The cow has a sacred place in Indian society. Generally, the consumption of beef is avoided by the Hindu people. This is because of the myth of the holy cow.
The historian D.N.Jha had broken this myth in his book ‘The Myth of Holy cow’. D.N.Jha provided evidence from texts, including Rig-Veda to break this myth. Through Rig-Veda, he showed that animal sacrifice was common in ancient India and the cow was among the animals sacrificed. The sacrificial meat, including beef, was distributed among believers and consumed.
It is generally argued that beef-eating was introduced to India by Muslim rulers. But this argument was rejected by D.N.Jha and showed that bovine meat was consumed by many communities right from the Vedic period. So, a political attack was launched on his book, which was first published in 2001, which was then withdrawn from the store for a while.
To conclude, the historian D.N.Jha saw that as a scholar it was his responsibility to speak up against simplistic reading of the past.
