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| << January14, 2004 - [India Thinkers Net] IMC-USA press release |
January17, 2004 - [India Thinkers Net] Dalit Dreams >> |
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Superstition reigns supreme in vegetarian village By Jatindra Dash, Bhubaneswar, Jan 16 (IANS): Blame it on superstition, all the residents of an Orissa village have been vegetarian for generations because a man who once ate meat became blind. Bentasalia in Dhenkanal district, nearly 180 km from here, in this eastern Indian state, has around 500 residents. A police official said most of them were Hindus from the Baisnaba community and had been vegetarians for decades. Primary school teacher Dharanidhar Das, 58, said: "We do not know for how long we have been vegetarians. The practice has been handed down over generations. "It began when a villager who ate meat turned blind. Since then, none of the villagers have dared to eat non-vegetarian food." The villagers are a religious lot. Most homes own a copy of the Hindu holy book Bhagwad Gita and most villagers worship god Krishna. The prime occupation of the villagers is agriculture and when they return from the fields every evening, they gather at a temple to pray. One villager said that even youths who had taken up jobs in other cities had remained steadfastly vegetarian. The fastidious villagers don't even allow meat and fish vendors to pass through the village. The food habits of the residents have also influenced their pets. A villager claimed that even if the dogs and cats were offered meat, they rejected it. During traditional feasts for marriages or deaths, the villagers give up eating onion and garlic as well because of their religious beliefs. Said a young woman who came to live in Bentasalia after her marriage: "I used to regularly eat goat meat and fish earlier. But after marrying into the village, I have decided to give up my meat eating." Undoubtedly, the unlucky ancestor whose turning blind initiated vegetarianism in Bentasalia had no idea of the long lasting imprint he would leave on the village. |
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January17, 2004 - [India Thinkers Net] Dalit Dreams >> |
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