By
Vidya Bhushan Rawat
Vegetarianism
is basically considered to be a ‘nonviolent’ approach towards nature and our
food habits. People who did not like ‘animal slaughtering’ and ‘cruelty’ on
them would often turn vegetarians. Many people are vegetarians because of their
taste for the food others are because of basic cultural values they inherited
but it is a fact that a majority of India is not vegetarian and that
vegetarianism is basically belong to the values of caste Hindus in Gujarat,
Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan regions. Mostly vegetarians in India are becoming
highly illiberal and contemptuous towards those who are ‘different’ than them
in food habits. It was not true several years back. My mother was a devout
vegetarian but she did not stop us eating meat. Many of my friends even today
may not eat non-veg but they are cook non veg and perhaps delicious than
others.
The
war in India is not just being vegetarian and non-vegetarian but gone further.
It is a well thought action to isolate Muslims and Christians on the basis of
their food habits even when the facts are that not all of them eat it. Contrary
to this, a very large number of caste Hindus eats beef. It was never a taboo with communities of
Dalits and Aadivasis. But the politics behind the whole debate actually intend
to communalize the matter further for ulterior political profits.
The
debate now is not between vegetarianism verses non veg loving people but it
further aim to divide the non-veg lovers and hence those who eat beef are
sought to be isolated in this entire game plan. Frankly speaking cow slaughter
was banned in India since 1947 and various states too had enacted different
laws towards cow protection hence raking up that issue is nothing but purely
political. Fact right now is that they have further expanded the ‘cow family’
and hence decided that they are not just contend with cow slaughtering but even
beyond that and hence the slaughtering of buffaloes and others animals of cow
family is legally prohibited in Maharastra and other states. The hidden agenda of
the Sangh Parivar and its various offshoots is visible with state after state
amending their laws and including more ‘progenies’ of the cow family, which was
not there earlier. So, it is not merely that you are satisfied with Cow but now
the Maharastra act has extended the ‘protection’ to the progenies of cow. In
fact, India’s home minister openly said that he would ‘starve’ Dhaka of its
basic diet, as police would be more vigilant to stop smuggling of cows and its
progenies.
So
the distortion of the news is that we are talking against cow slaughtering,
which is already prohibited under the law, but its progenies, which was never,
and no religious sanctity was given to them at any point of time. In fact,
slaughtering of buffaloes has been one of the major rituals in Nepal as well as
in several temples in Assam and Uttarakhand in India.
Historically
cow and its progenies were useful animals for people for not just milk and
other produces but also for the purpose of farming. There are proofs of
Brahmins eating beef as said by Prof D.N.Jha in his famous work. The Dalits and
Aadivasis too eat beef and other wild animals, which were the biggest source of
protein for them. There is no Yjna in the ancient text without killings of
animals. The gods and goddess that are displayed in today’s time have a violent
track record and non-talked about nonviolence. Hence it would be a travesty of
truth to suggest that vegetarianism is part of India’s culture.
Nonviolence
was a Buddhist doctrine while Bhagwat Gita and Ramayana’s stories are not just
full of violence but ‘adharma’ too as Dr Ambedkar exposed in his skillful
analysis of ‘Riddles of Hinduism’. It is not a hidden fact that all the
‘rakshasa’s and ‘evils’ in these ‘epics’ are either people of black color or
Dalit-Adivasis. So ‘dharma’ became a doctrine to create and impose a
brahmanical supremacy over Dalit Bahujan masses. When Buddhism was spreading in entire country
and became the philosophy of life for millions of people here the brahmanical
forces retaliated violently against the same and the result was Buddhism was
thrown out of its land of birth. Jainism too was a nonviolent doctrine but
unfortunately it has completely coopted by the Hindutva and their business
interests today. The Aryan Supremacy was established ‘mythologically’ to
kill the spirit of the asserting Asuras or anaryas so varnashram dharma and its
‘divine’ philosophy became the biggest weapon.
Over
the period the struggle for human dignity and human rights are part and parcel
of India’s social as well as mythological structure. The mythological structure
that denied the vast majority basic human rights and human dignity actually
continued to humiliate them till the oppression gave rise to different new
philosophies of life which provided a window of opportunity to all the
oppressed. Buddhism, Jainism, Sikkhism, Kabirpanthis, Ravidasis provided the
opportunity further. That apart, Islam and Christianity too came as a liberator
for thousands of people who were treated as untouchables. The vast working
masses of Indians belonging to Dalits, aadivasis and backward communities were
actually protectors of natural resources, environment and animals. But at the
same point of time animal meat of any variety was a source of protein for them.
The
Brahmins realized this and used ‘nonviolence’ as a tool to make these powerful
communities virtually ‘vegetarian’ and ensured that their ‘assertion’ and
‘rebellion’ is dumbed through ‘divinity’ of these acts. Brahmanical
‘nonviolence’ therefore was nothing but a multipronged strategy to defeat
Buddhism philosophically on the one side and develop an alternative where its
supremacy remained intact. Hence throughout the history brahmanical vegetarian
violence has played a dangerous game in dividing communities. When Buddhism was
reaching the masses the Brahmins used all kind of violence to stop its growth
but after the Mughal rule in India the priorities shifted. They were the first
to compromise and adjust with the power but once the British arrived in India
these same forces formed groups and associations to be associated with them.
Cow Protection and vegetarianism gained currency during the British period when
the Muslims were on the receiving end and Indian civil services were being
replaced by the caste Hindus however the influence of Muslim remained powerful
as ever and they fought against the British regime with much vigor and power.
In the 1920s when Congress was attempting to bring Muslims in its fold to fight
a joint battle against British, the Rastriya Swayam Sevak Sangh was also taking
shape in Nagpur, a land of revolution and revolt of the Dalit Bahujan against
Brahmanical hierarchy. Islam and Christianity was proving to be a liberating
ground for the Dalits to get rid of the untouchability and further an alliance
of these forces would have made the statusquo difficult to maintain. The
politics of symbolism began from here to mobilise people under ‘Hindu’ identity
and for that an artificial construct of India as ‘pitrabhumi’ or father land
came handy to create an impression that only those who have India as their
fatherland are actually the rightful inheritor of this country. The Dusshera
festival and using the brahmanical symbolism became a fashion for political
mobilization as from Tilak to Gandhi all used these symbolism for their own
political purposes resulting in deep division among the society.
The
problem with such divisive Hindutva politics was to deliberately blame Muslims
for all the ailments of India to legitimize their vicious communal agenda.
Hence after the partition when we had the national government under Pandit
Jawahar Lal Nehru, RSS continued with its divisive legacy of Hindu Rastra as a
counter to political Islam. As Pakistan was created in the name of religion,
RSS wanted a Hindu Rastra, which according to their own theology was
‘brahmanical’ in nature. There is no history of the RSS fighting against caste
system, untouchability, dowry system and other evils of Hindu society. Their
focus was Muslim and Islam so that they can cover up the whole inequality and
dirty caste system of the Hindu society. Assault on Muslim was also necessary
to arrest the ‘conversion’ and keep the Dalits with in the Hindu caste
framework. Initially, they provided the cheap services and later with assertive
Dalits with Ambedkar’s vision became the real cultural threat for brahmanical
Hindutva and hence all efforts were made to coopt and assimilate them in
broader agenda of Sangh Parivar.
As
the Muslims and Dalits along with OBCs and Aadivasis were coming together and
forming rainbow coalition to fight against Brahmanical hegemony the worries of
Sangh Parivar were inevitable. While they condemn Congress party for
‘appeasing’ Muslims and not acknowledging Dr Ambedkar, it need to be checked if
our memories are not faded that Dr Ambedkar was given Bharat Ratna by V.P.Singh
who is the most hated figure for the Sangh Parivar and their upper caste
followers. In fact, if V P government had survived in 1990, the political
landscape of India would have been absolutely different than what it is today.
That government fell in the house of people on November 7th, 1990
for fulfilling a constitutional obligation to protect religious place of fellow
countrymen in Ayodhya. Yes, Singh acted toughly against Hindutva elements who
tried to demolish Babari Masjid in October, 1990.
The
biggest challenge for the Sangh Parivar led brahmanical Hindutva was to break
the alliance between these diverse segments. Their number increased in
Parliament and state assemblies. The issue of Ram Mandir flopped and slowly
Dalits have fascinatingly adopted Dr Ambedkar’s way of life and embraced
Buddhism. All the Babas and corporate attempt to bring them to Hindu fold
failed and hence it became essential to divide them further aliening with
Muslims. Today, the Sangh Parivar is celebrating Dr Ambedkar’s birthday but
don’t we know one of their ideologue Arun Shourie wrote ‘ Worshipping the False
God’ in the 1990s. Sangh Parivar is trying to use Ambedkar from 1990s but it
never condemned Shourie’s writings on Ambedkar and his attempt to denigrate
Ambedkar and make him look a petty politician. There are many dalit ‘scholars’
at the disposal of Sangh Parivar who compared Ambedkar and Jagjivan Ram. Two
mouthpieces of Sangh namely ‘Organiser’ and ‘Panchjanya’ devoted its whole
issue on Dr Ambedkar and his ‘association’ with Hindutva. His term ‘reclamation’
of our inheritance is being misinterpreted and his differences with Congress
are being highlighted. One has to understand that Dr Ambedkar fought against
Congress because he felt that it was serving the upper caste Hindus interest
and is least bothered about Dalits and other marginalized. If Sangh was that
powerful those times, he would have fought against them too. Ambedkar’s
writings are selectively being used against Congress and Muslims. As mentioned
earlier Ambedkar’s fight was against inhuman brahmanical system and he wanted a
dignified solution to the issue of Dalits where they participate in power
structure with their head high and ensure that benefit of this participation
reach to the poorest of the poor.
The
vegetarian vigilantes today have made life of law abiding Indian citizens
difficult. Understand it how they are intruding in your personal lives right
from your right to freedom of expression to food habits to who should be your
soul-mate. They have become extra-state actors at the moment though acting at
the behest of state and using its absolute freedom towards them. They started
with Vandemataram and Ram Mandir movement and realized that they have to move
ahead and hence used corruption as an entry point. Today in power, they want to
control everything. So it is not merely what you should eat but who you should
stay and who you should love. Every day
hundreds of their ‘philosophers’ and ‘guides’ are looking for new issues to
humiliate and intimidate the Muslims and Christians and create an artificial
threat to others. It is important to understand the designs of such forces that
India will have to run through the preamble of its constitution and all the
international charters that we signed.
It
is important to understand their modus operandi and why beef has now become the
major issues and it will remain as long as we have ‘democracy’ and ‘elections’
to win but every issue that the Sangh Parivar raises have not just politics but
‘economic’ interest too and therefore ignoring the vast business interest of
their ‘client’ would be detrimental for them.
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