Guest guest Posted November 14, 2001 Report Share Posted November 14, 2001 Ashok Aklujkar Ashok Aklujkar <aklujkar <INDOLOGY> Message-ID: <B8182B9E.1DCD%aklujkar In-<000801c16c50$ab068800$9a9ec7cb@p5> Mime-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1" Content-transfer-encoding: quoted-printable A note I made sometime last year (from INDOLOGY-Liverpool, I guess) suggest= s that Matrix Books may be the publisher or would-be-publisher. Jha, D.N. 2001 forthcoming book Holy Cow: Beef in Indian Dietary Traditions= .. "After being rejected by several publishing houses because of its 'controversial' content, the book will finally be published by Matrix Books= .. "The image of the cow projected by Indian textual traditions, especially th= e Brahmanical-Dharmasastric works, over the centuries is polymorphic. Its story through the millennia is riddled with inconsistencies and has not always been in conformity with dietary practices current in our society. Even today 72 communities in Kerala-not all of them untouchable perhaps-prefer beef to the expensive mutton and the Hindutva forces are persuading them to go easy on it.=C6 On 11/13/01 6:35 AM, "Bahulkar" <bahulkar wrote: > Dear Members, >=20 > I am looking for the details of a book (publishing agency, place, year, > etc.). >=20 > D. N. Jha. Holy Cow-- Beef in Indian Dietary Conditions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 16, 2001 Report Share Posted November 16, 2001 >I am looking for the details of a book (publishing agency, place, year, >etc.). >D. N. Jha. Holy Cow-- Beef in Indian Dietary Conditions. ---------- You can find details in the journal "THE WEEK" of Aug 26, 2001, where there is an interview of DN Jha entitled "Holy Cow is Bull" see also Indian Express, The Hindu, Statesman, 8/11, Hindustan Times, Times of India 8/10, The Hindu 8/14, Pioneer 8/5 etc. ect. The book has been officially banned in India (like the Satanic verses) by one or two courts last summer and it cannot be sold. Details from what I have seen: D. N. Jha Holy Cow Beef in Indian Dietary Traditions. New Delhi 2001, Matrix Books Rs. 400 pp.183 contains 6 chapters: 1. 'Animals are verily Food' but Yajnavalkya favours Beef 2. The Rejection of Animal Sacrifice: an assertion of the Sacredness of the Cow? 3. The Later Dharmasastric Tradition and Beyond 4. The Cow in the Kali Age and Memories of Beef Consumption 5. A paradoxical Sin and the Paradox of the Cow 6. Resume: The Elusive "Holy Cow" Enjoy! MW ======= =========================================================================== Michael Witzel Elect. Journ. of Vedic Studies Harvard University www1.shore.net/~india/ejvs 2 Divinity Avenue Cambridge MA 02138 --------- my direct line (also for messages) : 617- 496 2990 home page: www.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/mwpage.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 19, 2001 Report Share Posted November 19, 2001 INDOLOGY, Michael Witzel <witzel@f...> wrote: > > The book has been officially banned in India (like the Satanic verses) by > one or two courts last summer and it cannot be sold. VA: As far as I am aware, 1-2 district courts have placed a stay order on its publication and so the book is not banned technically. Books can be banned in one state and can still be sold in other states. Sometimes, translations are banned but English versions continue to be sold - specific examples can be cited. One does wonder what new information D N Jha could offer in his book, since the question of beef eating in ancient India has had a fairly pervasive presence in the works of a particular group of 'historians' for the last 4 decades, and the same arguments (first advanced by Rajendralal Mitra in 1800's) are repeated with a little change in words. I think the problem with Jha's book is that the original publisher backed out after protests from Hindus/Jains and Sikhs, and many other publishers do not want to publish it from their press. Mercifully, fewer books are being banned in India now. [in any case, it is not difficult to get 'banned' books in India]. Incidentally, Dr. Bharat Gupt recalls a conversation with D N Jha (in the 1970's) wherein the latter remarked that he hates music but listens to it only because Karl Marx also listened to music. D N Jha is considered a 'liberal' historian (the new name of 'Marxist' historians after the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union) and his article on the 'Against Communalization of History' is reproduced in Dominic Wujastyk's Indology website at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucgadkw/indology.html [see under "Important position or review papers on indological topics"] On a related note, recall that in Kerala, K N Pannikkar, another liberal historian, was made the Vice Chancellor of Kaladi Sanskrit University by the ex-Communist government of that state. Here is an interesting news item perhaps reflecting the after effects of such appointments - http://headlines.sify.com/267news2.html Title: It's Karl Marx Vs Gandhi in Kerala Sincerely, Vishal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 21, 2001 Report Share Posted November 21, 2001 Dear members, Thanks for sending informmation about Prof. D. N. Jha's book, Holy Cow, and his email address. Shrikant Bahulkar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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