How can a beef eating festival which invloves killing cow can be termed non violent?

 Ramki

Very informative .Thank you.

 G Niranjan Rao,

Good points.I would also like to add some points, esp to those who want people (esp Dalits) to be in a state of ignorance and misinformed.

West Bengal, Kerala are two states where Hindus have been eating beef for ages. Agreed. But how much percent of protien intake of the people of these two states is contributed by beef? Surprise of surprise, the answer is = not much at all. Fish and Poultry are the big source of protein for even the dalits and muslims in these states.

Beef eating, though prevalent in these states is not to the scale seen in USA and Argentina, it is not that beef is eaten every day , everylunch and dinner. The fact is beef eating is also mostly patronized by specific demographics in these states - Young and middle aged males eat beef now and then. Women for instance prefer fish and poultry.

So this is the fact. Except Kashmir and NE India, beef does not constitute a significant portion of the diet , protien intake of any segment of Indian society, not even dalits. Even in WB/Kerala, the beef eating is also related to fact that the dairy industry here is relatively weak and milk consumption is low. And in rest of india also, this is the case, primary sources of protiens for all castes, incl dalits and muslims are milk, eggs,poultry meat, mutton , fish and pulses (lentils) and not beef or pork.

Infact one should search internet to know more facts - even worldwide, beef is only the 3rd biggest source of protien , behind poultry(meat and eggs) and behind pork/seafood. Europe consumes half the beef per capita than US. And even in US,the land of hamburger and steak, beef consumption per capita has fallen in last many decades with poultry replacing it as the primary source of protien. Argentina is perhaps only nation in world where beef is a very big portion of the citizen's diet.

There are many reasons for this. Beef i.e red meat , though rich in some nutrients like iron is essentially fatty and there are many surveys done in western world (i.e by people who have no connection to brahminism and vedic hinduism) which show the correlation btw  high beef consumption and cardiac diseases, type 2 diabetes and also colonal cancer.

In India, dalits generally lag behind rest of society in educational and  health indicators. Indians of all castes have a predisposition to cardiac diseases and diabetes due to various ethnic/racial factors.Given all this, it is important that the dalit leaders act responsibly, and send the right message to citizens. The last thing we need is a epidemic of diabetes and cardiac diseases among dalits and other depressed castes, and our health infrastructure is already a mess and is underfunded. Eating is a personal belief and should be so but a public place like university should be only for academic activities and not for beef festivals, beer festivals, brandy festivals and pot smoking competitions. 

>> Do we have any proof that it was the goondas of ABVP that started the violence? A link maybe. Hopefully, not fake this time.

Actually, scratch that. My mistake. Hadn't read this article, only the earlier ones, which hadn't spoken about who started the violence.

This one states that members of ABVP started it. Sorry about that.

>> This does not however mean that we should support those goondas of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.

What about other goondas?

Do we have any proof that it was the goondas of ABVP that started the violence? A link maybe. Hopefully, not fake this time.

While people may eat beef or pork, a beef festival or a pork festival is not a good idea. Generally neither beef nor pork should be on college canteen menus. When I called it a free speech issue, I did not mean to support the idea of a beef festival in which beef would be served on a campus against university policy. This does not however mean that we should support those goondas of the  Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.

A  Fest Turns Violent: The heading itself is an insult to intelligence. A beef fest or any fest in which hapless creatures are slaughtered is not a festival but an orgy of violence.

S.S.Nagaraj is absolutely right when he says that a "Pork Festival" would be more appropriate than a "Beef Festival" since pork eating is more prevalent amongst Dalits than beef. I wonder what the reaction of the media at large would have been if a pork festival had been arranged instead of beef.

For me, any avoidable slaughter of animals is totally repugnant. When there is plenty of vegetarian food around, why slaughter animals? Meat eating can be justified only if other sources of nourishment and sustenance are not available.

Dalits should stop falling in to the trap of evangelical Christians. Hinduism is full of Dalit heroes in fact the modern Hindism as we know is ‘written’ by Dalits.

Vyasa- a fisherman- A dalit- wrote Mahabharata which contains the Holy Scripture, Gita

Valmiki- A tribal hunter- a Dalit (may be Maha Dalit?) - wrote Ramayana and brought up Rama's sons Lava and Kusha

Eklavya- Much celebrated sad hero of Mahabharata was a dalit.

Hidumbi- Bhima's wife was a Dalit so was his son Khadothkacha

I can give 100s of such Dalit heroes in Hindu scriptures and mythology........

True, Dalits have been oppressed over a 1000 years and it has nothing to do with Hinduism or Caste system... but more of a social, cultural issue,

Did they eat beef or not is irrelevant- What is relevant is THEY ARE THE TRUE INHERITORS of Sanatana dharma and must be treated as such.
 

This so called "Beef Festival" was quite  uncalled for.  It was actually  "Designed" to be both (i) Divisive and (ii) Provocative.

It was  Divisive for it was MEANT to demarcate the people into two categories --"Dalits" Vs "Non-Dalits".  Here  comes the "Caste Factor".  "SCs, Muslims and Christians"  Vs the "Others" .

It is also Provocative for it definitely hurts the sentiments of ALL those Hindus-- who are against the "Cow-Slaughter"---be they Dalits or "Non-Dalits".  After all, NOT ALL Dalits eat beef and not all Non--Dalits AVOID it either.

Take the case of  "Malas"--one of the largest ,educated and relatively  more advanced segment of Telugu Dalits in AP. Is beef their "Staple Food" now  ?  I do not think so, for I did not hear about it in the village I grew up in the state. The so-called "Staple Food" argument advanced by the organisers of the "Beef Festival" is SHALLOW AND AHISTORICAL.  Over time,  people's so called " Staple food"  went on changing. Otherwise, like our ancestors ( those of the Brahmins included ! ) we should have remained as "Hunter-Gatherers" even in the  21 st Century !!

As for the argument that Non-Dalits avoid beef eating, in Kerala even people from the Elite Hindu castes eat beef !  And they do not feel ashamed of it either !! For a Non-Malayalee which I am,  who began  living in Trivandrum, this  came as a shocking revelation for me---THAT UPPER CASTE MALAYALEE HINDUS ALSO EAT BEEF !!!  And once I have myself  tried it ,  out of sheer curiosity and inquisitiveness. 

Granted that you  can go to Google and read to your heart's contents  how in Ancient India beef-eating was the "In-thing ", how  cow-slaughter used to take place while conducting the Yagnas , how Brahmins were "Required" to eat this stuff  obtained etc...etc  all those specious arguments do not go to justify  conducting this "Festival" . 

If getting beef in the student hostels  is the "Birth Right" of  Some , preventing cow slaughter on the university campus  is also a  "Birth Right" of Others. Where is end to this totally avoidable confrontation ?

And the tragedy is that   some well-meaning social activist-teachers have also joined this purposeless and avoidable Festival --so called . What a pity .

 A Patrawala >> The plant had died because of poison. They do scream when a scythe pierce their bodies like animals when the throat is cut. The sound of scream is so subtle that we human beings ignore it for our food and criticise others for their food habits. Really this is food fascism.

Plants do not have a brain, do not have memory and do not have a Central Nervous system the way animals have. Whatever you said is applicable to every living being , starting from viruses to amoebas, every living being does everything to stay alive and that is why it is called living creature. That does not mean that cutting the branch of a tree is same as cutting the arm of a human or the leg of a horse. Kindly appraise yourself of scientific facts before jumping to conclusions.

As far as the food fascism debate is concerned , you must understand that no one is going to question if you eat beef or drink beer or smoke pot in the privacy of your own home or in a restaurant, atleast the local laws of land in most parts of India does not prohibit eating any food . But Osmania University? Why should a academic institution funded by tax payer money (many of tax payers being those who are conservative Hindus) sponsor a beef festival? It is a known fact that Dalits and other lower castes in India are already lagging in educational indicators and the purpose of government owned, tax payer funded institutions is to set this right and academic institutions should work to bridge the huge educational divide. There is no case for these festivals here. If Dalits and some sections want to celebrate such a festival, it can and must be done in private halls or in say a village temple and not in a state funded academic institution. A humble request to all folks,please dont make academic institutions as battlegrounds of ideology, let people who otherwise do not have educated parents and right environment in their homes use the facilities to learn and equip with all facts, beef festivals and beer festivals can happen in so many other places (marriage halls, privately owned grounds, village temples , homes, hotels etc etc)

Would the same LEFTIST GROUP allow a BEER FESTIVAL in the "Osmania University campus"?? DALITS also have been making their own BEER and consuming it for centuries. 

Indian farmers also have been growing OPIUM in their feilds for centuries which has been banned by GOVT OF INDIA. When all other type of agricultur is failing & farmers are committing SUICIDE, will leftist supported by ISLAMIST organise OPIUM PARTIES in Osmania University campus and agitate for allowing farmers to grow the PROFITABLE CROP of OPIUM?? COW SLAUGTER has been banned by Govt like OPIUM SALE- so why this KOLAVERI DI??

How about organising a 'Pork festival' at Osmania campus? It is a fallacy spread by anti-Hindu forces that Dalits are primarily beef eaters.Dalits have always been only tanners and leather workers,with beef going to the Muslims.On the other hand Dalits traditionally rear pigs and consume pig's meat,that is pork.If the likes of Kancha Ilaiah had been earnest,they should have organised a 'pork fest' at the Osmania campus.But cowards like Kancha Ilaiah will tuck their tails at the sight of Muslims who will kill them if a pork fest is organised.Genuine Dalit leaders like Dr Ambedkar,Kanshi Ram or Mayawathi have never claimed that beef is the staple food of dalits.It is the powerful Christian forces in Andhra Pradesh who seems to be behind this 'beef fest' to drive a wedge between the innocent dalits and other Hindus.

Indian Scientist Sir Dr. Jagadish Chandra Bose (Nov. 30, 1858 – Nov. 23, 1937) was a physicist, biologist, botanist, archaeologist and was a writer - He was  first to invent the Crescograph an electrical instrument that could measure the growth of a plant. He was first to prove and showed the world  that experimentally plants too have life  can "feel pain, understand affection etc." To record the pulse of plants he  connected it to a plant. The plant, with its roots, was carefully picked up and dipped up to its stem in a vessel containing bromide, a poison. The plant's pulse beat, which the instrument recorded as a steady to-and-fro movement like the pendulum of a clock, began to grow unsteady. Soon, the spot vibrated violently and then came to a sudden stop. The plant had died because of poison. They do scream when a scythe pierce their bodies like animals when the throat is cut. The sound of scream is so subtle that we human beings ignore it for our food and criticise others for their food habits. Really this is food fascism.

Indian Scientist Sir Dr. Jagadish Chandra Bose (Nov. 30, 1858 – Nov. 23, 1937) was a physicist, biologist, botanist, archaeologist and was a writer - He was  first to invent the Crescograph an electrical instrument that could measure the growth of a plant. He was first to prove and showed the world  that experimentally plants too have life  can "feel pain, understand affection etc." To record the pulse of plants he  connected it to a plant. The plant, with its roots, was carefully picked up and dipped up to its stem in a vessel containing bromide, a poison. The plant's pulse beat, which the instrument recorded as a steady to-and-fro movement like the pendulum of a clock, began to grow unsteady. Soon, the spot vibrated violently and then came to a sudden stop. The plant had died because of poison. They do scream when a scythe pierce their bodies like animals when the throat is cut. The sound of scream is so subtle that we human beings ignore it for our food and criticise others for their food habits. Really this is food fascism.

How about organising a 'Pork festival' at Osmania campus? It is a fallacy spread by anti-Hindu forces that Dalits are primarily beef eaters.Dalits have always been only tanners and leather workers,with beef going to the Muslims.On the other hand Dalits traditionally rear pigs and consume pig's meat,that is pork.If the likes of Kancha Ilaiah had been earnest,they should have organised a 'pork fest' at the Osmania campus.But cowards like Kancha Ilaiah will tuck their tails at the sight of Muslims who will kill them if a pork fest is organised.Genuine Dalit leaders like Dr Ambedkar,Kanshi Ram or Mayawathi have never claimed that beef is the staple food of dalits.It is the powerful Christian forces in Andhra Pradesh who seems to be behind this 'beef fest' to drive a wedge between the innocent dalits and other Hindus.

Would the same LEFTIST GROUP allow a BEER FESTIVAL in the "Osmania University campus"?? DALITS also have been making their own BEER and consuming it for centuries. 

Indian farmers also have been growing OPIUM in their feilds for centuries which has been banned by GOVT OF INDIA. When all other type of agricultur is failing & farmers are committing SUICIDE, will leftist supported by ISLAMIST organise OPIUM PARTIES in Osmania University campus and agitate for allowing farmers to grow the PROFITABLE CROP of OPIUM?? COW SLAUGTER has been banned by Govt like OPIUM SALE- so why this KOLAVERI DI??

 A Patrawala >> The plant had died because of poison. They do scream when a scythe pierce their bodies like animals when the throat is cut. The sound of scream is so subtle that we human beings ignore it for our food and criticise others for their food habits. Really this is food fascism.

Plants do not have a brain, do not have memory and do not have a Central Nervous system the way animals have. Whatever you said is applicable to every living being , starting from viruses to amoebas, every living being does everything to stay alive and that is why it is called living creature. That does not mean that cutting the branch of a tree is same as cutting the arm of a human or the leg of a horse. Kindly appraise yourself of scientific facts before jumping to conclusions.

As far as the food fascism debate is concerned , you must understand that no one is going to question if you eat beef or drink beer or smoke pot in the privacy of your own home or in a restaurant, atleast the local laws of land in most parts of India does not prohibit eating any food . But Osmania University? Why should a academic institution funded by tax payer money (many of tax payers being those who are conservative Hindus) sponsor a beef festival? It is a known fact that Dalits and other lower castes in India are already lagging in educational indicators and the purpose of government owned, tax payer funded institutions is to set this right and academic institutions should work to bridge the huge educational divide. There is no case for these festivals here. If Dalits and some sections want to celebrate such a festival, it can and must be done in private halls or in say a village temple and not in a state funded academic institution. A humble request to all folks,please dont make academic institutions as battlegrounds of ideology, let people who otherwise do not have educated parents and right environment in their homes use the facilities to learn and equip with all facts, beef festivals and beer festivals can happen in so many other places (marriage halls, privately owned grounds, village temples , homes, hotels etc etc)

This so called "Beef Festival" was quite  uncalled for.  It was actually  "Designed" to be both (i) Divisive and (ii) Provocative.

It was  Divisive for it was MEANT to demarcate the people into two categories --"Dalits" Vs "Non-Dalits".  Here  comes the "Caste Factor".  "SCs, Muslims and Christians"  Vs the "Others" .

It is also Provocative for it definitely hurts the sentiments of ALL those Hindus-- who are against the "Cow-Slaughter"---be they Dalits or "Non-Dalits".  After all, NOT ALL Dalits eat beef and not all Non--Dalits AVOID it either.

Take the case of  "Malas"--one of the largest ,educated and relatively  more advanced segment of Telugu Dalits in AP. Is beef their "Staple Food" now  ?  I do not think so, for I did not hear about it in the village I grew up in the state. The so-called "Staple Food" argument advanced by the organisers of the "Beef Festival" is SHALLOW AND AHISTORICAL.  Over time,  people's so called " Staple food"  went on changing. Otherwise, like our ancestors ( those of the Brahmins included ! ) we should have remained as "Hunter-Gatherers" even in the  21 st Century !!

As for the argument that Non-Dalits avoid beef eating, in Kerala even people from the Elite Hindu castes eat beef !  And they do not feel ashamed of it either !! For a Non-Malayalee which I am,  who began  living in Trivandrum, this  came as a shocking revelation for me---THAT UPPER CASTE MALAYALEE HINDUS ALSO EAT BEEF !!!  And once I have myself  tried it ,  out of sheer curiosity and inquisitiveness. 

Granted that you  can go to Google and read to your heart's contents  how in Ancient India beef-eating was the "In-thing ", how  cow-slaughter used to take place while conducting the Yagnas , how Brahmins were "Required" to eat this stuff  obtained etc...etc  all those specious arguments do not go to justify  conducting this "Festival" . 

If getting beef in the student hostels  is the "Birth Right" of  Some , preventing cow slaughter on the university campus  is also a  "Birth Right" of Others. Where is end to this totally avoidable confrontation ?

And the tragedy is that   some well-meaning social activist-teachers have also joined this purposeless and avoidable Festival --so called . What a pity .

Dalits should stop falling in to the trap of evangelical Christians. Hinduism is full of Dalit heroes in fact the modern Hindism as we know is ‘written’ by Dalits.

Vyasa- a fisherman- A dalit- wrote Mahabharata which contains the Holy Scripture, Gita

Valmiki- A tribal hunter- a Dalit (may be Maha Dalit?) - wrote Ramayana and brought up Rama's sons Lava and Kusha

Eklavya- Much celebrated sad hero of Mahabharata was a dalit.

Hidumbi- Bhima's wife was a Dalit so was his son Khadothkacha

I can give 100s of such Dalit heroes in Hindu scriptures and mythology........

True, Dalits have been oppressed over a 1000 years and it has nothing to do with Hinduism or Caste system... but more of a social, cultural issue,

Did they eat beef or not is irrelevant- What is relevant is THEY ARE THE TRUE INHERITORS of Sanatana dharma and must be treated as such.
 

S.S.Nagaraj is absolutely right when he says that a "Pork Festival" would be more appropriate than a "Beef Festival" since pork eating is more prevalent amongst Dalits than beef. I wonder what the reaction of the media at large would have been if a pork festival had been arranged instead of beef.

For me, any avoidable slaughter of animals is totally repugnant. When there is plenty of vegetarian food around, why slaughter animals? Meat eating can be justified only if other sources of nourishment and sustenance are not available.

A  Fest Turns Violent: The heading itself is an insult to intelligence. A beef fest or any fest in which hapless creatures are slaughtered is not a festival but an orgy of violence.

While people may eat beef or pork, a beef festival or a pork festival is not a good idea. Generally neither beef nor pork should be on college canteen menus. When I called it a free speech issue, I did not mean to support the idea of a beef festival in which beef would be served on a campus against university policy. This does not however mean that we should support those goondas of the  Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.

>> This does not however mean that we should support those goondas of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.

What about other goondas?

Do we have any proof that it was the goondas of ABVP that started the violence? A link maybe. Hopefully, not fake this time.

>> Do we have any proof that it was the goondas of ABVP that started the violence? A link maybe. Hopefully, not fake this time.

Actually, scratch that. My mistake. Hadn't read this article, only the earlier ones, which hadn't spoken about who started the violence.

This one states that members of ABVP started it. Sorry about that.

 G Niranjan Rao,

Good points.I would also like to add some points, esp to those who want people (esp Dalits) to be in a state of ignorance and misinformed.

West Bengal, Kerala are two states where Hindus have been eating beef for ages. Agreed. But how much percent of protien intake of the people of these two states is contributed by beef? Surprise of surprise, the answer is = not much at all. Fish and Poultry are the big source of protein for even the dalits and muslims in these states.

Beef eating, though prevalent in these states is not to the scale seen in USA and Argentina, it is not that beef is eaten every day , everylunch and dinner. The fact is beef eating is also mostly patronized by specific demographics in these states - Young and middle aged males eat beef now and then. Women for instance prefer fish and poultry.

So this is the fact. Except Kashmir and NE India, beef does not constitute a significant portion of the diet , protien intake of any segment of Indian society, not even dalits. Even in WB/Kerala, the beef eating is also related to fact that the dairy industry here is relatively weak and milk consumption is low. And in rest of india also, this is the case, primary sources of protiens for all castes, incl dalits and muslims are milk, eggs,poultry meat, mutton , fish and pulses (lentils) and not beef or pork.

Infact one should search internet to know more facts - even worldwide, beef is only the 3rd biggest source of protien , behind poultry(meat and eggs) and behind pork/seafood. Europe consumes half the beef per capita than US. And even in US,the land of hamburger and steak, beef consumption per capita has fallen in last many decades with poultry replacing it as the primary source of protien. Argentina is perhaps only nation in world where beef is a very big portion of the citizen's diet.

There are many reasons for this. Beef i.e red meat , though rich in some nutrients like iron is essentially fatty and there are many surveys done in western world (i.e by people who have no connection to brahminism and vedic hinduism) which show the correlation btw  high beef consumption and cardiac diseases, type 2 diabetes and also colonal cancer.

In India, dalits generally lag behind rest of society in educational and  health indicators. Indians of all castes have a predisposition to cardiac diseases and diabetes due to various ethnic/racial factors.Given all this, it is important that the dalit leaders act responsibly, and send the right message to citizens. The last thing we need is a epidemic of diabetes and cardiac diseases among dalits and other depressed castes, and our health infrastructure is already a mess and is underfunded. Eating is a personal belief and should be so but a public place like university should be only for academic activities and not for beef festivals, beer festivals, brandy festivals and pot smoking competitions. 

 Ramki

Very informative .Thank you.

How can a beef eating festival which invloves killing cow can be termed non violent?