If you think #GauRakshaks are mooing up the wrong tree, like rearing a cow is some outdated mediaeval fad in the world of 2018, consider this:
South Sudan is one of the world's newest countries. The 54th African and 193rd UN Member, they're the basket case for a typical African Least Developed Country. They seceded as a Christian/Animist country from the Arab Muslim north region of Sudan.
Even within the post-civil war new republic of South Sudan, there are bloody interracial conflicts. These conflicts are between the various nomadic tribes of Sudan, and involve a very valuable resource: Not oil, not diamonds, not gold, not even mineral resources, but CATTLE.
That's right. The bloodiest ongoing civil war in Africa involves cattle, because that's the most important resource in a country still dependent on agriculture for sustenance.
The "beef feeds more stomachs" brigade in #India may note: The most impoverished, anarchist nation in the world sees tribesmen killed, houses burnt, children kidnapped, but crucially, cattle are stolen without any killed for beef. This, in a nation where 2/3 of them sleep hungry!
Tale after tale of most savage, brutal inter-tribe violence makes for gory, mindnumbing reading, with one crucial detail - pillaging and burning aside, all of the cattle was stolen, not hurt, and not one left behind. Even savages value their cattle. Our "enlightened" do not!
Why is cattle so important? In a new nation where the South Sudan Pound has sunk to 7.3 per Sudanese Pound, from equal value at independence in 2011, cattle is the only reliable currency. Loss of cattle is more pronounced in impact as South Sudan is mostly agrarian.
A single succesful cattle raid could cost a farmer up to 80 cows, worth about US$10,000 (13.026 lakh South Sudanese Pounds or ₹6.9 lakhs). Huge, yes, but rather than absolute terms, how much is that in terms of 'purchasing power'?
1 South Sudanese Pound can fetch locally, what ₹1.28 Rupees fetch in India in terms of 'purchasing power' or 'equivalent value'. Going by that, a single cow in South Sudan is worth ₹20,000 of whatever you can get in India. Quite substantial, considering the poverty levels.
Cattle raids also happen because that's often the "bride price" for marriage - 30 cows, for example can get you a good hand in marriage! That's the major source of the inter-tribal conflicts
But they also say "cows go beyond money, where children are named after cows, teen boys compose songs to their favorite bull and people just like to talk about cows". Sounds familiar? Exactly.
"How many cows do you have?" is as out of line a question in this region, as asking "How much do you have in your bank account?". That's simply because in a society founded on agriculture, cattle is everything for you - your nourisher, funder, sustainer, friend, you name it!
And that is why ancient India revered the cow. You simply revered the source of your food. These days, it's paper currency that gets you your food so you respect it, those days it was the cow that gave you milk, and the cattle that toiled in the farms.
Too bad I took a leaf out of genocidal savagery of South Sudan, for something common to agrarian history the world over. But then you're made to believe one fine day some Hindu philistine decided "Hear ye, Cows be holy from this moment", and that's why this nation reveres cows!
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