Non-vegetarians beware! “Your food causes you to easily cheat, tell lies, forget promises, be dishonest, steal and commit sex crimes”, according to a Class VI book titled ‘New Healthway: Health, Hygiene, Physiology, Safety, Sex Education, Games and Exercises’ brought out by S. Chand publishers who print textbooks for several hundred schools in the country.
That is not all. The book (on page 56) further says “it is the waste products which largely produce the flavour of meat”.
While the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has washed its hands of the book and the issue, its chief Vineet Joshi has said: “This is not a Board recommended book. Schools are allowed to select their own text books according to the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) syllabus till Class VIII. We are looking into this matter.”
Union Minister for Human Resource Development M.M. Pallam Raju called the text in the book “unfortunate and an occasional aberration”.
“Sensitivities of communities have to be kept in mind. Also State bodies have to stay alert about the content of the text books which reaches several children across the country,” he noted.
Advocating ‘clean/pure food’ and stating that they believe in the ancient Indian philosophy which says that you are what you eat and your food shapes the way you think and consequently impact your behaviour, Tihar Jail spokesperson Sunil Gupta said: “We serve only vegetarian food to the inmates as we believe that non-vegetarian food does have a negative impact on the psyche of the individual.”
He added: “As a matter of fact, the practice was challenged by a group of prisoners from other countries who described the food provided to them as unpalatable. The reason, they argued, was that they were not used to vegetarian food. We, on the other hand, told the court that this was offensive to our eating habits and that no specific arrangements are made for Indian (vegetarian) prisoners incarcerated in other countries. The court rejected their appeal. At Tihar Jail the food provided to prisoners is as per a diet plan approved by a dietician and has a mix of cereals and vegetables.”
Seconding the belief that non-vegetarian food produces two very strong negative reactions “anger/fear”, socio-spiritual educational institution Brahma Kumaris national co-ordinator B.K. Sushant said: “We believe that killing an animal releases toxic hormones and that gets into human beings, which further creates a negative impact on his moral, mental and physical well being.”
Rubbishing the statement, former warden at Ramjas College Professor Tanvir Aeijab said: “The debate is never-ending. We cater to students from all over the country who come here from various cultures. Food is more about the region that you come from and the food habits that have been passed on for generations. Food doesn’t dictate your moral fibre. We have catered to thousands of children and found no difference in vegetarians or non-vegetarians.”
The book meanwhile (ignoring Japan’s extensive consumption of sushi and other seafood) also lauds the Japanese for their vegetarian diet, which it says leads to a longer life span. “The generous use of green leafy vegetables, soya beans and grams has helped the people to maintain vigour, strength and endurance throughout the centuries,” states the book.
Keywords: NCERT textbook row, CBSE, syllabus, non-vegetarians
Wow, that gives an awesome explanation for a lot of crimes in the world!!! Hats off to CBSE, what a scientific and motivating approach to the new way of health!
Hence the need for scientific 'temper'.
I believe that eating vegetables causes flatulence, which leads to the release of noxious fumes, which are ultimately harmful to the environment and consequently to the human kind as a whole. I am free to believe whatever I want. According to the general gist of a common argument in the favour of science, I can argue that I believe there is a teapot wandering between the planetary orbits of Earth and Mars, but as long as I cannot prove it, it is just blind faith and not scientifically backed faith. Such beliefs should be cut out of democratic and secular systems, such as ours is supposed to be.
So sad, especially in a science book. The question is WHO IS THE AUTHOR
of this "Science" text book? May be his next book is "Mastering
Muhoortha Investing".
Textbooks shape a generation of future citizens. World over sensible governments give utmost importance to their content. In recent years the international community has been witness to,unfortunately, some prominent examples of the sad consequences of distorting texts books. If the govt says that monitoring them is not their responsibility, you can be sure of the direction India is headed. Please don't sow seeds that we wouldn't want to reap!!!
Not being biased towards, just look at the history and ask yourself, how many great man you have seen in history who have influenced this whole world with their good deeds, an question yourself as how many of them were vegetarians? You will get the answer, most of the good people on earth so far are vegetarians.
I respect the author's personal religious views but that does not give him the right to force his views on children in a secular country. Children are easily brainwashed and it is the publisher's responsibility to verify the contents of the book it publishes. The government should form an independent body which monitors the syllabus taught to children in schools and prevent such ridiculous concepts and propaganda from being fed to students. As a pure non-vegetarian this book insults me and others who enjoy non vegetarian food
hitler was a vegetarian.
They are making a sick education system.There should be strict action from government on these issues.
This is just another of the many unfortunately examples of the un-scientific and blatantly studpid influences from those who decide our educational system. Logically, then, all vegetarians must have high morals? Just look at our vegetarian politicians! (by the way: I am vegetarian)///
While we can indulge in perpetual debate on whether meat or otherwise is essential for human survival and enterprise, we can mark a day in a year as 'Vegetarianism-day' due to which we can we can increase vegetable production, reduce slaughter for a day resulting in huge savings. Why not give a try for new ideas?
No study, as far as I am aware, has linked diet patterns to behaviour. Maybe it'll be more palatable if the author quotes an authority for his assertion?
It is important to understand that a group of proteins called Essential Fatty Acids cannot be made by our body and as such require us to consume foods with them. These are generally found in fish and shellfish.
Sushi, which is raw fish pickled with vinegar and rice wine, is so popular that it is regarded (mistakenly) as Japan's national dish; and it is true that the Japanese have the highest life expectancy.
It is very true that certain types of meat, such as red meat, has shown to increase risk of cardiovascular diseases or certain types of cancer, but a purely vegetarian diet is often regarded by dietitians to be incomplete for the above reasons.
What an absurd statement ! Such prejudiced view points in a text book cannot be
tolerated. If eating meat leads to dishonesty and sexual offences then more than 90%
of the people in the world must be dishonest people who are also sex offenders !
There is no substance in the claim that food habit has a bearing on people's character.
Vegetarianism is choice some people have made based on faith or love for animals.
There is nothing more to it.
This is crazy. Tihar jail giving vegetarian food only claiming that
non vegetarians have a negative pysche. Well then here is mine, it is
vegetarianism which is responsible for casteism in this country. The
upper castes are mainly vegetarians and hence they are responsible for
all the ills associated with casteism . The government should
immediately institute and inquiry into Tihar jail kitchen and see to
that the kitchen is made secular. Jesus said it is what that comes out
of your heart which makes one impure and not what goes into your
stomach. For what goes into the stomach comes out.
This is science. In the book "Human Evolution" by Anthropologist Chris Stringer, it states that Human beings were originally Vegetarians. Majority of Brain usage goes to the digestive system to digest the intake of more fibrous vegetarian food. Later on Human beings evolved by eating meat and thier brain developed. My parents are vegetarian and I used to be vegetarian for 8 years and I have lots of good vegetarian friends. I dont want to disgrace them. Probably our vegetarian food evolved to be compact with essential nutrients. But putting the non-vegetarian nonsense in Children book is totally unacceptable. This guy should be punished.
There are great people amongst vegetarians and non vegetarians in this world. This is the
Position in the present scenario . This was the position in the past. We will have to accept
This reality. The remarks in the books that nonvegetarians are cheats, dishonest etc does
not make sense. Such portions in the books should be deleted, and the honble minister
Himself has said, that it was unfortunate. The controversy should end by such action and
We should concentrate on other developmental activities to help the poorer sections of
Society.
This is the stupidest nonsensical rubbish I have ever heard of and the book needs to
be castigated to the dust bin. Absolute nonsense. absolute rubbish. This is ridiculous
and abhorrent nonsense. The authors should be sued.
It is not important that authorities are taking action so that these
texts are withdrawn.
must be under mr sibal's regime
The issue is not about the "sensitivities of communities" but about the shocking lack of a rational approach to imparting education. Mere hearsay is why we tend to form biased judgements about entire groups of people. The role of education is to make us question our presuppositions, not to reinforce them.
This is actual science. Reference from human evolution by anthropologist Chris stringer.
Human beings originally used to be vegetarians. But if you intake pure vegetarian, you need
to intake more food and more fibrous food. Hence your brain would put more effort in the
digestion of food than other intellectual things. Then human being started eating meat and
then evolved to more intellectual beings. But., wait I used to be a vegetarian for 9 years and I
don't want to disgrace many of my vegetarian friends. I guess in indian vegetarian meal, it is
well balanced with yogurt, paneer and other nutritional food so my vegetarians friends are as
good as my non vegetarian friends. But I strongly feel that who ever wrote in children
textbook should be 'fired' from his Job.
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