brahmins are Dravidians the Untouchables are also Dravidians. If the Brahmins are Nagas, the Untouchables are also Nagas. “  With regard to ban on cow slaughter Dr. Ambedkar states that Buddhists were the first to campaign against cow slaughter: “The Buddhists rejected ... animal sacrifice, particularly of the cow. The objection to the sacrifice of the cow had taken a strong hold of the minds of the masses as they were an agricultural population and the cow was a very useful animal.” He further notes that ban on cow-slaughter by Gupta kings, in itself is not the cause for untouchability. Further he associates refusal of Dalits to taking the carrion for meat as a symbol of social reform and rebellion against caste system. So associating of Dalit culture with meat eating as its core feature is against the vision of Dr. Ambedkar. 

Dr. Ambedkar also recognized the civilizational rationale of cow veneration by Hindus. In his PhD thesis he stated: “The Hindoo devotion to the Cow has been an enigma to most of the foreigners and above all has been an efficient lore in the hands of those half-baked theological failures who go to India to conduct their missionary propaganda for blackmailing the Hindoo. The origin of cow worship is as much economic as that Roman practice of not offering wine to the Gods from unpruned vines. The cow and for that matter all draft animals, is the soul of the farmers. The cow gives birth to oxen which are absolutely necessary to the cultivation of the farm. If we kill the cow for meat, we jeopardize our agricultural prosperity. With full foresight, the ancient Hindoos tabooed cow-flesh and thus prevented cow killing.”

In resonance with this rational basis of Hindu cow veneration,  Dr. Ambedkar made cow protection part of the Directive Principles of Indian constitution. The Directive Principle -Article 48 of the constitution says: "The State shall endeavor to organise agriculture and animal husbandry on modern and scientific lines and in particular take steps for preserving and improving the breeds and prohibiting the slaughter of cows and other milch and draught cattle. In 1971, Justice Gajendragadkar, who was a Supreme Court Judge, stated regarding this directive principle thus: "The truth of the matter is that in providing for a ban on the slaughter of cows and calves, and other milch and draught cattle in the last part of Article 48, the Constitution, in effect, treated the Hindu sentiments as both relevant and valid in laying down the directive principle."   It is interesting to note that Dr.Ambedkar made cow protection part of the scientific obligation of Indian nation rather than a religious edict to be followed. The same approach has been used by Marxist cultural anthropologist Marvin Harris when he explored the rationale for cow veneration by Hindus. Seen in this context, what happened at Hyderabad University campus, instigating students to violent clashes by peddling beef eating as a core Dalit cultural element, is nothing but sheer hate propaganda and dissemination of negative stereotype community relationships.  Cow veneration based on rational scientific secular considerations is part of Modern India as envisioned by its architects including Baba Saheb Ambedkar. This is a shared legacy that belongs to Dalits and other Hindus. 

Aravindan Neelakandan

YB-ET

Youth Icon : Yuva Bharati Editorial : May 2012

Youth Icon : Yuva Bharati Editorial : April 2012

Throughout modern history youths have needed an icon. Once there were the Beetles; then there was John Lennon. For those youngsters who love martial arts there was Bruce Lee followed by Jackie Chan. 

Now in the visible youth culture of today who is the youth icon? The honest answer is Che Guevara. 

The cigar smoking good looking South American Marxist today looks at us from every T-shirt and stares from beyond his grave through facebook walls. Cult of Che Guevara is marketed in the every conceivable consumer item that a youth may use. And he has been a grand success. 

What makes Che a youth icon?      

He is perceived by a vast majority of youths as a rebel who fought for a just world and gave his everything for that cause. For a youth who wears Che in his T-shirt, it’s a proclamation that he is a co-rebel in that cause. Forget that the youth in question may actually toil in the call center for US of A consumers. Forget that the youth in question may drink Coca Cola and burp fried chickens with Kentucky labels. Still with Che’s stern eyes looking out of his clothing, he can consider himself a rebellious quintessential angry youth. It’s the easy way out to be a rebel and at the same time lead a life confirming to all consumerist tendencies.

But the problem is not just a superficial statement of being a pseudo-rebel. Che is also a Trojan. Because in adoring Che, unknowingly certain thoughts get internalized and enter the general youth psyche like the worm malware tunneling into the computer. The youths begin to venerate the ideology that created Che and the violence that is inherent in it. In fact one important aspect of Che’s life philosophy has been violence – cold blooded calculated violence. In the ‘Message’ he sent his comrades he wanted them to develop “hatred as an element of struggle”. He elaborated this further:  “unbending hatred for the enemy, which pushes a human being beyond his natural limitations, making him into an effective, violent, selective, and cold-blooded killing machine.” The supreme irony is that the youth who wears Che on his clothing thinks that he is wearing an icon of universal love and making a statement of universal compassion! 

And slowly the poison enters his system: the poison of hatred for the ideological enemy – the demonizing and dehumanizing of the other. Che made diary entries when he was leading his ‘revolutionary’ life. They reveal a pathological killer in love with murder. For example, in January 1957, Guevara had a problem. Che developed doubts about one of his comrades Eutimio Guerra – that Guerra might be a spy. In his own words let us hear how he solved the problem: “I ended the problem with a .32 caliber pistol, in the right side of his brain.... His belongings were now mine.”  The pattern is repeated in diary entries – Che’s solution seems to be simple: when in doubt kill. 

Even Che’s martyrdom was a constructed myth. Far from being a socialist martyr fell by the  despicable capitalist and imperialist forces, information about Che’s movements in Bolivia which were passed on to the army, seemed to have originated from Cuba and reached CIA through Soviet hands. The ultimate betrayal of Che happened through his own personal weakness which was used by KGB to shadow him. And even in the end when he had actually an opportunity to become a martyr fighting the army, Che came out and surrendered to the authorities. He came out of his hiding with hands raised, pleading to spare his life as he was ‘more valuable to them alive than dead’.

The peak of paradox is that the very capitalist forces which Che despised so completely were the ones who had converted his face into a youth icon. Marketing Che as the face of the rebel youth started in 1997 – coinciding with the spread of globalization. Copyrights to Che merchandise generated income for capitalists in the American continent. Che is the globalized face of Euro-centric Marxism – essentially a colonial statement rather than a genuine statement of revolution or love for all humanity. In short Che is the Coca cola of revolutionaries.

Nevertheless youths do need an icon. They need an icon, who can enthuse the consumed youths of this consumerist age, with ideals to live and grow by. The world needs an icon who can charge the youth to become harbingers of true reform not in little bits and pieces but “root-and-branch reform”. 

We need an icon to galvanize the international youth into action by appealing to their innermost being and their most profound love. We need a personality who can assure the youth of today with conviction that Love and not brutal violence that shall bring the final victory. We need as our icon someone who will ask us straightly at our face, “Do you love your fellow men? Where should you go to seek for God -- are not all the poor, the miserable, the weak, Gods? Why not worship them first? Why go to dig a well on the shores of the Ganga? Believe in the omnipotent power of love. Who cares for these tinsel puffs of name?”  We need a youth icon who can assure us that if we have love we are omnipotent; if we are perfectly unselfish then we are irresistible. 

There is such a youth icon in Indian history already. With face radiant and with eyes that rival sun itself in brilliance, he stands on the rock surrounded by roaring waves. And he sends a clarion call to the youth – not appealing to their anger and hatred and not forging violence as the weapon- but appealing to the noblest elements vibrant in the youth of all ages. He calls us to work for a new world of oneness and peace and proclaims the heralding of that wonderful future with peace and benediction. 

It’s time we make Swami Vivekananda replace Che as the truly international youth icon – forever.