Saffronisation of the Holy Cow: Unearthing Silent Communalism

(The Economic and Political Weekly, VOL 46 No. 15 April 09 - April 15, 2011)

by Smitha Rao

The principles of environmentality are employed in this study to look at how law, science and policy can mould environmental subjectivities of people to conflicting ends. The study locates the environment and animalrights debate within the complex of underlying exclusivist Hindu nationalist philosophy. This case study of Karnataka Prevention of Slaughter and Protection of Cattle Bill 2010, which is considered a direct attack on the dietary practices of the minorities, is an extension of the critiques of religious-environmentalism and showcases the machinations of a fundamentalist metanarrative that obscures environmental thought. This silent form of communalism tends to go unnoticed when couched in scientific or politically correct language.

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