Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/921

 nmnmsm 831 inhumanities practised by us on the cow and her progeny. How we bleed her to take the last drop of milk from her, how we starve her to emaciation, how we ill·treat the calves, how we deprive them of their portion of mills, how cruelly we treat the ox on, how we castrate them, how we beat them, how we overload them- If they had speech they would bear witness to our crimes against them which would stagger the world. By every act of cruelty to our cattle, we disown God and Hinduism, Ido not know that the condition of the cattle in any other part of the world is as had as in unhappy India. We may not blame the Englishman for this. We may not plead poverty in our defence. Criminal negligence is the only cause of the miserable condition of our cattle Our Pcnjrapolcs, though they are an answer to our instinct of mercy, are a clumsy demonstration of its execution. Instead of being model dairy farms and great profitable national institutions, they are merely depots for receiving decrepit cattle. Hindus will be judged not by their tilaks, not hy the correct chanting of mcntms, not by their pilgrimages, not by their most punctilious observance of caste rules ·but by their ability to protect the cow. Whilst professing the religion of cow·protection, we have enslaved the cow and her progeny, and have become slaves ourselves. It will now be understood why I consider myself a Sanatani Hindu. I yield to none in my regard for the cow. I have made the Khilafat cause my own, because I see that through its preservation full protection can be secured for the cow. I do not ask my Mussulman friends to save the cow in consideration of my service. My prayer ascends daily to God Almighty, that my service of a cause I hold to be just may appear so pleasing to