Edicts from the Meatless

There are certain low-hanging fruits in Indian politics and banning alcohol has long been one. Increasingly, for any festival, especially of Hindus, you also see reports of the sale and distribution of meat being banned.

But something else has been now added to the mix. Several municipal corporations are enforcing this ban for Independence Day. The civic body of Kalyan-Dombivali, a satellite town of Mumbai, got into the news for it and voices of protests amplified the issue. Others got inter­ested. Hyderabad and Nagpur are among places where this ban is happening. One might not agree but can understand why alcohol sales are banned on August 15. When large groups get drunk, it might create widespread law and order problems. The scenario is a long shot in today’s times but at least there is a rationale. Nothing like that applies to meat. A majority of Indians are non-vegetarians but they don’t consume it daily. Holidays are when they cook their chicken or mutton. Some politi­cians and bureaucrats, presumably vegetarians, have managed to find this an affront to India’s freedom struggle.

The nub of the issue is that vegetarians believe they are at a higher moral and religious pedestal, and therefore the relentless pursuit to make others not sully their environment’s purity. Housing society managements in Indian cities are known to refuse own­ers to rent out their houses to non-vegetarians because of the smell of meat cooking. Those buildings could be right next to a garbage dump or sewage, but those smells will be tolerated because they are not considered impure.

Unfortunately, for non-vegetarians, despite their numbers, vegetarians are both at a higher class and caste, which means they have greater access to the levers of power and policy.

Non-vegetarians are inured to such discrimination but occasionally when something ridiculous like the Independence Day ban comes about, even their toler­ance is tested. Which is why in Maharashtra you have the odd sight of the Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and the Opposition’s Aaditya Thackeray both agreeing that such a ban makes no sense.

banIndependence DayIndian societylegal issuesmeatnon-vegetarianspolitics