COW SLAUGHTER AND KASHMIR

An Adage: Mei Kya Hathiya Kaer Me (Did I murder a cow?)

Sultan ZainulAbidin (1420) banned cow slaughter, according to some historians, out of respect for Brahmin sentiments. According to Jonaraja, a Pandit historian of the era, (1/n)

“Budshah, the great monarch” stopped the killing of cows, restricted the eating of beef and catching of fish in the sacred springs of the Hindus. It was largely an attempt to appease the top Brahmins who had migrated under the rule of his father Sultan Sikander Shah Miri.(2/n)

Afghans were repressive against all Kashmiris, irrespective of their cast, class or religion. Mahanand Dhar was advisor to governor Nooruddin Khan and later became the prime minister for Sukh Jeevan, on his incitement governor banned Azaan and issued ban on cow slaughter. (3/n)

During the Sikh rule on petition of influential top brass cow slaughter was re-banned by the second governor of the regime, Deewan Moti Ram, who ordered the closure of the Jamia Masjid, forbade saying the Azan from the mosques and penalised cow slaughter with death. (4/n)

It was druing this rule that 3 prominent businessmen of Kawoosa family were hanged and their bodies dragged in streets on false charges of cow slaughter. Apart from this there were three massacres involving 17 members of family from Chattabal, 12 people from Hawal and 19 (5/n)

members of boatmen family living on Doodganga stream were burnt alive on suspicion of cow slaughter. There was revival of the law banning the cow-slaughter during Dogra period. The perpetrators of the ‘crime’ were dealt most morbidly. The punishments (6/n)

ranged from cutting off of noses, being hung at Fatah Kadal (for everyone to see and take a lesson) to the chopping off ears, of burning an offender’s hair and sometimes even to the torching of their houses. Most brutal punishments were inflicted on the mere (7/n)

suspicion of intent to injure a cow. Gulab Singh, officially, had declared life imprisonment for the crime of cow slaughter. Ranbir Singh, while still heir apparent, unhappy with this ‘liberty’ took his own measures to ensure that it effectively translated into a death (8/n)

penalty. One such incident in which a young man was incarcerated on the suspicion of cow slaughter, was ordered to be fed with food mixed with excess salt such that he died of dehydration. On another occasion ‘he slit a woman’s tongue for beating (9/n)

a cow that had torn the clothes she had hung out to dry’.
In his Making of a Frontier (published 1900), Algernon Durand wrote: “There were still at this time unfortunate Mahomedans in prison at Srinagar, who had been confined for years, for keeping themselves and (10/n)

families alive during a famine by eating cows.” Political scientist Gull M Wani writes during Dogra era. “There were cases of men being boiled in oil for killing a cow,” Wani recorded, “In 1920 out of the 117 prisoners in Kashmir jails 97 were held for cow slaughter.” (11/n)

Until August 5, 2019 intentionally killing or slaughtering a cow or similar animal (including ox and buffalo) remained a cognisable, non-bailable offence punishable with 10 years imprisonment and fine under Section 298A of the Ranbir Penal Code, applicable to J&K. (n/n)

TAIL NOTE: In many parts of Srinagar eating beef is still not preferred and is even detested by many. The origin of such abhorrence is this historical fear that has metamorphosized over decades into a revulsion.