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Barely had the brouhaha around Sudha Murty’s seemingly innocuous comment about her ‘pure veg’ diet preferences died down, than another erupted. This time around it is about a ‘Vegeterians (sic) Only’ notice in a Bombay IIT canteen.
As a lifelong meat-eater, I have always been conscious that food choices have a certain subtext in our society. I always felt that I had to tiptoe around the sensibilities of those who did not eat meat and eggs. The realisation that food choices are connected to notions of purity, exclusionary practices, and inevitably to caste has been slower to dawn on me.
Tempests in teacups?
Sudha Murty is a hugely wealthy, famous Indian; now as the mother-in-law of the British PM, even more so. She is also someone who takes every possible chance to tell the world about her ‘simplicity’ and ‘rootedness’, but never mind that. Since all her utterances are faithfully reported, scrutinised and dissected, this one was as well. She said she is ‘pure veg’ and that she carried her food and even cutlery while travelling abroad to prevent contamination. Everyone felt the need to either defend or critique this.
More recently, the image of a notice saying “VEGETERIAN ONLY ARE ALLOWED TO SIT HERE” went viral on social media. According to media reports, this is a notice put up in a hostel canteen at IIT Bombay. Students alleged that the seating arrangements were causing an atmosphere of exclusion and discrimination. An RTI revealed that the college doesn’t have any official food segregation policy, but it seems that some are attempting to enforce a form of segregated seating anyway.
It’s never just about the food
My privilege and my upbringing as a Parsi had insulated me from the politics and dynamics of caste in India and kept me in relative ignorance for much of my life. Even when I would argue in favour of reservation policies when in school and college, I was still largely clueless about the magnitude of the historic oppression and injustice perpetrated in the name of caste. It is only now that I am learning about the varied ways in which caste worked to oppress, exclude, marginalise and impoverish vast sections of our society and still does.
The recent Dalit assertion on social media and elsewhere have been educative for me. I have learnt that food choices are very central to notions of caste ‘purity’ and endogamy in our society. Meat is seen as impure in many communities and is excluded from festivals, weddings and religious observances. By extension, many also view meat eaters with a certain disdain or distaste.
The purported reason for some forms of exclusion are based on the food choices. However, it is never just the food. The exclusions based purportedly on hygiene are never just about hygiene. The domestic worker required to leave her shoes outside the door is never just about possibly tracking dirt into the home. The separate utensils for ‘some’ people is never just about what they eat.
When she either sits on the ground or prefers to stand, this is because she knows that this is what is expected; that she risks a rebuke if she dares takes a seat alongside her employer. If some people (and women on some days) are barred from the Pooja room, this is because of notions of ‘purity’.
Parsis continuing to bar the entry of non-Parsis into fire temples/participation in rituals isn’t really about some vow that may or may not have been given to the Rana of Sanjan many centuries ago either.
Why Sudha Murty matters less than IIT
Sudha Murty is free to make her food choices of course; no question. She is also free to carry her spoon all over the world if she so wishes. I can also give her the benefit of the doubt that her use of the word ‘pure’ was inadvertent and she had no idea about the caste connotations of the usage. Her utterances didn’t deserve the attention or the recrimination they received. I am willing to bet that a cantankerous old crone in one of the Parsi baugs in Mumbai may have similar preferences (albeit for a reasons of sheer bloody-mindedness rather than lifelong vegetarianism).
However, the IIT notice is troubling. It seems to indicate that young people just starting out in life have strongly-held notions of purity and contamination. It means that some of our best young minds are oblivious to the issues surrounding segregation and consequently discrimination. It means that these students prize notions of purity above fellowship and camaraderie that college ought to mean. It means that the need for exclusivity trumps inclusivity in this instance.
Increasingly, food elitism is about what you can afford not to eat. In the West, vegans assume a vast moral superiority over their base meat-eating fellow humans. In India, vegetarians continue to assume the same moral superiority and exclusivity they have for ages.
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint.