“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place”, a remark attributed to many persons including George Bernard Shaw, can explain many controversies where the addresser and the addressee do not have the same linguistic competence and differ sharply in their understanding of many words in common use. The recent uproar over the issue of serving “beef Biryani” in an Aligarh Muslim University hostel, for example, has arisen because of the wrong use of a word which the AMU administration has tried to explain away as a typological error.
The issue is simple.
All English dictionaries define beef as cow’s meat and hence people reading it literally cannot be faulted. Thus, Oxford Learner’s Dictionary defines beef as “meat that comes from a cow”, Cambridge Dictionary as “the flesh of cattle (cow), eaten as food” and Merriam-Webster as “the flesh of an adult domestic bovine (such as a steer or cow) used as food”.
However, in India, especially in Hindi-speaking states the word beef has often been used for meat that does not come from poultry or goats, and is invariably used for buffalo meat. It is in these very states where the politics over cow has been most virulent. Cases of lynching and arrest over the possession of beef, sometimes over a mere suspicion of its possession, are so commonplace that they now are at best a marginal news item in the media.
It is in this context that a number of Hindu students in the Aligarh Muslim University campus have reacted sharply to the official notice of a student functionary to serve “beef biryani” in a hostel. The police filed an FIR against the two student functionaries and the provost of a residential hall. Many Hindutva organisations in the city, known for its history of communal violence, joined the chorus. Though most of them were acting out of their prejudice about AMU, the wrong use of the word “beef” in the notice did provide a reason for their protests and some fodder to rumour mongers and sensation-seeking journalists.
It may be noted that in no hostel of AMU cow’s meat is served, a point repeatedly made by AMU administration in the past too. In fact, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, the founder of the University, was himself in favour of a ban on cow slaughter to respect the religious sentiments of people who worshipped cow. He saw to it that there was no slaughter of cows on Eid-uz-Zuha in the hostels of Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College. In my own experience at AMU spanning more than four decades, first as a student and then as a faculty member, I have never seen or heard about beef being served in any student hostel at Aligarh Muslim University.
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At the same time, however, I have always seen people in the Hindi speaking areas, including AMU, using the word beef, wrongly of course, for buffalo meat. Chicken and mutton have usually belonged on the table of the rich whether described by the English words or their equivalent in Hindi. Unable to afford goat’s meat or chicken, buffalo meat is considered affordable for a majority of Indian Muslims. Using the English word beef for the lowly buffalo meat, especially avoiding its Hindustani equivalent “bhainse ka ghosht” which causes some embarrassment to the speaker, serves a social purpose in the Hindi belt. An average student or teacher in a college or university in India is not known for his or her command of the English language, least of all the subtle nuances of value-loaded words. In the case of AMU’s controversial notice, it was the wrong use of a word which caused the furore.
It is commonplace to use words of Indian origin in English without even the need to italicise them or putting them in inverted commas. Still many speakers and writers persist in using incorrect English words rather than correct Hindustani words that they may be very comfortable with. Perhaps a Hindi expression “bade ka ghosht” meaning buffalo meat could have been preferred in this case to avoid any confusion.
English language has been enriched by many Indian expressions. Often looked down upon as Indianisms in high-brow circles, words and expressions like ‘prepone’, ‘eve-teasing’, and ‘do the needful’ do serve a purpose in Indian situations. Even the word mutton is defined as “meat from an adult sheep” by most English dictionaries though in India it is usually used to refer to goat’s meat. It is a common practice in many restaurants in the Queens, New York, which has a sizeable population of Indians and Pakistanis, to specifically announce “goat’s meat” in their menus. However, it will be a rare restaurant in India which will use the expression goat’s meat in its menu.
An abbreviation of buffalo, which has gained some currency but is yet to enter English dictionaries is ‘buff’, a slang specifically meaning buffalo meat. Heard among the educated class in New Delhi and other big cities, and also on many restaurant menus,, there is a need to popularise the word ‘buff’, as buffalo meat is the staple diet of a very large population in India and a short and simple word is needed to describe it accurately and precisely.
Development of language takes place through a word’s history and roots, its use by established authorities, but above all its usage. It is time journalists and writers in India, established authorities in the Indian context, started using the word ‘buff’ in their writing. Already in partial use, replacing the casual and incorrect use of the word beef with the gradually emerging Indian city slang ‘buff’ can save some lives in our polarised times. In the process we can add one more word to the English lexicon which can sit pretty with paratha and tikka, our earlier linguistic exports.
Mohammad Asim Siddiqui is professor in the department of English at Aligarh Muslim University.
This piece was first published on The India Cable – a premium newsletter from The Wire & Galileo Ideas – and has been updated and republished here. To subscribe to The India Cable, click here.
