I am not a great beef fan but have been a little perturbed by recent episodes in India, where fiery debates accompanied by incidents of social unrest have taken place over the issue of allowing (or not permitting) the consumption of beef.
To think rationally and without any bias, perhaps for a few days of Durga Puja, the major Hindu religious festival, consumption of beef can be limited or stopped as a mark of respect for another faith which holds the cow sacred.
Just to put the issue into perspective: Would most people in Bangladesh like to see pigs being slaughtered and the meat distributed during a religious festival?
However, to demand a complete ban on the meat and ask Muslims to refrain from eating beef seems bigoted.
Wise to keep in mind that the Muslim population in India is more than or equal to the entire population in Bangladesh. While they are a minority, making efforts to restrict the eating habits of an entire section of the nation's population hardly seem democratic.
Needless to say, the beef complexity, unless addressed with an attitude of compromise from both Muslims and Hindus, will widen the social division, triggering, perhaps, further regrettable incidents.
In all the brouhaha, the lynching of a Muslim man has come to the forefront, and the rather hard-line stance of a Haryana chief minister, Khattar, hasn’t helped either.
Looking at the episodes from a distance, one fears that seeds for a religion-based conflagration are being planted with cold, calculated moves.
When India is being applauded for being a major economic power in the current global scenario, a faith-based social upheaval is the last thing the nation needs. Now, when tensions between Muslims and Hindus escalate, Bangladesh also gets entangled in the issue because, here, our largest religious minority is formed of Hindus.
Just for information, with Durga Puja just a few days away, with certain parts of Dhaka getting a facelift for celebrations, common sense won’t permit anyone to take a cow outside on the road near a temple and slaughter it.
This common sense is also followed in major traditional rice-fish-meat restaurants where only chicken and mutton are offered in the anticipation that non-beef eaters may also be among the patrons. A good example is the famous Star Hotel.
This is just respect for the religious belief of another person. Christians in Dhaka get their regular supply of pork from Tejkuni Bazaar in Farmgate, and while this is a known fact, no one is going around demanding the closure of these specialised abattoirs.
Reportedly, the beef incident has been whipped up with political motives in mind -- a reminder that, in South Asia, exploitation of delicate matters for selfish personal gains is far from over.
With valid reason, the definition of secularism comes up again -- do we do whatever we feel like, irrespective of the fact that it hurts someone else, or do we practice some restraint for the sake of peaceful co-existence?
Religion-based fanaticism has never worked; history is replete with unsavoury examples. For a certain period, such extreme ideology has served someone’s purpose, inevitably leaving a multi-faith society deeply fragmented. Whose faith is right and whose is wrong, whose practices are logical and whose aren’t should no longer be a matter of debate.
The history of human civilisation has one significant lesson: The more one harps on about one’s own faith with chauvinistic fervour, the bigger the chances of conflict plus communal tension. We should have learned that after so many futile crusades, incidences of communal violence, and countless dead bodies.
It’s hardly necessary to denounce those Western people as debauched because they lie half-naked on the sea-beach revealing most parts of their body, and head for the bar for a weekend drink. Neither is it right to look at any bearded man and a hijab-wearing woman and inevitably think, “now where are they hiding the grenades and the AK-47?”
If the tolerance level is widened a little, no contrast would appear too stark. Forgive me, while religious piety is becoming more of an obsession, willingness to allow other faiths the right space is shrinking.
To end on a light note, Bangladesh is a Muslim majority country. While entering the country, no Bangladeshi national can bring in alcohol, though there is no dearth of the “devil’s liquid” here.
In Dhaka city alone, there are about 20 licensed bars where a person (information about religious inclination never required at the gate) can walk in and catch stars.
Those who drink go there, while those who don’t are not even interested to know where such watering holes are located. In fact, vices of all delicious sorts are all around; if you do not look for them, they won’t come to seduce you.
In the same way, if you do not eat beef, no one will come and try to force it down your mouth.
Maybe, a little “don’t look at something which does not concern you” should be cultivated along with some common sense based on respect for someone else’s faith.
