{"id":1682,"date":"2015-11-24T06:50:35","date_gmt":"2015-11-24T06:50:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fictioninternational.sdsu.edu\/wordpress\/?p=1682"},"modified":"2015-11-24T06:55:47","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T06:55:47","slug":"harold-jaffes-dispatches-from-india-november-23-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fictioninternational.sdsu.edu\/wordpress\/harold-jaffes-dispatches-from-india-november-23-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"Harold Jaffe’s Dispatches from India<\/em> – November 23, 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cow<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Cow protection is the gift of Hinduism to the world. Hinduism will endure only so
\nlong as there are Hindus to protect the cow.<\/em>
\n–Mahatma Gandhi<\/p>\n

The white Mercedes taxi nudges the soiled, underfed, spotted
\nwhite calf out of the way en route to the 5-star Hotel in the
\ncantonment sector erected by the British during the Raj.<\/p>\n

Among the outlandish images of Varanasi to a \u201cfirst world\u201d
\ntraveler, the thousands of cows here, there, everywhere in the noisy,
\nmaddeningly congested city may be the dominant image.<\/p>\n

Considered sacred among Hindus, cows are supremely
\nneglected, wandering aimlessly through narrow streets and chaotic
\ntraffic, scavenging rubbish, including carrion and residue of
\ncremated corpses, resting where they can.<\/p>\n

Only a paucity of \u201cresidences\u201d to feed and shelter cattle have
\nbeen constructed throughout India.<\/p>\n

Moreover, cattle are officially butchered in several Hindu states
\nand unofficially butchered in many more.<\/p>\n

Despite these grim data, cows are nonetheless \u201csacred\u201d and not
\nto be physically harmed.<\/p>\n

People\u2014notably Muslims\u2014have even been lynched for
\nbutchering cattle.<\/p>\n

Without reliable food sources, cattle will wander beyond their
\nusual margins.<\/p>\n

What happens if they wander from the Hindu sector into one of
\nthe two side-by-side Muslim sectors in the eastern part of the Hindu
\nholy city of Kashi and are butchered?<\/p>\n

Motoring through one of those Muslim sectors, my Hindu tuk-tuk
\nwallah points indignantly to the cavernous slaughter houses on
\neither side of the narrow road with bullocks lined up to be butchered.<\/p>\n

Will the Muslim butchering of a Hindu bullock that the Hindus
\nthemselves butcher unofficially constitute an act of war?<\/p>\n

Never mind Gandhi and other reformers, Hindus and Muslims
\ndespise each other.<\/p>\n

Each blames the other for immorality, war-mongering, des-
\npotism, terrorism.<\/p>\n

The bloody war in Kashmir-Jammu between Muslims and Hindus
\nhas been raging since the 1947 partition.<\/p>\n

It is easy enough to distinguish a Hindu adult from a Muslim
\nadult, by the cut of the beard, the skullcap, the Arabic as opposed to
\nIndian dress.<\/p>\n

Muslim and female Hindus can be distinguished by their veils,
\nface coverings, saris.<\/p>\n

As in Israel and Palestine, Indian Hindus and Muslims have the
\nsame or similar genetic roots, and without their appendages often
\nlook close to identical.<\/p>\n

None of that mattered, and now as planet earth is rapidly winding
\ndown, the mutual animus has become exacerbated.<\/p>\n

Why now?<\/p>\n

There is a deflected high anxiety in global culture having to do
\nwith the prospect of global warming hastening us to the end.<\/p>\n

Finitude.<\/p>\n

Acknowledging this insupportable reality seems much more
\ndifficult than ramping up war and entertainment, which are often
\nindistinguishable.<\/p>\n

The saner but more difficult option would be to strive collectively
\nin the 11th hour on behalf of the infinitely larger issues of global
\nwarming and despoliation of the planet.<\/p>\n

Regarding global warming, world leaders tend to respond in one
\nof two ways: either they agree, often in a mealy-mouthed way, that
\nthere is a global ecological crisis and claim they are responding as
\nbest they can to become \u201cgreen,\u201d when what they\u2019re actually doing
\nis cynically catering to their constituencies.<\/p>\n

Or world leaders are too witless or resistant to recognize that the
\nplanet is perishing, and simply deny it while going about business as
\nusual.<\/p>\n

India\u2019s PM, an electronics zealot, is especially keen on devel-
\noping \u201csmart\u201d cities out of the massively decaying infrastructures of
\nhis country.<\/p>\n

Where does that leave the cow in India?<\/p>\n

http:\/\/jaffeantijaffe.sdsu.edu\/<\/a>
\nhttps:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jaffeantijaffe<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/haroldjaffe.wordpress.com\/<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/fictioninternational.sdsu.edu\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cow Cow protection is the gift of Hinduism to the world. Hinduism will endure only so long as there are Hindus to protect the cow. –Mahatma Gandhi The white Mercedes taxi nudges the soiled, underfed, spotted white calf out of the way en route to the 5-star Hotel in the cantonment sector erected by the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fictioninternational.sdsu.edu\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fictioninternational.sdsu.edu\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fictioninternational.sdsu.edu\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fictioninternational.sdsu.edu\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fictioninternational.sdsu.edu\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1682"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/fictioninternational.sdsu.edu\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1684,"href":"https:\/\/fictioninternational.sdsu.edu\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1682\/revisions\/1684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fictioninternational.sdsu.edu\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fictioninternational.sdsu.edu\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fictioninternational.sdsu.edu\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}