When are Indians going to eat cows?

By Babu G. Ranganathan

Photo: When are Indians going to eat cows?

As an Indian American, I am amazed at some of the persistent misconceptions and derogatory attitudes of some of my fellow Americans concerning India. Of course, no country is perfect and that includes India.

The perennial question, of course, is why Indians don't eat all the cows on the street. A beef based diet is much more expensive. Besides, it takes ten pounds of grain protein to feed a cow to get back one pound of beef protein. That's a waste of nine pounds of grain protein!

A balanced vegetarian diet can provide all the protein such as a combination of rice and beans which many Indians subsist on. The cows in India are used by farmers for tilling the soil, for milk and dairy products, and even cow dung is used for fertilizer and cooking fuel by many villagers.

Most Americans don't realize that Western mathematics originated in India. The so-called "Arabic" numerals were borrowed by the Arabs from the Indians. Because the Europeans borrowed their mathematics from the Arabs they became known as Arabic numerals, but they originated in India.

Without the decimal system that India created and which was borrowed by the West, via the Arabs, Western science and technology would not have been possible. The ancient Roman numerals would not have sufficed.

The author, Babu G. Ranganathan, has a B.A. degree with concentrations in theology and biology and has been recognized for his writings on religion and science in the 24th edition of Marquis Who's Who In The East. The authors's website may be accessed at www.religionscience.com.