Long Live Cows

Seth Ramkrishna Dalmia is Mr. Big No. 3 of Indian Big Business.* He owns six newspapers, an airline, a big insurance company, a bank and most of India's cement factories. He also has four wives. Last month Businessman Dalmia, a Hindu, summoned the press to pink lemonade, vanilla ice cream and green gage plums on the lawn of his big house in New Delhi. Then he read a 2,500-word statement. "I ask that people treat the cow and look after it as well as they look after their mother."/- Soon thereafter, his six newspapers began referring to Dalmia as president of the "Cow Protection League." They designated Aug. 10 as "Cow Day."

Last week Dalmia contributed a new wrinkle to India's liberation problems. "I have arrived," said he, "at the conclusion that unless within a year of the liberation of India cow slaughter is prohibited by law, I shall stake all I have, I will pool all my resources and energies that I command, I shall be prepared to starve to death. I shall not hesitate to lay down my life for this most sacred cause."

Rich Hindus sometimes seek to insure a happy reincarnation by endowing pinjarapoles--hostels for aging and infirm cows. But it seemed unlikely that Hindu India would outlaw cow slaughter. Mohandas Gandhi, a cow protector from way back, explained somewhat cattily: "India is a land not only of Hindus but of Moslems, Sikhs, Parsees, Christians and Jews. If cow slaughter can be prohibited in India on religious grounds, why can't Pakistan then prohibit [Hindu] idol worship in Pakistan on similar grounds?"

* No. 1, J. R. D. Tata (steel); No. 2, Ghan-shyamdas Birle (cotton and sugar).

/- Cows are sacred to Hindus, who do not eat beef. Orthodox Hindus will not even wear leather shoes. Cow killing is prohibited in most princely states. It is not prohibited by British law.

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