The Hindu right’s pro-cow policies are terrible for India’s cows
A Hindu nationalist cow census is an effort to solve a problem after making it worse
THE INDIAN government is not terribly keen on counting people. The country’s census, conducted every ten years between 1881 and 2011, was postponed in 2021 owing to the covid-19 pandemic. It has yet to be rescheduled. Counting cows, for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is a different matter. The BJP government of the big northern state of Uttar Pradesh (UP), home to an estimated 240m people and perhaps 20m cattle, is conducting a new bovine census. The point of this, says the government, is better cow protection.
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This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Suffering herds”
Asia February 3rd 2024
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- The Hindu right’s pro-cow policies are terrible for India’s cows
- India’s opposition bloc disintegrates
- Asia’s commercial heft helps keep Russia’s war economy going
- Imran Khan is convicted. Pakistan’s generals are content
From the February 3rd 2024 edition
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A good news story? Maybe