This days some state governments in India are busy banning meat for a certain amount of time citing religious reasons. All of these states are ruled by a political party which is formed out of an extremest outfit. It is busy spreading hatred among different communities. The beef ban and ban on other meat products is basically aimed to create religious tensions.
Although today in India a major part of the population is vegetarian, but still there are at least 400 million plus people who consume meat of some kind or other. In reality the food habits of people depend on the environment and the geographical location that they live in. It depends on the availability of the type of grains, fruits and vegetables of that place. Also the health impact of different food stuff varies, depending upon the weather.
You invariably find communities living besides sea cost consume lots of sea food. In western and southern parts of India where lots of rice is grown, there the normal staple diet of the people is rice. However in northern parts of India, wheat is grown in plenty and they consume wheat in large amounts.
It is a well known fact that in ancient India meat was consumed, even cow's meat was consumed. In fact a Brahmin was not considered to be a good Brahmin if he did not consume beef. To quote Swami Vivekananda in this regard:
"There was a time in this very India when, without eating beef, no Brahmin could remain a Brahmin; you read in the Vedas how, when a Sannyasi, a king, or a great man came into a house, the best bullock was killed; how in time it was found that as we were an agricultural race, killing the best bulls meant annihilation of the race. Therefore the practice was stopped, and a voice was raised against the killing of cows ."[Source]
This also shows us why the practice of consuming beef was stopped. India was then primarily an agricultural country. In ancient times cows and bulls were very important for agriculture and as a means of transport, there used to be bullock carts. Also we must remember that back then there was no refrigeration technology available so the the cow or bull once slaughtered must be distributed fast and in the village, where few people lived, not everyone was able to consume all the meat. Hence a major portion of the meat would go waste , hence for consumption of little beef a large animal had to be slaughtered. This surely must have led to the reduction of population of cows and bulls, which would have had tremendous impact on the society and the economy back then.
Hence religious rules were made in regards to beef consumption. Killing cows was totally banned and to make sure that people didn't disobey, the idea of cow mother and killing a cow as a sin was inculcated. In time the subsequent generation practiced this laws more and more strictly and in ignorance they started comparing cows to gods,and stopped its slaughter altogether. Very strict punishment was meted out on those who disobeyed the law. As Indians became more and more conservative many Indians gave up meat eating, also there was an emperor Ashok who was extremely cruel and ambitious to begin with, but later on became a Buddhist and spread the message of peace and non-violence.
Emperor Ashok sent his men to different parts of world to get different crops and vegetables and once they were introduced he banned all kinds of animal killings. Ashoka's over reaction was probably due to excessive guilt for him being the reason for the death of millions of innocent people. Buddha himself was a meat eater, he only protested against the unnecessary killings of animals in which even the meats would have gone waste.
Today we are no longer dependent on bulls for transport or farming. We have trucks, buses etc and for farming we have machines and tractors. So bulls are useless except for their seamen from which other cows are born. Even in case of cows, only those cows that can give milk are of any use,otherwise they are completely useless. So there is no need to feed this useless bulls and cows, one can simply get them slaughtered and sell the meat. It is a great source of cheap protein.
Although today in India a major part of the population is vegetarian, but still there are at least 400 million plus people who consume meat of some kind or other. In reality the food habits of people depend on the environment and the geographical location that they live in. It depends on the availability of the type of grains, fruits and vegetables of that place. Also the health impact of different food stuff varies, depending upon the weather.
You invariably find communities living besides sea cost consume lots of sea food. In western and southern parts of India where lots of rice is grown, there the normal staple diet of the people is rice. However in northern parts of India, wheat is grown in plenty and they consume wheat in large amounts.
It is a well known fact that in ancient India meat was consumed, even cow's meat was consumed. In fact a Brahmin was not considered to be a good Brahmin if he did not consume beef. To quote Swami Vivekananda in this regard:
"There was a time in this very India when, without eating beef, no Brahmin could remain a Brahmin; you read in the Vedas how, when a Sannyasi, a king, or a great man came into a house, the best bullock was killed; how in time it was found that as we were an agricultural race, killing the best bulls meant annihilation of the race. Therefore the practice was stopped, and a voice was raised against the killing of cows ."[Source]
This also shows us why the practice of consuming beef was stopped. India was then primarily an agricultural country. In ancient times cows and bulls were very important for agriculture and as a means of transport, there used to be bullock carts. Also we must remember that back then there was no refrigeration technology available so the the cow or bull once slaughtered must be distributed fast and in the village, where few people lived, not everyone was able to consume all the meat. Hence a major portion of the meat would go waste , hence for consumption of little beef a large animal had to be slaughtered. This surely must have led to the reduction of population of cows and bulls, which would have had tremendous impact on the society and the economy back then.
Hence religious rules were made in regards to beef consumption. Killing cows was totally banned and to make sure that people didn't disobey, the idea of cow mother and killing a cow as a sin was inculcated. In time the subsequent generation practiced this laws more and more strictly and in ignorance they started comparing cows to gods,and stopped its slaughter altogether. Very strict punishment was meted out on those who disobeyed the law. As Indians became more and more conservative many Indians gave up meat eating, also there was an emperor Ashok who was extremely cruel and ambitious to begin with, but later on became a Buddhist and spread the message of peace and non-violence.
Emperor Ashok sent his men to different parts of world to get different crops and vegetables and once they were introduced he banned all kinds of animal killings. Ashoka's over reaction was probably due to excessive guilt for him being the reason for the death of millions of innocent people. Buddha himself was a meat eater, he only protested against the unnecessary killings of animals in which even the meats would have gone waste.
Today we are no longer dependent on bulls for transport or farming. We have trucks, buses etc and for farming we have machines and tractors. So bulls are useless except for their seamen from which other cows are born. Even in case of cows, only those cows that can give milk are of any use,otherwise they are completely useless. So there is no need to feed this useless bulls and cows, one can simply get them slaughtered and sell the meat. It is a great source of cheap protein.
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