Down their Throats

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It is one thing to think of one’s own dietary habits as superior, and quite another to shove that preference down the throats of others. Dietary habits have evolved over centuries, depending on the availability of certain foods, the genetic makeup of populations, the climate, the cost, and a region’s economic prosperity. For individuals too, tastes develop. For instance, some people may find beef delicious while others may find eating it revolting; the same is true of paneer. People also eat, or do not eat, certain things for religious reasons, considering them too sacred or too polluted for human consumption. Considering that nobody would eat anything dirty, the logic behind the link between food and faith might be that it must occupy that exact sweet spot where it is neither sacred nor polluting. Tomatoes may just be universal in this regard, perhaps?

Food is causing serious heartburn across many places this week. The BJP in West Bengal is caught in a bind as its band of Hindutva soldiers from the Hindi heartland want to use the newly acquired state power to purify Durga Puja. On September 6, Dhirendra Krishna Shastri of Madhya Pradesh’s Bageshwar Dham created controversy by appealing to Hindus not to sell non-vegetarian food near Durga Puja pandals at an event in Howrah. He described those who consumed non-vegetarian food as not religious and pakhandis (hypocrites).

Eating non-vegetarian food during Durga Puja in West Bengal has long been a tradition . Before consuming non-vegetarian food became a community event, many aristocratic families practised goat sacrifice, using the meat to prepare offerings to Goddess Durga, a practice rooted in the Shakti tradition.

Suvendu Adhikari, the West Bengal Chief Minister, meanwhile defended Dhirendra Shastri’s remarks, saying that Mr. Shastri had merely expressed his views and had not imposed them on anyone. Taking offence at the burning of Mr. Shastri’s photographs and effigies, he urged the State police to arrest those responsible.

BJP State president Samik Bhattacharya, however, said Bengalis would continue to eat fish and meat during Durga Puja, and several other party leaders supported him.

The Chief Minister visited Kalighat on Thursday evening on the occasion of Kaushiki Amavasya, considered auspicious by Shakta Hindus, and a video showed him sharing a prasad meal that included fish. For the Chief Minister and the BJP, it is a case of hunting with the hound and running with the hare.

In Thane, a school owned by BJP MLA Narendra Mehta issued a circular asking students not to bring non-vegetarian food to school during the eight-day Jain festival of Paryushan. It also asked students to avoid onions, garlic, potatoes and other underground vegetables, which are subject to dietary restrictions in Jainism.