Caste discrimination still occurs in our country through innocuous things like food, workers eating separately and ‘pure veg’ restaurants.
The email regarding the separation of plates at an IIT Bombay hostel is hardly surprising. For us, who directly bear the brunt of it in explicit and implicit ways, caste discrimination was very much a part of college life. Explicit discrimination in the form of casteist slurs or under the garb of it being ‘just an opinion’ on reservations was commonplace; that it also came from faculty members was sickening.
But, besides these explicit forms, caste discrimination perpetrates through seemingly ‘innocuous’ ways. One of them being food.
It is not coincidental that almost every college practices some form of separation of food. In my personal experience at IIT Bombay, hostels where the mess counter wasn’t big enough to have separate slabs for vegetarian and non-vegetarian food in the open, we had to go to a separate window behind the counter.
The housekeeping staff, the ones who cleaned our rooms, bathrooms and toilets, always dined separately, in a corner of the mess. Of course, they did it out of so-called ‘choice’, but the fact that no one spoke of this issue, at least during my time at the hostel, speaks about our dismal understanding of institutional discrimination and our complicity in it.
At Ashoka University, where I studied for a year, we had a separate floor upstairs for serving non-vegetarian food. Here also, casteism was implicit and we never saw the housekeeping staff dining with students. The one time we did indeed host the workers for a ‘Thank You’ lunch, we had a separate space sectioned for it. I won’t forget how one of the students, who was serving food, asked me why I was dining in that section.
These are issues that stem from a failure in understanding institutional discrimination. There is a need to acknowledge that our individual actions permeate through institutions, and sustain them.
Member of upper castes routinely fail to sensitise themselves about caste and its implication on cultures. They resort to making arguments which are premised on negating any claims of discrimination. These are usually the persons who are the most insulated from overt, and covert, forms of such discrimination. These are not people who have read enough about caste, nor have they listened to others narrating their lived experiences. But they have their ‘objective’ opinions nonetheless.
When these people become a part of any institution, they perpetuate their beliefs through institutional norms, either as those who establish the norms or the ones who follow it without question. The most insidious part of this process is where these institutional norms, which very much emanate from socially constructed personal beliefs, take a life of their own, absolving all its actors of any guilt or complicity.
The question of whether top institutions are promoting food casteism, besides casteism and discrimination in other ways, cannot be answered without putting students, faculty, non-academic staff—including mess workers and housekeepers—and the institutional mechanisms, all within the definition of the institution.
Institutions show this Brahminism even when we go to a restaurant in India, where the signs say ‘Pure Veg Restaurant’ or ‘Shuddh Veg’. Why does no vegetarian-meal serving restaurant abroad add the word ‘pure’? It’s crucial to locate the larger casteist framework behind a seemingly innocent move. Understand the patterns of these actions by universities, including verbal ones, within this definition.
This is probably the first step in accepting why it may be deemed discriminatory by persons who are affected by it, opening a dialogue with the concerned sections and changing the institutional norms accordingly, rather than premising the debate on denial of discrimination.
Parth Shrimali is an alumnus of IIT-Bombay and Ashoka University
This article is shit n not even worth for comment’s let him go n have his non veg meal.
if the author says any shit without proper research , it is freedom of speech. anybody else expresses a contrary opinion , it is racism, casteism, bigotry, narrow mindedness, etc etc,
Silly article written by one those ‘progressive liberals’ Consuming carrion -the decaying flesh of dead animals (meat that is not different at all from that of slaughtered animals) is an abomination; to eat the meat of dead creatures to augment one’s flesh and the feeling of repugnance being asked to sit with and watch a avid meat eater diving his/her knive and fork into a barely cooked piece of animal steak is perverse. Don’t talk caste nonsense it is a non starter. By the way I am not a vegetarian!
What a pathetic caste-racist this writer is. What does he think the rest of the world is doing moving towards vegetarian and vegan diets? Are they being influenced by “oppressive brahmism”?
Under any other guise except Hindu bashing, such obnoxious writing would be sanctioned for being racist and hateful. The writer has a big chip on his shoulder. He should get off his high horse stop “othering” some people and realise that such conceited and concocted divisiveness has no place in civil society.
How do Indians tolerate such nonsense? Imagine if a Brahmin were to write such stuff about the “other”?
Garbage. “Pure” vegetarian is used for a purpose. Since serving egg-based dishes may or may not be seen as vegetarian. Author hopelessly confuses commensality (Definition of commensality. plural -es. 1 a : the practice of eating together. b : a social group that eats together) and caste with veg, non-veg…and while you are at it why leave out the chic ‘vegan’?
Why does no vegetarian-meal serving restaurant abroad add the word ‘pure’?
Usually in countries apart from India, the practice of vegetarianism is not adopted because of religion or tradition in the family. It is more of a lifestyle choice made consciously as a mature adult. It is not a big deal if the bacon is being fried in the same pan as the gobi manchurian. But this is not acceptable for a significantly large group of people in India. And lastly, it is not just brahmins who are vegetarian and all brahmins are not vegetarian. This is truer now than ever. The word ‘pure’ just signifies that the restaurant does not cook any meat at all in its kitchen and trying to annotate an insidious cause to it is over reaching.
Am a vegan who prefers to eat at vegan restaurants abroad. Even in India I like to eat at ‘pure’ vegetarian restaurants because the word ‘pure’ indicates to me the restaurant does not serve eggs – which are part of many ‘vegetarian’ dies in India. Abroad I have eaten at restaurants where vegetarian dishes had fish and chicken and were cooked in beef fat. (I left leaving other baffled.) When the restaurant can assure that the same oil or spoons will not be used in vegetarian and chicken or egg dishes, it will calm me to a large extent but I know in India that it is not going to be the case.
By the way, I too studies at IIT, Bombay.
Ridiculous article
Non-veg food smells. Eating together is fine. But as a vegetarian I would absolutely demand that the dining and serving area be kept separate for vegetarians and non-vegetarians. I don’t want to see a person sitting across sucking the marrow out of a chicken/mutton bone and keeping it aside. Fish skeleton is also a no-no for me. Even thinking about it makes me nauseous.
Reason is Parth has never travelled out of India. If you would try to research before you write you will find Vaishnav Dhaba 🙂 in all the countries east and southeast of India.
Humans being the most analytical and cerebrally pro-active amongst all fauna on this planet should wholeheartedly embrace vegetarianism as the most ethical route to survival. The suffering that takes places 24×7 in abattoirs across the world is as immoral, and needs to be immediately addressed just as any other liberal cause which includes NOT granting gay their rights and equal pay to women.