page_title: Cattle slaughter in India
section_title: Indian religions
hierarchical_section_title: Cattle slaughter in India / History / Indian religions
caption_attribution_description: English: 2nd Century A.D sculpture of Nandi [Bull]
context_page_description: Cattle slaughter, especially cow slaughter is a controversial topic in India because of the cattle's traditional status as an endeared and respected living being to some sects of Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, and Buddhism while being considered an acceptable source of meat by Muslims as well as adherents of some other non-vedic, Abrahamic and other religions such as Zoroastrianism. More specifically, the cow's slaughter has been shunned because of a number of reasons such as being associated with god Krishna in Hinduism, cattle being respected as an integral part of rural livelihoods and an economic necessity. Cattle slaughter has also been opposed by various Indian religions because of the ethical principle of Ahinsa and the belief in the unity of all life.
  Legislation against cattle slaughter is in place throughout most states of India except Kerala, Goa, West Bengal, and states of the Northeast India.
context_section_description: There are many contradictions between the views of Non-Indians and Indians on Vegetarianism. According to D. N. Jha's 2009 work The Myth of the Holy Cow, for example, cattle including cows were neither inviolable nor revered in the ancient times as they were later but he had not given any proofs from the Vedas, Upanishads or any other Hindu scriptures. Vedic scholars charged him that he consciously misinterpreted Sanskrit words. Some other self-claimed sanskrit pundits claimed that Guhyasutra recommends that beef be eaten by the mourners, after a funeral ceremony as a ritual rite of passage.According to Marvin Harris, the Vedic literature is contradictory, with some suggesting ritual slaughter and meat consumption, while others suggesting a taboo on meat eating.
  The protection of animal life was championed by Jainism, on the grounds that violence against life forms is a source of suffering in the universe and a human being creates bad karma by violence against any living being. The Chandogya Upanishad mentions the ethical value of Ahimsa, or non-violence towards all beings. By mid 1st millennium BCE, all three major Indian religions – Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism – were championing non-violence as an ethical value, and something that impacted one's rebirth. According to Harris, by about 200 CE, food and feasting on animal slaughter were widely considered as a form of violence against life forms, and became a religious and social taboo. Ralph Fitch, a gentleman merchant of London and one of the earliest English travellers to India wrote a letter home in 1580 stating, "They have a very strange order among them - they worship a cow and esteem much of the cow's dung to paint the walls of their houses ... They eat no flesh, but live by roots and rice and milk."
  The cow has been a symbol of wealth in India since ancient times.
caption: A 2nd Century A.D sculpture of Nandi bull. It is a sacred symbol in Shaivism tradition of Hinduism.
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