Poem: With Tears of Blood
By Dr Munish Sabharwal
With Tears of Blood -The Blades Between Our Beliefs
They count them in the millions…
Annually, 3.35 billion chickens are torn from dawn to dusk
135 million goats, 80 million sheep
14.5 million buffaloes, 2.4 million cattle —
and now, another silent figure swims beneath the waves:
100 million fish are killed every single day
from our seas, rivers, ponds — their gills gasping in our silence
This is the ledger of a nation that preaches ahimsa
We print compassion on paper, but spill blood on soil
We teach mercy to children, yet legalise the blade for trade
Gandhi said, “The greatness of a nation is measured by how it treats its weakest beings”
Then measure us by the screams we ignore
Buddha renounced the world to stop one creature’s pain
Mahavira heard the heartbeat of an ant and called it divine
And here we stand
counting corpses, exporting suffering in refrigerated trucks & ships
Our policies bend to profit
Our faith bends to appetite
Cows are called sacred, yet sold.
Laws written to shame the soul of a nation
Mercy reduced to a myth we no longer believe
Every statistic is a sermon turned to blood
3.35 billion birds. 135 million goats. 14 million buffalo
2.4 million cattle. 100 million fish — every single day
If compassion were currency, we’d be bankrupt every single minute
If Gandhi, Buddha, and Mahavira walked among us
they would not see India —
They’d see an empire of apathy
Wake up, my nation!
The cry of the voiceless is the loudest truth
Until we lay down the knife
Our prayers will echo unanswered —
And the moon of ahimsa will remain eclipsed
by our own shadow
With tears of blood…
