Opinion | Hindus Must Come Together To Fight Adulteration Menace – News18

Last Updated:November 06, 2024, 00:33 IST

From contaminated ghee in Tirupati laddoos to toxic turmeric in everyday rituals, food adulteration is quietly poisoning Hindu practices

When was the last time anyone heard of churches serving contaminated holy water? Churches worldwide have been at the centre of numerous controversies, but they have rarely, if ever, been accused of giving contaminated holy water or adulterated wine (in Catholic churches) to their congregants. Similarly, why isn’t haram (non-Kosher) meat served at Muslim religious events or Sufi feasts? Would a Muslim supply haram meat to a mosque? Another way to put this is: imagine how appalled the Islamic community might feel if they discovered someone was supplying haram meat or food at their religious gatherings. I leave their responses to your imagination. But the looming question is, what do we Hindus do when our rituals and temples are contaminated, often by other Hindus? The answer, unfortunately, is often very little.

The case of Tirupati Laddoos being made with animal fat-adulterated ghee served in the temple to millions of devotees and even to the deity, is a serious internal assault on our religion. Today, food adulteration has reached its peak, and now even our gods and religion are not spared. With no fear of punishment, greedy food processors have crossed the Rubicon.

Most know that, in the worst-case scenario, they may face minimal fines or scapegoating of factory workers, while the top management of ghee manufacturers—profiting the most from this adulteration—will likely go almost unpunished. Our regulatory bodies once again risk setting a damaging precedent: food adulterators may go scot-free, even when they tamper with our religion. This will not only bring disrepute to our government but will also contribute to the erosion of Hindu culture, one temple at a time.

Open any news source and you’ll see that food adulteration is on the rise. From Gujarat to Odisha, cases of adulteration in milk products and mawa are skyrocketing. Everything from tomato ketchup to wheat flour is now heavily contaminated. The problem has become so severe that the Yogi Adityanath government enacted a special law with strict penalties for those involved in food adulteration and spitting.

Toxic adulterants in our food are linked to various diseases, including cancer, kidney ailments, and neurological damage. The UP government has been highly proactive in apprehending food adulteration offenders, targeting both large corporations like Nestlé and smaller operations such as flour mills mixing in white stone powder. Recent raids on tomato ketchup plants uncovered 800 kilograms of fake sauce laced with formalin and other synthetic agents. Yet, many continue to evade detection.

Let’s examine ghee. In our scriptures, ghee is revered as Amrit, yet today it has become one of the most adulterated products. From Tirupati to recent reports in Hathras, it’s clear that we face a serious challenge in regulating ghee purity. Since the 1980s, India has battled this adulteration crisis, and it is disheartening to learn that even pooja ghee is now highly adulterated and neglected. This is the very ghee most Hindus offer to deities. Such contamination casts a dark shadow over our Amrit Kaal ambitions.

The second item is milk. Milk is essential to our pooja rituals, whether it’s for making ghee, prasad, milk sweets, or offerings. Yet, most milk supplied to cities is adulterated with urea, synthetic agents, harmful chemicals, and hormones, all of which are detrimental to human health. When such adulterated milk finds its way into our temples as offerings to the gods, it compromises the purity of our rituals.

Another crucial item in religious ceremonies is turmeric. Turmeric is not only a common household spice with medicinal properties but also holds a significant role in our rituals. However, rampant adulteration is evident even in turmeric, with synthetic colours, chalk, and other additives freely mixed into FSSAI-approved brands. The quality of turmeric used specifically for pooja is often much worse.

Then there’s the case of mustard and sesame oil. Until June 2021, the FSSAI allowed anonymous blending in edible oils, only retracting this rule after pressure from farmers. Despite the rollback, adulteration remains widespread in mustard and sesame oil. Pooja item manufacturers are often unconcerned, knowing these oils won’t be directly consumed, resulting in lax quality standards. It seems FSSAI does not prioritise monitoring items used for pooja.

Apart from the oil, yellow mustard seeds are also used in various protection rituals within the Hindu system. Introducing GMO seeds in mustard risks contaminating India’s native varieties permanently. Many Hindu spiritualists are concerned, asking whether GMO ingredients in our rituals could affect their sanctity.

If we look at chandan (sandalwood) and sindoor in the local markets, especially in smaller towns and cities, most of the products lack any real sindoor or chandan in them. They are instead poor mixtures of chemicals and synthetic colours. Yet, every day, millions of Hindus are compelled to use these for offerings to our gods.

Adulterating Hindu Rituals

As a thought experiment, consider the rituals within the Hindu belief system to be true. For example, look at Hindu mourning rituals practised in the Uttar Pradesh region. The person who cremates a deceased relative offers pind daan (ritual offerings of rice and milk) for ten days. Each day, turmeric, cotton thread, sindoor, khush, Bhringraj, ghee, and other items are offered along with milk and rice. These items are believed to play a direct role in the departed soul’s reincarnation, with each day’s offering recreating a different body part. Pundits ensure that the spherical pind daan of milk and rice has no cracks or blemishes, as these would result in deformed body parts in the next life.

Following this spiritual logic, if a simple blemish or crack can impact a soul’s reincarnation, what might happen when adulterated and toxic materials are offered to the departed or to gods in our yagnas? One wonders—the outcome surely cannot be favourable.

Given the dismal state of food safety, it’s common knowledge that materials marked for pooja are often of the lowest quality. Rather than ensuring that pooja food ingredients like turmeric, ghee, mustard, barley, and sindoor are free from adulterants, the FSSAI falls short. This could be addressed by promoting local, organic self-help groups (SHGs) or local producers through incentives and regional marketing, rather than allowing corporate giants to dominate the pooja market.

Hindu rituals were perhaps designed to promote social cohesion; deconstructing them reveals that a funeral ritual, for example, relies on the contributions of farmers, potters, honey makers, barbers, cattle farmers, and others. Each ritual item involves different members of the village economy, fostering interdependence within the community. We should strive to honour this original intent in our policy considerations as well.

Indians are well aware of food adulteration, yet due to economic pressures or scarcity, they often have no choice but to buy what is available in the market. This situation is harming the health of our society and the future of our children. The Uttar Pradesh government has taken bold steps to address this issue, but the real question is: where is the FSSAI? Where are the other states? Why, despite being operational for over a decade, has the FSSAI failed to prevent toxic adulterants from infiltrating our pooja and food systems?

In conclusion, if Hindus don’t care about their rituals, who will? Let us recall 1857 when our civilisation rebelled against the East India Company’s attempt to force beef and pig-fat cartridges upon us. Today, when Hinduism and our religious practices face even graver profanities, we remain silent. It’s high time concerned Hindus come together to fight this challenge of adulteration, for without purity in food, Hindus risk losing their health, spirituality, and the rituals that connect them with their gods.

The author is an independent agri-policy analyst and former director – Policy and Outreach, National Seed Association of India. He tweets at @Indrassingh. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.