ICC Note:
India’s top court has rejected a petition seeking a nationwide ban on cow slaughter. A cornerstone for Hindu nationalist politics, the rejection of the nationwide ban has shed light once again on one of the many flashpoints between India’s Hindu radicals and religious minorities. Considered sacred by many Hindus, rumors of cows being slaughtered have led to instances of violence against religious minorities in India, including the deaths of at least 10 people. 
01/27/2017 India (The Straits Times) – India’s top court on Friday (Jan 27) rejected a petition seeking a nationwide ban on cow slaughter, a flashpoint issue for Hindus who consider the animal sacred.
The Supreme Court dismissed an activist’s proposal to prohibit the slaughter of cows across India, a measure that would have effectively banned beef consumption in the nation of 1.25 billion.
Cows are revered in the Hindu scriptures as the ‘mother’ of civilization and many worshippers equate the slaughter of cows or eating beef as blasphemy.
But millions from India’s huge minority populations – including Muslims, Christians and lower caste Hindus – eat beef, which isn’t widely available and is banned altogether in some states.
Just eight of India’s 29 states permit the consumption of beef or the slaughter of cows.
“One state may ban slaughter, the other may not,” the court said in rejecting the petition. “We will not interfere in state laws.”
Several radical religious groups and the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi have long campaigned to implement a nationwide ban on cow slaughter.
The BJP won national elections in 2014 with a thumping majority, pledging in part to ban cow slaughter. But so far, the government in Delhi has failed to convince the states to pass such sweeping measures.
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