From 50 Years Ago: Government Abdicates

EDITORIALS

The place of cattle in the Indian economy, true enough, is not a question to be settled by economic expertise alone. It is covered and overlaid by heavy emotions drawing its strength from the dark depths of unreason. … All that the Directive Principles of State Policy say is that “The State shall endeavour to organise agriculture and animal husbandry on modern and scientific lines and shall, in particular, take steps for preserving and improving the breeds, and prohibiting the slaughter of cows and calves and other milch and draught cattle”. During the discussions in the Constituent Assembly, it was made abundantly clear that this Directive was being adopted “not in the name of the religion but in the light of the economic requirements of the country”. …