by MUKUL DUBE
It is a fact that our species, homo sapiens, has always been naturally omnivorous. I use the word “naturally” to refer to biology. The false reasoning behind vegetarianism seems to be that humans who do not eat meat are higher on the evolutionary scale than those who do eat meat. Without doubt it is related, in India, to notions of caste and purity. While PETA has every right to hold its beliefs, I do not think it has the right to seek to convert those who eat meat. It was also foolish, because people are unwholesomely sensitive to matters religious; and, in a blazing expression of human irrationality, diet has come to be related to religion. Some do not eat beef, others do not eat pork, still others will eat a jangali murgha but not one that has been reared by other humans… so it goes. This denies the fact that our ancestors, in times before all these wretched religions came to exist, ate everything that was not harmful or poisonous. We have always been omnivores.
Mukul Dube can be reached at dube.mukul@gmail.com