About Indian cows : state, religion and western philosophy

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It is an exam day today in France for high school students. They are having their philosophy exam, an important exam to get the bachelor’s degree closing their high school studies and opening the doors of colleges. So, let’s speak philosophy today. Last month, when I was discussing with an Indian member, I was told that I was seeing things from my euro-centric la la land. It is possible that I have an euro-centric point of view on many things and that I do not understand well the Indian culture. There was an interesting subject given this morning : «Can we free ourselves from our culture ?» Indeed, it is not an easy task, and even if I try to not judge, I am sometimes stupefied by what happens in your country. Last time was in May 27th, for the ban you put on the sale of cows and buffaloes for slaughter at animal markets in India. Why are you mixing religion and politics ? In the 17th C Spinoza wrote in his Theological-Political Treaty that it was «pernicious, for the Religion as well than for the State, to grant to ministers and priests the right to promulgate anything or to interfere in the affairs of the State.» Each one at home, and the (sacred) cows will be well kept ! Later Marx in «A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right» implies that mixing religion with state affairs turns to a complete mess. He does not tell it like this because a philosopher does not speak like a caretaker, and he has another method to face the problem : religion is a collective representation offering positive and negative aspects, we need to attack the bad collective representations to create a better world, the abolition of religion being illusory. It seems a lot more difficult to attack prejudices and received opinions coming from religions in the way Marx wants to do it, than to put a fence between religions and the State like suggests Spinoza, and after having been a Catholic state during 1500 years, France became a lay state in 1905 : anybody is free to have the religion he wants, but the state does not intervene in any religious affair or support any religion. Let’s come back to cows and buffaloes. As I read in the Constitution of India that «The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them», I am asking myself how the ban you put on the sale of cows and buffaloes for slaughter cannot be considered like a discrimation ? All Indians are not Hindu, and such a ban deprives of their work thousands of people : livestock owners, traders, butchers, etc. India was the largest beef meat exporter in the world in 2016, with 20% of the world trade. It seems that the domestic consumption was even more important than the export, so this decision represents a serious disaster for your economy. Indeed, it is your choice to decide that the welfare of your cows is more important than the wealth of your country, and Australians can rub their hands, they are becoming the first world exporter of beef meat, and the price will probably rise. Like we say in French : «the misfortune of some people makes the happiness of other people.» But it would be another subject.