Cow, Army And Nationalism: A Political Dialogue

Abstract

India, for the last few years has become a nation of prohibitions that deliberately or not challenge the nature of democracy and secularism. It is purely credible that, from the status of a domestic animal the cow has transformed to a political animal with National identity, especially during and after the unrests of beef ban. Parallel to this, another operating mode of Nationalism also is being celebrated connecting Indian Army with the romanticized and sentimental concept of the mother land. Constant efforts are made to propagate the patriotic image of Army so that the sense of protection and defense can be nationalized and re-defined. To fight for one’s own land is treated as ‘Kshatriya Dharma’ and this notion is associated with Hindutva. Imposing ban on cow meat is also connected with the same ideology, for cow is treated holy according to the Hindu belief. Army and cow stand parallel in the discourse of Nationalism. The present paper is an attempt to trace the history of Cow Politics and nationalism in India which is not inclusive in nature. As a shared group feeling, nationalism is a concept that holds people together, attached to a single ideology and social conditioning. The question is how the state construct a biased and elite national identity by making use of some seemingly normal narratives in day-today political dialogues. The paper further investigates how the glorified Military narratives accelerate Hindu Nationalism dismantling the marginal voices of farmers challenging the slogan: Jai Javan, Jai Kisan.