Why Indian Elite Cannot Solve the Problems of the Poor – Food

The recent ban of eggs in the midday meals to school children by Madhya Pradesh opens up questions on how as a society we solve some of the fundamental problems in India.  Most of the decision making in the legislature, bureaucracy, activist groups, and media, is usually done by the elite of India, who are most often well off.  And the challenges faced by the elite in India closely resemble the challenges experienced by the people living in the developed world.  And in most cases, like in deciding the nature of food and diet for nutritional purposes, those challenges are exactly reversed between developed and underdeveloped countries, thereby putting the elite in India squarely incapable of solving the problems of the poor.

Starving India through Vegetarian Bullying

If you have traveled the world as an Indian, you will notice one thing about the whole world that is so unlike India – you would realize that all other cultures on the planet eat some kind of meat in their regular diet.   You will stumble upon the great discovery that India is the only country on the planet which has highest percentage of vegetarians, where vegetarianism is proudly worn as badge of virtue and value.  Only in India would you see people preferring the vegetarian diet overwhelmingly, wherein even the non-vegetarian communities tend to consume mostly the vegetarian food with paltry consumption of meat one or two meals per week.

Upon this greatest discovery of your lifetime you may go through a debate, if you happen to have some curiosity that your mental faculties have endowed you with.  And if you happen to be one of those Indians who grew up believing India is the greatest country on the planet and it is your mission to tell the whole world how great it is, like for example, if you happen to be Modi bhakt, you would come to the same conclusion which many other have come to – that is – India is indeed the greatest country on the planet to have found the virtue of vegetarianism thousands of years ago, and therefore it makes more sense now to tell the whole world the greatness of vegetarianism, how you are kind to animals, especially the street roaming cows, and how you now hold yourself high morally and ethically.   Like many other Hinduphiles, you will ignore the complicated topics, such as dietary habits of various castes, and instead focus only on the virtues of the vegetarian diet.

Return from a long hiatus

I wrote my first blog post on 02 February 2006 - that’s more than nine years ago.  And in these nine years I wrote 540 articles, averaging nearly 60 per year – or 5 per month.  Of those nine years, the most prolific one was 2007 when I wrote 110 articles.  And in year 2014, I wrote only six.

The last one is from 23 July 2014 – that’s almost a year ago.   

I went through some rough period in life and I guess that’s the reason why I could not make myself write anything.  And in the recent few weeks I just could not muster anything even when I wanted to – call it a writer’s block.

So, I thought I should just go on a freewheeling mode and get started, and hence this post.

Modi is in power.  The unthinkable has happened.  The Congress got decimated – Indians rejected Rahul Baba and UPA III overwhelmingly.  And State of Telangana got formed. 

'Make in India' is the theme, so is the agenda to transform India into Hindustan.