How did Hindus Become Vegetarians?

Masanamuthu is right. We are speaking here of just a taboo that will/may go away.

Eklavya,

don't know what part of my statement that you claim is right. The whole premise of this article is wrong. i.e. "Hindus being vegetarians". It is part of the "urban legend" or "orientalist writings of history".

The statement that "Hindus are vegetarians" is true ONLY when you restrict Hindus to be just the sum of few "vegetarian" castes (almost all upper castes).

The available stats say almost 70-80% (or even more) of Hindus are non-vegetarians. Most of them don't eat beef/pork and are satisified with chicken/mutton/fish etc.. But even that trend is changing. Myself and quite a few of my friends have no qualms in eating beef / pork. Infact, I have taken a liking to the crispy bacon found in the US. :-)

Thanks, drlokraj ji.

Hindu-Sikh Society of Flat Earthers will be proud to count you among its revered honorary members. :):)

vrv, why shouldn't vegetarians be allowed to rape and kill, in gujrat and elsewhere, just like everyone else?

See, this is exactly the kind of bigotry that drips from every word of this article.

(Masanamuthu is right. We are speaking here of just a taboo that will/may go away. But what is the big deal is the silly and unreasonable implication that a great religion shouldn't have any dietary restrictions. For the life of me, I can't figure out why Mr. Baig can't allow us Hindus to be flat earthers.)

Murad,

Well reserached and well written.

Bondongs is right abt the Dr. Jha's book.

The obsession with cow and cow urine is nothing but obsession. The Himachal pradesh govt (BJP) even went a mile furhter and started buying cow urine in gallons (for the purpose of research and what not of Sangh thingy).

Cow and Gau are the same. 'Ka' in Cow and 'Ga' in Gau are cognates (Ka-Ga). What the Europeans call cow is gau for the Aryan Indians.

It's Gandhi's obsession (Gujju obsession) with gau raksha (cow protection) that they even incorporated it in the Art 44 (?) of the Directive Pricniples of the Indian Constitution.

Yes, cow is a good economic unit and Hindu Indians worship anything on earth. Cow gives us the basic necessities of diet i.e milk, yoghurt, butter & dung (dung cakes are good as firewood).

As for Krishna being linked to cow worship. I dont know how this came into being but Krishna as a yadava king would have eaten meat (if not beef). It's very funny that krishna devotees, esp the white ISKCON guys insist on vegetarianism. Vegetarianism promotes saatvika behavior is a big BS. Those who know of Gujarat riots would not dare say this. Most of the killers, rapists in Gujarat are staunch vegetarians.

There's a ritual called somayaaji, where the Brahmin who becomes somayaaji must eat meat in the ritual.

It's also true that Muslims in Bengal and Punjab forced this ritual of beef eating on Hindus in 1947 as part of their forced conversions.

Finally it's the poor cow that became pawn in the politics of the Indian subcontinent.

#11 Posted by Kamath on February 29, 2008 5:07:16 am

There's a variety of ritual called 'naramedham', means sacrifice of a person.

Eklavya,

I have not read (or do not remember) other pieces from Mr. Baig. Besides, each piece - like each person in the world - needs to be judged on its own merit and not on the basis of its siblings (other pieces) or parent (the writer).

I like this piece because the author has made a decent attempt to establish his thesis and seems to have made considerable effort to back it up. He certainly seems to have taken the trouble to dig up the Rigveda - something I have never done (or am likely to).

Articles like this would have been considered (in the past) rather pointless but are no more to be considered so because of the currently ongoing effort by certain segments and political groups to rewrite and revise Indian history to elevate the status of the cow to more than just an animal and to create an "idyllic" account of the past.

I fully support my friend kaalchakra here.What he described in #33, brought back many memories from my childhood too. May be slightly differently, but cow was always revered even in sikhism till the khalistanis came on the scene. We were taught that one of the five 'K's, the kirpaan (sword) was for the protection of cow and the poor (gaoo-ghareeb. Kooka movement started with closing down slaughter houses in Amritsar and Maler Kotla and as a result nearly 80 kooka sikhs were blown away with canon at Maler Kotla.

#3, #28

The way I understand it, Sita liked the dazzling skin color of the deer and wanted that skin (probably to use as a blanket or something). Rama went to hunt it down - he went with a bow and arrows to shoot it, to bring its skin back for Sita. Had it been a real deer (instead of that Mareech guy looking like one), it is anybody's guess what would have been done with its flesh.

Most Hindus are not - and have never been - vegetarians.

#30 Posted by bongdongs:

Bongy,

I have seen a buffalo being slaughtered with something more than a khukri, actually I remember the head-less body remain standing (actually stretched by the legs) for a few seconds before tumbling over.

Readers, who have seen the film Reshma aur Shera might remember Sunil Dutt (where he is some Rajput shyte) slaughter a buffalo (????) at the beginning of the film. Am I right here?

ali_1, let me give you even more material.

I spent my childhood in a mud house whose walls, and the floor specifically, were covered in cowshit most of the time. We ate food cooked on fire made by burning dried cowshit. Our family kept ourselves warm in winters on the same fire. And we used cowshit for all sorts of religious ceremonies.

I distinctly remember collecting cowshit many a time for sundry purposes, and helping mother carry it in buckets.

And although I did not see anyone eat or drink any of that stuff, I wouldn't be surprised if some people tried, and became its advocates for various reasons.

Now, you would obviously say that cowshit is what that life was, and cowshit is all I got out of it. And you may well be right. But the world needs to make a place for us freaks too. I, for one, don't get this obsession with everyone wanting to be wise, smart, and utterly rational.

Next topic for Murad A Baig Saab

How did Hingboos become urine drinkers

LOL, GT, I am sure Mr Baig is an informed person, and has done his research. Besides, he seems well intentioned and sincere. It's just that who knows, the earth might indeed be flat, and at least some people must have the right to fully believe so. :)

Anyways, personally, I fully expect that our ancestors ate the cow and the cow-ling (whatever that means), and then, somewhere along the way, for some reasons, beliefs changed, and some people stopped eating the cow. All of Hinduism is basically like that. Nothing divine or fixed about it, except for those who hold specific beliefs for a certain amount of time. Nowadays I am told that no one can be a Hindu without eating a couple of cows and bulls, which is perfectly fine. :)

If we ignore some of Mr. Baig's comments or insinuations, I owe him an apology for being dismissive.

#12 GT,

Traditionally a buffalo was slaughtered in many communities on the last day of Durga Puja (Dassera). Visit any Gorkha regiment on dassera day to watch the buffalo being despatched in one stroke of the khukri.

Among bengali's it has been replaced by a goat or more commonly today substituted by a pumpkin.

kaal,

he,he.... is all that I can say. By the way Murad may not know where you are comming from :)

#3, nkg

"Ram had tried to trap the deer to gift to Sita"

I'lll try to find the reference if you insist, but seems like Sita's favourite food was venison cooked with rice and vegetables :-)

We all come from a hunter-gatherer past. The "Dandakaranya" was a huge forest. It stands to reason that people would partake in the wealth of such a forest, including its animals.

I dont see what is so controversial in this article. The most famous book on this topic is "The Myth of the Holy Cow. by D. N. Jha. a histroy prof at U of Delhi.

http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20021101fabook10064/d-n-jha/the-myth-of- the-holy-cow.html

Nirad Chowdhuri has also written very well on the topic in his book "continent of circe"

Excellent, and mostly factually correct article.

Infact once my Grandfather, a conservative Brahmin, once quoted a famous passage ( I beleive from Rigveda), where Rishi Agastya offered to Indra, a leg of Indra. My Grandmother left the room in disgust......

Usually it is the case that we try to put our beleifs, our prejudices, and taboos in the mouths of our ancestors, beloved ones, prophets and holy books. Revisionism is usually the way of life.

It is well known in Turkey that Muslim hunters eat Wild Boar, just that they are not classified as pigs. Bosnians Muslims toast to Whisky since it is not classified as Wines. In fact the Alcohol in India came with the Muslim invasion, the older forms of Indian wines were long dead.

Let us try to treat history as it is. It is never going to diminish our Hinduism, or identity as Indians. If we start to lie, we will never identify the real cornerstones of our identity.