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Indian culture is diverse and plural. It has been enriching itself by accepting the diversity irrespective of religion or geographical boundaries. This gets reflected in all aspects of our life, be it food habits, clothes, art, architecture, social occasions, customs and religious traditions. This is the natural grain of any open and thriving society. With the rise of politically patronized sectarianism the effort is to restrict and constrict the definition of ‘our culture’ in particular. We are witnessing the ‘other’ ing of religious communities and there are attempts to distinguish between diverse aspects of our society into ‘us or our’ versus ‘them/outsiders’. To sustain this, sectarian outfits are very proactive on occasion. At the same time symbols are being promoted to associate with ‘nationalism’ with a particular ‘religion’.
The recent call given by the Animal Welfare Board India (AWBI) –subsequently hurriedly withdrawn –was an example of this sort of campaign. An AWBI in a circular gave a call that February 14 — instead of being observed as the popular Valentine’s day — should be celebrated as ‘Cow Hug Day’. The statutory board circular stated, “Hugging cows will bring emotional richness and increase individual and collective happiness”.
Union Rural Development minister Giriraj Singh endorsed the idea (February 9, 2023) by saying that everybody should love cows. This move had twin goals. On one hand it was to promote the symbolism around cow and on the other it was clearly aimed to bypass Valentine’s Day. The symbolism around the cow is a strong emotive aspect of dominant caste Hindu nationalism and Valentine’s Day has been dubbed as alien and immoral by this stream.
Promoting this symbolism around Cow has picked up steam in the last few years. Many Hindus do regard the Cow as a Holy animal, now the Indian state has jumped into the fray and restrictions on cow slaughter have been aggressively brought forward in different states. This led on one hand to the violent phenomenon of lynching of mainly Muslims and some Dalits. This also led to brutal flogging of four Dalits in Una in Gujarat (2016). The central Government has funded research into Panchgavya, a mixture of cow milk, curd, ghee, cow-dung and cow-urine). Incidentally, both veterinary and biochemical sciences have already done most of the basic study and research into various animal products.
In 2021 Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog (National Cow Board) under the Rural Development ministry planned the ‘Kamdhenu Gau Vigyan Prachar Prasar Exam’ (National Exam on Cow science propagation). This was later called off after a public uproar. This Board was later disbanded. As the call was given for Cow Hug Day, many a social media posts ridiculed the idea. One video of BJP leader trying to caress the cow and she trying to hit back surfaced. The very notion of hugging cow was not taken lightly by many, as it is fraught with the possibility of accidents due to the bovine trying to retaliate in insecurity as it is not being so accustomed to strangers. This weird idea to promote love for cow, is also questionably times as India is today among the leading exporter of beef in the World. Adding to the political aggression and mayhem, the Malegaon blast accused Pragya Sing Thakur also dispensed her advice by asserting that ‘caressing the cow, in the direction of her skin hairs’ reduces blood pressure and surely with this Government plans may be afoot to undertake the research in this direction!
Even without the ‘cow hug’ symbolism, majoritarian groups associated with Hindutva supremacism have been violently opposing the gifting as an expression of love on Valentine Day. Groups like Pramod Mutalik’s Shriram Sene and Bajrang Dal in particular have been beating couples moving together since 2009! Anti Valentine Day squads moved around, who not only harassed the couples but also tried to ransack the shops dealing in gifts for the day. Most of these groups do enjoy a sort of political impunity. Uttar Pradesh saw a spate of such ‘attacks’ on couples since 2017 and they continue today.
Proponents of the anti-Valentine Day propaganda claim that public expression of love is against ‘our culture’, our Hindu values. These ignorant foot soldiers and motivated leaders may be unaware of Vatsyana’s Kamsutra or the temples of Khajurau and Konark which have depictions not just of emotional love but also of erotica. One remembers the very successful ‘Pink Chaddi’ campaign initiated by feminist social groups. This was in response to Pramod Mutalik’s, an ex-RSS pracharak, group beating up girls coming out from a Mangalore pub. Pink Chaddis were sent to Mutalik in large numbers. Sectarianisms are not lonely in the World. Groups similar to Shri Ram Sene also came up in Saudi Arabia at a particular point of time.
These groups –on both or all sides of the religious divide–are part of an oppressive, sectarian politics, which abhors free choice of youngsters in particular. Real reasons for this intolerant behavior have to be looked for in their overall agenda to curtail liberalism, pluralism and to constrain the democratic ethos of the country.
One may recall that Asaram Bapu, now cooling his heels in jail as rape convict had mooted the idea of bypassing Valentine day by celebrating February 14 as Matru-Pitru Pujan Divas(Mother-Father worship day). That was endorsed by the religious nationalists, but it also failed to take off.
Valentine Day, the day of expression of love is globally very popular. It is not restricted to romantic, sexual love alone. The tradition of celebrating Valentine’s Day goes back to early second century CE. There are many legends about St. Valentine and two of them have some definitive history. It seems that the early Christian Church had at least two saints bearing this name. One story has it that as Roman emperor Claudius II forbade young men to marry in the year 200’s A.D., as he had strong military ambition and he thought that single men made better soldiers. A priest by the name Valentine disobeyed the orders of the King by solemnizing the marriage of young couples!
According to another legend, Valentine was an early Christian saint who was very affectionate to young children. He refused to worship Roman Gods and on that count, was imprisoned. Children missed his affection and love and tossed the notes containing love messages across the prison bars. According to many stories he was executed on February 14.
This day in due course came to be celebrated in his memory, as a tribute to his courage in defying inhuman orders of the ruling king; people started sending greetings and messages of love to their loved ones. Though the historical veracity of the origins of the Valentine Day custom maybe shrouded in myth due to its being very ancient, the fact that these customs took on a local hue in different countries wherever this day began to be celebrated cannot be denied.
In a World shrinking to become a global village, aspirations of the young are not easily ignored. No wonder then, facing wide criticism, the AWBI has withdrawn the call for February 14 being Cow Hug day!
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