Beef, Brahmins and Broken Men

Why are those who consume beef reviled as Untouchables? To unearth a lost history, Dr B.R. Ambedkar undertakes a forensic examination of a wide range of Brahmanic literature. He exposes how the cow-loving Brahmin, for whom ‘every day was a beef-steak day’ in the Vedic period becomes a vegetarian, while the Buddhists who remained beef-eaters become Untouchable and are fenced out of society. This extensively annotated selection furthers Ambedkar’s sleuthish search. Every source is examined, every thought unpacked, every knot untied. In his introduction, Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd argues how the ‘right to eat beef is the right to equality, it is the right to life’.