Traditional Hindu leaders have claimed that they have nothing against people’s eating habits when they are practised in their own homes, but rationalists openly disparaging traditional beliefs and making a point of eating chicken biriyani by planning community feasts is a conscious effort to insult Hindu beliefs.
Recently, “rationalists” in Odisha have made headlines for openly breaking long-standing religious customs in the days leading up to and following the solar and lunar eclipses and “protesting” against such limitations by partaking in chicken biriyani.
The “rationalists” protested on October 25, when there was a partial solar eclipse over India, by holding Biriyani festivals in a number of Bhubaneswar neighbourhoods. They had gathered with family members and made television appearances, claiming that the customary prohibitions on cooking and eating on eclipse days were nothing more than superstitions. As a result, they were making a statement by consuming chicken biriyani on eclipse days.
The issue has been the subject of heated TV arguments between traditionalists and rationalists, with one camp professing to be against superstition and the other branding them disrespectful. Debendra Sutar and Pratap Rath, two prominent “rationalist” figures, were the targets of FIRs and even death threats during the height of the controversy.
On November 8, the day of the lunar eclipse and the festival of Karthika Purnima, the argument between traditionalists and rationalists transcends mere argument. Scuffles and full-fledged altercations have started in Berhampur and Bhubaneswar.
At the Lohia Academy in Bhubaneswar, where rationalists had come to eat biriyani to express their opposition to customary food restrictions on lunar eclipse days, a community feast was organised. There, according to reports, there were altercations between Bajrang Dal activists and rationalists. To get everything under control, the cops had to use lathi charges.
The traditionalist Hindu leaders have told the media that they have nothing against people’s eating habits when they are practised in their own homes, but that the rationalists openly slander traditional beliefs and make a point of eating chicken biriyani by hosting community feasts is a conscious effort to insult Hindu beliefs.
A Hindu leader even claimed that the rationalists were being paid by Christian missionaries to disparage Hinduism and that the communal feast was a “missionary scheme.”
The rationalists claim that they have been hosting Biriyani feasts on eclipse days to demonstrate to the general public that traditional beliefs and rules around food and cookery are really superstitions that have no basis in reality. The police had arranged security at the Lohia Academy and other locations where the rationalists had intended to congregate since they had foreseen turmoil in the big cities.
It is noteworthy that Odisha, although over 90% of the population is Hindu, is one of the states with a relatively high non-vegetarian consumption rate. On festival days, non-vegetarian food is avoided, but fish, poultry, and mutton dishes are still very popular. People enjoy meat dishes on the day following Kartika Purnima, known as “Chhadakhai,” after abstaining from non-vegetarian meals for one month.
Prasanta Patnaik