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Goshala
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Gaushalas or Goshalas (Hindi: गौशाला, romanized: gauśālā) are protective shelters for stray cows in India. Government grants and donations are the primary source of income of the cow shelters in India. Since 2014, when BJP government came into power in India, India has spent ₹5.8 billion (US$69 million) on cow shelters in two years between 2014 and 2016.[1]
Description
[edit]
Goshala, a Sanskrit word ("Go" means cow and "Shala" means a shelter place: Go + Shala = shelter for cows), means the abode or sanctuary for cows, calves and oxen.[2]
History
[edit]The first Gaurakshini sabha (cow protection society) was established in Punjab in 1882.[3] The movement spread rapidly all over North India and to Bengal, Bombay, Madras presidencies and other central provinces. The organization rescued wandering cows and reclaimed them to groom them in places called gaushalas. Charitable networks developed all through North India to collect rice from individuals, pool the contributions, and re-sell them to fund the gaushalas. Signatures, up to 350,000 in some places, were collected to demand a ban on cow sacrifice.[4] Between 1880 and 1893, hundreds of gaushalas were opened.[5] Pathmeda godham is the largest Gaushala in India with over 85000 cows being sheltered in the small town of Pathmeda in southern Rajasthan.[6]
Government grants
[edit]Since the BJP government came into power in India in 2014, India has spent ₹5.8 billion (US$69 million) on cow shelters in between the years 2014 and 2016.[1]
To prevent unproductive cows being sent to the abattoir, the government started the Rashtriya Gokul Mission in mid-2014, a national program that involves constructing havens for retired cows. Proceeds from the animals' bodily waste are intended to pay for their upkeep. In May 2016, the Indian national government held an inaugural national conference on goshalas. The Niti Ayog is working on developing a roadmap for Gaushala economy to develop commercial use of cow urine and cow dung for various purposes.[7]
Other sources of income
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Donations are the only source of income for the Goshala. Some goshalas offer yoga and music lessons for additional income.[8][better source needed]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b "Cow urine can sell for more than milk in India". Bloomberg.com. 2016-07-18. Retrieved 2016-09-18.
- ^ "300 cattle head for goshala everyday". The Times of India. 2011-08-17. Archived from the original on 2013-11-10. Retrieved 2013-02-06.
- ^ The Making of an Indian Metropolis, Colonial governance and public culture in Bombay, 1890/1920, Prashant Kidambi, p. 176, ISBN 978-0-7546-5612-8.
- ^ Vishnu's crowded temple, India since the great rebellion, pp. 67-69, Maria Misra, 2008, Yale University Press, ISBN 978-0-300-13721-7.
- ^ "Report of the National Commission on Cattle - Chapter I (10. Beginning of mass protests against cow-killings)". Dahd.nic.in. Archived from the original on 27 September 2013. Retrieved 10 November 2013.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ Gupta, Abhinav (2016-04-13). "Shri Pathmeda Godham Mahatirth: World's largest cowshed". www.indiatvnews.com. Retrieved 2022-02-08.
- ^ Sharma, Yogima Seth. "Niti Aayog working on road map to develop Gaushala economy". The Economic Times. Retrieved 2022-02-08.
- ^ "Shri Shaktidarshan Yogashram". Retrieved 2021-03-01.
External links
[edit]
Media related to Goshalas at Wikimedia Commons
Goshala
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Religious and Cultural Foundations
Scriptural and Historical Reverence for Cows
The Vedic corpus, dating to circa 1500–500 BCE, portrays cows as embodiments of wealth (gau signifying both cow and prosperity) and vital sustenance, with hymns extolling their milk as a divine gift and bulls as enablers of agricultural labor. Rigvedic verses invoke cows in rituals for abundance, while Atharvaveda texts prescribe protections against their harm, linking such acts to communal welfare through non-violence principles nascent in early Indo-Aryan society.[5] [6] A specific injunction in Rig Veda 10.87.16 condemns those who slaughter cows to deprive communities of milk, underscoring their practical role in nourishment over ritual sacrifice.[6] This scriptural esteem reflected empirical necessities in Bronze Age agrarian economies, where cattle powered plowing and transport—bullocks drawing carts and tilling fields—and dung served as primary fertilizer to restore soil nutrients depleted by monsoon-dependent farming. Textual and archaeological records from Indus Valley successors and Vedic settlements confirm dung's widespread use for crop enhancement and as household fuel, comprising a dominant share of energy sources in cattle-rearing households.[7] [8] Bulls facilitated nearly all overland haulage of goods and seeds, making cattle herds causally central to food security and surplus generation in riverine plains.[9] Epic literature, including the Mahabharata (circa 400 BCE–400 CE) and Ramayana (similar span), elevates the cow to Gau Mata, a maternal archetype whose safeguarding upholds dharma and averts karmic disorder. Mahabharata passages equate cow protection with righteous kingship, portraying violations as breaches of cosmic order that invite societal decay.[10] Ramayana narratives similarly embed cow veneration in heroic duties, with figures like Rama embodying ahimsa toward bovines as extensions of filial and ecological piety.[10] These texts, drawing from oral traditions, integrated reverence with lived interdependence, where cow-derived outputs—milk, ghee, and hides—sustained rituals and households without necessitating total inviolability in extremis, as evidenced by contextual allowances for draught relief.[11]Role in Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist Traditions
In Hinduism, goshalas function as sanctuaries embodying the reverence for cows as embodiments of divine motherhood and providers of essential resources like milk and dung, integral to rituals and daily sustenance under the principle of ahimsa (non-violence) and dharma (cosmic order).[1] Historical endowments by kings and temples supported these shelters, ensuring protection for aging or unproductive cows as a moral imperative to sustain agricultural cycles and avert resource scarcity.[1] This practice aligns with scriptural mandates viewing cow protection as a pathway to spiritual merit, fostering societal resilience by maintaining breeding herds that could repopulate during droughts or famines.[12] Jainism elevates goshalas within broader pinjrapoles (animal refuges), driven by rigorous adherence to ahimsa, which prohibits harm to any sentient being and historically prompted the establishment of shelters for infirm cattle to allow natural death without exploitation.[13] Medieval Jain communities institutionalized these sanctuaries, reflecting texts and practices that extended compassion to vulnerable animals, thereby preserving ecological balance through non-intervention in life's natural processes.[13] Such efforts underscore a causal ethic: shielding cows from slaughter sustains manure for soil enrichment, a staple in traditional farming that enhanced fertility without synthetic inputs prior to mid-20th-century shifts.[14] Buddhist traditions parallel these through general precepts of compassion (karuna) and avoidance of animal harm, as articulated in sutras like the Brahmanadhammika Sutta, which extol cattle protection to uphold ethical kingship and prevent societal decay from needless killing.[15] However, institutional goshalas remain less formalized than in Hinduism or Jainism, with emphasis instead on monastic rules against beef consumption and regional revivals, such as 20th-century Burmese laws banning cattle slaughter to align with Buddhist non-violence.[16] Across these Dharmic paths, cow shelters manifest shared imperatives against exploiting life's utility, empirically linking preserved herds to stable agrarian systems where dung fueled 70-80% of rural energy and fertilization needs in pre-chemical eras, countering sustainability critiques by evidencing self-reinforcing resource loops.[17] Nineteenth-century reformers like Dayananda Saraswati furthered this by founding goshalas to promote Vedic self-reliance, tying protection to national vitality.[18]Historical Development
Ancient and Medieval Origins
In the Vedic period (c. 1500–500 BCE), cattle herding underpinned the pastoral economy of ancient Indo-Aryan communities, where cows supplied milk, clarified butter (ghee), and draft power for rudimentary plowing and transport, essential for subsistence amid semi-nomadic lifestyles transitioning to settled agriculture. Rigveda hymns, such as those in Book VI attributing praise to the cow's virtues by Rishi Bhardwaja, underscore the protective role of cowherds (gopala) in defending herds from theft, predators, and environmental stresses, fostering informal communal arrangements for livestock oversight rather than isolated piety.[19] These practices responded to the economic imperative of preserving breeding stock and milk-yielding animals in regions where cattle density supported clan wealth and ritual exchanges, as evidenced by textual invocations for herd vitality.[20] Archaeozoological analyses of ancient settlements, including Indus Valley sites dating to 2600–1900 BCE, yield abundant Bos indicus (zebu cattle) bones alongside tools for dairy processing, indicating deliberate management of herds for traction, manure-based fertilization, and selective culling of non-productive males while retaining females for sustained output.[21] Such findings from Harappan contexts reveal cattle integration into mixed farming, where their economic value—evident in bone pathologies from overwork and prevalence exceeding wild game remains—drove early protective herding to mitigate losses from disease or raids, laying groundwork for structured enclosures as urbanization intensified labor demands.[22][23] By the Gupta Empire (c. 320–550 CE), inscriptions explicitly reference gosala (cow-stalls) as formalized facilities, often tied to village or temple endowments, marking the shift to institutionalized shelters amid imperial agricultural expansion requiring reliable draft animals and organic fertilizers.[24] Land grants documented in epigraphic records supported these setups, prioritizing economic resilience in fertile Gangetic plains where cattle enabled surplus production for taxation and trade, with royal oversight ensuring breed viability against famines or invasions. In subsequent medieval polities, such as the early Chola kingdoms (c. 9th–13th centuries CE), analogous patronage through agrarian devadana (temple lands) implicitly bolstered cattle maintenance within temple complexes, aligning shelters with intensified rice cultivation reliant on bovine plowing and dung for soil enrichment.[25][26] This progression reflected causal priorities of agrarian scalability over symbolic reverence, as demographic pressures and wet-rice systems amplified the utility of preserved herds in sustaining human populations.Colonial Era and Independence Movements
During the 19th century, British colonial policies significantly expanded cattle slaughter in India to support the leather industry and beef exports, establishing factory slaughterhouses and employing professional butchers, which contrasted with pre-colonial practices where such large-scale killing was limited.[27][28] This economic exploitation, driven by demand for hides in European markets, provoked Hindu resistance, framing cow slaughter as an assault on indigenous cultural and religious norms.[29] The cow protection movement gained momentum in the 1880s, spearheaded by the Arya Samaj under Swami Dayananda Saraswati, who advocated for goshalas as institutions to shelter aged and unproductive cattle, emphasizing Vedic reverence for cows in works like Satyarth Prakash.[30] These efforts positioned goshalas as sites of cultural assertion, countering British policies by promoting self-sustaining cattle care and reducing reliance on colonial trade networks. Nationalist campaigns, including boycotts and protests against slaughterhouses, highlighted goshalas' role in preserving bovine resources for agriculture and fuel, thereby challenging economic dependencies.[31] In the 1920s, Mahatma Gandhi integrated cow protection into the swadeshi movement, arguing in publications like Young India that safeguarding cows fostered self-reliance by utilizing dung for manure and fuel, laying groundwork for rural economies independent of imported goods.[32] Gandhi established model goshalas at his ashrams, viewing them as embodiments of non-violence (ahimsa) and national regeneration, which resonated with independence activists seeking to reclaim Hindu traditions from colonial erosion.[33] These initiatives spurred the proliferation of goshalas, transforming them into symbols of anti-colonial unity and contributing to a surge in protective societies by the 1940s, amid broader boycotts that pressured reductions in certain beef shipments through local agitations and legal petitions.[27] By linking cattle preservation to swadeshi economics and cultural identity, goshalas bolstered nationalist fervor, distinguishing indigenous self-sufficiency from British extractive practices.[31]Post-Independence Expansion
Following India's independence in 1947, the Government appointed the Cattle Preservation and Development Committee to address cattle management and preservation needs.[34] This initiative aligned with Article 48 of the Constitution, adopted in 1950, which directs the state to prohibit the slaughter of cows and calves as well as other milch and draught cattle while promoting scientific animal husbandry.[35] In the 1950s, a government survey identified approximately 1,020 goshalas across 21 states, reflecting early institutional efforts to shelter and breed cattle amid growing emphasis on preservation.[1] From the 1950s to 1970s, cattle populations expanded significantly, rising from 155.3 million in 1951 to around 192 million by 1982, driven partly by bans on cow slaughter enacted in most states.[36] These restrictions, varying by state but generally prohibiting cow slaughter, contributed to an accumulation of unproductive and ageing cattle, as farmers found it uneconomical to maintain non-milch animals without viable disposal options.[37] The National Commission on Agriculture, reporting in 1976, underscored the need for improved cattle management infrastructure, including goshalas, to handle surplus stock and support breed improvement.[38] In the 1980s and 1990s, stricter enforcement of slaughter bans in regions like Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh led to surges in stray cattle, with estimates reaching about 5 million by the 2010s as owners abandoned unproductive animals to avoid maintenance costs.[39] This prompted expansions in goshala networks, often managed by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and temple trusts, which absorbed stray and surplus cattle for care and limited productivity uses.[40] By 2002, the number of goshalas had grown to around 3,000, sheltering approximately 600,000 cattle, representing a key mechanism for managing 10-15% of non-productive bovine stock amid total cattle numbers nearing 193 million in 2012.[41][36]Operations and Management
Daily Care and Infrastructure
Typical goshala infrastructure includes open yards for exercise, covered sheds for shelter, and facilities for fodder storage and waste handling, with minimum requirements scaled by herd size such as 100, 500, or 1,000 animals.[42] These setups often feature indoor housing to protect animals from weather, making them reliant on human-managed routines for feeding and cleaning.[43] Capacities vary, with units as small as 50 animals receiving capital support for basic sheds and fencing, while larger facilities accommodate up to 1,000 or more in progressive models with dedicated fodder cultivation areas.[44][45] Daily care routines emphasize regular feeding with green fodder, dry fodder, and concentrates, often sourced externally due to limited on-site production, supplemented by record-keeping for stock registers to track consumption.[42] Veterinary protocols involve routine health checks, identification tagging, and prompt treatment, as shelters admit aged or unproductive cows requiring ongoing medical attention.[1] Waste management practices focus on daily removal of dung from sheds to prevent disease, followed by composting or vermicomposting for environmental control and potential reuse.[42][46] In arid regions like Rajasthan, management adapts to water scarcity through breed selection such as Tharparkar cattle suited to dry conditions and emphasis on resilient rangeland practices, though overall operations remain challenged by erratic rainfall affecting fodder availability.[47][48]Breed Conservation and Productivity
Goshalas serve as key repositories for preserving indigenous cattle breeds, including Gir and Sahiwal, which demonstrate superior resilience to India's tropical climates, including heat stress and common diseases like tick infestations, compared to exotic breeds requiring intensive management.[49] These facilities maintain purebred populations through selective breeding and genetic resource banking, mitigating the erosion of biodiversity amid widespread crossbreeding with high-yield exotic stock.[50] Since the 1990s, some goshalas have incorporated semen collection and storage programs to facilitate controlled breeding, enabling the distribution of elite germplasm for national conservation efforts while avoiding dilution of native traits.[51] Indigenous breeds conserved in goshalas typically yield 5–8 liters of milk per day on average, substantially lower than the 15–25 liters from exotic breeds like Holstein-Friesian under optimal conditions, prompting critiques of their economic viability in commercial dairying.[52][53] However, their lower input requirements—thriving on coarse fodder and exhibiting higher feed conversion efficiency in resource-scarce environments—offset productivity gaps when evaluated holistically.[49] Crossbreeding programs utilizing semen from conserved indigenous bulls have contributed to approximately 50% of India's cattle milk output, blending native hardiness with enhanced yields in hybrid animals.[54] Beyond milk, productivity encompasses non-lactational outputs, with a typical cow producing around 10 kg of dung daily, yielding 3,650 kg annually that supports biogas generation (30–36 liters per kg of dung) and organic fertilization, generating an estimated economic value of ₹2,000–5,000 per cow per year through sales of cakes, slurry, or energy.[55][56] This multipurpose utility underscores the breeds' role in sustainable rural economies, where dung's nutrient profile enhances soil health without synthetic inputs.[57] Conservation efforts face challenges from potential inbreeding depression in confined goshala populations, which can reduce fertility by 10–20% and elevate calf mortality due to homozygous recessive traits, necessitating vigilant pedigree tracking and outcrossing strategies.[58][59]| Breed Example | Milk Yield (L/day, avg.) | Key Resilience Traits | Primary Conservation Benefit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sahiwal (Indigenous) | 6–8 | Heat tolerance, disease resistance | Genetic base for crossbreeds contributing to national dairy output[49] |
| Gir (Indigenous) | 5–8 | Adaptation to arid conditions, tick resistance | Purebred maintenance for semen banking[53] |
| Holstein-Friesian (Exotic) | 20+ | N/A (high-input dependent) | Benchmark for yield, but lower adaptability in India |