5000 Years Later, India Is Still Obsessed With Cow Urine

India’s obsession with cow urine to treat what ails the mind, body and soul is not a new phenomenon. India’s cow urine industry has been booming over the last two years under the leadership of the BJP government. Considered to be ‘liquid gold,’ many have cited the benefit of Gomutra back to India’s Vedic past with the therapeutic purposes of cow urine making it a go-to remedy for numerous ailments in Ayurveda and Vastu Shastra. Listed as a cleansing and purifying agent, cow urine has been used to cure stomach ailments, asthma, leprosy, anaemia, fever, epilepsy, and most recently, cancer. In a report by Bloomberg it was noted that cow urine has tipped petrol prices and costs as much as milk after the BJP came into power,that listed cow protection in their party manifesto.

Bloomberg’s report states, “Modi’s government has spent 5.8 billion rupees ($87 million) on cow shelters, intensified enforcement of beef-eating bans and tightened measures to stop the illicit sale of cattle to neighbouring Bangladesh.” With a look at the rise of Patanjali products that apparently 20 tons of cow urine for their products, and considering that scientists claim to have found traces of gold in Gir cow urine, this golden liquid has become the elixir of common folk. Ramesh Gupta, a priest told The Mirror that he believes a virgin cow’s urine has special healing properties; “The cow, whose urine one has to drink, should be a virgin – she must not have delivered a calf. Also, the urine is to be collected just before sunrise – that urine has the best effect,” he told the publication.

Go Vigyan Anusandhan Kendra came into the spotlight in 2010 when they got a US patent for a drug that they claim is able to reverse the damage done to human DNA that causes cancer, ageing and other illnesses. A report by Times of India stated, “The drug developed by RSS-backed Go Vigyan Anusandhan Kendra had earlier for the US patent as a bio-enhancer with antibiotics and anti-cancer drugs.” As per the report, research for the drug, brand named ‘Kamdhenu Ark,’ which was carried out in collaboration by the Anushandhan Kendra and the National Environmental Engineer Research Institute (NEERI), found that “Re-distilled Cow Urine DIstillate (RCUD) was useful for protecting and reparing DNA from oxidative damage.”

Other than its medicinal purposes, Gomutra is even being used in domestic products such as floor cleaning agents, soaps, shampoos, detergents, and other herbal products. Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali launched Gaunyle, a substitute to phenyl to clean floors and even Maneka Gandhi, Minister for Women and Child Development, asked hospitals to use it as their cleaning agent the previous year — according to a report by India.com, Patanjali is the biggest commercial buyer of cow urine. “Patanjali spends nearly Rs 1,50,000 on daily basis for procuring cow urine, used as a raw material for a variety of herbal and Ayurvedic products his company produces. The price of distilled cow urine is Rs 80-100 per litre making it costlier than petrol, sold at Rs 65-75 per litre,” the report states.

You can buy an assortment of Gomutra-based products on Amazon and have it delivered right to your doorstep, and it’s not just in India, you can even buy cow urine in department stores in USA, UK, Singapore and other countries as well.

It may sound absurd but back in 2009, the RSS came out with a cow urine cold-drink in the hopes of improving consumers health; in an interview with The Telegraph, director Om Prakash said, “We refer to gau ark (cow urine) as gau jal (cow water) as it has immense potential to cure various diseases. We have developed a soft drink formula with gau jal as the base and it has been sent to a laboratory at Lucknow for testing. It will be a revolution of sorts. The acceptance of cow urine as a potent medicine is increasing day by day and once it comes as a cold drink, its demand will definitely increase. It will prove and justify the high stature accorded to a cow in Indian culture,” said director Om Prakash Mathur.

If products and medicines were not enough, a therapy clinic in Indore has also been driving the success story of cow urine in their work. Jain’s Cow Urine Therapy Health Clinic has over a million patients and claim to have reversed diabetes among numerous other diseases as listed on their website. Many more Ayurvedic doctors across the country do consider cow urine among other animal urines as a treatment.

Where there are believers, there are always skeptics and critics right behind them. Many experts believer that cow urine is not as healthy and good for human consumption as we are led to believe, a report by Global Voices states that this ‘elixir’ can even be fatal. Their report reads, “Cow urine is a possible source of harmful bacteria and infectious diseases. One study found that cow urine administered to mice caused excitement in low doses and convulsion and/or death in higher doses.”

A report by India Times refuted all of the supposed medical claims of cow urine stating, “There’s a ‘patent’ for cow urine’s efficacy in treating cancer floating around on the web. But a patent does not mean pharmaceutical efficacy. The patent was was based on testing on mice, not humans. Unless there is pharmaceutical testing with human trials approved by a competent regulator such as the US FDA or the Indian Drug Controller General would be valid.”

Can animal waste really cure us? We can’t claim to have the correct answer. Be it medical, religious or other puritanical purposes, cow urine from the indigenous Bos Indicus cow of India has apparently existed for 5000 years and is not going anywhere anytime soon.

Read more about the ongoing tussle of patenting cow urine here.

Video courtesy of Barcroft Media

[Writers note: Speaking from personal experience, my father made me drink a concoction made from donkey faeces when I was diagnosed with jaundice. I wasn’t aware of what I was being given in that haze, that fact was revealed to me after I became better. I cannot claim that donkey excrement cured me as I took a mix of allopathic medicines, syringes, besides ‘gharelu upchar’ and being sent to a baba to remove evil spirits stealing my energy, but I did feel a lot better and my condition improved. Indians try everything once, and I can say I tried the excrement of a donkey and it tasted like gulkand, which is made from rose petals and used in Paan.]