food bans seem to be a theme for 2015 some are sweeping like maharashtras beef ban or the nationwide ban on maggi some specific like madhya pradeshs ban on eggs in midday meal schemes and some local like the housing society in mumbai alleged to be boycotting a family over cooking meat everywhere it seems people are stopping others from eating something it rarely comes out well banning something so basic makes people resentful defiantly pushing them to eat what they might have avoided voluntarily bans tend to lack practical logic they are imposed precisely because what they require isnt what people would do normally but since their perpetrators never admit to the prejudices underlying most bans they invent twisted justifications that can be as damaging as the ban 50 years ago a particularly startling ban was imposed and had lasting consequences bans are rarely imposed on popular foods especially those seen as emblematic of a community and few foods are more emblematic of bengal than sweets based on channa split milk solids like sandesh and rosogollas yet on august 23 1965 such milk sweets were banned in calcutta under the west bengal channa sweets control order imposed by congress chief minister prafulla chandra sen sen justified his action by pointing to the dire situation of dairying in the state in a speech in bengali on all india radio air he noted whereas the daily per capita of supply of milk in the punjab is 17 ounces and in bihar 4 ounces in west bengal it is even less than 3 ounces per capita despite bengals historical reputation as a land of milk and honey it has always lagged in milk production in recent times across the border in bangladesh shortages are still so bad that chaiwallahs use milk substitutes made of imported palm oil and milk powder imported milk powder was important in west bengal then too but as sen noted indias deteriorating financial situation the rupee would be devalued in 1966 made imports increasingly costly sen wanted rightly the scarce milk to go first to children and mothers but solutions like taxing channa or offering subsidised milk to the most needy could have been tried instead he went straight for a ban on channa in calcutta and neighbouring areas with the possibility of extending it state wide sen was an upright committed man who the current cm mamata banerjee in her memoirs claims as her mentor though she is too politically savvy to try a ban on bengali sweets sen had been a freedom fighter and then minister of food in the first government of independent bengal right until he took over as cm and as joya chatterji points out in her book spoils of partition bengal india 19471967 he had the vivid experience of the disastrous bengal famine when the previous muslim league government had tried and failed to impose controls on food movementsyet faced with two years of failed monsoons and rising