Julio Ribeiro : Meeting the beef eaters

The Beef Eaters at the Tower of London are recognised by tourists world over by their medieval era costumes and the ravens that hover on the Tower’s garden lawns. Beef eaters in our country are far more numerous, but not easily identifiable. Muslims and Christians who constitute 14.2 and 2.3 percent of the total population respectively are almost entirely in that category, but numerous Hindus, Brahmins included, are beef eaters! Well, they will have to do without their steaks in Maharashtra and Haryana to start with. 

Two years ago, the Bombay High Court asked me to give my opinion in a Writ Petition filed by some Muslim citizens demanding temporary slaughter houses in the island city during the three days of the Bakri-Id festival. All parties to the dispute and the government as a concerned party, agreed to a committee under my chairmanship. I studied the papers and found that in pre-independence days, the British government had moved the slaughter house from Crawford Market to Bandra and later to Kurla and then finally to Deonar on grounds of hygiene and health of the populace.
 
The Muslim community wanted permission to sacrifice horned cattle on these three days in their own localities because the Deonar Abattoir was not able to handle the demand. Permission to sacrifice goats and sheep in residential localities on these three days of Id had already been accorded, but the prohibition on transporting and slaughtering horned cattle continued.
 
I felt that hygienic considerations should prevail. The British had been very wise in shifting the slaughter house to Deonar. Also, besides the health of the people, one had to take into account the sentiments of the majority Hindus to whom the cow is sacred. The progeny of the cow being transported to various localities through the city streets and being slaughtered, even away from the vision of those who don’t like to see blood spilled, would have acted as red rags to bulls. I therefore gave my opinion that the horned cattle should be slaughtered only at Deonar. The then Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan called a meeting at the Government Guest House where I too was invited. After everyone had spoken, the Chief Minister asked me to state my position, which I did, in line with my opinion to the Court. There was a huge outcry from the Muslim leaders present and they came down on me like a ton of bricks!
 
However, the decision of the present government to ban not only the slaughter but also the possession of the flesh of bulls and oxen has taken a different turn. It has gone beyond the ban on cow slaughter to a prohibition on possessing or eating the flesh of even male bovines. It is basically bowing to a religious demand, which is peculiar to our country where the cow is held sacred.
 
All dietary rules prescribed in different religions are obviously man-made. Religious leaders ordain on the basis of their perceptions of what is good or bad for the health of their flocks. The Catholic Church to which I belong asks all followers to abstain from meat and partake of only one meal on certain days in Lent. The Jewish Rabbis had proscribed the flesh of the pig because a pestilence that killed many Israelites was attributed to the gut of the pig.
 
The pig is considered an unclean animal by the Jews and the Muslims. Pork is not served in Israel or any of the Islamic countries. So, it is not our country alone that deigns to decide which flesh is not to be eaten. I am sure that States that have banned beef have taken into account the dietary requirements of poorer sections of society who depend on beef to maintain levels of protein intake. I for one, was a vegetarian from childhood till around the age of 45 when I first ate fish which my ancestors had done for centuries. So, what I write here should be taken in context of my own dietary preferences.
 
As Ambassador to Romania, I invited every visiting Indian for a meal at my residence because we rarely encountered our own countrymen there. We soon learnt that there were two categories of Indians – one who ate any meat including beef, the other who ate no meat of any kind, nor fish. An Indian student in Bucharest returning home to India for good told us tongue in cheek, that he had no problem eating beef in Romania because the cows there were not Indian! In normal circumstances, mutton is not easily available in the North European countries. Beef and pork are preferred.
 
Among my acquaintances over the years, I have come across many caste Hindus who ate beef. I knew a Chitpavan Brahmin General who had come to Parbhani (where I was posted as Superintendent of Police) to visit one of the 12 Jyotirlingas in Aundha Nagnath. I accompanied him and watched him prostate himself before the Jyotirlinga and I did the same. When we returned home to his sister’s place, he happily ate the beef on offer and when I asked him how he could do that after worship, he said that Brahmins decided such issues!
 
In Pune, I was invited by a leading industrialist, also a Brahmin, and his wife for a bridge party where a boss of mine and his wife were the other guests. When it was time to eat, the industrialist announced that he had a treat for us – Kobe beef, brought from Japan after his trip to that country. My senior said that he drew a line at beef, he would eat any meat except that. The industrialist pointed out that it was not local and that Kobe beef was famous worldwide for being the most tender. My senior was not impressed. So the three of us did not partake of the Kobe beef which the other three devoured.
 
In Delhi, my wife was tasked by some Hindu friends with purchasing beef from a vendor who came round with his wares to the officers’ flats. Our friends did not want to get involved in the purchase themselves lest the vendor spread the word around. But many other Hindu friends made no bones about their interest in eating this prohibited meat, just like some Muslim friends of mine who had no hesitation in eating pork. One such Muslim lady who I remember with great affection married my friend and police batch mate, a Punjabi Hindu. Both husband and wife ate all sorts of meat and made no secret of it. 
 
The Nairs of Kerala, the Scheduled Castes of Tamil Nadu and the tribals in the North East and elsewhere eat beef. I remember a Colonel from the Indian Army on deputation to the CRPF, a Tam Brahm who had accompanied me on a recruitment drive to Tamil Nadu. He was keen on recruiting Scheduled Caste boys from Tamil Nadu in order to build up a CRPF boxing team which was in an embryo stage at that time. He felt they would be good boxers because they had strengthened their muscles eating beef! I am not sure if the Colonel was correct, but that happened to be his belief!
 
The ban on beef in Maharashtra is going to hit not only the Kasais and those dependant on ancillary trades like leather, but also numerous friends of mine who enjoy their beef steaks. No wonder then that some Caste Hindus have joined a few Muslims and many more Christians in moving the Bombay High Court here to upturn the beef ban. I would not be surprised if the Maratha farmers join them because with the ban, they will be saddled with unproductive cattle to feed and care for. All these years, economic considerations had prevailed over religious sentiments with our farmers. Those considerations are even more relevant today.