“'Modern' Indians love to make a fetish of their various idiosyncrasies. The latest being Veganism or Vegetarian vigilantism.”
The Daily Mail, UK, in a recent editorial
Kuchh hain jo khaate nahin gosht
Par karte nahin parhez insaan ke khoon se Sahar ' Jhanswi'
(Some don't consume meat/ But have no qualms in drinking blood of humans; of course, metaphorically)
“One of the biggest and most stupid myths in the history of mankind is that nonvegetarians are violent and substandard humans.”
Will Durant (1885-1881), American writer, historian and philosopher, who himself was a complete vegetarian
“Eat or drink whatever you want. You can still stay a nice human till the end”
A Portuguese maxim
Recently, a highly educated Muslim acquaintance of mine was denied to have an apartment in an 'elite' housing society in Pune. He was clearly told that being a Muslim, there was no doubt that he ate meat and the housing society mostly comprised hardcore vegans. This is what I call our latest dietary morality which has started getting on my nerves.
Earlier, the dietary habits and ethics used to be fluid and often overlapping. People would hardly ask you what you preferred to have: Veg or non-veg? But today's 'religiously transformed' India is pretty different. Now your religion, caste and food preferences are asked at the first blush to judge you as an individual for allotting a particular slot and stereotyping. It's like genome marking and sequencing for mere survival in a polarised society! Now your food habits decide your family, persona, pedigree and even antecedents!
This is food fanaticism and as you know, fanaticism of any hue is dangerous and inimical to the health and happiness of a social group. Fanaticism is not just related to religion. There are food fanatics as well. These food fanatics, ideologues, and absolutists are humanity's greatest scourge and bane. Fanatics are people who indulge in a heady, intoxicating, and toxic concoction of self-affirming, know-it-all confidence that they've the rarest access to some absolute oracular truths. Now a crop of culinary custodians has cropped up along with a battery of fashionable, ladida-type vegan activists who'll try to convince you that non-vegetarianism is toxic and completely unhealthy.
As I've stated at the outset, these people are making a collective fetish of their idiosyncrasies. They're not only avoiding all sorts of non-veg fare but also condemning onion, garlic, and all root-vegetables. The fallacious belief 'jaisa anna, vaisa man' (loosely speaking, food determines human nature) has spread many false beliefs about non-veg food being 'tamsik' (tamas=andhera) in effect.
Medical science has debunked it. Latest medical findings in 'The Lancet' – the world's most trusted medical journal – indicate that consuming non-vegetarian food in moderation can be very helpful to the human body and its metabolism. Don't eat in excess because ati sarvada varjyate. Buddha – the apostle of peace and the greatest embodiment of compassion – died of having undercooked pork. Many Sufis were non-vegetarians, barring Rabia Basri, Fariduddin Attar, Jalaluddin Rumi and Jami (Courtesy, Conflict and Cooperation: Zoroastrian Subalterns and Muslim Elites in Medieval Iranian Society by Jamsheed K Choksy, NY: Columbia University Press, 1997). But all Sufis disseminated the universal message of love, peace and non-violence. On the contrary, Germany's Adolf Hitler was a vegetarian (though he ate fish). What did he do? He's still seen as the Devil personified. Following the battle of Kalinga and seeing untold bloodshed, emperor Ashok embraced Buddhism and stopped eating meat. But it's a fact that even after turning a vegetarian, Ashok didn't completely become compassionate. He ordered Tishyrakshita, his young wife, to be burnt alive when he came to know that she tried to make amorous advances to his son and Tishyrakshita's step-son, Kunal. Mughal emperor Aurangzeb turned a vegetarian at the age of seventy till he breathed his last after nearly two decades. Emperor Nero suffered from an incurable skin disease. The court physician advised him to give up on non-veg, even duck-eggs (Romans preferred duck-eggs) and even fish till he got cured. For two and a half years, he didn't touch meat, egg and fish and that period was the most cruel and violent in his life (refer to Bulwar Lytton's 'The Last Days of Pompeii'). In other words, his cruelty shot up when he abstained from meat! Many dacoits in the Chambal ravines didn't touch meat. But they killed humans.
Mother Teresa was a non-vegetarian but she committed herself to serving mankind! Nelson Mandela was a non-vegetarian. So was Bishop Desmond Tutu. So was Jesus. Swami Vivekananda loved mutton and was very fond of hilsa (ilish in Bangla) fish. Tagore enjoyed fish but genuinely talked of cosmic love. He wasn't a fake. Rabindranath Tagore never indulged in any sort of violent activities. Jawaharlal Nehru enjoyed non-veg, but was a supporter of Panchsheel and believed in non-violence. There are instances of Jesus partaking of fish in the Bible. Dr Martin Luther King Jr was a non-vegetarian. Frontier Gandhi, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, was a non-vegetarian but he lived the life of a saint and had spartan habits.
Psychologically speaking, a vegetarian has a suppressed desire to eat non-veg. He / she suppresses it because of certain religious bindings. But the desire never completely dies. It may somewhat diminish. This unsuccessful suppression of gastronomic cravings manifests itself in diabolical acts of unthinkable violence. Eating veg out of religious bindings is different from opting for veg by choice. Yours truly has never had any faith in any religion in life. Neither has he believed in any god, doctrine or ideology. But he's a staunch vegetarian. Vegetarianism stemming from compassion towards all animals can be understood but forced religious vegetarianism causes more harm than the manifest non-vegetarianism of certain people and communities. This pigeonholing on the basis of dietary preferences is not just wrong, it smacks of culinary snobbery of those who're vegetarians.
Moreover, the flawed perception that non-vegetarians are inferior humans is creating all sorts of bitterness in society and giving birth to dietary untouchability. Chanakya made it clear centuries ago, “Na va bhojanam iti praharit jeevasya prakrit janmanah sanchitah” (Not any specific kind of food preference decides a person's inner fabric. That's something one's born with). Such sagacious words! Are the hardcore vegans listening? Time to stop pontificating. Rather, ponder over the sage words of the wisest sage.
Sumit Paul is a regular contributor to the world’s premier publications and portals in several languages
