Is beef actually banned by the hindu religon or is it just a part of the hindu culture ?
Religion is an integral part of culture in Hinduism – I’m not sure you can separate the two. A ban on killing cows goes back thousands of years in Indian culture, and the exact reasons for its origin have been lost in time, but are intimately entwined with Hinduism (and the Jain religion as well) on the subcontinent. The belief has possibly survived because a live cow is a better source of essential protein (milk) than a dead one, and cattle provide essential fertilizer, fuel and muscle power in traditional rural India. Interestingly, Indonesian Hindus such as the Balinese have no qualms about eating beef. This possibly has something to do with differences in how easily people of different races are able to utilize milk as a major food source. Predominantly Indo-European Indians and Nepalis are genetically better able to digest milk than people from South East Asia. The differences lie in the levels of an intestinal enzyme called lactase which are higher in people whose ancestors were
