Indian State Passes Beef Ban Championed by Right-Wing Hindus

MUMBAI, India — The western state of
Maharashtra this week became the first Indian
state to ban the possession and sale of beef,
imposing fines and up to five years in prison for
violations.

The ban, which was passed on Monday, came as
an amendment to a 1972 law prohibiting the
slaughter of cows, which has been expanded to
ban the slaughter of bulls, bullocks and calves.

The slaughter of water buffaloes will still be
allowed under the new law, subject to permission
from the authorities. The populous western state
includes Mumbai, the Indian financial capital.

The Maharashtra Animal Preservation
(Amendment) Bill, championed by right-wing
Hindu organizations, was first passed in 1995
but languished for two decades under a governing coalition between the Indian National Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party. The
Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party won a
clear majority in state elections last October,
after Narendra Modi, the party’s leader, took
office as prime minister in May.

The law, which allows a fine of 10,000 rupees,
about $162, took effect Monday night after
approval from President Pranab Mukherjee.
Maharashtra’s chief minister, Devendra
Fadnavis, gave the president credit and
expressed his thanks over Twitter.

“Our dream of ban on cow slaughter becomes a
reality now,” he wrote.
The move was far less popular with those who
run Mumbai’s restaurants, and some retailers
warned that it would eliminate jobs and send the
price of other meats spiraling upward.

“This is extremely sad to hear,” Glyston Gracias,
brand chef at Smoke House Deli in Mumbai, told
The Indian Express, a daily newspaper. “I will
have to go to another country.”

“A lot of our foreign clientele, such as Japanese
and Europeans, will miss beef on the menu,” he
said. “I will find it difficult to do international
cuisine.”

The protection of cows is a volatile subject in
India, where the animal is revered by the
majority-Hindu population. Nearly all of India’s
states already have legal provisions restricting or
banning cow slaughter. The B.J.P.’s election
manifesto included promises to work toward “the protection and promotion of cow and its progeny.”

As India’s beef trade is largely controlled by
Muslim traders, a religious minority in the
country, the issue has become a point of
contention between the two religious groups, and
it is particularly politicized during elections.

Last month, beef traders in Maharashtra
complained that they were being harassed by
right-wing Hindu groups that were attacking
vehicles transporting cattle to abattoirs, seizing
the animals by force and beating the drivers. In
February, beef traders across the state went on
strike for over a week until the chief minister,
Mr. Fadnavis, assured them protection.

India is a top exporter of meat from buffaloes,
which are more common and less revered in
India than cows. India’s exports of beef,
including buffalo meat, have been rising steadily.

Ahead of the state elections, Satpal Malik, a vice
president of the farmers’ wing of the B.J.P., said
that if elected, the party would “crack down on
beef exports” and “review the subsidy the
government gives for beef or buffalo meat
exports,” according to a report by Reuters.