Can there be “public science of cow sacrality”? Veezhinathan Kamakoti, the director of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, recently attempted this when he advocated cow worship based on some scientific research and considerable religious passion. This did not go down well with many. Would public sociology of cow-sacrality be different from such advocacy and interpretation? Can it be non-controversial?

Cow sacrality is a significant religious article in India that has violent political possibilities, and academics of all hues must tread cautiously. Public sociology could, however, complement the public commitment to hard sciences by evoking a better understanding of culture and society. Cow protection, worship, and the passion surrounding panchagavya could even evoke violent “humaneness” among touchable Hindus, close in nature to the violent interpretations of jihad in Islam. While the ethic of service and sacrifice is at the heart of cow worship, what is understated generally is the violent and hierarchical nature of such sacrifice. Chapter 11 in Laws of Manu, for instance, advocates the following:

80. He who unhesitatingly abandons life for the sake of Brahmanas or of cows, is freed from (the guilt of) the murder of a Brahmana, and (so is he) who saves (the life of) a cow, or of a........

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