For many Hindus, cow is a symbol of their religius identity. It stands for fer-tility and the bounty of nature, and a mother symbol revered across sectarian boundaries. Hence the taboo on cow slaughter is one of the unifying factors of Hinduism and it is greatly helping Hindu revivalism in contemporary times. In fact, Hindutva has espoused taboo on cow slaughter as a national issue and it wants to include cow protection as one of the fundamental rights so that it be-comes a constitutional obligation on the part of the states to take measures to abolish the practice of cow slaughter... + J.Kuruvachira