Yeah, you were wrong about that. In fact, I would guess that a minority of Hindus are vegetarian by choice. Most Hindus don’t eat meat simply because they can’t afford it.
In fact, you’d probably be safe in assuming that any sentence that begins with “All Hindus are …” is wrong. Hinduism has no dogma or hierarchy. Each Hindu can decide for him or herself how to live and what, if anything, to believe.
Harris addresses this factor, too. To put it simply, the reverence of all cows, no matter whether any individual cow is actively serving society, serves to protect the role of oxen in agricultural labour.
It isn’t hard to get meat that technically is “cow.” There are plenty of Indians who eat beef, including Muslims, Christians, and a good number of educated Hindus. It’s a matter of going to the right restaurant and being able to pay the price. What may be difficult is buying beef in a regular market. Same goes for pork.
When I was in India, I got a lot of approval for being vegetarian- a lot of people will eat meat when they can, but it’s considered “better” and particulary appropriate for girls not to. This came from both Hindus and Sikhs (there is little agreement on what diet is called for by the Sikh religion and diet is largely a personal matter).
I was surprised to hear a number of Hindus express disgust over pig meat, which is rarely (but occasionally) availible. Cow meat was unthinkable to them. In most states slaughtering cows is illegal and is very hard to find- my meat loving Sikh friend in Delhi had never tried it. Chicken and goat seem like the main meats away from coastal areas. I’m told that the huge number of goats I’ve saw in Rajastan are largely for milk. Beef was available in Kerela and Water Buffulo in Nepal. I’d say some sort of meat was available at about one-third of the restraraunts I ate at, but I mostly stuck to the cheapest places. Anyway, the point is that meat of all types is around in India, but there is abosultely no concept of eating meat at every meal.
The McDonalds in India are a lot of fun. They offer four different veggie burgers (mmm, McAloo Tikka) and the only thing they have in common with ours is fries and Filet-o-Fish.
I do think the explanations about the importance of preserving farming power get to the crux of the issue in a revealing way.
But I couldn’t help writing to my imaginary friend in Saigon after I saw this.
Dear Chin, I agree with you the food habits of Americans are incomprehensible; I can’t understand their bizarre and irrational religous taboos against eating perfectly good food, even with so many starving people in their cities.
There are plenty of dogs and cats in America pretty much wandering around, with the right of way. Or the right to just lie there. I get the impression that they aren’t so much actively worshipped as respectfully tolerated.
Great, find me just one example of a Muslim in India eating carrion, and I’ll eat my babushka. You don’t know these people, do you? I’ve traveled and lived among them. The number and strictness of observation of the many taboos that circumscribe their lives is remarkable.
I’ve never seen stray dogs (let alone 2 ton stray dogs, which is rather more to the point) lie down in a busy city street here and people not attempt to do anything about it. Additionally I don’t see dogs and cats having the same presumed right to lie around in the street unmolested as I’ve seen for cows there. This is really quite a different phenomenon.
Yeah, the McAloo Tikka Burgers are pretty good, aren’t they? I swore I wouldn’t eat at western chains while I was in India, but had to try this since it’s not on the menu in California. IIRC, though, the McDonald’s in New Delhi (Connaught Place) had some non-vegetarian dishes.
I found out about the McAloo Tikka from an article on Indian McDonalds in the Financial Times that I read on the flight over. This was March 2002. McD’s was recovering from a scandal that had erupted over the discovery that the fries had had beef flavoring. A large portion of customers had ordered fries assuming they were vegetarian and were outraged to discover they’d eaten beef. McD’s ceased using beef products in their fries and added a menu session that was explicitly vegetarian. Their PR campaign was pretty successful at reestablishing trust. FT noted that McD’s was having little success in getting breakfast customers, though.
Bring out your fork and knife… I have muslim friends that eat carrion (and pork too) as well as hindu friends that eat beef (as do I). Yes, the vast majority in both communities will avoid what’s forbidden to them, but there are plenty that will eat what they want.
Cow slaughter is illegal in most states, as even sven mentions, but that doesn’t stop the distribution and consumption of the meat. It is available a la carte in plenty of restaurants - in fact, pretty much every steakhouse I’ve ever been to in India serves beef. Pork is as easily available in the markets as chicken and mutton/goat. Beef is less widely available, but it’s not like you have to sneak around the religious police to get it.
IMO, the cows on the street phenomenon lies somewhere between active worship and respectful tolerance, probably tending to the former.
Fries and Fillet-o-Fish are the only things in common with he US McDonalds?? You don’t have the Crispy Chinese burger there? Damn, you’re missing out! Burgers aren’t yet acepted as just another meal here - McDonalds is trying and they are making inroads, but it’ll be a while before we see a breakfast menu in India.
OK, gouda, I guess I’ve been Dop’d! Let me find a babushka made of tasty hemp fiber. I’ve been eating hemp granola cereal, so hemp clothing has got to be the most edible…
Yeah, there’s a lot of lip-service given to the virtues of vegetarianism amongst non-vegetarians. My theory is that the view that girls should not express an overt taste for meat is related to ideas of sexual modesty – a lust for meat is viewed as being akin to an immodest lust for other things. Of course, in general, girls and women are expected to be more pious and self-sacrificing than men. That’s part of the general sexism of Indian society. Amongst Bengalis, widows were also prohibited from eating a lot of things – meat, onions, garlic (onions and garlic are traditionally considered “non-vegetarian”), and the newest fruits of the season – basically anything good.
There’s also a good dose of bourgeois hypocrisy mixed in with all this.
Again, these attitudes may be common, but they’re not universal.
Indeed, in past generations many Hindus would not eat chicken, because it was considered “Muslim food.” Goat meat (for which Indians use the English word “mutton”) is the most common meat. In Bengali, the generic word for meat (“mangsho”) is often used to meat goat meat, specifically.
In traditional Bengali culture, it is expected that fish will be served at the two major meals of the day, barring some special circumstance.
The generic burger is the “McBurger,” which, I believe is made from goat meat (“mutton”). It tastes surprisingly close to the regular McDonald’s hamburger.
This scandal also affected McDonald’s in the United States. In fact, I believe some Hindu groups brought suit or threatened to. Not only did the beef tallow in the fries bother vegetarian Hindus, the beef tallow in the Chicken McNuggets upset the non-beef-eating non-vegetarian Hindus.