Veg or non-veg: Do We Really Need A Controversy?

By Ram Puniyani

Recently while travelling on the morning flight from Mumbai to Ahmedabad, I overheard my co-passenger’s request for non-vegetarian breakfast being denied by the flight steward on the ground that on Mumbai Ahmedabad route, non-veg. food is not served. The same got confirmed a few days later when the management of the said airlines publicly stated that since the passengers on this route are mainly vegetarians, and in case of some slip on the part of airlines staff if the vegetarian passengers is served the non-veg. food, it will be hurting their religious sentiments.

Similarly during one of the trips to Ahmedabad when sipping tea with one of the young IT professional friend in his rented accommodation, I was aghast to see the landlord barging into the flat and making headway straight to the kitchen, inspecting something and going away. I could not hide my amazement and asked the young friend as to how someone can come and inspect your kitchen utensils, and that too even without the courtesy of asking your permission. He replied that it is more or less a routine practice in the city where the landlords keep a watch whether the tenant is cooking non-veg. food.

Also one house hunter in the city of Mumbai was surprised that the real estate agent inquired about his food habits before showing him the flats for sale. He was also told that the particular housing complex where he wanted to buy the house, they had the unwritten rule that non-veg. will not be permitted in the housing complex.

There is a hidden sentence in this which comes out easily when probed further that the real reason for their having aggressive mentality is that they eat beef. It comes as an addition that since cow is holy for the Hindus, they at the same time are hurting the sentiments of the Hindus. This trend is picking on from last few years more strongly.

Two issues have been deliberately intertwined in the social common sense. One is about non-veg. food causing violent tendencies and the second, the eating of beef by Muslims and thereby hurting the sentiments of Hindus. It is very clear that the definition of non-veg. food varies from place to place and community to community. Eggs are passé for some vegetarians and strict no for others. Some regard sea food, fish and the like, as vegetarian while for others it is non-veg. food in all sense of the meaning.

Today, the world over, roughly more than 80-90% of the population is non-veg. so to say. While Muslims in India are the object of wrath, apart from other things, also for eating beef, Europeans and Americans do get away easily in this psyche despite having beef as their staple diet. In the countries and people who follow the biggest apostle of non-violence ever, Lord Gautam Buddha, the consumption of non-veg. food is no less in quantity. For that matter there are innumerable communities in India for whom beef has been a part of their food habit, non-veg. being prevalent in most communities.

A section of the community has been discarding non-veg. food in a very strong way. Amongst these sections of middle class, traders are taking the vows of vegetarianism. There are political over- and undertones also in this ‘hate non-veg.’ thinking. One can go to the extent of saying that vegetarianism is also being used as a social and political weapon to browbeat the minority community. No doubt, one has the choice of shifting to vegetarianism with full commitment, but to be intolerant to the non-vegetarian and to label Muslims as having violent personality due to the food habits is a part of political campaign.

Historically speaking, beef was the staple food in Vedic times (cow is essentially food, Atho Annam Via Gau). D. N. Jha in his classic book on the ancient Indian food habits shows that it was with the rise of agricultural society that the restriction was brought in on cow sacrifice by Lord Buddha. The primary goal was to preserve the cattle wealth. The ardent follower of Buddhism, Emperor Ashoka, in one of his edicts to the royal kitchen orders that only as many animals and birds be killed as are necessary for the food in the kitchen. This was to put a break on the animal sacrifice which was part of Brahminical rituals.

It was as a reaction to this that Brahminism came up to project cow as mother to show that it also has concern for cattle. One can make an interesting point a la Kancha Ilaiah’s ‘Buffalo nationalism’, as to why only cow was selected to have the exalted place as a mother, why not buffalo? Has the colour politics something to do with this? This needs investigation!

As far as the violent personality and food is concerned, not much scientific literature is available to prove any correlation of food habit with violent tendencies. Violence is a personality trait, in the realm of psychology, which is shaped by fami