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CATTLE-PRESERVATION:
'MUST' FOR INDIA'S AGRICULTURE
*A note presented by
Shree K.
C. Shroff Chairman of Excel Industries for the consideration of the
national-seminar
continued....from Page 7
This was soon found to have
disastrous effect on the
environment. This necessitated backtracking or reversing the
frog-leg ex- ports policy. If the export of beef and the
slaughter of the cow are not banned at once, the environ-
mental backlash would be far more calamitious.
In India, we have Wild -Life
Protection Act. There are also special projects, such as
Operation Tiger on which significant sums of money are being
spent. We also have the Act for the prevention of cruelty to
animals. Recently, the use of animals for making movies has
been banned. The use of animals for the joy-rides has also
been banned. Only recently the Goa High Court has banned the
Bull fights as the pleasure pastime. The dissection of animals
for science experiments in high schools and junior colleges
has also been banned. The orphanages are now being run for
dogs and other animals by a number of people in different
cities. The only right lesson from all these very sensible
measures is that the ban on cow slaughter also should be
imposed at once. Cow has very much become an endangered specie
and to postpone banning cow slaughter until the cow is on the
verge of extinction would be suicidal, it would reflect that
the modern man's claim to scientific tem- per or rationality
is a great sham or cant.
Conclusion
There is thus a very logical, and an unassailable economic
and meta -economic case for banning the cow slaughter. On
every count -depleting livestock population, maintaining
quality of land on which the quality of civilization depends,
healthy and balanced supply of food, fodder, fuel and
fertilizer, environmental protection, control of inflation,
and so on -it can be shown with enough facts and figures that
there is an urgent need for ending the slaughter of the cow.
As Gandhiji had long back pointed out, there is a close
connection between the present poverty-stricken condition in
India and our failure to protect cow. If man is to call
himself man, he must qt once stop this cruelty and inhumanity
of killing millions of animals every year just to pander to
his palate or to meet his hunger. Otherwise the retribution
will be simply infernal. As Gandhiji has said, if cow dies, we
also die along with her. The survival of the cow is imperative
for the survival of man.
The
Curse of Industrialization
I do not believe that
industrialization is necessary in any case for any country: It
is much less so for India. Indeed, I believe that Independent
India can only discharge her duty towards a groaning world by
adopting a simple but ennobled life by developing her
thousands of cottages and living at peace with the world. High
thinking is inconsistent with complicated material life based
on high speed imposed on us by Mammon worship. All the graces
of life are possible only when we learn
the art of living noble
Whether such plain living is possible for an isolated nation,
however large geographically and numerically, in the face of a
world armed to the teeth and in the midst of pomp and
circumstance, is a question open to the doubt of sceptic. The
answer is straight and simple. If plain life is worth living,
then the attempt is worth making, even though only an
individual or group makes the effort.
-Gandhiji
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