AUTHOR- Gargi Santra
Hinduism is the oldest practiced religion in the world and sacrificing animals to gods and goddesses has been prevalent ever since then. In verse 10.86.14 of the Rig Veda, God Indra says, “they cook for me 15 to 20 plus oxen”. This verse has a lot of different explanations and has led to a number of controversies. When one group argues that this verse clearly says that animal sacrifices have been mentioned and justified in the Vedas, the other group says that one should not look at the literal meaning only but have a clear understanding looking into the deeper meaning of the text and it is unfair to judge by going through only one single verse and not the whole text and scriptures of the Vedas. The reality is that apart from all these controversies several temples and families still believe and carry out the practice of animal offerings to deities in the name of a holy thing.
The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 allows killing of animals for consumption and prevents any unnecessary infliction of pain to animals. The Act does not contain any clause which explicitly talks about animal sacrifices to deities. A thorough reading of the Act clears that only section 28 of the Act talks about religion and animal killings where it protects the manner of killing of the animal as prescribed by the religion of any community but it does not speak about the purpose for which the animal is being killed. Recently petitions have been filed from different states regarding the issue of animal sacrifices to deities. The law which is currently under challenge is the Kerala Animals and Bird Sacrifices (Prevention) Act, 1968 which prohibits animal sacrifices and birds in temples. It has been challenged on the ground that it violates Article14, Article 25 and Article 26 of the Constitution.
Being raised up in a Hindu family I have come across instances of animal offerings happening in temples and popular festivals. But the lesser known fact is after these offerings takes place, the meat is distributed and cooked for food. And the problem lies here. Apart from the petition filed in the Supreme Court challenging the constitutional validity of the Kerala Animals and Bird Sacrifices (Prohibition) Act, 1968, a similar petition was filed in the Supreme Court previously by the government of Tripura challenging the verdict of a division bench of the Tripura High Court in the case of Sri Subhas Bhattacharjee vs The State Of Tripura on 27 September, 2019, where it was held that any sacrifice of bird or animal within the precincts of temple within the State of Tripura would be prohibited. The Supreme Court has guaranteed the “right to life” to animals as well. In the case of Animal Welfare Board v. Nagraj and Others, the Supreme Court in 2014 held that Jallikattu, the famous sport of Tamil Nadu should be banned as it violates the “right to life” of the bull and thereafter the sport was completely banned. A similar argument can be drawn on this basis that animal sacrifices to deity should also be banned on the ground that it violates the right to life of the animal and amounts to animal cruelty. But similarly another argument says that, when animal killings is permitted for the sake of food then why not as offerings to deities which in the end is ultimately used as consumption purpose? It is yet to be decided by the Apex Court. The verdict of the Supreme Court relating to this matter might urge us to halt and change the age old customs of worship in the coming future.
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