Why Indians have always been suspicious that their ghee is adulterated

The Spectator was vehement: “We may imagine, therefore, the horror of that immense community at the adulterated ghee, the eagerness to put down the accursed thing, the spirit in which the action of the Government would be scrutinised the moment the offence was made known.” The London weekly declared that failure to act would mean “it was an accursed Government, not to be obeyed by anyone to whom the lotus was a symbol…”

Had the world’s oldest continuously published magazine suddenly taken a rather bombastic interest in Tirupati’s ghee turmoil? Was it really advocating protests from members of the Bharatiya Janata Party?

In reality those words are from The Spectator issue of September 25, 1886 and lotus was already shorthand for Hindus. The article referred to allegations of adulteration in Bengal and commended the Calcutta authorities for rapidly defusing the situation by drafting a law to ensure the purity of ghee.

This fortnight, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s allegations about the ghee used in laddus at the Tirupati temple caused much speculation about the political games at play. But claims and rumours about ghee and edible fats in general, which result in social and political tensions, are nothing new. Even the crisis management strategy used by the...

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