Relax folks, this one has nothing to do with California textbooks. It seems that certain Hindu groups in India have succeeded, after a three-year campaign, in erasing all references to Hinduism’s meat eating past from school textbooks [via Desitude]. Whether you believe that eating meat is prohibited in Hinduism, or like me believe that it is a millenia old scam, you can nonetheless see why the distortion of historical fact is wrong.
Any references to the beef-eating past of ancient Hindus have finally been deleted from Indian school textbooks, after a three-year campaign by religious hardliners.
For almost a century history books for primary and middle schools told how in ancient India beef was considered a great delicacy among Hindus–especially among the highest caste–and how veal was offered to Hindu deities during special rituals.
The offending chapters have been deleted from new versions of the books which were delivered to schoolchildren last week. However, the National Council of Educational Research and Training [NCERT], which bears responsibility for the texts, now seems to be unhappy with the changes, which were agreed to by a former NCERT director.
NCERT counsel Prashant Bhushan said that ancient Hindus were indeed beef-eaters and the council should not have distorted historical facts by deleting the chapters.
“NCERT has committed a mistake by dropping those facts from the textbooks. It is a victory for Hindu fundamentalists who have lodged a misinformation campaign. Historians should unite against this cowardice by the council [NCERT],” said noted Kolkata historian Ashish Bos. [Link]
I thought surely the following quote must be the same brand of satire one of SM’s commenters is fond of writing. I was wrong of course. People actually do say stuff like this:
“Some low-caste Dalit [untouchable] Hindus used to eat beef [but] Brahmins [high caste Hindus] never ate it. Mr Sharma [Ram Sharan Sharma, author of the textbook chapters] had not researched well before writing the piece,” said firebrand Hindu leader Praveen Togadia.
As I have indicated before in a past post, many paleontologists find strong evidence supporting the fact that the eating of dead meat (carcasses) is one of the key steps that led to the evolutionary offshoot we know as homo sapiens. Quite simply if our early human ancestors had not eaten meat, there would never have been such a thing as religion in the first place.
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p>Much of this current debate began in 2001 when Professor DN Jha published his book, The Myth of the Holy Cow:
Professor Jha stumbled upon the facts relating to the presence of beef in pre-Islamic Vedic India two years ago, while researching Indian dietary habits.
He says there is plenty of historical evidence to support the theory.
An ancient Hindu text, the Manusmriti (200BC to 200AD), lists the cow as one of several animals whose meat can be eaten.
A mention is also made, he says, in one of the two great Indian epics – the Mahabharata – which speaks of beef being a delicacy served to esteemed guests. [Link]
Here is a description of the book from Amazon:
A book the government of India demands be ritually burned. The growth of religious fundamentalism in India is symbolized by the existence of a BJP government committed to the Hindutva. There is growing pressure to declare the cow a sacred, national animal and to ban its slaughter.
This illuminating work is a response to this crazed confessionalism. It challenges obscurantist views on the sanctity of the cow in Hindu tradition and culture. Dwijendra Narayan Jha, a leading Indian historian, argues that beef played an important part in the cuisine of ancient India, long before the birth of Islam. It was very much a feature of the approved Brahmanical and Buddhist diet. The evidence he produces from a variety of religious and secular texts is compelling. His opponents, including the current government of India and the fundamentalist groups backing it, have demanded that the book should be ritually burned in public. It has already been banned by the Allahabad High Court and the author’s life has been threatened. [Link]
It is interesting that even though the government of India is now led by the Congress party, such a thing can still occur. 😉
“you can nonetheless see why the distortion of historical fact is wrong”
Isn’t that paradoxical?
“It is interesting that even though the government of India is now led by the Congress party, such a thing can still occur.”
i’m assuming that was a sarcastic comment or tongue-in-cheek:) another sacred myth that needs to be debunked is the one that says the congress is the holy cow of secularism.
instead of deleting the reference, the textbooks should cite the evidence for its existence and then cite the objections of those opposed to it and their evidence/lack thereof/or reasoning. however, what i don’t understand is why certain hindu groups’ current reverence for the cow is so anathema to some and such an object of mockery. is it really any worse than believing some person/god/goddess is the ultimate font of everything that is true/good? i completely agree these beliefs shouldn’t be forced on everyone or used to bully others, but likewise, it almost seems as if some are so obsessed with the notion that others choose to pay special attention to cows and act as if an ancient reference means non-beef eaters should suddenly start eating beef because it was done years ago. religious customs evolve and some don’t do lots of things people did hundreds of years ago.
“… why certain hindu groups’ — meaning individual hindus from certain sects or castes, not political groups or organizations. as for distortion of historical fact in indian school texts, both the congress and the bjp governments are guilty.
Yes it was. You are right though that I did a bad job of making that obvious though.
“I thought surely the following quote must be the same brand of satire one of SMÂ’s commenters is fond of writing.”
you mean you’re not the commenter in question?:) i have a sneaky suspicion it’s one of the bloggers.
This is a great achievment for the Assertive Hindu Nation and a defeat for the leftist cabal of communists, lesbians and chooras that persecutes Hindus in America. With this victory all enemies will quake in their homosexual sandals. For now this proves we not only have Saffron Balls, we also have Saffron Udders!
Hail Buffalo!
I hope that last comment was a joke. And I should point out that if it’s not, it is the rightist cabal that does all the persecuting. /sarcasm
I eat beef. All of my Indian friends in SoCal eat beef. The only people I know who don’t eat beef are the veggie diva desis who insist on maintaining a sub-100 lb weight.
7 AM · Direct link
Whether hindus ate beef or not is a minor issue. What hindu groups should focus on is to bring out the truth behind the muslim conquest of India. Indian history books are written by leftist scholars who sympathetic to Islamic fundamentalism and hateful of hinduism. That is why we do not get to read in our official history books about the mass torture, rape, genocide of hindus carried out by Allah’s faithfuls. We read a lot about Akbar, and his over hyped secularism, but not much about Aurangzeb. People of India have the right to know the truth about Islam’s history in India.
Religion – the cause of (most) all evil – hindu, muslim, x-tian, whatev… (zen buddhists excepted – sorry) – it’s all BS and a way to farm the sheep for control. Science kids, science. This being said, we “humans” have many nutritional options today, other than slaughtering animals.
Secular humanism homeys, secular humanism…
in why i am not a muslim ibn warraq recounts how some pakistanis wanted to deface the runis of harappa & mohenjo daro with lines from the koran. warraq argued this was a reflection of the warped perception of the past that many muslim pakistanis have, who behave as if their history began in the 8th century with the invasion of the arabs into sindh. this is the same sort of mentality. the important point is not the consumption or non-consumption of beef in the present, we all have our dietary biases, the issue is a historical and scientific fact (the consumption or non-consumption of beef by individuals and groups we would recognize as ‘hindu’).
i am not a godist, but let the godly and the religous have their own space and their own beliefs. i don’t care what demons and spooks populate your universe, but facts be facts. certainly history is a science fraught with bias, but it is also one where some contentions are more certain than others.
i grant that muslims, on average, behave in a savage manner (though i don’t personally have high expectations of most humans in most places, though muslims with their burn-the-infidels attitudes are probably the worst of the lot), but attitudes towards the attempt at genuine objective scholarship by hindu fundamentalists makes muslim mockery of idolatry or carvaka amusement at spookery far more attractive.
perhaps. but “beef” is “delicious”…mmMmmMmm …”steaaakkk”
burp.
Whoa! Religion doesnt recognise the evolution theory. Evolution Theory -> human, homo sapiens Religion-> Man (Made by God) Paradox alert!
fact..Hindu was a british invention. Prior to that all Bharatis’ were buddhist, jain and belivers of a myriad of customs now called hinduism. Therfore it is nonsence to ignore that at some point in the past these customs were predated by other habits. We ate beef once before, and now potentially USA has influenced us to do so again. I thought Auranzeeb’s crimes were common knowledge?
No! Leftists are persecuters! Leftist Nazis!
I agree! The Hindu asshole is still sore after 97,000 years of Abrahamic raping. We must get revenge and make Abrahamics assholes sore as revenge. Let’s start with the local Abrahamics. Gujarat was just the start of the revenge. Ooof, my Vedic asshole hurts so much. We must asert and ejaculate as the Assertive Hindu Nation.
Hail Mogambo!
It is amazing how it is such an obvious source of pride that hinduism – if practiced properly necessitates the obstainment from ingesting all animal derived nutritional byproducts. It is in fact a source of pride to me that my grandmother never ingested a piece of meat nor ate an egg in her eighty – some odd – years. In the event anyone ever looked down to me – as is occasionally the case, I can just think of beegi and remember that not too many people can really look down to her. But for that source of pride, in the vegeterian aspect of hinudism, seems contrary to hinduism itself. Satya, truth is in fact the bedrock of hinduism, in fact vedanta – or the study of the vedas is what? The study of truth. Vedanta is that which is true. It is hard to accept some aspects of our heritage which by their inherent arcane and “weird” qualities can diminish one’s stature. However, that is once again, contrary to the purpose of any spiritual dogma which requires one to accept the truth and through the practice of one’s religion – open one’s heart to the point where that indivdual or group can be open hearted enough to humbly accept that which is of one’s past proudly – saying yes – this is what we once were. That should be the byproduct of vedanta and ultimately hinduism. Should we also eradicate – fro history – any record of the caste system – of untouchability, or should we be proud that we have evolved past it.
Abhi, could you please clarify? If your comment was in response to the book description from the Amazon site, that was written in 2002, before the Congress came to power.
The Asia News article seems to indicate that it was the BJP’s NCERT director who in 2003 agreed to the deletions. It then goes on to say that the saffron patch has been upset that the deletions have taken so long to implement, which I would guess means that the current NCERT leadership wasn’t too keen on the changes… ?
Pankaj,
Hindus can’t look back upon a past of meat-eating and proclaim proudly “Yes, that is what we once were but now we’ve moved on,” because meat-eating very much exists in Hinduism today. Many Hindus eat meat. Animal sacrifice still takes place in some Hindu temples.
Likewise, Hindus can’t look back upon a past legacy of the caste system and untouchability and say with pride, “Yes, but we’ve moved on,” because caste oppression very much exists today throughout India.
I know animal sacrifice sounds very exotic and all, but if you stop and think about it, it really is the same concept as saying grace on the table except that in the “civilized” world the butchering is outsourced, and, in fact, the whole meat industry is infinitely more cruel and depraved.
Having said that, it never ceases to amaze me how much energy the hindu groups spend on useless causes such as battling over whether Hindus ate beef or not. It may be significant as a matter of historical interest, but why get bent out of shape over it?
Why are cows sacred? Dogs and Cats are sacred… and we dont eat their meat !!! Ok, that was lame attempt at sarcasm, but you get my point.
There is one issue with the thesis of the book. The ancient inhabitants of south Asia region didnt really call themselves Hindus. Manusmriti doesnt even have the word “Hindu” in it. So instead of saying “Ancient Hindus ate beef” the author should say “Ancient inhabitants of south asia ate beef”.
Vivek, I think that you may have missed my point, as far as I am aware of – the hinduism that is present today necessitates, if practiced stringently – a vegetarian diet. While it is true that hindus in India today do eat meat, there are jews that do not eat kosher also. That is not the point. What is the point is that there is a movement to cover up the past because these people do not have the emotional fortitude to face the truth; the truth hurts. I do understand that there is discrimination amongst the castes in India – evidenced by the reservaion system (unfortunate) that is being implemented in India today. However, to deny that there ever was, assuming we get over that, would be inapropriate – I feel a main concern of history and the past is to accept it;yes there were slaves, yes there was a holocaust. Hiding from the truth, which I feel is the impetus in removing that evidence of meat eating in hinduism, news to me – is incorrect.
vivek, please site some examples rather than exceptions and outliers. About your second link, if you have ever thought outside the box, to your amusement, it more of a class-struggle today than a caste one – may be communists should start taking a look again.
hammer_sickel, if we were talking about reservations and the advancement/empowerment of scheduled castes/tribes and other backward castes, then I would wholeheartedly agree with you that economic situation must play a determining factor, and to that extent it is a class struggle.
However, I thought we were talking about caste-based discrimination/oppression/abuse. People’s Watch Tamil Nadu, a human rights organization based in Madurai, has put a few of their many reports on anti-Dalit discrimination on their website: http://www.pwtn.org/ff.asp.
In Kandadevi, southern Tamil Nadu, there is a festival in which local townspeople pull a 300 year-old chariot bearing Shiva. Dalits had been excluded from participating in the festival for eight years until a court order in 2005 directed that Dalits be permitted to participate that year.
Such incidents aren’t unique to Tamil Nadu alone. My point is that India has not even come close to moving beyond caste discrimination, and such incidents are the evidence. I’m not saying that things are as bad as they once were. Certainly they have gotten better; however, the argument that the US has moved beyond racism has more clout than the argument that India has moved beyond caste discrimination, and the former has no clout whatsoever.
Pankaj (#20):
According to whom?
Sorry, I don’t follow…
I understand and agree with this point. I was wondering more about the arguments upon which it was based.
i think its good that they take out that message.b/c its against hindu religion to eat beef. Jai Shree Krishna
Its about time the textbooks were corrected. Marxist and pro-Muslim historians have long sought to over emphasise theories of cow eating in Vedic society, in order to undermine Hindu identity and beliefs. Why else are they so keen to promote these theories, based on questionable translations, to children as if it were fact? If theories about supposed flesh or beef eating have to be taught they should be done so in a balanced way that acknowledges different viewpoints and agendas. See Hindunet http://www.hindunet.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=11992&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1
This whole thing about rewriting history is part of a bigger issue around people thinking that their way is the right way. An interesting documentarian (sp?) who is focusing on this issue is Kamalini Sengupta out of Delhi who is making a series of films on the common links between all the languages, cultures, peoples, religions of India. Check out the website at http://www.suryatrust.org .
They must be CRUSHED!!
We have to squeeze our saffron udders, the saffron teats of our Holy Cow, and force these pseudo SICK-ular pro Muslim Marxist scum to drink our saffron milk straight from our floppy and firm teats. Drink our milk commie scum.
Hail Mogambo!
Whoa! Both saffron cahones AND saffron udders?
very very disturbed
Prof.D.N.Jha has misquoted from Rig Veda to prove his points that ancient Indians used to eat beef. He has committed fraud. It is of course not known to Witzel-Steve Farmer etc, as they have never read Rig Veda either.
Spoorlam / Desidudeingotham – you two coconuts or is that oreos, the level of your response indicates that you have been playing ‘hide the salami’ once too often with each other.. or has KFC and Mcdonalds. on every corner rotted your now prion ravaged brains. That applies to the author of this blog who’s standpoint is equally contemptible, in order to justify his own vile cravings for animal flesh.
BTW just as ‘Aryan Invasion Theory’ was thoroughly debunked, the theory of Hindu beef eating has been consigned to the wastebin of scholarship. It is no coincidence that Max Muller, the discredited Indologist has played a part in popularizing both fallacies.
from Hindunet (link given in my previous post) “Fortunately, there is now clinching evidence why the Marxist claim on cow-flesh rests on false premises. As already stated, the allegation rests mainly on literary sources and their interpretation, and we are in a position to trace the source of the mischief – the Vachaspatyam of Pandit Taranath and his British mentors.
Pandit Taranath, a professor of grammar at the Calcutta Sanskrit College, compiled a six-volume Sanskrit-to-Sanskrit dictionary, which is used by scholars to this day. The Vachaspatyam is a valuable guide for scholars because there are certain words in the samhita (mantra) section of the Vedas that are not found later in the Puranas.
What most Sanskrit scholars have failed to notice is that Taranath artfully corrupted the meanings of a few crucial words of the Vedic samhita to endorse the meaning given by Max Muller in his translation of the Vedas. Swami Prakashanand Saraswati has exposed this beautifully in “The True History and the Religion of India, A Concise Encyclopedia of Authentic Hinduism” (Motilal Banarsidass).
The British idea was that Max Muller would translate the Rig Veda “in such a scornful manner that Hindus themselves should begin to reproach their own religion of the Vedas,” while a Hindu pandit would “compile an elaborate Sanskrit dictionary that should exhibit disgraceful meanings of certain words of the Vedic mantras.” As Hindus would not question a dictionary by a Hindu pandit, the British would be able to claim that whatever Max Muller wrote about the Vedas was according to the dictionary of the Hindus.”
by Dr Dinesh Agarwal on AIT: “Max Muller, a renowned Indologist from Germany, is credited with the popularization of the Aryan racial theory in the middle of 19th century. Though later on when Muller’s reputation as a Sanskrit scholar was getting damaged, and he was challenged by his peers, since nowhere in the Sanskrit literature, the term Arya denoted a racial people, he recanted and pronounced that Aryan meant only a linguistic family and never applied to a race. But the damage was already done. The German and French political and nationalist groups exploited this racial phenomenon to propagate the supremacy of an assumed Aryan race of white people, which Hitler used to its extreme absurdities for his barbaric crusade to terrorize Jews and other societies. This culminated in the holocaust of millions of innocent people. Though now this racial nonsense has mostly been discarded in Europe, but in India it is still being exploited and used to divide and denigrate the Hindu society.”
The wrong propaganda of Vested interest of British Design to divert real history and totally wrong concept of Aryan raceism had alrady done damage to world.
Even we have seen a holocaust in world war II.
The Hope is a new breed of Historian,Antropologist,scholers are busy and more and more unified discussions may bring and equal the wrong doings done to our civilization.
The Rig veda was conceived by poets under patronizing of Kings(Indra)and these poets are further conceiving Avesta.These poets are Angirasas,jurasthers etc. a great human cognitive achievement.
But the greater achivements happened befor that when Human civilization started in Ur.or Harappa.and made the natural selection of These poetic achievements.
India is the nursery of civilization.and a continum of human acheivements.
The hiduvata is a wrong term,less it should catch the continuam of the Thoughts of Rishi Gautam The teacher of sattakam.or the Rationlist Mahavir and Budha.
How nice it is to see the ashoke stamva and “sattameva jayate” written below it.
Somebody may wrongly think,that The four lions are Speaking Rig/sam/Jajur/atharva VEDAS throough its Four mouths etc.
who ever may come and go to rule india.how many kings,how many gods,how many satans,how many politicians,how many dalits.it will remain ever”MAHA MANAVER SAGAR”.
Be proud and say I am an Indian.
The Aryans — white men from southern Russia — ate beef, got drunk, gambled, rode chariots, cracked skulls, and worshipped a few humble sky gods; in their down-time they intermarried with indigenous dark-skinned maidens and so ruined their ethnic continuity. This is all impossible for the Hindoo to understand, because the Hindoo is a politicized mleccha taking his cues from the historical revisionism of Brahmins & Hindutva fantatics.
What if we type same about YOUR HOLY GRAIL & ALL LIKE DAN BROWN WRITES AS A PART OF HISTORY BOOK CAN’T CHRISTIANS AT LEAST RESPECT RELIGIOUS FEELINGS OF OTHERS ,IF THEY CAN’T FOLLOW THEM? THIS IS UNFAIR YOU ARE PREACHING WRONG THINGS IN INDIA
AND DON’T TRY TO CONVINCE US “BRAAHMANS” THAT WE ANYHOW ARE FROM YOUR “WHITE PALE SKINNED ARYAN BEEF-EATING” BREED WE ARE NOT & WHATEVER THAT IDIOT A.K.A. “MAX MULLER” CLAIMS EVEN YOU KNOW IT’S FAKE GERMANS CAN’T EVEN SPEAK “J” & MANY OTHER SAMSRUT LETTERS YOU ARE MALIGNING GREAT INDIAN SANATAN ARYA(NOT ARYAN!) CULTURE YOU SHOULD FEEL SOME SHAME
JAY ANADI BHARATBHU!!
& INFACT DRAVIDAS ARE INVADERS FROM LANKA YOU FAKE NATIVE INDIANS FCUK OFF FROM INDIA HE HE HE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“The Aryans — white men from southern Russia — ate beef, got drunk, gambled, rode chariots, cracked skulls, and worshipped a few humble sky gods; in their down-time they intermarried with indigenous dark-skinned maidens and so ruined their ethnic continuity. This is all impossible for the Hindoo to understand, because the Hindoo is a politicized mleccha taking his cues from the historical revisionism of Brahmins & Hindutva fantatics.”
Doubtful you have ever read the Shatapana Brahmna scripts detailing exatly what a mleccha is. It’s probably based on reading John Keay and your membership in the White Knights. Ever heard of the Varangians, son? Well, Aryans were not Russian as Russian ancient ethicity is hardly homogenously defined and based on a movement of linguistic groups (a very elementary idea). Your definition of Aryan is baseless and very misinformed as most europeans tend to do by constructing it with essentialist criteria and a lack of scholarship. I suspect you like white things so I would recommend you 1)go back to your stormfront.org or similar community, 2)study ancient Parthian culture, 3)stop riding Charles Stuart’s nuts, and 4)be a viking for a day and learn their (your) history.
Additionally, Hindus were not especially defined until outsiders came in and beef eating standards were about as codified as vegans deciding whether or not honey is okay. Don’t worry, though Lentini, you want beef, n*gga, that’s cool, too.
Doubtful you have ever read the Shatapana Brahmna scripts
Only in the mlecchific translation of F. Max Müller.
detailing exatly what a mleccha is
The English, genetically almost identical to the Irish, despised the Irish for centuries, ultimately judging them inferior genetically and polluting socially. Sound familiar?
Ever heard of the Varangians, son?
I’m touched that you imitate our dialect so well, Vijay. Please being so very kind as to amuse me much more ok.
Well, Aryans were not Russian
Read it again: I said “white men from southern Russia“. We needn’t call it Russia; we can call it “Ukraine”, or Happy Time Sexy Land if you like.
Additionally, Hindus were not especially defined until outsiders came in and beef eating standards were about as codified as vegans deciding whether or not honey is okay.
Hindu social identity goes deeper than the Aryan contribution … which is why Hindus no longer eat meat, sacrifice horses, or worship Indra and the Maruts, to name three practices from the Rig Veda only that have been abandoned by the Indian masses. So far as I know honey-bees were not kept by the Vedic Aryans, nor the Old Aryans, and seems to be a Slavic innovation.