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Denis Giles

28 November 2016

Created: 28 November 2016

Last Updated: 28 November 2016

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By Maneka Sanjay Gandhi

It is extraordinary that a religion claiming to be completely based on ahimsa should be the reason for the extinction of our national bird, the peacock. The peacock is the only bird whose feathers are allowed to be sold – and this became a part of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 – solely because the Jains put so much pressure on the Congress party and Smt. Indira Gandhi. So, shops came up selling feathers and other people started buying the easily available feathers. Subsequently, every study and raid by wildlife departments showed that these feathers could only have come from the bird being killed. A demand rose for this exception in the Act to be removed.

During Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee’s time, the Act came to Parliament for this amendment. I sat for a long time with the Prime Minister who was an eminently sensitive human being. I showed him the data on peacocks disappearing from most of India and what the various raids had uncovered. He agreed to ban the sale of feathers. Shri Pramod Mahajan entered the room. In a very loud voice he insisted that the party would lose the entire Jain vote because the Digambara monks were very upset at the idea of peacock feathers being banned. The Prime Minister ordered the amendment to be withdrawn.

A third try was made in 2013 during Shri Jairam Ramesh’s time. Again it failed because the Jain community sent a million threatening messages and, as usual, the politicians backed off. Better to lose the national bird than to lose a single vote – even if it is the vote of monks who do not vote.

The Jains are not stupid or ignorant – far from it. They know that silk is made of dead butterflies and silver varakh, till July 2016, was made with the intestines of cows and buffaloes. But they continue to use both. They will eat vegetarian food – but none of them is vegan even though they know that the cow is forced to give milk, suffers when she loses her own baby to slaughter and two years later is killed herself. They know that peacock feathers come from murdered birds, but their monks insist on owning tails made of feathers, so they allow this bird to be killed. Like every religion, Jainism has millions of adherents who claim to aspire to ahimsa but are hinsak in their day to day living.

What do they claim? That the feathers are made from naturally shed feathers. That has never been true. The peacock sheds one feather every month. No one is going to pick up that single feather and sell it. Peacocks don’t live in large groups so there is no question of one place having hundreds of shed feathers. That single feather is eaten almost immediately by other creatures who get calcium from the spine.

The Jains are basically businessmen. So they know that to do commerce, one needs a steady and large supply. And like the skin of one dead cow in some remote village cannot sustain the leather industry, the hundreds of peacock feather shops in religious places cannot be sustained by waiting for peacocks to drop solitary feathers.

The Digambar Jain munis, when they renounce the world, must have no possessions except a kamandalu (which is a tree gourd from the kamandalu tree, which has also become extremely rare because no Jains have ever planted new ones. They have simply helped themselves to the fruit so that new trees could never grow.) and a pichchi which is a small broom to sweep an area where the Muni sits. At some point the Munis decided that the broom should be made of colourful and rich peacock feathers. And now this utilitarian cleaning item has become an important ritual of the religion itself – a religion that was supposed to be a reaction to elaborate Brahmanical ritual.

Over the years it has become even worse. The number of Jain munis has grown and so more peacock feathers are needed. At the same time, because of deforestation and sustained killing the number of peacocks has shrunk. Because it is legal to buy peacock feathers, many foreign tourists also buy them quite happily.

The items that Jain ascetics carry around are known as upadhi or upakaraṇa. It is important to understand that these are not possessions of the monks and nuns, because the principle of non-attachment or non-possession – aparigraha – is a crucial one for Jain mendicants. They do not own these items, which are given to them, and they must avoid feelings of attachment or possession towards them. Mendicants are given them as – dāna – by lay people.

But now, the Digambar munis have become so attached to these brooms that they want a new one every year. So a new tradition called Pichchi parivartan samaroh has started in which the old pichchi is thrown away, after really elaborate ceremonies, and another even more grand pichchi is presented to the muni by his devotees. Something like getting a new sari at Diwali every year or presents at Christmas.

It would be quite simple for the Muni to check whether the feather has been naturally shed or not. A naturally shed feather would be whole and have a tapering white funnel. A feather that has been taken from a killed bird always has this funnel cut because, while removing it forcibly, it fills with blood. Every Jain pichchi has half cut stalks.

Swetambar munis use cotton or pichchis called rajoharanas or Oghas. And none of them are attached to their brooms. Digambara monks made their own sect to emphasise that they were sky clad. They do not wear any clothes as it is considered to be parigraha (possession), which ultimately leads to attachment. So munis who are not attached to clothes are fanatic about their brooms?

I was at a friend’s house and we talked about the idea of renunciation. She told me the story of how a monk was celebrated because he was so detached from the world. He owned nothing but a small pot for drinking water and washing in. But one day when the pot rolled away he scrambled after it so hard and so desperately that he fell and hurt his knees. Ownership is ownership. The Digambara monks of Jainism need to be actually disconnected from all things. Having less or more is irrelevant if one is attached to even one thing. The peacock feather pichchi has become a symbol of their attachment to all the things on Earth. Simply knowing the scriptures does not make a religious or spiritual leader – specially in Jainism where non-attachment to all things, even clothes, is revered. We all look up to the ideal Jain monk, but where is he? For one feather tail he encourages the death of millions of birds, because he refuses to let this tail go.

Instead of understanding what I am saying, no doubt the Digambar sect will again rally round and make a noise. So, I will say michchhami dukham for causing any hurt. But who will say michchhami dukham to the spirits of all the thousands of dead peacocks.

 Of the 28 mūla guņas (primary attributes), the first is Ahimsa : not to injure any living being through actions or thoughts. Number 5 is Aparigraha, the renunciation of all worldly things. Brooms are not listed as an exception. Number 2 is to speak and acknowledge the truth – which is that their brooms are causing extinction of an entire species. Number 9 is Adan-nishep, the careful handling of possessions- not the discarding and replacement of brooms every year. Whether it is Pratikhayan (renunciation) or Kayotsarga, all the 28 lead directly to the giving up of attachment to all worldly things. If the purpose of the peacock broom is to save the lives of small insects by sweeping them away, what about saving the life of the peacock itself and changing to cotton or even to plant stalks.

Maneka Sanjay Gandhi

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Denis Giles

14 November 2016

Created: 14 November 2016

Last Updated: 14 November 2016

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By Maneka Sanjay Gandhi

Since the colour of food influences consumers, many food manufacturers use dyes in foods ranging from meat and candies to wine. The aim is to simulate a colour that is perceived by the consumer as natural, such as adding red colouring to canned cherries which would otherwise be beige. Food companies add more than 15 million pounds of artificial food dyes to foods each year.

How did this begin? In the early 1900s, as the industrial age got underway, workers became dependent on low cost factory produced food. Food producers used the cheapest ingredients and adulterants and then, to hide this, they "restored" the colour. Red lead was used to colour cheese and confectionary. Copper arsenite was used to colour used tea leaves for resale. The bulk of chemically synthesized colours were derived from aniline, a toxic petroleum product and coal tar. Manufacturers phased out natural dyes for economic reasons: chemically synthesized colours were easier and cheaper to produce. Their use spread from paint, plastic and clothing to food.

Processed meat, fish and sauce contained Armenian bole, red lead, or sulphuret of mercury. Curry contained lead and mercury, pickles, bottled fruit and vegetables had copper, candies had any number of poisonous pigments and green tea had Prussian blue pigment mixed in it. Dyes entered all sorts of popular foods and drink. Many people died.

Gradually food dye regulations came, with each country developing their own legislation regulating the use of dangerous minerals such as arsenic, copper, chromium, lead, mercury and zinc, which were frequently used as colorants. In 1962, the WHO and FAO created an international commission, the Codex Alimentarius, to work out the application of food additives. However, this is not legally binding till today. In the United States, the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 reduced the permitted list of synthetic colours from 700 down to seven.(The most commonly used dyes are Red 40, Yellow 5, and Yellow 6, which make up 90%+ of the market. These dyes are created synthetically by burning coal tar or are petroleum byproducts like tartrazine and erythrosine.)

Regulations differ from country to country even now. For instance Yellow, which is tartrazine (used in soft drinks, energy drinks, cake mixes, salty snacks, cereals, packaged soups), and has been linked to asthma, allergies and behavioural changes, is banned in some countries and allowed in others.Orange B is banned all over the world but is still used in the US for hot dog and sausage casings. Dyes used in meat, milk, and candies, like Quinoline Yellow, Carmoisine, Ponceau 4R, Patent Blue V and Green S, are not allowed in the US and U.K. Erithrosine, which was recognized as a thyroid carcinogen and is banned in cosmetics, is still used for sausages. Sunset Yellow, which causes adrenal tumours in animals and hypersensitive reactions, is still used in meats and gelatine deserts.

In all processed meats, fish, poultry, milk and eggs,dyes are used to mask quality failure and hygienic shortcomings. For instance, wild salmon has a distinctive pink colour which comes from the krill it eats in the oceans. But the salmon you get in restaurants is raised in crowded ponds and fed artificial food in order to make it fatter faster. This salmon is grey and looks inedible. So, fisheries use artificial dyes to make it pink. The dye is a chemical, Canthaxanthin, which has been linked to retinal damage in humans.

In meat processing, red and yellow colour types are preferred, with brand names such as “red blood”, “orange yellow” or “sunset yellow”. Tartrazine (E 102, yellow), cochineal extract (E 120, red) or carnoisine (E 122, red). While the first is made from coal tar and is very contentious for its role in allergies, the other two are made from crushed beetles.

Nitrates and nitrites are used to cure meat and poultry. They help kill bacteria and give meat a pink, or red, colour. Nitrite is highly toxic (the lethal dose in humans is about 22 mg/kg body weight). The use of nitrites is controversial, because nitrosamines are formed when it is cooked at high temperatures and these are carcinogenic.

The meat industry keeps the raw meat packaged in carbon monoxide. This is called "modified atmosphere packaging" (MAP) so that it can last longer in shops. When meat is exposed to carbon monoxide, it gives the meat a bright red colour. As meat ages it becomes brown or grey, but carbon monoxide keeps it looking artificially fresh for up to a full year, and can hide the growth of bacteria.

Annatto is a commercial dye produced from the red pulp of the seed of the achiote tree. It is used in cheese, butter and smoked fish. Betanin, or Beetroot Red, is a red glycosidic food dye obtained from beets and used for colouring meat and sausages to dark brown.

Caramel is one of the oldest and most widely-used food colourings and is found in almost every kind of fish, shellfish, roast beef, ham, pastrami or chicken.

Carmine, made of killed insects, is routinely added to food products such as meat. yogurt and ice cream.

Carotene, which is a pigment found in many dark green, leafy, and yellow vegetables such as collards, turnips, carrots, sweet potatoes, and squash and in the fatty tissues of plant-eating animals, imparts the yellow coloration to milk-fat and butter. Turmeric is used as an agent to impart a rich, custard-like yellow colour to dairy products and yogurt.

Synthetic astaxanthin is not approved for human consumption, but is permitted to be used in fish feed that humans ultimately eat. Astaxanthin is used to keep the flesh of farmed fish pink, no matter how diseased their bodies are.

Consumers like yellow yolks. But birds that don’t eat fresh grass, or see the sun, cannot produce eggs with yellow yolks. So egg producers put various dyes into the poultry feed. There are eight dyes registered as feed additives for poultry. Canthaxanthin is used here as well, even though, in 2007, the European Food Safety Authority established maximum residue limit as 30 milligrams/kg.

Illegal dyes are used as well in poultries. Sudan IV has been detected in hen and duck eggs. Sudan dyes are carcinogenic. Egg yolk yellow is also achieved with xanthophylls extracted from plants.

Cadmium is a yellow metal used in squid and cuttlefish.

Under the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, colour additives may not be used to deceive consumers, or to conceal blemishes or inferiorities in food products. Usage is prohibited "if it is found to induce cancer when ingested” by people or animals.

Both these conditions are violated. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) released a 68-page report “ Food Dyes: A Rainbow of Risks,” detailing the potential of artificial food dyes to contribute to hyperactivity in children, increase cancer risk and lead to other health problems. In CSPI's summary of studies on food dyes, some of the most commonly used food dyes could be linked to cancer. CSPI reported:

"The three most widely used dyes, Red 40, Yellow 5, and Yellow 6, are contaminated with known carcinogens. Another dye, Red 3, has been acknowledged for years by the Food and Drug Administration to be a carcinogen, yet is still in the food supply."

CSPI revealed that nine of the food dyes, currently approved for use in the United States, are linked to health issues ranging from cancer and hyperactivity to allergy-like reactions -- and these results were from studies conducted by the chemical industry itself.

As CSPI reported: "Almost all the toxicological studies on dyes were commissioned, conducted, and analyzed by the chemical industry and academic consultants. Ideally, dyes (and other regulated chemicals) would be tested by independent researchers.

Furthermore, virtually all the studies tested individual dyes, whereas many foods and diets contain mixtures of dyes (and other ingredients) that might lead to additive or synergistic effects.

In addition to considerations of organ damage, cancer, birth defects, and allergic reactions, mixtures of dyes (and Yellow 5 tested alone) cause hyperactivity and other behavioral problems in some children.

… Because of those toxicological considerations, including carcinogenicity, hypersensitivity reactions, and behavioral effects, food dyes cannot be considered safe. The FDA should ban food dyes, which serve no purpose other than a cosmetic effect…

In the meantime, companies voluntarily should replace dyes with safer, natural colorings."

The UK Food Standards Agency commissioned a study at Southampton University of the effect of six food dyes (Tartrazine, Allura Red, Ponceau 4R, Quinoline Yellow WS, Sunset Yellow and Carmoisine)on children. Published in 2007, the study found "a possible link between the consumption of these artificial colours and a sodium benzoate preservative and increased hyperactivity"

Research suggests that some children may be susceptible to even tiny amounts of artificial dyes, but that a significant number of children were affected by amounts over 35 mg per day. It was estimated that many children are consuming 3-4 times the 35mg amount per day. Food colorants sometimes cause allergic reactions and anaphylactic shock in sensitive individuals. Even natural colouring agents can be potential hazards and include annatto, cochineal and carmine

An important study, published in the journal The Lancet in 2009, concluded that a variety of common food dyes, and the preservative sodium benzoate, cause some children to become measurably more hyperactive and distractible. The study also found that the E-numbered food dyes do as much damage to children's brains as lead in gasoline, resulting in a significant reduction in IQ. The results of this study were what prompted the British Food Standards Agency (FSA) to issue an immediate advisory to parents, warning them to limit their children's intake of additives if they notice an effect on behaviour. In July 2010, most foods in the EU that contain artificial food dyes were labelled with warning labels stating the food "may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children." No other country has done so.

What food dyes are used in India? Does anyone know or care?

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Denis Giles

21 November 2016

Created: 21 November 2016

Last Updated: 21 November 2016

Hits: 1491

By Maneka Sanjay Gandhi

Mala Barua and Nandini Gulati are from Assam and Punjab respectively. Two states which, inspite of having delicious vegetables and amazing kinds of cereals, are now mainly non-vegetarian (Punjab less so, because village women are still vegetarian.) Nandini was thirty kilos overweight, had hypertension, rheumatoid arthritis and was pre-diabetic. As she learnt how to do “mindful” eating she developed an understanding of her body and the world around her. She now is disease free and very slim. A profound lesson which she learnt, that all of us should learn, is that what is good for the body is good for the planet. We are a microcosm of the macrocosm. If we eat only organic vegetables and coarse natural cereals not only will we be healthy but the planet will be green, the water pure, the air fresh and the animals happy. There will be food for all and health for all. If you eat with nature you support the entire planet.

Mala grew up watching live fish being killed in front of her and eating their bodies an hour later. She watched chickens being beheaded and she and her friends played with the decapitated heads as they blinked their eyes. She started yoga and meditation but she continued to eat animals. Then her dog collapsed and she had to put her to sleep. Something clicked. Through her tears she realised that thousands of animals were being killed and she became vegetarian. Then she met Nandini, at a 21-day disease reversal camp, and became friends. The common bond was the realisation that food could create every disease and different food could reverse every disease.

And this is what I have been saying for years. That, just as a machine runs only on good machine oil and appropriate fuel and will break down with inappropriate oil and fuel, the human body is not meant to be stuffed with non-vegetarian food. We are vegetarian animals.  Meat, milk and eggs and pesticides cause everything, from bad eyesight to hair fall and acne, tuberculosis and every form of cancer. However, diseases that are thought incurable can be reversed. A friend of mine had developed a tumour in the pancreas ten years ago. This is supposed to be one of the worst forms of cancer. Through her diet of natural juices and food (and some Tibetan natural medicine), she has kept it under control and is healthy so many years later. She travels, works hard and looks fifteen years younger than she is. Her hair is still black.

Mala and Nandini started to give people recipes to cure their problems. And this has turned into a book that I inaugurated last week called “Guilt Free Vegan Cookbook: Oil, Sugar, Gluten and Dairy Free Vegetarian Dishes”. It has been published by Roli Books. Dr Nandita Shah has written the foreword. She runs an organisation, called Sharan, that has workshops on teaching people how to eat properly and how to reverse disease. She has become very famous for reversing lifestyle ailments such as heart disease, hyperthyroidism , diabetes, colds, acidity, constipation, ulcers, kidney and bladder problems etc.

So many vegetarians think that, just because they don’t eat meat, they will remain free of non-vegetarian diseases like cancer. Not true. Milk and eggs are as non-vegetarian as meat – as is curd, paneer, mithai – and gives you the same problems. In fact, vegetarians who drink milk are hugely prone to breast cancer, osteoporosis, arthritis – and obesity, specially obesity.

Do you have to go into retreat in the Himalayas, or spend masses of money, to be well? No. Just eat properly and do a little bit of yoga. Eat properly means delicious as well. At the inauguration at India International Centre, the cooks made all the food from the recipes in the book. I shamelessly went back for three helpings – and so did all the other hundreds of guests, many of whom were non-vegetarian. In fact, two hotel owners decided on the spot to start vegan restaurants in their hotels, and one person is starting a restaurant in meat-eating Kolkata immediately.

Being a Punjabi, in winter my attention went directly in this book to: Gajar ka halwa: serves 4, 3 large red carrots grated, 1 tbsp raisins, ¾ cup raisin paste, 2 tbsp sweet cashew cream, ¼ tbsp. cardamom powder, 4 tbsp almonds toasted or raw.

Cook the carrots on medium heat, in a covered wok in its own juices, for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the whole raisins, sweet raisin paste, cashew cream and cardamom powder; cook for another 2-3 minutes to mix thoroughly. Serve hot with garnished almonds.

Sweet cashew cream: 1 cup cashews soaked for 3-4 hours, drained. 4-5 pitted dates soaked for 4 hours or 1/2 cup sweet yellow raisins. Grind the cashews first, using as little of the dates or raisins soaking water, as required, to a smooth creamy paste with no grittiness. Add in the soaked dates or raisins and grind again, using the sweet water as required. Smoothen the cream as much as possible. Yields One Cup Cream and can be used to replace sweet cream in any recipe. Can be stored upto 4 days in the fridge.

Date or Raisin Paste: I cup pitted dates or yellow raisin, washed and soaked for 6 hours or more if the dates are hard; one cup water for soaking.

In a wet grinder, grind the dates or raisins with 1-2 tbsp of soaking water. Keep adding water and grinding till you get a smooth paste. Replaces sugar in all recipes. Can keep in the fridge for a week.

The book has recipes for all the replacements of milk and butter, sauces and stocks for soups.  To get it you can email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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Denis Giles

07 November 2016

Created: 07 November 2016

Last Updated: 07 November 2016

Hits: 1797

By Maneka Sanjay Gandhi

For years and years the government put off the decision to make varakh, silver leaf, by machine on the grounds that no machines were available. Finally, this year a historic decision has been taken and the FSSAI notification has come that no varakh can be made except by machine.

The person responsible for this change (apart from me!) is Surendra Karnavat, a diamond jeweller in America. He and his wife were members of the Rajasthan Association of America and came to India in Vasundhara Raje’s first term as Chief Minister, lured by the promise that they would get all help to start a machine based varakh industry. He was given none of the promised assistance and could only start in a very small way. However, he did not give up hope and started by supplying only a few shops in his own area. I heard of him, and met him, while campaigning to have varakh made in a vegetarian way. Then, when the FSSAI started to take the matter seriously, he came in to show them how it could be done properly.

The varakh industry is a huge one. India uses over 300 tonnes of silver leaves in paan, chawanprash, tobacco products, ayurvedic medicines, mithais and temples. It is used in Germany on food (the food number is E 175), France on photo frames. In Japan it is everywhere – interiors, tea, instruments, frescos, temples. In fact, Kanazawa has a Gold Leaf Museum. The whole of Southeast Asia uses varakh, to pay homage to Lord Buddha. It is used on chocolates, cocktails and liquors – German Goldwasser and the Swiss Goldschlager are examples -- soups, salads, ice creams, coffees. Now, gold leaf has become a part of anti-ageing creams, face packs and foundations. The use of the gilded leaf is endless. Gold leaf has been used for jewellery, for art decorations, picture frames and gilded art. We have used it in our glass paintings. But we don’t export it, because we make it in a dirty – and now illegal – manner. ABP News has done a piece on it, which is doing the Whatsapp rounds so you can see it.

300 tonnes translates like this: one kilo of silver has 225 gaddis (bundles). One gaddi is 150 sheets of silver varakh. That means, 6.75 crore gaddis every year. The world market asks for 300 kg of gold varakh every day.

Till now, the varakh makers are in slaughterhouses. They are all a sect of Muslims called Pannigars. They select cattle by feeling their intestines while they are alive, and then having them cut and extracting the intestines while they are hot. These intestines are made into pouches, and silver is beaten in between them till it is thin enough to be sold. The method is filthy and certainly not pure silver. When you eat it, you place yourself at risk.

The second method that is used by most mithai sellers – who will pretend that they are getting the varakh from vegetarian sources (which is what the president of the mithai association claimed to me) – is to beat the silver between plastic sheets. However, this is also a filthy meat based method, as the plastic is coated with animal fat for lubrication and is also then covered with leather. The varakh that emerges is also not hygienic or fit for eating.

Karnavathas replaced leather / animal fat with a specially engineered paper which is translucent and smooth. This paper is fed into a machine and the process of making varakh is completely mechanized, without coming into contact with the sweaty human hand. The leaf has a thickness of 0.18 microns in silver and 0.1 microns in gold, making it of international standards even for gold fillings and ayurvedic medicines. The machine has taken 15 years to develop and meets the guidelines of the US FDA.

He is one of the very few people in the world who has the knowledge of producing varakh paper (also known as interleaf paper or carbon coated paper). He wants to help low cost machines to be produced and installed, and train unskilled labour – perhaps even the same people who have been sitting for years at slaughterhouses and taking out the intestines of freshly killed buffaloes and cows. He believes there is scope for at least 2 lakh people to be employed, and that this is the only way for the varakh industry to become a clean, hygienic, well managed organized sector, instead of being a filthy unorganized secretive sector that operates in the shadows of butcheries. This could also be a major employment area for women, as gold and silver leaf have to be transferred from interleaf paper to tissue paper, and this delicate exchange can be best handled by a woman. Gold and silver leaf can be major exports from India and earn foreign exchange.

Karnavat was invited by the Chinese government to establish a unit and train the Chinese. He refused because he wants to make India the silver/gold leaf hub of the world. This seems to me to be an excellent potential industry and, now that Mudra loans are available to small businessmen, this should be taken advantage of. In fact, if you are a large mithai maker you should establish your own ancillary varakh leaf factory. If you want to get in touch with him to start it in your own area, and to make sure that no mithai or paan is being made from cattle intestines in slaughterhouses, this is his address: Surendra Karnavat, 9-A Takhteshahi Road, Jaipur-302004. Ph: 0141-2574888 / 09950555555, Email :This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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