NEW DELHI: A media report revealed that the National Museum in Delhi has barred “meat dishes” from being served at the ongoing Historical Gastronomica - The Indus Dining Experience, a week-long exhibition-cum-event on culinary history. While the museum dropped all meat items from its Harappan menu, one will be surprised to find a certain fish item on display. People on social media were left perplexed by this finding.
The grub fest which began on Wednesday was supposed to demonstrate how the first humans evolved due to food habits, learnt to distinguish edible from non-edible substance, food processing techniques and related architecture of the Indus Valley people.
A Twitter user said, “A weeklong exhibition-cum-event on culinary history that offers ‘the Indus dining experience’ through an ‘ethnoarchaeological kitchen of the Harappan culture’. What was the purpose of this exhibition if no plans were made to stay true to our (current) understanding of Harappan diet?”
Another post read, “Making Harappan diet seem vegetarian is part of the on-going attempt to appropriate the pre-Arya, pre-Vedic and pre-Sanskrit Harappan Civilization, whose heritage belongs to all Indians, for the purposes of today’s narrow Hindutva politics.”
“The museum has idols of so many gods and goddesses, and a relic of Lord Buddha... A museum is not a temple. And we will retrospectively force Harappans to be vegetarians. When will we respect history and diverse diets of this country?” wrote another.