worship cows, whereas Muslims eat
them. Hindus saw Muslim beef con-
sumption as a flagrant violation of their
religious sensibilities, and Muslims saw
the demand for a ban on cow slaughter
as a thinly veiled attempt to reinforce
Muslim status as second-class citizens.
Communal relations were often particu-
larly volatile around the annual Muslim
festival of Id, at which it is traditional for
each family to sacrificean animaland
in which many of the more affluent
Muslim families would sacrifice cattle.
As the relationship between these two
communities deteriorated in the 1930s,
cow slaughter (or rumor thereof ) was
often cited as the spark for communal
riots in which hundreds of people
were killed.
This tension persists in modern
India, although it has rarely erupted into
violence since the partition of the sub-
continent in 1947. Modern India was
founded as a secular state where the
government does not favor any particu-
lar religious community. This founding
ethos has made the Indian government
reluctant to pass legislation banning
cattle slaughter, despite continued calls
from traditional Hindus. The Indian
Muslim community, facing the reality of
its minoritystatus in a Hindu majority
state, has had to be far more discreet
about when and how such cow slaugh-
ter takes place.
Cow Slaughter
A complete ban on cow slaughter has
been one of the more durable issues
taken up by Hindu interest groups, from
before India gained independence in
1947 all the way up to the present day.
Although debate on this issue has con-
tinuously emerged and faded, it remains
a reliable hot button for stirring Hindu
passions. This issue has predictably car-
ried far more weight in northern India,
where there is a significant Muslim
minoritywith no religious objection to
slaughtering and eatingbeef. The first
widespread demand for such a ban
came during the Cow Protection
Movementin the 1930s. This movement
aggravated tense communal relations
between the Hindu and Muslim com-
munities, resulting in significant blood-
shed. Since independence it has been a
perennial demand by religious leaders
and ascetics, and it has been an issue in
the platform of Hindu political organi-
zations such as the Jana Sangh, Shiv
Sena, Vishva Hindu Parishad(VHP), and
Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP). In the past,
such demands had little effect since the
proponents did not have the power to
implement them. As the BJPand the Shiv
Sena have gained control of state and
local governments, they have tried to
implement this policy. In late 1995 the
VHPinitiated a national drive to ban cow
slaughter completely. Like many of the
VHP’s campaigns, this was undertaken
just before upcoming elections, in this
case at the national level. This campaign
was seen as an attempt to polarize the
Hindu electorate in an effort to influ-
ence the national election.Creation
See cosmologyand cosmic time.Creation Hymn
Popular name for a hymn in the Rg Veda
(10.129), which is one of the most
unusual hymns in the Vedas. The four
Vedas are the oldest Hindu religious
texts, and based on its style and content,
the Rg Veda is the oldest of these. Most
of the hymns in the Rg Veda are invoca-
tions addressed to various divinities.
These hymns are sung to invoke and
propitiate these divinities so that
human beings may enjoy the good
things in life. In marked contrast to the
confidence and optimism found in the
earlier hymns, the Creation Hymn takes
a far more speculative tone. In the
Creation Hymn, the poet begins by
imagining a time before the existence of
Being and Nonbeing, and he speculates
on the origin of the world. In the end the
poet ascribes all creation to a single
impersonal agent, “That One” (Ta dCreation Hymn