I am a vegetarian. By birth. Not by choice. Ask my parents and they might tell you that vegetarianism was never imposed on me. Eating meat was always an option, though strongly discouraged. Growing up in a hill station, we were usually the only vegetarians in our social circles and parties always meant looking for that one vegetarian dish on buffet tables piled high with meat dishes of every kind. When my parents went to enrol me in boarding school, I was to be the only vegetarian in the entire hostel. After much deliberation, my parents enrolled me as a meat eater with an assurance from the boarding mistress that a vegetarian option be provided to me, if I desire. I am embarrassed to admit here that I never once tried meat during my entire hostel life. Every time I was asked "would you like a vegetarian option?" I responded in the affirmative. Now I realize that this wasn't purely by choice. The anti-meat conditioning all through my formative years was so strong that I have never been able to undo it. I've tried to understand what it is that is stopping me even now.
One thing is for certain. It is not divine retribution that I fear. I don't believe in divinity.
It isn't an overwhelming concern for the animals either. I remember watching with wide eyes fascination, the slaughter of a goat on bakrid at my friend's house, after my very first sleepover there. I also remember the excitement of sunday morning visits to the meat market with family friends when I spent weekends at their pace, the highlight being the process of selection of the right piece of mutton or beef for their sunday afternoon lunch. One of my favorite vacation memories is waking up before sunrise at a friend's place in nagercoil and driving to the Muttom beach to catch crabs. I've spent many a summer days fishing with friends, competing for who catches the biggest or the most number of trouts that day... animal rights concerns didn't hamper any of these activities. But after every activity, and after having assisted in meal preps, I never once tasted the actual end product of my efforts. I've flirted closely and eaten the rice in mutton biryanis, gravies in kurmas, and even kissed my best friend's hunky brother at their dinner table with the taste of beef liver curry still on his lips... but, to my frustration, I am still a vegetarian.
But until it was specifically pointed out to me, I didn't realize that my vegetarianism was a caste based practice. I had to read up to realize that the anti-meat conditioning of my childhood was an aspect of Brahmanism - the association of meat with impurity, the moral superiority of vegetarianism, etc. Every casteist practice, including vegetarianism, was bucketed under tradition, culture, practice, preference, etc.
As I try to sift through this in my head, I realize this is a multi layered issue (as with most political issues in India). To start with, there is the moral superiority of caste vegetarians. Ask any of them, their definition of being vegetarian and you'll see the ambiguity in scope surface. Eggs, gelatin, rennet, mushrooms, and a whole host of other products occupy an ambiguous grey zone, with individuals picking and choosing what they want to include based on their personal preferences. I remember the time a white neighbor asked a visiting relative of mine if they were vegetarian. "Pure vegetarian" pat came the reply "no onions or garlic also". The baffled look on my neighbor's face was priceless. I was, in turn, surprised at how much I had to unpack to decode that one simple statement that is thrown around so easily in upper caste circles. The concept of "purity" for one. Because in an orthodox person's tongue, the term "pure vegetarian" doesn't apply only to the contents of the dish they are consuming. It is extended to the place of cooking, tools involved in cooking and most importantly, the people doing the cooking.
What I've come to realize is that the openly bigoted ones, flaunting their caste rules as the determinants of their food habits is an easier demographic to deal with. They are aware of the discrimination. Arguments in favor of humanity, empathy, etc will fall on deaf ears, because they are focused on the "greater good" of adhering to the vedas and the smritis and the interpretations of an endless list of godmen.
The more problematic caste vegetarian demographic is the new age one. The ones that claim to be caste blind and choose instead to mask their vegetarianism as one stemming from animal rights concerns. "No product of slaughter" is a phrase I've been hearing recently, in an attempt to account for the lavish consumption of dairy products. This animals right concern, hypocritically, doesn't extend to the silk sarees stacked in their shelves or the real leather designer handbags/boots in their closets. Nor does it extend, in many cases, to the inhumane conditions in the dairy industry.
Everything is not hunky dory even when we move into the meat eating section of the population. Caste based food dialogues are replaced by religion based ones. Unethical meat sourcing/production dialogues take the backseat while morality, faith based talks take up all the space. Anti-pork muslims, anti-beef hindus, each for their own reasons... but still controlling food choices based on faith. And when you go a step further, even the liberals fighting the beef bans are celebrating Nagaland's decision to ban dog meat, a part of naga food culture. We seem be drawing arbitrary lines to police the food habits of others!
Having grown up primarily amidst beef eating friends, I didn't realize for a long time that it was a stigmatized food. But over the past few years, beef related violence and lynchings have been hard to ignore. The religious and caste based discrimination of beef eating has become regular occurrence. This sudden preoccupation with cows and their enhanced sacred status is all around us. The rise of the deadly gau-rakshaks is downright scary.
To understand this phenomenon better, and to arm myself with ammunition when I bring up this topic with cow revering friends and family, I decided to pick up a book called Beef, Brahmins and Broken Men - a selection of Ambedkar's writings pertaining to beef, hinduism's history with it, its relationship with untouchability, etc. The book starts with a fiery introduction by Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd, giving present day context to Ambedkar's text. And as I read the introduction essay, I shared a few passages that stood out to me as stories on my instagram account. The backlash was instant and on a scale that I definitely wasn't expecting. I woke up to 50 odd messages in my inbox from family, friends, acquaintances, strangers accusing me of being insensitive to the emotions of pious Hindus on my list. Most messages were cordial, some weren't. I guess I touched quite a few raw nerves with those posts. The discussions that followed illuminated how the beef debate has polarized our country.
Wizened tambrahm aunties took the trouble to type out long messages about how in my youthful ignorance, I was questioning age old systems like the caste system that proven to be successful in societal governance. Angry brahmin feminists came touting benefits of vegetarianism, and how the world would be a better place if everyone embraced it. Sanghis proclaimed beef eating as a muslim agenda, designed to desecrate hinduism and disrespect our beliefs. One even went as far to suggest that muslims "easily recruited" dalits and tribals to further their beef agenda. "For a bag of rice, they'll convert and eat whatever you ask them to. You can't take their opinions seriously. Look at the educated people. How many of them eat beef?" he asked, not in the least bit bothered by his own bigotry.
While I did have supportive messages from a large number of people, it was messages like the one I posted above that stumped me.
I am baffled by blind faith. By the anti-secularist view that the preferences of the majority should be adapted by minorities as well. By the lack of empathy for those on the fringes of society, for whom beef eating is not really a choice. By a lack of understanding of the economic impact of pushing their cow-protection, or worse, vegetarian agenda on the masses.
Kancha Ilaiah, in his essay, says the following:
"If one of the theoretical premises of democracy is equality - and India's claim is it is the most populous democracy on earth - then equality must begin with food and the right to eat what one likes, wants and needs. What one eats cannot and must not be legislated about, unless it involves partaking of endangered species (a pastime of the very rich) or eating one's own species (an aberration). "
Ultimately, that's what it boils down to, right? It is about challenging those who question the right of others (often Dalits and Muslims, but not always) to eat beef or any food of their choice, for that matter. It is about challenging the false moral superiority of caste based vegetarianism. It is about challenging preconceived notions of dignity and equality. It is about challenging the push to universally adopt food culture of the dominant race/caste. It is about challenging false divisions of sacred versus profane when it comes to food.
It is, in the end, about democracy.
Eat, and let eat!
One thing is for certain. It is not divine retribution that I fear. I don't believe in divinity.
It isn't an overwhelming concern for the animals either. I remember watching with wide eyes fascination, the slaughter of a goat on bakrid at my friend's house, after my very first sleepover there. I also remember the excitement of sunday morning visits to the meat market with family friends when I spent weekends at their pace, the highlight being the process of selection of the right piece of mutton or beef for their sunday afternoon lunch. One of my favorite vacation memories is waking up before sunrise at a friend's place in nagercoil and driving to the Muttom beach to catch crabs. I've spent many a summer days fishing with friends, competing for who catches the biggest or the most number of trouts that day... animal rights concerns didn't hamper any of these activities. But after every activity, and after having assisted in meal preps, I never once tasted the actual end product of my efforts. I've flirted closely and eaten the rice in mutton biryanis, gravies in kurmas, and even kissed my best friend's hunky brother at their dinner table with the taste of beef liver curry still on his lips... but, to my frustration, I am still a vegetarian.
But until it was specifically pointed out to me, I didn't realize that my vegetarianism was a caste based practice. I had to read up to realize that the anti-meat conditioning of my childhood was an aspect of Brahmanism - the association of meat with impurity, the moral superiority of vegetarianism, etc. Every casteist practice, including vegetarianism, was bucketed under tradition, culture, practice, preference, etc.
As I try to sift through this in my head, I realize this is a multi layered issue (as with most political issues in India). To start with, there is the moral superiority of caste vegetarians. Ask any of them, their definition of being vegetarian and you'll see the ambiguity in scope surface. Eggs, gelatin, rennet, mushrooms, and a whole host of other products occupy an ambiguous grey zone, with individuals picking and choosing what they want to include based on their personal preferences. I remember the time a white neighbor asked a visiting relative of mine if they were vegetarian. "Pure vegetarian" pat came the reply "no onions or garlic also". The baffled look on my neighbor's face was priceless. I was, in turn, surprised at how much I had to unpack to decode that one simple statement that is thrown around so easily in upper caste circles. The concept of "purity" for one. Because in an orthodox person's tongue, the term "pure vegetarian" doesn't apply only to the contents of the dish they are consuming. It is extended to the place of cooking, tools involved in cooking and most importantly, the people doing the cooking.
What I've come to realize is that the openly bigoted ones, flaunting their caste rules as the determinants of their food habits is an easier demographic to deal with. They are aware of the discrimination. Arguments in favor of humanity, empathy, etc will fall on deaf ears, because they are focused on the "greater good" of adhering to the vedas and the smritis and the interpretations of an endless list of godmen.
The more problematic caste vegetarian demographic is the new age one. The ones that claim to be caste blind and choose instead to mask their vegetarianism as one stemming from animal rights concerns. "No product of slaughter" is a phrase I've been hearing recently, in an attempt to account for the lavish consumption of dairy products. This animals right concern, hypocritically, doesn't extend to the silk sarees stacked in their shelves or the real leather designer handbags/boots in their closets. Nor does it extend, in many cases, to the inhumane conditions in the dairy industry.
Everything is not hunky dory even when we move into the meat eating section of the population. Caste based food dialogues are replaced by religion based ones. Unethical meat sourcing/production dialogues take the backseat while morality, faith based talks take up all the space. Anti-pork muslims, anti-beef hindus, each for their own reasons... but still controlling food choices based on faith. And when you go a step further, even the liberals fighting the beef bans are celebrating Nagaland's decision to ban dog meat, a part of naga food culture. We seem be drawing arbitrary lines to police the food habits of others!
Having grown up primarily amidst beef eating friends, I didn't realize for a long time that it was a stigmatized food. But over the past few years, beef related violence and lynchings have been hard to ignore. The religious and caste based discrimination of beef eating has become regular occurrence. This sudden preoccupation with cows and their enhanced sacred status is all around us. The rise of the deadly gau-rakshaks is downright scary.
To understand this phenomenon better, and to arm myself with ammunition when I bring up this topic with cow revering friends and family, I decided to pick up a book called Beef, Brahmins and Broken Men - a selection of Ambedkar's writings pertaining to beef, hinduism's history with it, its relationship with untouchability, etc. The book starts with a fiery introduction by Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd, giving present day context to Ambedkar's text. And as I read the introduction essay, I shared a few passages that stood out to me as stories on my instagram account. The backlash was instant and on a scale that I definitely wasn't expecting. I woke up to 50 odd messages in my inbox from family, friends, acquaintances, strangers accusing me of being insensitive to the emotions of pious Hindus on my list. Most messages were cordial, some weren't. I guess I touched quite a few raw nerves with those posts. The discussions that followed illuminated how the beef debate has polarized our country.
Wizened tambrahm aunties took the trouble to type out long messages about how in my youthful ignorance, I was questioning age old systems like the caste system that proven to be successful in societal governance. Angry brahmin feminists came touting benefits of vegetarianism, and how the world would be a better place if everyone embraced it. Sanghis proclaimed beef eating as a muslim agenda, designed to desecrate hinduism and disrespect our beliefs. One even went as far to suggest that muslims "easily recruited" dalits and tribals to further their beef agenda. "For a bag of rice, they'll convert and eat whatever you ask them to. You can't take their opinions seriously. Look at the educated people. How many of them eat beef?" he asked, not in the least bit bothered by his own bigotry.
While I did have supportive messages from a large number of people, it was messages like the one I posted above that stumped me.
I am baffled by blind faith. By the anti-secularist view that the preferences of the majority should be adapted by minorities as well. By the lack of empathy for those on the fringes of society, for whom beef eating is not really a choice. By a lack of understanding of the economic impact of pushing their cow-protection, or worse, vegetarian agenda on the masses.
Kancha Ilaiah, in his essay, says the following:
"If one of the theoretical premises of democracy is equality - and India's claim is it is the most populous democracy on earth - then equality must begin with food and the right to eat what one likes, wants and needs. What one eats cannot and must not be legislated about, unless it involves partaking of endangered species (a pastime of the very rich) or eating one's own species (an aberration). "
Ultimately, that's what it boils down to, right? It is about challenging those who question the right of others (often Dalits and Muslims, but not always) to eat beef or any food of their choice, for that matter. It is about challenging the false moral superiority of caste based vegetarianism. It is about challenging preconceived notions of dignity and equality. It is about challenging the push to universally adopt food culture of the dominant race/caste. It is about challenging false divisions of sacred versus profane when it comes to food.
It is, in the end, about democracy.
Eat, and let eat!