Courtesy: siasat.com
Will Osmania’s beef festival expand democratic space?
The Osmania beef festival scheduled for December 10, 2015 has just become both more controversial and intellectually stimulating than the festival of 2012. Even even before it could take place, the forces of Hindutva had begun to organize anti-beef forces. The social base of Hindutva forces has shifted to the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Lambada Tribals, hence it could not limit its social mobilization within its narrow, traditional Brahmanic vegetarianism. Since their social base is no longer under the control of Brahmins, Baniyas and Shudra upper castes, Lambada tribal youth force were put at the forefront, which Hindutva forces did, with the proposal for a counter Pork-Festival. They fully expected the Muslim population of Hyderabad to oppose this. This opposition to the Pork festival did not come. What they did not realize is that the Muslims of India would not kill any pork eater like the Hindutva forces killed a Muslim at Dadri for eating beef. It is the Hindutva forces that have been using cow and beef as weapons for creating the communal divide, riots and inciting violence. The Osmania beef festival is also aimed at challenging this kind of destructive politics.
The Osmania beef festival has enlarged the ideological argument against Brahmanism, by exposing how this Brahmanism is bent upon stopping the brain and body growth of the Indian masses by converting Indians into low protein consuming vegetarians right from childhood. This has huge implications for the development of India in competition with Europe, America and China, the countries where multiple meaterian cultures are producing more qualitative and imaginative brains. The Osmania debate sharply focused on the scope of intellectual development only in an environment of free food cultural rights being available to the SC/ST/OBCs. The Brahmin/ Baniyas of India, who were the traditional base of RSS, were consuming enough protein food through the consumption of milk, butter and ghee. These cannot be easily eaten by the Dalit-Bahujan and Adivasi masses because of their prohibitive costs. They have to get back to the beeferian, meaterian and fisherain foods, especially the more cheaply available beef.
The cow protection theory has emerged out of the mischievous vegetarianism of Adishankara and has become a huge problem for the nation. Mahatma Gandhi, who actually came from a Jain Baniya background, claimed that he was Hindu (with a sense that all Indians are Hindus) and projected the cow as a national animal, while drinking the milk of the goat but not of the cow! The RSS has been trying to co-opt Gandhi through vegetarianism, which is said to be the Gandhian brand of food. The Osmania school of beeferians has also asserted that beeferian Ambedkarism is different from the vegetarian Ambedkarism of Narendra Modi. At a time when a number of Dalits are being surreptitiously drawn into the fold of the vegetarian Ambedkarism of RSS, Osmania has shown the way. Protect Ambedkarism from the dangers of being co-opted by the vegetarian Hindutva forces that ultimately protect the interests of upper castes of India.
The cow protection theory has emerged out of the mischievous vegetarianism of Adishankara and has become a huge problem for the nation.
When the media debates took place, especially on television, though the ‘beef team’ was represented by SC/ST/OBCs and the Minorities, the RSS voices on display were only the Lambada boys to represent their ‘pork politics’. This itself created a division among the RSS ranks– whether they should go for pork politics or not. After the resounding defeat in the Bihar elections, where Hindutva forces they tried to bring about a ‘beef; and ‘non-beef’ division, Laloo Prasad actually punctured their agenda by saying that many Hindus do eat beef. A well-orchestrated campaign by Hindutva forces, led by the Prime Minister, counted on the Yadavs of Bihar turning against Laloo Prasad for asserting that many Hindus eat beef. The Yadavs, however, understood the game and remained firm in their position of free food choice. Even within the Osmania beef debate it was many Yadav youth who were at the forefront in opposing vegetarian Hinduism. They publicly declared that “we are Hindus and beeferians”. The Hindutva forces received a severe shock. They changed their tune to, ‘we are not against beef eating but why have a festival’?
The Osmania University beeferians questioned this reasoning. Why should there be so called ‘organic vegetarian’ festivals in India then?. If beef and mutton are better organic food items, why not organic beef festivals? Ideologically, the Hindutva forces and the traditional vegetarian majoritarian ideologues faced a defeat. At the time of writing this the debate is still on.
The Osmania University beef debate has also thrown a challenge to soft Hindutva vegetarians, who have been protecting Brahmanism in so many other ways. The Osmania University beef struggle is, in a fundamental sense, a cultural revolution underway.