How did Hindus Become Vegetarians?

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.

#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?

#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.

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.

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.

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.

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.)

Thanks, drlokraj ji.

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

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. :-)

Re: # 41

Agree... pakis, for some reason, continue have these patently false notions about hinuds : 1. Hinuds are vegetarians 2. Hinuds are gentle and non-violent....

Nothing can be further than truth.... Most hindus are non-vegetarian, including upper castes in many places... Most hindus have nothing to do with principle of non-violence, gandhi's preachings notwithstanding... All gods and godesses in hindu pantehon are warrior figures and carry weapons as part of their get-up... including nerd Gods like Ganesh :)...

Violence and war has always been celebrated in hindu mythology... Geeta is nothing but pep talk on violence... So is Ramayan, Mahabharat... Durga Puja and Dushera is all about killing the "monster"... violence and vegetarianism do not go together... so pakis, please, get some knowledge...

GT,

(Majumdar babu may correct me if he so wishes, but Bengali Brahmins are non-vegetarian. They eat goat and fish ... but not chicken! )

Bong Brahmins are non-veg. They indeed had taboos in the very distant past about chicken but that was becuase chicken was supposed to be Muslim food. These days they eat everything apart from beef. In Bongs only widows and Vaishnavis are traditionally veggie, everyone else NV. Incidentally in the whole of East- that is Bihar, Orissa, Bengal and Assam, Brahmins (the veggie caste normally) eat meat and fish. In Bihar only Baniyas are traditionally veg.

Regards

Re to 24:

Thanks Maharana! At last found the jewel in the heap of garbage.

Non-violence means not violating Natural Law which keeps every thing in balance. This balance sustains the life in the nature. Otherwise life and death is the same thing as many Yogis say.

Purpose of any writing/expression/communication is for organizing and cleaning ones thoughts. For this to happen one needs to be open for growing one's mind or altering one's thoughts. I have found lot of researchers/PhDs do not have this willingness. They are asking others to change their mind but are not willing to change their own. I have found this happens more if one has grown in dictatorial, feudal or exploitive environment. it's hard to have communication with them because they violate this first law of communication. Violence breeds from there on.

Violent people are violent because what thoughts they entertain not because of what they eat. Probably how much they eat matters more because they have lost the balance. If they violate their own organs such as stomach, intestine and heart, then why wouldn't they violate others?

kc,

Sorry if I tried to divert the topic. I dont mean to but I heard all my life that vegetarianism is good and & it makes ppl saatvikam. I made that ref in that context.

Though I am an omnivore, I want to be a veggie in future. :)

To the proponents of non-veg consumption is invariably proportional to the position in the caste pyramid; Nattukottai Chettiyars, at the top of the pyramid, have developed fine non-veg cuisines. Though the credit should go to the Ramnad Thevar cooks, somehow the chettinad dishes have come to be identified with the Chettiyars. Some of the famous Nattukottai Chettiyars are:

P.Chidambaram, Murugappa Chettiyar (EID Group), SPIC Muthiah, M A M Ramaswamy...

Ironically, Nattukottai Chettiyars belong to the business class.

Agree... pakis, for some reason, continue have these patently false notions about hinuds : 1. Hinuds are vegetarians 2. Hinuds are gentle and non-violent....

Nothing can be further than truth....


Right, I think it is part of the "1 beef eating Momin = 10 vegetarian Kafirs" mythology.

non-veg consumption is *invariably proportional to the position in the caste pyramid;

non-veg consumption is *inversely proportional to the position in the caste pyramid;