Bharūch

Cows. They’re everywhere here. Lying on the road. Standing by the road. Walking next to the road, or across the road. Eating garbage (sad but true). Being fed by random people.

I literally saw a guy the other morning walk up to a cow and feed it the rest of his breakfast chapati. Shoved the chapati down the throat of the cow, who was pretty eager to eat it. Today we watched an elderly man on a motorcycle slow down on the highway, tap a cow that was lounging by the side of the road on its forehead, and then tap his own forehead and drive away. The other day I stepped in a huge pile of cow shit. Those are also everywhere, both the wet ones, and the piles of dried ones that people collect and burn for fuel.

Cows, specifically the Desi cow, are sacred animals for the Hindu community in India. They are worshipped and decorated during festivals; holy men also take around cows, with their foreheads smeared in vermillion, to seek alms.

More seriously, most states forbid cow slaughter, and the ban on beef has been criticised by many because the meat is cheaper than chicken and fish and is a staple for the poorer Muslim, tribal and dalit (formerly untouchable) communities.

So, there’s a debate in India, which sits at the vortex of religious, political and social-economic sensitivities, about cows. Supporters of secularism and members of non-Hindu religions denounce the laws around forbidding cow slaughter. They are seen as non-inclusive and an attack on fundamental human rights and as a form of discrimination towards the Muslim and Christian communities in India, who are fine with eating beef.

Fascinating, for sure, and we’ll be doing more digging into all of that while we’re here. Regardless, one of the loveliest parts of our journey so far has been the cows. Especially the huge herd of them who surrounded us on January 4 (Joe’s birthday) on the road while we were drinking chai at a random roadside stand. One large one just checked out the rickshaw, gave us a blessing of some sort in cow language, and walked away.

Thanks, holy cows. We love you. Even if you are controversial.Read more