Untouchability, the Dead Cow and the Brahmin

B.R. Ambedkar

Beef-eating as the root of untouchability

The Census Returns [of 1910] show that the meat

of the dead cow forms the chief item of food consumed by

communities which are generally classified as untouchable

communities. No Hindu community, however low, will touch

cow’s flesh. On the other hand, there is no community which is

really an Untouchable community which has not something to

do with the dead cow. Some eat her flesh, some remove the skin,

some manufacture articles out of her skin and bones.

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