No Beef Against Consuming Beef
By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
4 December 2025
The Madhya Pradesh High Court recently dismissed a plea seeking quashing of an FIR registered against a man accused of sharing a WhatsApp message that ‘consuming beef was essential to being a good Hindu’ and ‘Brahmins regularly consumed bovine meat, and cows.’
Justice Milind Ramesh Phadke on November 19 observed that the allegations in the FIR disclosed prima facie ingredients of the offences invoked.
Well, it may be debatable as to whether consuming beef was essential to being a good Hindu, a harvest of references will suggest that even till 2014, consuming beef in Poona (a city of learned Brahmins) was common. There are Brahmins in Poona who still enjoy relishing beef, though now it's not easily available in Poona and other parts of Maharashtra. Hindus (Brahmins, Kayasth and lower castes) consume beef in West Bengal. There are beef connoisseurs' clubs in Bengal, run by high-class Hindus.
In Kerala, all three communities, Hindus, Christians and Muslims eat and enjoy beef. There are some references to various kinds of meat including Bovine meat served to Indra. Indra is one of the most popular gods in Rigveda. Surprisingly these verses are less discussed compared to others but remain an interesting part of the conversation around meat consumption. These hymns indicate sacrifice of buffalo was common in ancient Hindu culture, unlike the one which is prevailing now.
V D Savarkar, who's the new poster-boy of Hinduism, " held the view that the cow is only a bullock’s mother, and while there is no record of him eating it, he was not averse to eating beef,” said Vaibhav Purandare, the writer of Savarkar: The True Story of The Father of Hindutva. Purandare said that Savarkar’s position was rather complicated on the issue of cow protection as he was of the opinion that if one deliberately killed cows to spite Hindus then it was a problem. “However, he believed that if it was just for the sake of eating because you like it, then it is okay,” stated the writer.
Ancient ritual texts known as Brahmanas (c. 900 B.C.) and other texts that taught religious duty (dharma), from the third century B.C., say that a bull or cow should be killed to be eaten when a guest arrives.
According to these texts, “the cow is food.” Even when one passage in the “Shatapatha Brahmana” (3.1.2.21) forbids the eating of either cow or bull, a revered ancient Hindu sage named Yajnavalkya immediately contradicts it, saying that, nevertheless, he eats the meat of both cow and bull, “as long as it’s tender."
Scholars have known for centuries that the ancient Indians ate beef. After the fourth century B.C., when the practice of vegetarianism spread throughout India among Buddhists, Jains and Hindus, many Hindus continued to eat beef. In short, there was no beef against eating beef and among advanced Hindus, beef is still a delicacy and a gourmet's delight which's not confined only to the Muslims, Christians, Zoroastrians and Ambedkarites or the followers of Navyaan (Neo-Buddhism of B R Ambedkar).
Many of my Hindu friends love to gorge on a succulent beef steak. In our day, the nationalist and fundamentalist “Hindutva” (“Hindu-ness”) movement is attempting to use this notion of the sanctity of the cow to disenfranchise Muslims. And it's not only the beef-eating Muslims (and Christians) who are the target of Hindutva’s hate brigade. Lower-caste Hindus are also being attacked. Attacks of this type are not new. This has been going on since Hindutva began in 1923. One important observation must be mentioned. Sociologist M. N. Srinivas pointed out that the lower castes gave up beef when they wanted to move up the social ladder through the process known as “Sanskritization.”
Ironically, cows – innocent, docile animals – have become in India a lightning rod for human cruelty, in the name of religion. It has also become a socio-political tool as you saw in the case of lower castes giving up beef to be socially and widely acceptable.
While I don't eat non-veg, I've no problem when someone relishes beef regardless of his/her faith.
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A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/consuming-beef/d/137885
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