Meat Harmful, Chant Mantra Before Meals: Teaches Rajasthan Class 10 Textbook

Rajasthan Board's new physical health and education textbook for Class 10 teaches students a "mantra" to recite before consuming a meal and says consumption of meat is harmful for the body.

According to a Times Now report, the book says “Eating meat causes a lot of harm to the body. Chant mantra before meals, and while eating, think of food as 'God's Prasad".

Besides highlighting the "harmful" effects of consuming meat, the book also blames meat-eating habits on "lack of social values and virtues in modern life".

The book further tells students that food should be eaten while sitting on floor in "aasana".

Not just teaching the students about the ‘Sanskari Mantra’, the school’s textbook also describes moderate leaders of the Congress as “prosperous, middle-class intellectuals hailing from big cities” Added to this the book says these leaders hailing from big cities doesn’t even have any connection with the masses.

According to Times Now report, the English textbook for the same class also explains that the victory of the lotus is the victory of Indian culture over the western world since the “lily and the rose are Western flowers”.

In addition to teaching students about the different self made concepts the book also says: “For Hindi to become the 'contact' language for the entire country, efforts should be made rising above political considerations.”

This is not the first time school textbooks in Rajasthan have landed in controversy. In the past too, the books have been accused of distorting history and facts.

Last year the iconic 'Tryst with Destiny' speech of Jawaharlal Nehru was removed from the revised textbook for Class IX Social Science.

In the same year, the Hindi textbook for Class V, introduced a letter from a cow in one of its chapter. In this the cow addressed the students as "my daughters and son” and had images of Hindu gods within a bigger picture of a cow, each signifying the benefits humans can earn if they consider cow as their "mother".

In another instance recently, a Rajasthan textbook for Class 12 again fell under controversy for giving wrong explanations about entrepreneurs. The text read: “desirable physical attributes of an entrepreneur include “good height” and “beautiful complexion”.