Many decades ago, in my grandfather’s generation, a branch of the family moved to Ahmedabad, Gujarat. My “grand-uncle” had a hard time getting a place for the family to stay because they were (correctly) presumed to be omnivores. Ahmedabad was Gandhi’s town, and nobody wanted meat eaters around. When the family ate chicken, they did so in secret, with my grand-uncle secreting out the bones in the newspaper to dispose elsewhere during his morning walk. If a carcass had been found in the trash, they would have been summarily ejected from their dwelling, with no bones made about it.
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p>Fast forward to today, where in secular Sodom-and-Gomorrah Bombay the one thing you can’t do is eat meat: 
Never mind pets, smokers or loud music at 2 a.m. House hunters in Bombay increasingly are being asked: “Do you eat meat?” If yes, the deal is off…In constitutionally secular India, there’s no bar to forming a housing society and making an apartment block exclusively Catholic or Muslim, Hindu or Zoroastrian. Vegetarians say they too need segregation.
Rejected home-seekers have mounted a slew of court challenges to the power of housing societies to discriminate, but last year India’s highest tribunal ruled the practice legal. [Link]
I’m having trouble reconciling this news with the fact that 70%-80% of Hindus in India are non-veg (thanks Ponniyin) and even the streets of Ahmedabad are full of little three wheeled trucks that sell chicken in Ahmedabad there is a line of 10 or so three wheeled lunch trucks selling chicken outside of the IIM campus.
Maybe it’s because I’m an omnivore, but I honestly I don’t understand the deep emotional resonance of this issue. While I recognize the ethical implications of various diets, I’ve never tried to define my personal identity according to what I eat.
However, for others, this goes far beyond a lifestyle choice. I know atheists for whom this is a dogma, something that encapsulates who they are and where they stand in the world more than any other set of beliefs they hold.
Furthermore, not only do people care passionately about what they eat, they also feel strongly about what others eat as evidenced above. This is something I especially don’t understand. I’m missing something here, something about what meat eating means both personally and socially. What is it about food that leads people to be offended by the lifestyle choices of others?
For those of you who feel your food choices strongly – what does your diet mean to you? How do you feel about the diet of others? If we are what we eat, how does that matter?
Selected related posts: Food for Ogling, er, I mean, Thought, Ravi Chand, melon eater, That Silver Isn’t Vegetarian, Meat without murder?, Holy Cow: Yet another school textbook controversy
We, who are (and try to be) so sensitive to discrimination and wrongdoing when it comes to racism, anti-feminism, homophobia etc i.e. we who support giving a voice to those without a voice…we also need to extend this compassion to animals too. In a sense it is extending the same thing — not allowing those who have power to mistreat those who don’t.
And I don’t just mean fighting for elephants (Gita), the extinction of species etc (although I support all of those) — pain, fear and suffering are just as real when it comes to ‘common’ chickens, cows , pigs, lobsters, whatever.
Sorry about the long comments, but the above was my answer to “what does your diet mean to you? How do you feel about the diet of others? If we are what we eat, how does that matter?”
— my diet means not participating in needless cruelty and victimization of creatures that can feel pain and fear — I respect people who make the choice NOT to participate in this too for whatever reason — whether or not it matters to oneself, it matters terribly to a huge number of other living creatures.
For those that don’t know, this is actually why Sikhs are supposed to only eat meat which is “jhatka”, ie from animals killed in a single blow, and which have not undergone undue suffering beforehand (and this is also why Sikhs are explicitly prohibited from eating meat obtained from animals via the “halaal” method, along with other similar rituals)…..
…..Which is also why many Sikhs are vegetarian full-stop.
Okay, comparative theology educational session over 😉
Thanks for that really interesting info, Jai.
I’m converting to Sikhism now :).
Fink Kaur Nottle
Fink Kaur Nottle,
Sat Sri Akaal ji 😉
One is not required to formally convert to Sikhism in the orthodox sense (unless one really is committed to following the Khalsa path). One can just practice its ideals during the course of one’s own daily life regardless of one’s background or formal affiliation. Which you seem to be doing already anyway. So it’s all good 😉
I think it’s more of an olfactory issue and probably a religious issue, definitely not a social one. I’m a non-veggie, make no mistake, but have you lived next door to a serious non-veggie, especially the desi fish-lover? The heat and proximity of apartments in Bombay makes the choice a very smart one, unfortunately for the non-vegetarian food connoisseurs.
Meera
Guys:
You HAVE to read AC’s blog: http://blog.desifunland.com/category/desiness/
HILARIOUS
AC’s blog should definitely be added to the “Other blogs that we read” sidebar on the main SM page, and I also nominate him to be a future guest blogger here. The guy’s writing is brilliant, as a number of us have mentioned previously.
Hell, Abhi should do his Jack Bauer thing and parachute into AC’s house in order to kidnap him and forcibly induct him as a core Mutineer. Manish’s
cage in the basementempty bedroom must be available now.Great post, and interesting comments. I am mostly vegetarian, but I do love me my meat from time to time, and I have a couple of things to say:
I’ve dated vegetarians and carnivores, and the truth is that, because I’m such a foodie, and because I really do believe in the communal nature of eating, I found it very difficult to be with my vegetarian partners. First, it’s one thing to eat vegetarian food when we were together when we were in a dating/seeing each other 3-5 times a week situation vs when you’d eventually be living with that person. Secondly, to me, the idea of keeping separate utensils from a roomate is very different from keeping them separate from a partner. And finally, compromise is one thing, but I’d hate to be thought of as contaminated by the person I love and marry. Again these are all things I believe for myself, not for anyone else.
That said, when I’m arround vegetarians I tend (90%) to eat veggie anyway because it allows me to partake in their food and they in mine…I really truly do believe in the communal nature of food…it’s like ANNA said, out of respect and curtesy.
Incidently if I had vegetarian in-laws who were living with me and insisted on a veggie kitchen, I’d simply make sure there were 2 kitchens, so they could have their veggie one, and I my meat laden one 🙂
Ennis, you might be interested to note that in Kenya, the vegetarian issue really is used to keep Muslims and indegenous Kenyans away from certain housing developments. I know of several cases where my friends have been denied housing in Guju owned homes despite (my friends’) being strict vegetarians.
[aside] ANNA, have you tried the restaurant White Tiger (301 Mass Ave NE)? It has the most devine tomato soup with little pieces of okra (I think you like okra). And their main okra dish is also great!
All the more reason to keep a 100% vegetarian household, as I do in my home now; one set of utensils fits all and there’s no need for separate cutting boards. “Partners” can eat whatever the hell they want when we’re at a restaurant. Smelling nasty-ass calamari is a small price to pay for not seeing some bleeding flesh on styrofoam slowly rotting in my fridge or defrosting in my sink. I faint at the sight of my own blood, damnit. I’m the most squeamish person I know.
I don’t think of the person whom I love or might marry as contaminated, but I might think their food choices are icky. If the Braun toothbrush and a swish of listerine doesn’t get rid of whatever’s nasty about your mouth, I think you’ve got bigger problems than whether or not I’m going to besa-te mucho. 😉
right but that’s exactly what I’m trying to get at. When it is your home and yours alone you can do whatever you want, but what happens when you’re sharing a home with a husband or wife…do their preferences/likes not count for anything? I don’t want to have to sneak food around, I want to be able to bring meat home, I want to be able to have big BBQs, etc. Which is why I would either have to marry a carnivore or a vegetarian who doesn’t mind meat in the house. I was only stating a personal preference 😛
I guess this topic is a little fresh for me because my parents are trying to “introduce” me to “boys” and I specifically stated that the guys should be carnivores because I am, and I intend to be able to cook what I like in my home…this, as you can imagine, caused a little stir with my mom, who still hopes that I will turn vegetarian. And in this case, hopes that if she manages to get me married to one, I will turn vegetarian [for him]…hmmmm. Me thinks not.
also, right now I live with the folks and my mom doesn’t like meat cooked in the house. I respect that. It’s her house so I follow her rules (she doesn’t mid if it is cooked on the grill outside, as long as we bring, marrinate and cook immediately)
but when I have my house (both when single and married) it’ll be different, and my mom knows that when she comes over we would have meat in the house, and she has no problem with that either…
For some of us, it’s non-negotiable. Frankly, it’s only been a problem in ONE of my serious relationships, but that was a blessing; it was part of the reason why I realized that it was the wrong relationship. After all, someone who can’t accept such an ingrained part of my life, who browbeats me in to trying meat at every meal isn’t the one for me. Fortunately my other BFs have been people who think there’s more than enough good about me to outweigh my pain-in-their-ass need for a vegetarian home. Amor vincit omnia and whatnot.
Besides, who is home anymore?? I left work after 9pm yesterday and I passed out before midnight, after having a glass of water with my Flintstones. Now that I tend to work six days a week, I can’t remember the last time I fired up the gas range. It’s a hell of a lot easier to maintain a strict veggie home when you’re eating 90% of your meals out, which is what a majority of my friends (especially the new yorkers) do.
So was I.
Anyway, I’m shocked that you’re “mostly vegetarian”, since one of the most indelible memories I have of you is from that Kahani workshop I hosted last year, where you gleefully announced you were going to some African barbecue-like event afterwards. I do believe you rubbed your tummy while saying, “Mmmm, goat!” 😉 I remember thinking, “This girl is a hard-core meat-lover.”, after you explained what would be going down in terms of goat-prep, etc.
My husband loves his steak and beef is something that I haven’t really warmed up to. (Besides InNOut in Cali). We settled on a compromise…the kitchen has chicken and lamb but no beef. I suppose if I ate it myself, I wouldn’t have any qualms about cooking it? I don’t know.
However, my mommy dearest, the ardent puja enthusiast that she is knows that my kitchen is mine and I will cook what I want in it. If she visits, I’d be careful and mindful enough of her. Of course, if my MIL visits, the kitchen goes through a serious detox because she doesn’t know that we are meat eaters.
KD…being frank with your folks is a smart thing. Marriage etc is hard enough without dietary habits’ differences being thrown in for extra spice. That was my thing too, ‘Bring me someone tall, educated, who drinks, doesn’t smoke and enjoys his chicken’. Hehe
ANNA,
Unless you want to trigger another outburst of badmaashi from me, it’s probably not a good idea to use the words “girl”, “hard-core meat-lover”, and “going down” in the same sentence on this blog. Remember the “hide the salami/hide the zucchini” scandal. Even Ennis is now joining in, with his comments about Angelina frenching it up and so on. I must be a really bad influence on the Mutineers. No wonder uncles and aunties go into panic-stricken hysteria about the safety of their daughter’s chastity if I so much as say hello to the naughty girl.
I could actually get much, much worse, but then you’d need to have one of those 18+ warning screens on the SM homepage and I’d probably finally get banned. Ahh well, you and DesiDancer have probably both wanted to slap me for ages anyway.
Back to the “how do you like your meat” debate…..
Jai, Marry me.
Kenyandesi,
You’d have to arm-wrestle Angelina Jolie and Monica Belluci for the honour 😉
By the way, you look suspiciously like Sunny Leone in some of the pics Anna’s occasionally linked to here on SM. Which possibly explains some of your racier 55s…..
Jai – Come on man..let me have my tea they way it is supposed to be. I’m laughing so hard that I accidentally snorted half the cup through my nose.
Too bad it was tea, if it had been water, that would have been veddy vedic of you…probably would’ve given you saffron balls.
Communis Rixatrix – I’ve done the water trick hundreds of times..but last I checked, I didn’t had no saffron balls! We used to have Yoga classes once a week in school …did that for 10 yrs!
Hail Brown_FOB!
I’ll bring me. you bring the girls and the mud. I’ll take em down. Us Mawrters don’t back away from a fight. Ever…
it’s the smouldering bedroom look Sunny and I practiced in our mirrors when we were growing up. Some girls want to be princeses, others vixens…i decided I could spell vixen better.
for that you can blame my two best friends when I was an impressionable teen. they were both male. The mind of a teeenage boy is something all girls should be sheltered from. Or not 🙂
Kenyandesi,
I actually said “arm-wrestle”, not “mud-wrestle”, but it’s interesting to see how your mind works.
No, I mean you actually look like the woman. Maybe you are her in disguise. Hah, maybe Sepia Mutiny should have a desi pornstar as a guest blogger. That would be quite an interesting experience. I’m sure many of the guys here would think so, along with some of the naughtier ladies.
Some of those 55s sounded curiously autobiographical, although your explanation does, er, explain things. Quite eyebrow-raising stuff 😉
Anyway, that’s enough digressing from me. Back to the discussion about tasty flesh and people’s eating habits…..
I meant to comment bu was distracted by Jai…
I love my meat, but eat it about 3-4 (of 20) meals/week. I lurve veggies too. I can (and do) eat vegetables raw even, especially tomatoes (in kenya, not the pasty horrible ones here) and carrots and string beans, and peas straight from the pod…mmmm. OK I readily admit I’m not a mere foodie. Hi I’m Anjali, I’m addicted to good food.
I really can’t understand people who eat simply because it is something they MUST do to survive.
Jai,
I was hoping you wouldn’t notice, I would loose an arm-wrestling competition, in mud I think I’d have an advantage 😛
I think she’s pretty hot so thanks…But I’ve often been told I look very different in all of my pics, and I look different in person than my pics…so take that to mean what it may 😛
I like to shock people out of quiet corners. And I am by no means a subtle person. My personality won’t allow it 😛 As for the 55s being autobiographical, that’s for me to know, and the world to never find out!
Ok, no more thread-jacking. I sort-of-promise?
Is Top Ramen (Oriental Flavour) noodles vegetarian ? The contents on the pack do not list any non-veg extracts for either the noodles or the seasoning. My “Maggi noodles” stock has run out..and Ramen is the only thing I have for my long nite.
Achtung! There’s usually two main brands dueling at every grocery store– ONLY ONE is veggie…it might be Nissin’s “Oriental”? That’s what I think it was…
I’m sure we’re about to be enlightened, though. 😉 Ah, I love this site.
Tokyo Veg guide says:
Hope that helps and happy slurping.
Thanks for the prompt response guys.
I didn’t like the smell…had to trash the entire plate (even without tasting it).
My sister and I — both strict vegetarians for at least 15 years — recently started eating meat again. Her reasons were that she married a Kashmiri guy who thinks that lamb is a vegetable, and once she started cooking meat for the kids, she inevitably started eating enough meat that she now eats meat often. For me, it was a health issue. There’s a history of heart disease in my family, and so I began eating fish (and only fish) for those lovely omega-threes.
This is where the trouble began. My sister refers to fish as the “gateway meat”, that ex-vegetarians begin with fish and then become curious about other meats. In my imagination, fish leads to chicken to beef until eventually, I am compelled towards cannibalism.
She stated her theory as a harbinger would, as a pot smoker now addicted to meth would say to a college freshman entranced by his first bong. Needless to say (like the kids in the documentary “Scared Straight”), I’m now planning on giving up fish lest I start looking for cows to chase here in NYC — or maybe just other people.
I am not sure had I stuck to the veggies and not gorged on the meat dishes at the Desi party last night, if I would still have woken up to a ‘ leaning tower of penis ‘ in my pants. My heightenedlibido triggered the memory of how my grandfather had once justified the cow eating ways of our Muslim neighbor in India. ” He has four wives to keep happy. ” Sometimes I wonder if that is the lure of the Muslim/Arab man to certain Indian women particularly those raised in strict vegetarian households. Does being a carnivore mean more carnal proficiency?