What Brahmin Scriptures Say about Beef Eating? #EatBeef
Read also – What Dr. Ambedkar Said about Beef Eating and Brahmins
Check also – Few posters against beef ban
Tag Archives: Beef Ban
What Brahmin Scriptures Say about Beef Eating? #EatBeef
Filed under Caste Discrimination, Casteism, Dalit, Equal Rights, India
After ‘Cow Memorial’, Punjab Govt. will honor ‘Cow Bhakts’!
Few weeks back, Akali-BJP Punjab government announced to build a most expensive animal memorial – ‘Rashtriya Shaheedi Gau Smarak’ – in the country at Mansa. Government is planning to spend 5 crore rupees on this memorial.
Source – Tribune India
In Punjab, where Dalits are suffering in all spheres of lives, casteist government is spending money on Cow memorial and Cow Bhakts, such a shame! Dalit students’ scholarships are delayed or many a times not even issues, Dalit farmers are suffering, salaries of many teachers are not issued on time, there are not proper teaching staff at government schools, where Dalits students mostly study. Casteist Punjab government is giving more importance to building cow shelters, providing electricity and water at every cow shelter in every district to providing basic education facilities at government schools. Still many Dalit houses in Punjab don’t have proper electricity or water supply but Punjab government has been spending money on cows!
Check also – Few posters against beef ban
One may be surprised to know that in Punjab there is Gau Sewa Commission to ‘prevent cruelties against the holy animal’! There are not sufficient funds to run SC/ST commission as government claims many times but Gau Sewa Commission is running properly!
Today, casteist Punjab government announced that those who look after cows will be honored at Republic Day ceremony. Dalit heroes are ignored from history books or are not given due credit but stupid cow is given more importance and follower of an animal are rewarded! Only ignorant and casteists such as BJP and Akali leaders can do it.
Both these building cow memorial and honoring cow bhakts is another attempt please RSS, VHP peoples. Present Punjab government is destroying the rich history of Punjab and Sikhism. In Sikhism, cow was never worshiped. All these steps are making way for the RSS people to install Hindu gods at Golden Temple one day.
Read also – Will Sikh Leaders install Hindu Gods in the Golden Temple?
Filed under Caste Discrimination, Casteism, Dalit, Dr B R Ambedkar
Watch – ‘Caste on the Menu Card’ documentary
The film delves into the idea of food as a site of exclusion by focusing on beef-eating practices in Mumbai. It attempts to portray the prevalence of caste differentiations as seen in the food choices of people in the city and touches upon concerns related to livelihood, social inclusion and human rights.
By tracing the mythological and historical roots of the meat-eating culture in our country, the film discusses the hierarchy maintained by Brahminical preferences and its intended subversions. This is seen in the stand taken on dealing with the political economy of the leather and meat industries.
The film also follows the ruptured background of universities’ caste politics over the demand of inclusion of beef in institutions. It observes that many restaurants in Mumbai offer beef delicacies, but off the menu.
Thus, the film reads ‘Caste on the Menu Card’.
Filed under Caste Discrimination, Documentary, Dr B R Ambedkar
Brahmins and Beef Eating – What Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Said
(Excerpted from Chapters 11 to 14 of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s 1948 work The Untouchables: Who Were They and Why They Became Untouchables?)
The Census Returns [of 1910] show that the meat of the dead cow forms the chief item of food consumed by communities which are generally classified as untouchable communities. No Hindu community, however low, will touch cow’s flesh. On the other hand, there is no community which is really an Untouchable community which has not something to do with the dead cow. Some eat her flesh, some remove the skin, some manufacture articles out of her skin and bones.
Check also – Few Posters against Beef Ban.
From the survey of the Census Commissioner, it is well established that Untouchables eat beef. The question however is: Has beef-eating any relation to the origin of Untouchability? Or is it merely an incident in the economic life of the Untouchables? Can we say that the Broken Men to be treated as Untouchables because they ate beef? There need be no hesitation in returning an affirmative answer to this question. No other answer is consistent with facts as we know them.
In the first place, we have the fact that the Untouchables or the main communities which compose them eat the dead cow and those who eat the dead cow are tainted with untouchability and no others. The co-relation between untouchability and the use of the dead cow is so great and so close that the thesis that it is the root of untouchability seems to be incontrovertible. In the second place if there is anything that separates the Untouchables from the Hindus, it is beef-eating. Even a superficial view of the food taboos of the Hindus will show that there are two taboos regarding food which serve as dividing lines. There is one taboo against meat-eating. It divides Hindus into vegetarians and flesh eaters. There is another taboo which is against beef eating. It divides Hindus into those who eat cow’s flesh and those who do not. From the point of view of untouchability the first dividing line is of no importance. But the second is. For it completely marks off the Touchables from the Untouchables. The Touchables whether they are vegetarians or flesh-eaters are united in their objection to eat cow’s flesh. As against them stand the Untouchables who eat cow’s flesh without compunction and as a matter of course and habit.
In this context it is not far-fetched to suggest that those who have a nausea against beef-eating should treat those who eat beef as Untouchables.
There is really no necessity to enter upon any speculation as to whether beef-eating was or was not the principal reason for the rise of Untouchability. This new theory receives support from the Hindu Shastras. The Veda Vyas Smriti contains the following verse which specifies the communities which are included in the category of Antyajas and the reasons why they were so included
L.12-13 “The Charmakars (Cobbler), the Bhatta (Soldier), the Bhilla, the Rajaka (washerman), the Puskara, the Nata (actor), the Vrata, the Meda, the Chandala, the Dasa, the Svapaka, and the Kolika- these are known as Antyajas as well as others who eat cow’s flesh.”
Generally speaking, the Smritikars never care to explain the why and the how of their dogmas. But this case is exception. For in this case, Veda Vyas does explain the cause of untouchability. The clause “as well as others who eat cow’s flesh” is very important. It shows that the Smritikars knew that the origin of untouchability is to be found in the eating of beef. The dictum of Veda Vyas must close the argument. It comes, so to say, straight from the horse’s mouth and what is important is that it is also rational for it accords with facts as we know them.
The new approach in the search for the origin of Untouchability has brought to the surface two sources of the origin of Untouchability. One is the general atmosphere of scorn and contempt spread by the Brahmins against those who were Buddhists and the second is the habit of beef-eating kept on by the Broken Men. As has been said the first circumstance could not be sufficient to account for stigma of Untouchability attaching itself to the Broken Men. For the scorn and contempt for Buddhists spread by the Brahmins was too general and affected all Buddhists and not merely the Broken Men. The reason why Broken Men only became Untouchables was because in addition to being Buddhists they retained their habit of beef-eating which gave additional ground for offence to the Brahmins to carry their new-found love and reverence to the cow to its logical conclusion. We may therefore conclude that the Broken Men were exposed to scorn and contempt on the ground that they were Buddhists, and the main cause of their Untouchability was beef-eating.
The theory of beef-eating as the cause of untouchability also gives rise to many questions. Critics are sure to ask: What is the cause of the nausea which the Hindus have against beef-eating? Were the Hindus always opposed to beef-eating? If not, why did they develop such a nausea against it? Were the Untouchables given to beef-eating from the very start? Why did they not give up beef-eating when it was abandoned by the Hindus? Were the Untouchables always Untouchables? If there was a time when the Untouchables were not Untouchables even though they ate beef why should beef-eating give rise to Untouchability at a later-stage? If the Hindus were eating beef, when did they give it up? If Untouchability is a reflex of the nausea of the Hindus against beef-eating, how long after the Hindus had given up beef-eating did Untouchability come into being?….
DID THE HINDUS NEVER EAT BEEF?
TO the question whether the Hindus ever ate beef, every Touchable Hindu, whether he is a Brahmin or a non-Brahmin, will say ‘no, never’. In a certain sense, he is right. From times no Hindu has eaten beef. If this is all that the Touchable Hindu wants to convey by his answer there need be no quarrel over it. But when the learned Brahmins argue that the Hindus not only never ate beef but they always held the cow to be sacred and were always opposed to the killing of the cow, it is impossible to accept their view.
Filed under Caste Discrimination, Dalit-Bahujans, Dr B R Ambedkar, Equal Rights
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar's Caravan 