Veg or non-veg gains currency

The British should be past masters at learning from history, but sadly, they seem to be rather forgetful. The matter of the greased cartridges — back when it was still an empire and not reduced to a set of islands off Europe — should have warned them about repeating the caper. But nearly 160 years after rumours of pork and cow fat being used on cartridges for the Enfield rifle caused Muslim and Hindu soldiers (sepoys) to mutiny and sparked off the first war of Independence, comes the revelation that the new plastic £5 note contains 'animal fat', confirmed by the Bank of England. Of course, this time it has only sparked off a mini-mutiny on the social media led by incensed vegetarians and is unlikely to further decimate British suzerainty, so the fat is not really in the fire.

But it is ironical that the visage on the note is of Winston Churchill who considered history to be a "guide to present difficulties" and once commented, "How strange it is that the past is so little understood and so quickly forgotten. We live in the most thoughtless of ages."

India is familiar with controversies about beef tallow in soap and vanaspati, and genetic modification has imbued many unexpected things with animal components. But who would have thought that one day, 'veg or non-veg' would be a question asked about currency notes as well?