India and Mahatma Gandhi

Today is India's independence day. Indians consider
Mahatma Gandhi as the father of the nation.

Gandhi, one of the outstanding leaders of 20th
century, brought independence to India through the
concept of nonviolence.

Gandhi, led a very simple life. Gandhi followed the
concept of Ahimsa(non-violence) in his life.

Mahatma Gandhi's food was mainly plant-based. In a
country where milk and milk products is widely used,
Gandhi felt that milk is unsuited for human beings.

Gandhi's meal included simple food -boiled vegetables,
chapatis(flat wheat bread) sprinkled with some
ghee(clarified butter), and goat's milk.

Even though Gandhi consumed goat's milk regularly, he
was not happy about it and strongly felt that humans
should not consume milk and milk products. Gandhi
considered that getting used to goat's milk was a
tragedy in his life.

I wondered why Gandhi did not consume cow's milk, as
milk and milk products is widely used across India.
It seems Gandhi came to know about the
cruel process of "phooka" or "doom dev" to increase
the production of milk in cows. "Phooka" or "doom dev"
includes any process of introducing air or any
substance into the female organ of a milch animal with
the object of drawing off from the animal any
secretion of milk.

I was shocked because this incident took place nearly
six to seven decades ago. If the condition of milk
producing cows was so bad decades ago, the condition
of milk producing cows is horrible in India these
days.

Cows are considered as sacred animals and the
slaughter of cows is banned in numerous states across
India. Most of the Indians feel that cows are
treated well by farmers.

Today, India is the largest producer of milk. Variety
of milk products, everything from icecreams to
flovored milk can be found across India.Towns and
cities across India are brimming with pizza joints.

According to Peta, "Some farmers in India illegally
inject cows with oxytocin, a powerful narcotic that
requires a prescription and causes cows to produce
more milk"

Thanks to Peta, the horrible conditions of diary
industry in India is now exposed to the Indians.

To celebrate this great day,I made vermicelli payasam
with soy milk. I followed this recipe.

I wish Indians across the world, a happy independence day!

http://market.ap.nic.in/mkt/mkt/pca.htm
http://www.nalanda.nitc.ac.in/resources/english/etext-project/Biography/gandhi/part5.chapter29.html
http://www.ivu.org/history/gandhi/experiments.html
http://www.weeksmd.com/articles/dairy/gandhimilk.php