THE VIOLENCE OF HINDUTVA VEGETARIANISM

Vegetarianism is usually associated with an ethical food habit, kindness and meekness. It is associated with our great non violent tradition best embodied in such figures as Buddha and Gandhi. So, in India vegetarianism has a cultural resonance with much higher amplification than its western counterpart. Yet the fact remains that most Hindus, not to speak of Indians, are not vegetarians and Brahminism in past never insisted on it.The Vedic people were certainly not vegetarians and the animal sacrifice formed an integral part of their religion. Bulls and horses were the main sacrificial animals.The archaeological findings at Rakhigarhi, the largest of Harappan sites testify to the fact that the food the people took included meat and fish rather in large quantities. In the Indian epics we find vivid descriptions of hunting and lavish feasting with intoxicating drinks. So since when did eating of meat and fish become a taboo and their avoidance a virtue? The answer is to be found in the rise of reformist anti – Brahmincal religions in the 6th and 5th century BC that opposed Brahminical ritualism, caste hierarchy and, notably, animal sacrifice. One of reasons was that animal sacrifice was depleting cattle, so essential for a life based on agriculture and simple crafts .Yet most Hindus did not give up their traditional food habits. Even the Buddha was not a vegetarian. He died of blood dysentery after eating pork which one of his followers offered him.

Strangely, modern Hindutva ideology having its origin in North Indian Brahmin culture, makes much of their brand of vegetarianism which consists in avoidance of fish, meat and egg but not such animal products like milk or butter. It is not prompted by kindness for hapless animals because, Hindus are extremely insensitive to animal suffering and,bafflingly, to the cow which they worship. I wonder if there is more unfortunate, over exploited and abused members of the bovine specis anywhere in the world. Once I had to stay at a flat that looked on a small dairy whose cruelty was so fiendish that I suffered from depression. Killing of the calves by denying them of their mother’s milk is an accepted practice. I used to spend many a sleepless nights hearing the piteous cry of famished and dying calves.The owner of dairy used to beat up the animals, and occasionally, his wife mercilessly. The male calves that survive that driven out to find fodder from overflowing waste bins. These stray animals are seen huddled together often in the midst of busy roads in monsoon rains, scorching sun or shivering cold. What then is behind their fanatic enthusiasm for vegetarianism? Make no mistake – it is the hatred for the population who consume meat and fish – Muslims, Christians, Shudra castes, tribals-in other words, the productive classes of society. Hindutva proponents would like to mould other Sudra castes in Brahminical culture, apportioning for them their traditional place and subordinating the religious minorities to a virtual second class citizenship. They are the cow eaters, smelly incestuous (as they marry their cousins) sub humans to be humiliated, coerced and, if need be ,killed. Thus the food becomes a suitable and serviceable weapon for waging a war not only psychological but economic as well. People who make a living by selling meat of fish are stigmatized and deprived of their livelihood.

This particular brand of Hinduism better known as Hindutva is at odds with dietary habits and cultural patterns of most the outlying provinces. In Bengal, Assam and Odisha, for instance, meals are incomplete without non vegetarian items.The chief proponents of modern Hinduism or political Hinduism – Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Swami Vivekanda and Sri Aurobindo were all great lovers of non vegetarian delicacies as was the great mystic Sri Ramkrishna. Swami relished Hilsa curry on the day he died .The swadeshi Amritabazar Patrika run by a vegetarian Vaisnav published the obituary next day under the title ” The Fish Eating Monk is Dead “. Vivekananda has now become a Hindutva icon but minus his food habits.The Hindutva proponents would be shocked to learn that in London living in poverty he was found taking beef.When the news reached Calcutta one of the monks of the Ramkrishna order dashed out a letter heaping on him all sorts of abuses.The unruffled Swami wrote back ” Send me more money that I would be able to afford mutton”. It was Gandhi who made a fetish of vegetarianism as a new political package. He was basically a cruel, heartless humbug with a lot of protestation of the tender eelings which he didn’t possess. Gandhi used to take goat milk as he was under the impression that cow milk stimulates sexual desire which troubled him more than others. Milking goats which produce little milk is certainly a cruelty and all the more so as it was done to satisfy some ludicrous prejudices. Gandhi’s determination to save the cow from the Muslim’s knife, his vegetarianism, his respect for the beauty of caste system, his opposition to religious conversion, his dismissal of science and secular values – all have all been adopted by the Hinduta forces even though he was killed by a Hindu fanatic. It is reminiscent of the way the Brahmins killed Buddhism but retained its external feature – vegetarianism.

Writer-Bhaskar Sur
Educationalist