Presented by Zia H Shah MD

India’s population is overwhelmingly Hindu: about 79.8% of Indians follow Hinduism pewresearch.org, while 14.2% are Muslim. Christians and Sikhs are much smaller minorities (around 2.3% and 1.7% respectively censusofindia.net). (Buddhists, Jains and others make up the rest.) In raw numbers this means roughly 1.4 billion people (2025 estimate) with about 1.1 billion Hindus, 200 million Muslims, 30 million Christians, and 25 million Sikhs. India’s vast internet reach (nearly 900 million users by 2025 ibef.org) and improving literacy rate (≈73% in 2011 censusofindia.net) mean modern ideas are spreading even in rural areas.

Hindu Nationalism and the Sacred Cow

Hindutva politics has elevated the cow as a political symbol. The BJP’s 2014 election campaign prominently featured slogans like “Vote for Modi, save the cow, save the country.”aljazeera.com. The party’s platform promised numerous cow-welfare measures. For example, BJP leaders vowed to establish “cow hostels” in cities, “cow pensions” for farmers, a “cow protection force” to rescue strays, and even a “cow university” to teach the value of indigenous cattlealjazeera.com. BJP-ruled states have tightened slaughter laws (e.g. Gujarat imposes life sentences for cow slaughteraljazeera.com) and even proposed a “Ministry for Cows” or cow sanctuariesaljazeera.com. Uttarakhand’s BJP government ran a program buying cow urine for supposed medicinal usealjazeera.com. In short, the cow has been enshrined as an “explicit symbol of Hindu piety,” and protecting it has been a high-profile BJP prioritywral.comaljazeera.com.

• Cow-centered policies: BJP manifestos and leaders have itemized plans like “cow hostels,” “cow pensions,” “cow universities,” “cow protection forces,” etc.aljazeera.com. Strict bans on cow slaughter (with heavy penalties) are enforced in many BJP-ruled statesaljazeera.com. Even on the campaign trail in 2014, BJP cow-cell chief Mayankeshwar Singh boasted: “We will build ‘cow hostels’…‘cow pension’…‘cow protection force’”aljazeera.com.
• Impact on minorities and poor: Critics note that these moves mostly affect communities that eat beef. Over 25% of Indians (including Dalits and tribal groups) eat beef, as do large Muslim and Christian minoritiesaljazeera.com. Beef is an inexpensive protein for poor Dalits; for example, Dalit activist Mohan Dharavath noted “beef is one of the most affordable sources of protein for the Dalit community.”aljazeera.com. BJP lawmakers have responded with beef bans or intimidation of butchers, sparking tension: one beef-merchant leader said cow protection rhetoric is really about “playing politics” and targeting Muslim livelihoodsaljazeera.com. In practice, universities once served beef meals to assert dietary freedom, but BJP student wings have pressured schools to remove beef from menusaljazeera.comaljazeera.com.

All this has led critics (and some Hindus) to accuse the BJP of “communalising animal husbandry.” The Congress party famously charged that Prime Minister Modi’s rhetoric was dividing Indians along religious linesaljazeera.com. In sum, the sacred-cow campaign is widely seen as a polarizing strategy: it energizes Hindu nationalists, but alienates Muslims, Christians, and lower-caste Hindus.

Pseudoscience and Cow Products

Alongside symbolic politics, some promoters have made scientifically dubious claims about cows. For instance, in March 2020 a Hindu fringe group (Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha) held a cow-urine drinking party in Delhi (200 people attended) to “ward off” COVID-19reuters.com. (They even painted a COVID caricature to pour urine onreuters.com.) Experts immediately pointed out that cow urine has no proven medicinal value (it’s mostly water and urea)reuters.com. Nevertheless, some BJP leaders and right-wing figures have endorsed cow urine as a panacea: Reuters reported that senior BJP figures touted it as a “cure for cancer,” and an Assam politician told his state assembly that “cow urine and cow dung can be used to treat the coronavirus.”reuters.com.

These trends go beyond rituals. The “Holy Cow Foundation” and allied NGOs have even commercialized cow products. They market a floor cleaner called Gaunyle (cow-urine-based) and lobbied to replace ordinary phenyl with it in government officesen.wikipedia.org. In 2015 Rajasthan built a ₹40 million cow-urine refinery (by Parthvimeda Gau Pharma) to extract chemicals and produce a floor cleaner named “Go-Cleaner”en.wikipedia.org. In effect, cow urine is being industrialized as if it were a high-tech resource.

At the same time, dissent is being punished. In May 2021 the Manipur police invoked the stringent National Security Act (NSA) against two critics – a journalist and an activist – for posting on Facebook that “cow dung and cow urine will not cure Covid-19.”en.wikipedia.orgndtv.com. These men were detained for weeks for simply criticizing the pseudo-scientific claims of the government’s cow-urine advocacyen.wikipedia.orgndtv.com. Such incidents – academic seminars canceled to make way for cow welfare eventswral.com, dissenters jailed for questioning cow-medicine – have alarmed free-speech advocates.

Academic Freedom and Scientific Temper

Academic institutions have also felt the heat of cow-centered Hindutva. In late 2025 Delhi University drew international attention when it abruptly canceled a seminar on democracy and at the same time ordered faculty to promote a government-backed “National Godhan (cow herd) Summit” on campuswral.com. Critics noted the irony: DU, long a bastion of critical thought, was being asked to prioritize a cow-welfare event over a lecture series on fundamental rights. The Democratic Teachers Front (a teachers’ union) condemned the move as undermining “scientific temper,” saying it showed a “clear bias” against critical social sciencewral.com. In short, the ruling BJP’s promotion of cow mythology is increasingly clashing with India’s secular, scientific ethos.

By contrast, India is aggressively pushing into high-tech fields. The country now boasts hundreds of tech universities and startups in AI, space, and pharmaceuticals. With ~900 million internet users by 2025ibef.org, even rural Indians have access to global science and fact-checking resources. As technology spreads, anti-science practices will face scrutiny. For example, AI translation tools and medical databases readily debunk claims about cow cures; journalists and bloggers can quickly fact-check pseudoscience. In the coming decades, a growing middle class of engineers and scientists may find the anti-rational elements of Hindutva untenable.

• Internet and education growth: Reports project that active internet users in India will exceed 900 million by 2025ibef.org, the vast majority in regional languages. Digital literacy and online education (for example, government Digital India initiatives) are accelerating scientific awareness.
• Scientific temper vs. superstition: India’s constitution even calls for citizens to develop a “scientific temper.” Yet the recent trend has been in the opposite direction, with biology labs sidelined by cow “innovation” labs. Over time, pressure may build to restore a balance between faith and reason.

The Future: Rationality, Religion and Conversions

Will strict cow politics backfire? It’s conceivable. Modernization often encourages people to question traditional taboos. If Hindutva insistence on cow reverence is perceived as backward or harmful (economically and socially), some Hindus might grow disillusioned. They could either push Hinduism to evolve (downplaying literal cow worship) or even seek alternatives. For instance, younger Hindus might find the egalitarian message of Sikhism or the universalist appeal of Christianity more compatible with their values of social justice and science. Likewise, more secular or reformist factions of Hinduism (like Arya Samaj or Buddhist conversions among Dalits) might gain support.

However, any such shifts would likely be gradual. Religious switching is historically rare in India. Pew Research finds that 99% of Indians raised Hindu remain Hindu as adultspewresearch.org. Muslims and Christians similarly have very high retention (97% and 94% respectively). In fact, about 0.7% of adults are raised Hindu but now identify otherwise, roughly balanced by 0.8% raised non-Hindu who became Hindupewresearch.org. This near balance means large-scale conversions have not been a significant factor so far. Still, a small change in these patterns could be noteworthy over decades.

Critically, Hinduism itself may adapt. Scholars note that the strict cow taboos of today are not as ancient as claimed. Historian Dwijendra Narayan Jha points out that eating beef was common in Vedic times and even among high-caste Hindusaljazeera.com – “totally baseless to argue that Hindus never ate cow flesh,” he saysaljazeera.com. If mainstream Hindus embrace such historical reality, the obsession over cows might wane. In a more rational future, Hinduism could emphasize its philosophical and humanistic traditions rather than literal cow sanctity.

In summary, India’s demographic trajectory remains Hindu-majoritypewresearch.org, but the character of Hinduism may change. As education, science, and global exposure spread, the outsize role of cow worship in politics is likely to be contested. BJP critics argue that “rationality will eventually prevail” – after all, modern economies and AI-driven societies tend to favor evidence-based policies. If cow-idolatry is seen as antithetical to progress, public opinion may shift towards more inclusive and secular alternatives. In that scenario, the cow might remain a respected cultural symbol, but without the political coercion. Hinduism may evolve into a more tolerant, rational form – or, in the unlikely extreme, see some Hindus quietly drift toward faiths or worldviews that better align with a scientific mindset. Only time will tell whether India’s religious landscape will smooth out these tensions or reinforce them, but current trends suggest a gradual movement toward empirical reasoning and pluralism.

Sources: Demographic and conversion data from Pew Researchpewresearch.orgpewresearch.org; BJP cow-welfare plans and critiques from Al Jazeeraaljazeera.comaljazeera.com and Reutersreuters.comreuters.com; University and secularism concerns from CNN/WRALwral.comwral.com; cow-urine events and products from Reutersreuters.comreuters.com and compiled reportsen.wikipedia.orgen.wikipedia.orgen.wikipedia.org; internet usage from IBEFibef.org.