Banning Beef

Shakeel Sobhan

From Assam to Kerala, India’s Beef Bans Expose deep cultural, religious and political divides. At present, 20 out of India’s 28 states have various laws regulating cow slaughter, including prohibitions on the slaughter or sale of cow.

In 2021, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Assam had already banned the sale of beef and beef products in areas predominantly inhabited by non-beef-eating communities or near temples.

In India, beef is a contentious subject because cows are sacred to the majority of Hindus. 

Yet, at the same time, it is a part of the diets of Muslims, Christians, some Indigenous communities, and Dalits, a historically marginalised group from the lowest level of India’s centuries-old discriminatory caste hierarchy.

Regionally, beef consumption is negligible in northern and central India, while it is culturally ingrained in states like Kerala and Goa, and much of the north-eastern region.

India’s beef bans have been a polarising issue–intersecting religion with culture, and politics.

The recent ban in Assam, framed as part of a larger narrative of cow protection, has reignited debates on the implications of such laws on India’s multicultural identity, freedom of choice and economy.

Beyond its cultural symbolism, beef bans have been weaponised in political contexts, with deadly violence following them as self-styled cow vigilantes seek to enforce these bans.

Aparna Parikh, assistant professor of Asian Studies at Penn State University, has researched India’s contemporary beef ban and ensuing violence. A ban on beef in India is deeply tied to its cultural and historical context, where reverence for cows and avoiding beef are “central to a Hindu identity, more specifically an upper-caste Hindu identity”.

Beef bans, therefore, reflect the prioritisation of one religious group’s preferences over others, often justifying violence against communities that are viewed as consuming beef.

“The ban is not entirely new but has taken on new forms and become much more visible, and weaponised against minority groups in the last few years.”

But the ruling BJP has taken a selective stance on beef bans.

While the party has introduced stringent bans in several states, particularly in northern and central India, it has adopted a more tolerant approach in Goa and some northeastern states, such as Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Tripura.

“In the northeast, efforts focus on persuading tribal populations, including Christian converts, to reconnect with their ‘original’ Hindu roots.”

“As part of this strategy, they take a cautious approach in regions like the northeastern states, Goa, and Kerala, where Hindu nationalist rhetoric around food or beef bans could alienate local populations. In these areas, a more calculated and less confrontational approach is adopted to avoid clashing with local sentiments.”

For one thing in Assam; there is a noticeable shift toward a harder line, prioritising ideological assertion over regional sensitivities.

However, resistance even from within the BJP against the latest Assam beef ban highlights the polarising nature of the issue.

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Frontier
Vol 57, No. 29, Jan 12 - 18, 2025