cow slaughter is not prohibited…it is upon the government to stop it… and let me tell you nobody stops it…you can buy beef and pork at any non-hindu meat shop quite freely…

but you can’t buy alcohol legally in Nagaland..it has been banned by the state government..go figure…

Oooh, you poor victims. My sympathies, although the victim card you predictably pulled is getting rather tired these days. I was just pointing out that Yogafire missed one more subsidy in the list.

can I, as a non-Muslim, also plan a pilgrimage to Hajj? Sure you can, no one’s stopping you from planning a pilgrimage. Whether you will actually get to go, read on.

Will the Indian govt subsidize me for it? I haven’t the faintest idea. Perhaps you could try and report back if you manage to swing that subsidy, fhough why you would want to go I don’t know and don’t care.

Will Saudi let me in? You need to ask the Saudi’s that. The answer is most likely a big NO (it’s their law and no country with the exception of one can do anything about another country’s laws), or you can risk getting random body parts chopped off and actually try getting there.

@ Ahoy: I’d say “cow” is much more representative to my American friends than elephants of monkeys, which make them think more about Africa and South-East Asia. “Cow” is the most Indian animal symbol out there for the non-Indians. As far as banning goes, I’m all for banning pork along with beef. Most Hindus in India who don’t eat beef also don’t eat pork. About “religious dogmas”, we really really need to be careful about what’s considered a cultural “good” versus religious dogma. As an example, at my univ in the US, the Indian students association, to be more politically correct first got renamed South Asian students association. That’s great! I am all for it. Then some people were offended that they were participating in a “Diwali night” cultural show. So it got rebranded to Unity night. And finally, some were offended about the prayer and prasadam at Garba-raas, so that was also removed. Which I thought was taking it a tad bit far.

By upholding cultural goods, like the banning of beef, should NOT be seen as religious dogma. The latter should be along the lines of upholding child-marriage, or not banning Sati, which would be religious dogma.

Is that why they subsidize the Hajj for Muslims and pilgrimages to Jerusalem for Christians while discussing creating reservations for religious minorities? They’ve been “ignoring” them? Strange how this neglect works.

I guess you kind of missed out on the subsidy for the Hindus. How about this one?

http://mea.gov.in/parliament/ls/2001/03/mar21-3657.htm

Looks like the Manasarovar trip is subsidized too. Pretty nice huh?

I guess I will go on an Indian government sponsored trek to Manasarovar at the next opportunity.

And btw, could you provide a link that points to the Jerusalem trip subsidy from the government of India. I heard the nightlife and the beaches are rather fine in Israel.

Oh, and don’t bother about the link to the subsidized Mecca trip. There’s not much to do in the desert besides pray and that I don’t care for.

Oh that’s right, because some Hindus eat chicken, fish, pork, and lamb… and it would be an inconvenience to them! lol.

Beef isn’t the issue, neither is religion. The Indian government interferes too much in the lives of the people..and while it may be banning beef now, maybe it will be banning pork later on, or saying every business will have to be closed on Easter. It’s BS- the gov’t needs to focus on more important issues than trying to uphold religious dogmas. I don’t even live in India, but its still upsetting to hear there are rules like this.

I don’t think people should be eating that much beef either. When my dad grew up, he personally fed the family cows grass and took care of them , but now they are wondering the streets eating whatever filth they find on the roads. That being said, soy and tofu aren’t perfect meat substitutes either. yeck.

Pick the analogy that fits best.

Hindus : Cows :: ________

A. Muslims : Alcohol B. Americans : Bald Eagles C. East Asians : Dogs D. Australians : Kangaroos

Answer: I don’t know the answer to the above question (I took the ACTs and analogies didn’t feature as prominently) however it is clearly not the first one (A).

The others might be more appropriate (C kind of freaked me out when I first heard about it; I grew up w/ Lassie, Clifford and Snoopy). One of India’s chief personalities, Krishna, was a cowboy (gopaal) beating bad guys and stealing girls’ (gopis) hearts well before John Wayne or the Marlboro man were cool. One of the members of the Divine Tres Amigos (Shiva) also has a bull as vahana (Nandi, the Ãœber bull). No American I know would fry up a Bald Eagle. I’m sure some Australians have sampled a kangaroo burger, but it is still a cultural icon and not a regular source of food.

Besides, do you really want to promote more meat-eating (that too, red meat) in a world where 18% to 51% of all greenhouse gas emissions are attributed to the livestock industry. If anything, we need to encourage less meat, regardless of faith or lack thereof. Refrigeration is also appalling in tropical India; we have enough headaches w/ E. Coli and Salmonella here in the States, thank you.

Soy/tofu burgers for us all!

What if the government decided on a nationwide ban of alcohol because it’s against the Islam faith? That will never happen because Hindus/Christians/Sikhs would readily protest saying that law infringes on their rights, and that India is a secular state…blah blah blah.

My point is that the Indian govn’t is overstepping its boundaries completely with these bans

Neglect works in different ways. A parent can feed their children three meals a day but fail to adequately meet their mental and emotional needs at the same time. Banning beef is favoring Hindus and neglecting other religious groups.

Like Keralite says, the Hindu faith is everywhere…if I were to say that some of the statues and religious images on Hindu temples was offensive to Muslims and Christians…I doubt the government would give a flying fruit to rectify the situation, but for Hindus, they would walk on water to please them.

Well whatever, I’m not trying to start a religious debate, I just think it’s unfair for a “secular” state to have these biases against minority religious groups and completely ban beef.

To go along with the original topic…Many parts of India were exposed to Americanized/ethnic foods. I remember eating hamburgers and pizza as a kid..and Blore was selling tacos long before Taco bell It may all taste nasty, but India is not as isolated (food wise) as we think.

Speaking of Muslims, I highly doubt that they are a reason to expand the non-veg menu in India’s Taco Bell because im assuming it is not Halal. If anything, having vegetarian items on the menu will give Muslims who dont eat non-veg outside their community to try this wanna-be mexican food and feel “cool” or “american”. Although I’m sure that most of them would prefer their amma’s keema and naan “tacos” over this junk any day.