The Fetish of Vegetarianism

Food habits in all societies is a matter of what is locally available and on what all foods we have evolved on. We Indians are able to celebrate vegetarianism simply due to availability of a wide variety of easily available edible plants. However, the reality is that majority of Indians do partake of non-vegetarian food, including beef, and the fetish for vegetarian diets is quite recent.  The fact of the matter remains that there is need for good quality animal protein in our diet for living a healthy life.

K T Achaya, one of India’s greatest food historians has mentioned the wide variety of meats eaten in India, such as, crocodile, turtles, and of course beef. Even some of our scriptures celebrate offering non-vegetarian food to honoured guests. Moreover, even Brahmins freely partook of non-veg food. The initial impetus towards vegetarian foods may have started under the influence of Buddhism and Jainism, but there has also been an important sociological force which is much more important. It has been technically named as “sanskritisation” of Indian society by the sociologist M N Srinivas. As different social groups try to jockey for greater power, prestige, and acceptance, they start emulating those social groups from whom they want to grab power. Towards this, the tendency in India has been, inter alia, to start practicing vegetarianism, wear the janeu, right to carry arms etc., essential markers of higher castes. 

Tibetans are invariably Buddhists, but meat remains an essential part of their diet. The Dalai Lama mentions in his autobiography that though Tibetans as Buddhists abjure violence there is no way they could survive in those climes without non-vegetarian food, as little edible plants grow in those regions. They solved the problem by having non-Buddhists as butchers in Tibet. The loop-hole is that while killing is a crime, purchasing meat is not.

Sikkim solved the same problem with a twist since there are few non-Buddhists in their area who could take up butchery as a profession - so who would slaughter the animals? Another simple solution was found. Contrive that some animals fall from the steep mountains and die – their flesh can then safely be eaten.

Both Thailand and Cambodia are also largely Buddhist. But I have found little trace of vegetarianism there. It is extremely difficult to get vegetarian food in both these countries, and even among the options available, egg is invariably included in vegetarian menus. I experienced similar conditions in course of my travels through Hongkong & Macau, with the honourable and superb exception of the Po Lin monastery in Hongkong. What superb pure Chinese vegetarian food!

Jared Diamond in his book, Guns, Germs, and Steel brings a different perspective to the question of food preferences. In his opinion, societies in which dog meat is found acceptable for consumption are those where other forms of animal protein are not easily available. He extrapolates the logic to peoples who practice cannibalism. According to him, human flesh is the most readily available animal protein in such societies. Humans evolved on animal protein and it is essential for their healthy survival.

For those looking for hard proof that we humans evolved on animal proteins, consider as to why has our appendix virtually shrivelled off? Herbivores, such as horses who eat a lot of plant material have extremely large and functional appendix. Or why do vegetarian suffer from deficiency in certain key vitamins and nutrients, such as, Vitamin B12 (cobalamin), preformed Vitamin A (retinol), Vitamin D3, and compounds like carnosine and taurine. Simply because they are found exclusively or primarily in animal products (meat, fish, liver, eggs, dairy). These nutrients are crucial for nerve function, vision, immune health, and energy production, and are not naturally found in plants.

Our so called “pure” vegetarians quite satisfactorily resolved this dilemma by classifying milk and milk products as “vegetarian” foods. Now by what stretch of imagination is milk (irrespective of its source – cow, buffalo, donkey, or goat) vegetarian? Find me one, just one, die-hard Hindutva bhakt who is willing to concede that milk and its byproducts (ghee, curd, chas, khova, paneer) etc are non-vegetarian foods. You will be doing me a mighty favour.

Consumption of milk and milk products is sanctified essentially since they provide the critical nutrients and vitamins which is required for a healthy life. Last but not the least. Ghee is an animal fat which is virtually identical physically and chemically to animal lard.  Is it anyway surprising that lard is regularly and widely used to adulterate ghee, especially considering it is much cheaper.

In all the confusion about the supposed superiority in the practice of vegetarianism it is refreshing to find a few sane and logical voices. For example, Swami Vivekanand. Not only was he partial to meat and fish, he did not proscribe a non-vegetarian diet for his disciples, including sanyasis.

This is not supposed to be a polemic justifying eating of non-vegetarian food but an earnest request not to make vegetarianism into a fetish. After all mankind is the only species which kills for pleasure.