page_title: Kali (demon)
section_title: Role in modern communalism
hierarchical_section_title: Kali (demon) / Role in modern communalism
caption_attribution_description: Chaurasi Devataon-wali Gai, or "The Cow with 84 deities" by Raja Ravi Varma The demon with sword states, "O human beings, watch the meat eaters in Kali yuga". The man in the front of the cow with raised hands states, "please don't kill, the cow is the life source for everyone". Below the cow, a community of diverse background is sharing milk and milk products. Above the cow, are two Sanskrit verses (shlokas) about the selfless giving by the cow, a virtue like those of one's parents and the gods. Inside the cow are drawn images of the major Hindu gods and goddesses. This was part of pamphlets circulated by various Agorakshanasabh (“cow protection leagues”) and “wandering ascetics” as a protest against cattle slaughter. For the painting's history and significance: Pinney, Christopher. Photos of the Gods: The Printed Image and Political Struggle in India. Reaktion Books, 2004 (ISBN&#160;1861891849)
context_page_description: According to Hindus, Kali is the reigning lord of the Kali Yuga and nemesis of Kalki, the 10th and final avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu. In the Kalki Purana, he is portrayed as a male mortal demon and he is the source of all evil. In the Satya Yuga, he was a gandharva. In the Mahabharat, he created the war between the Pandavas and the Kauravas in a game of Chausar.
context_section_description: Kali's image was used in several pamphlets circulated by various Agorakshanasabh ("cow protection leagues") and "wandering ascetics" as a protest against the Muslim practice of beef-eating during the British raj. These pamphlets were produced in a time when Hindu-Muslim riots over cow slaughter occurred in several areas of India; including Azamgarh district (1893), when a total of 100 people died in similar conflagrations throughout the empire; Ayodhya (1912–1913); and Shahabad (1917). One such pamphlet entitled "The Present State" showed a cow being slaughtered by a trio of "Muhammadan" butchers. Another portrayed Kali raising a sword above the head of a sacred cow, whose body was illustrated to be a microcosmic paradise in which all the Hindu gods resided. There were many different editions of this version. For instance, one showed a woman labeled "The Hindu" waiting with bowl-in-hand for the cow's calf to finish suckling before she could get milk. A form of Krishna labeled Darmaraj ("Ruler of Dharma") stood behind the cow and Kali was, again, harassing her with his sword. Still, a different one deleted the woman and calf and instead portrayed Dharmaraj in front of the cow pleading mat maro gay sarv ka jivan hai ("don't kill the cow, everyone is dependent on it"), while Kali rebuts he manusyaho! Kaliyugi Mansahari jivom ko dekho ("mankind, look at the meat-eating souls of the Kali Yuga").
  Some Hindus considered Kali's presence in the picture to be a representation of the Muslim community. When one of the versions of these pamphlets came into the possession of a state official in 1893, he commented that the image "contained a representation of a Musalman [Muslim] advancing to slay the cow ...". One book states, "The Magistrate [at Deoria] found Muhammadans excited because they heard a picture was in circulation representing a Muhammadan with a sword drawn sacrificing a cow, and this they considered an insult." In 1915, a color version of this picture ran by the Ravi Varma Press caught the attention of the colonial censors and was presumably censored in some way.
caption: The color version run by the Ravi Varma Press (c. 1912).
exif: {}