A gift from the gods: bottled cow's urine
By Julian West in New Delhi
(Filed: 02/09/2001)
HINDU nationalists in India have launched a marketing
exercise to promote cow's urine as a health cure for
ailments ranging from liver disease to obesity and even
cancer.
The urine, which is being sold under the label "Gift of the
Cow", is being enthusiastically promoted by the
government of Gujarat, one of three states in India
dominated by Hindu nationalists.
The urine is collected daily from almost 600 shelters for
rescued and wounded cattle set up by the Vishwa Hindu
Parisad (VHP), or World Council of Holy men, as part of a
government cow-protection programme to save the
country's sacred, but often maltreated, beasts.
Advertised as being "sterilised and completely fresh" it is
available for 20 rupees (30p) a bottle at about 50 centres
run by the VHP in Gujerat, from 200 of their outlets in
neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, and at fairs and religious
festivals throughout India.
It also comes in tablets or a cream mixed with other
traditional medicinal herbs. Demand is currently
outstripping supply.
Dr Jadi Patel at the VHP's headquarters in Ahmedabad
said: "It's very popular because the results are very
good, but we've got a shortage." He explained that the
cow protection centres had been formed after the last
grand gathering of saddhus, or holy men, to save cows
from "unofficial slaughter by Muslims".
Killing cows is illegal in most Indian states but there are
an estimated 32,000 illegal abattoirs and 13.7 million
cows are believed to be slaughtered by Muslims for the
leather industry.
Animal rights activists in India also claim that the
doe-eyed, hump-backed white Brahma cattle that are to
be found on almost every Indian street are subjected to
various abuses, including forced pregnancies to produce
more milk.
The cow protection commission was set up to protect the
holy cows, and research conducted by doctors involved in
the project revealed that the cows' urine had medicinal
properties.
The idea of using it came from the central Indian
headquarters of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
(RSS), the powerful Hindu nationalist ideologues behind
the country's Bharata Janata Party (BJP), where five
scientists are researching its beneficial effects.
Like all devout Hindus, RSS members believe that all cow
products are sacred. Ghee, or clarified butter, is used in
Indian cooking and to light lamps during temple
ceremonies, and milk is commonly poured over sacred
idols as an offering.
The healing properties of cow dung and cow's urine are
also mentioned in ancient Hindu texts. The research
conducted by doctors at the cow-protection commission
indicates that the urine can cure anything from skin
diseases, kidney and liver ailments to obesity and heart
ailments.
Although most Indian doctors view the medicines as
eccentric, several advocates of the treatment have come
forward in Gujarat, have come forward to support the
doctors' claims.
They include Vidhyaben Mehta, a 65-year-old woman with
a cancerous tumour on her chest who has been taking
cow's urine for the past three years. She says she is no
longer in pain and has survived in spite of medical
predictions that she would die two years ago.
So enthusiastic is the Gujarat government about its cows'
urine medicines that it has asked the Indian Institute of
Management to compile a database of traditional cures
and verify the Hindu nationalists' findings.
The academics have also discovered that cow's urine is
an extremely effective pesticide and plant fertiliser and
are now developing for human consumption new drugs
that contain the "gift of the cow".
Prof Anil Gupta at the institute said: "This isn't just a
religious thing. If it's useful we shouldn't stop it simply
because we think it has religious connections."
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