Beef in India is a political food. It is not a question of individual rights over what they have in the plate. It is about whether what they have in the plate is offensive to the Hindus or not. That is why you have people on social media you like to taunt Hindus with pictures of them eating beef. That is why you have streets of Bengal flooded with cow’s blood.
Across India, beef is often framed as synonymous with the cultural milieu of Dalits and Islam. In the case of Dalits it is understandable about how beef became part of their cuisine. Beef was often a cheap and accessible source of protein for Dalits, who faced exclusion and significant economic hardship. They didn’t have a choice over their dietary habits.
In the case of Muslims, it is different as beef is not rooted in Islamic doctrine alone, and is not universal. In fact, in places like Saudi Arabia — the birthplace of Islam — cows are not even plentiful, and beef has never played a central cultural or religious role.
According to Statista, as of 2022, Saudi Arabia had approximately 17.5 million sheep, 6.8 million goats, 2.2 million camels, and 312,000 cows on farms
So why, then, has beef become so tightly linked with Muslim identity in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh?
Islamic Law And The Permissibility Of Beef
The festival of Eid al-Adha, known as the “Festival of Sacrifice,” involves slaughtering livestock, typically sheep, goats and camel. Islam, as a religion, does not place any spiritual importance on cows — unlike Hinduism. According to Islamic dietary rules (halal), the consumption of beef is permitted, so long as the animal is slaughtered following prescribed guidelines. The Qur’an mentions cattle among the animals created by God for human use — for food, transport, and trade.
However, Islam does not single out beef consumption as a religious obligation or preference. In most parts of the Islamic world — including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Iran — the most commonly consumed meats are goat, lamb, and camel, owing to ecological factors. Cattle were historically scarce in the arid Arabian peninsula, which lacked sufficient grazing pastures to sustain large bovine populations.
Hinduism And The Sacred Cow
In stark contrast, the cow holds a sacred place in Hinduism, symbolizing purity, fertility, and non-violence. Hindus associate cows with the goddess Kamadhenu and regard the animal as the giver of sustenance, especially in agrarian societies.
Although evidence suggests that beef consumption may have existed in early Vedic times, by the early Common Era, cow slaughter had become taboo for many orthodox Hindus. Thus, any association with beef consumption became culturally and morally charged — particularly when it involved non-Hindus.
Mission: Humiliate Hindus
The arrival of Islamic rulers in the Indian subcontinent, starting with the Delhi Sultanate (13th century) and later the Mughal Empire, introduced new food practices and preferences. While not all Muslim rulers encouraged cow slaughter — emperors like Akbar even discouraged it out of respect for Hindu sentiments — the act of beef consumption nevertheless became a symbolic line of difference. Some rulers permitted or patronized cattle slaughter during religious festivals like Eid al-Adha, leading to tensions with Hindu communities.
Romila Thapar notes that during medieval Islamic rule, cow slaughter was occasionally employed to undermine Hindu socio-religious structures, particularly during conquests. Specific examples include Aurangzeb’s desecration of the Chintamani Parshvanath Jain temple by killing a cow inside and converting it into a mosque, called the “Might of Islam”. Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti’s followers brought a cow daily to a temple, slaughtered it, and cooked kebabs to humiliate local Hindus.
Over time, beef consumption evolved from a mundane dietary practice into a marker of Muslim identity to establish their supremacy over Hindus and humiliate them. Beef became symbolically tied to Islam, particularly during conversions. For some converts, eating beef marked a break from Hindu practices, where the cow is revered.
In contemporary India, public beef consumption, such as at “beef parties” is also to counter Hindus. In 2017, challenging the central government’s attempt to impose a ban on cow slaughter, Rijil Makkutty and his associates forcefully brought a calf into the street and killed it in a violent public display. In 2015, the then Jammu & Kashmir MLA Engineer Rashid organized a beef party. A beef fest was organized in Sree Kerala Varma college by ‘activists’ of Students Federation of India (SFI), a body aligned with the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M). A student group in IIT Madras too organized a beef party. These beef parties and cow slaughter events is done to provoke and humiliate Hindus.
So, when blood of cows inundate the streets of Bengal, it is not an event. It is a statement. An act of desecration. They want you to wade through the cow’s blood with disgust so that they can satiate their sadistic itch.
When calves are dragged onto streets and butchered in full public view, it’s not a stand for dietary freedom — it’s a brutal spectacle designed to spit on the faith of millions. These so-called “beef parties” aren’t expressions of dissent; they are political blood rituals meant to provoke, offend, and degrade. In a land where the cow is venerated by the majority, such acts cross the line from cultural expression to calculated cultural warfare. They do not demand respect — they demand submission. And when cow slaughter becomes a tool of ideological vengeance, it’s not just tradition that is under attack. They attack your existence.
Vallavaraayan is a political writer.
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