Indian judge stirs online row with ‘pious’ peacocks
Print Edition
PEACOCKS don’t have sex, but rather shed tears to conceive, according to a judge in western India whose unique theories have set off a social media storm in the country.
At a hearing in Rajasthan state’s high court on Wednesday, judge Mahesh Chandra Sharma urged India’s government to declare the cow — considered sacred in Hindu-majority India — as the national animal since it is “as pious as a peacock.”
“The peacock is a lifelong celibate. It never has sex with the peahen. The peahen gets pregnant after swallowing the tears of the peacock,” Sharma said on his last day in office before retiring.
Sharma’s comments, made in response to an NGO’s petition on the condition of state-run cow shelters, sparked a flurry of jokes and comments on social media.
“Profoundly ironical, that it was the peacock (not its tears but plumage) that led Darwin to propose the landmark theory of Sexual Selection,” said Anand Ranganathan on Twitter.
Some users posted wildlife footage of peacocks mating to disprove his theory, while several pointed to suggestions on Quora, a user-generated question-and-answer site, that his celibacy claim came from ancient Hindu epics of Mahabharata and Ramayana.
In his 145-page order, Sharma cites Hindu scriptures to bolster his case — listing the “miraculous” age-defying qualities of cow dung and urine.
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