173 Chapter 9. The Use of Sacrifice Feast of Eid ul-Adha in Bengal … the first decade of the 20th century. In such a situation there was not much political interest in turning the Eid ul-Adha cow slaughtering controversy into a political intrigue, aiming to promote hatred between the religious communities. It was no sooner than the 19th century that organizations such as Brahmo Samaj and Arya Samaj (Mansingh [1996] 2003: 41, 79) started campaigning to protect cows from slaughter. Their program had no anti-Muslim objectives, as beef was consumed more often by the British than the Muslims. Similarly to many other places around the world, including Europe, meat was too expensive for the relatively poor communities in Bengal. As indicated by the cases mentioned above, it can be observed that the Indian politics of the first half of the 20th century was based on a competition between Indian and Hindu nationalism. The latter appeared as a phenomenon deeply rooted in the culture, functioning as a factor protecting Hindu culture and tradition since the 19th century. Development of that ideology resulted in the concept of Hindutva (Savarkar [1923] 1969: 2; Moroń 2013: 35–37). While the concept may be dated back to the conferences of Hindus in 1909, it was published in written form in 1923. The brochure by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, entitled Hindutva: Who is a Hindu?, formed the basis for ideas of Hindu Rashtra (“Hindus State” or “Hindu Land”) and promoted the Hindu way of life. In fact, in his book, Savarkar does not answer the titular question. Instead, he explains the concerns depicted in the brochure: “I am a Hindu and like to be one.” Thus Hindutva, even though related to the creed of Hinduism, is not a religious ideology but it is an ideology of a “way of life.” I consider the answer given by Savarkar as relevant to Europe too. Here the connection between politicizing elements of religious tradition by means of promoting communal violence and Hindutva should be emphasized. The elements of the concept, perceived as a part of the Hindu “way of life,” can be found in the discourse about the meaning of the cow in the Hindu way of thinking about the sacrum.14 Cow slaughtering in Indian politics in the 21st century The main political party in India since 2014, the Bharatiya Janata Party, BJP (Mansingh [1996] 2003: 66–67), is the first party in many years that does 14 It may also be mentioned that Islamic nationalism started to develop on the subcontinent. It eventually resulted in the creation of the state of Pakistan in 1947.
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