THE COW AND PEACE
(GUP, Jan. 1953. Speech delivered by J.C. Kumarappa to the Go-Sevaks at Pipri, Wardha. Also in the collection: “The Cow in our Economy.”)
Cattle Breeds
Cattle breeding is a science practised of old in India. 150 years back the East India Company was developing sturdy bulls for drawing their gun carriages. Even now we find in certain government farms the same old and obsolete policy in vogue. At about the same period Tipu Sultan had developed a fast running breed of bullocks which served him in the Army. Lord Wellesley, who had used these in his army, was so impressed by them that during his battle at Waterloo he is said to have exclaimed at one time when his tired horses failed to reach the goal, “Alas had I those Mysore bullocks, they would not have failed me.”
All over India we find different breeds of cattle. Many of these have been intentionally and intelligently bred. Now also when we want to develop the cattle wealth of the country, we ought to know the direction in which we are to proceed. There are a few points which may be well kept in view when we want to breed our cattle. Firstly, each locality has got its individual requirements according to the type of work to be done and the climate and other conditions; over and above this, even in the same locality all people will not require the same type of bullocks. A farmer with a small holding, with work for lesser bullock power, would need a smaller bullock which he can maintain on the fodder produced in his small field; whereas a bigger farmer’s requirement will be different. Thus we shall have to provide in each locality various types of bullocks—small, medium and big—according to the needs of the agriculturists. A mere dual purpose cow will not do for all time. We should not sacrifice special qualities for getting an average. Specialisation in bullocks is a felt need. For this purpose we may not have at present a sufficient number of stud bulls to develop different types of bullocks. If we go on as we do with scrub bulls our stock is bound to deteriorate. It may not be possible to wait till we get adequate numbers of good bulls. Under the circumstances we may have to resort, for the time being, to what is called artificial insemination. I hesitate to put these suggestions before you. But I have stated the problem for your consideration.
Cow’s Status
The cow touches all our economic activities. This had been recognised even in ancient times. That is why sentimental, religious and great importance had been attached to ‘the cow.’ Why Gandhiji took to the cow was for reasons deeper than this—to him ‘cow’ symbolised all animal wealth. The service of the cow was to bring him nearer to his goal of truth and non-violence. His entire programme sprung from this root.
Man has utilised resources of power other than manual labour for the production of his utility articles. Prior to the discovery of coal, man in the West used horse as the main motive power. Here in the East cow ruled—cow the mother of the bullock and its progeny—the bullock. We find that as the so-called industrial era dawned the economy of the West shifted from the horse to coal and thence to petroleum. This shift meant greater and greater violence. Thus a stress on cow means bringing back mankind to its former moorings.
Causes of War
When we use the cow and cattle wealth as helpers in our production there is a natural limit to the quantity of production in comparison to the state of affairs that ensues when coal or other such resources of power are utilised, on the expenditure of which there can be no natural limit. Thus the self-sufficiency or the measures of it which is attainable in a cow economy is distorted and disturbed when we depart from it. When the quantity of produce increases, markets are to be sought for it. Europe’s hunt for the markets in the last two centuries was motivated by this economic factor; thus as soon as man changed over from animal economy to power economy violence became necessary. They fought with each other for markets. The result was the First World War—when the countries depending upon the coal economy fought with each other for the market areas.
Nature of Resources
The race towards death did not stop here. It continued ahead. The resources of power given by nature are of two categories, one type is perennial in nature belonging to the vegetable and animal kingdoms. These may be called the ‘current resources’ and the other type is in short supply in nature like coal, iron, petrol and the like belonging to the mineral kingdom. These are not being manufactured under the bowels of the earth and their exhaustion means lessening in the total quantity available. These limited resources may be called the ‘reservoir’ type. It is when man depends more and more upon the latter type of resources that violence increases. Thus whereas from cow to the coal was one step towards violence, coal to petrol was a leap further towards the abyss. The last conflagration got the whole world under its sway. The Second World War was a natural corollary when exploiting countries fought not only for their markets, but also to control the motive power-producing areas. These petrol pockets, distributed over a dozen countries of the world, became the bone of contention over which the whole world fought. If we want to bring about a change towards peace we should depend more and more on the current type of resources for our motive power and ‘the cow’, which provides the bullocks belonging to that type, stands for it. Hence the cow becomes symbolic of an economy of Peace.
It is in this respect that I would like you to view the cow and all it stands for. Go Seva is a movement for world peace. From the mad rush to exhaust the reservoir resources of nature we want to bring humanity to realize its folly and take the help of the perennial motive power available to man in the form of our friends, the cattle. We should have a whole picture of the kind of world we want. Go Seva should help us to bring it about. I wish and hope that you will have this all-round attitude and try to bring it into practice. You would do nothing which goes against ‘the cow.’ The mills and all the economy which depends upon ‘reservoir economy’ is an enemy of the cow economy and Go Sevaks will realise that Gandhiji’s cow embraces all his constructive programmes.