Vegetarians developing a taste for meat
The fast-growing Indian middle class now consists of around 300 million
people, who model their new consumer lifestyle on the West. As a result,
vegetarianism is falling out of favor.
It sounds counterintuitive: India, the land of vegetarians, is
registering a rapid rise in meat consumption. Statistics show that 40
percent of Indians don’t eat meat – more than in any other country in
the world.
Nonetheless, over the past ten years the amount of meat eaten in India
has more than doubled. In 2009 it reached around 5.5 kilograms (12
pounds) per head, according to the World Food Program. That’s still very
little in comparison with Germany, where 61 kilograms of beef, pork and
poultry are consumed per person per year.
Meat as a status symbol
Fast-food chains with big neon signs are springing up all over the place
in every city in India. Young people find them particularly enticing,
and at the weekends the restaurants are full to bursting. In the big
metropolises like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai or Kolkata they’re very popular
with families, who like to gather over burgers, fries and Coke at
McDonalds, or with a box of deep-fried breaded chicken nuggets at
Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Dr. Sanjay Sanadhya, a diabetes expert from New Delhi, views the trend
with skepticism. “People in India are just imitating the Western
lifestyle,” he says. “Overall, we’re seeing them become distanced from
their own cultural traditions. Added to that, you have factors like
globalization and growing mobility, with people traveling more and more
often to the West.”
Wanting to conform
Many in the Indian middle class, and especially the younger generation,
equate meat-eating with a cosmopolitan attitude and a certain level of
education. It’s also seen as a sign of affluence, as meat dishes are
more expensive than vegetarian food.
Jaspreet Singh, a young student, has always eaten meat and fish. “I make
sure that I eat enough protein. I eat chicken, lamb and fish. My body
and my figure are very important to me,” he says, added that his
generation wants to try everything. “If you limit your interests, you’re
limiting your life. Even if I don’t like everything, or don’t like the
taste, I still want to try everything, especially where food and drink
are concerned.”
Jaspreet’s fellow student Neha Chauhan thinks of it as a need to
conform. She herself is a vegetarian, but her sister and father eat
meat. “My sister travels a lot,” she explains. “She has to conform. I
haven’t had to do that yet, so I can make my own decisions. But if I had
to live in a different social environment, maybe I’d conform as well and
start eating meat.”
Religious taboo
For a very long time, many people in Indian respected the religious
taboos on eating meat. Centuries-old Hindu texts extol the virtues of
forgoing meat. Devout Hindus believe that the cow is a holy animal, and
it’s forbidden to slaughter cows in India. Around 80 percent of the
Indian population is Hindu, and it used to be the case that meat-eaters
were regarded as uncivilized barbarians.
Mahatma Gandhi, the political and spiritual father of Indian
independence, was also a strict vegetarian. For him, the renunciation of
all forms of violence – the cornerstone of his teachings – began at the
table, with the food we choose to eat.
Kirti Sharma, a young woman from New Delhi in her early twenties, feels
the same way. But she admits that fewer and fewer people of her
generation do. “I believe it’s much better to be a vegetarian,” she
says. “Because slaughtering animals, killing other living creatures,
can’t be good.” Sharma says that according to the Hindu caste system she
is a Brahmin, and that Brahmins are not allowed to eat meat. She says
her parents make sure she doesn’t eat any animal products at all.
“Sometimes it’s difficult if I’m invited to parties, because a lot of
cakes contain eggs, and then I do kind of have to eat it,” she says.
Other religious groups in India, such as the Jains, are not only strict
vegetarians, they also don’t eat vegetables that grow under the earth,
such as potatoes, onions, or carrots, because living creatures might be
killed when they are pulled out of the ground. Orthodox Jains often wear
a thin mouth guard to prevent them from swallowing an insect by mistake.
Muslims, who make up around 13 percent of the Indian population, are
only forbidden to eat pork.
Big fast-food chains like McDonald’s have adapted to the Indian market.
The American company, which has been present in India since 1996,
doesn’t serve beef burgers there. Instead, it offers the so-called
“Chicken Maharajah Burger,” which, according to the adverts, will make
anyone eating it feel like a maharajah. Clever marketing using Bollywood
and cricket stars is presumably one of the reasons why more and more
people all over India are eating meat and fast-food.
New problems
But the growing consumption of meat brings with it new problems. No
direct link has been established between disease and the numbers of
Indians now eating poultry, but the general shift towards a more
unhealthy lifestyle, particularly among the urban population, is
believed to be increasing the risks.
Dr Sanjay Sanadhya, the diabetes expert, warns that the increase in the
amount of sugar and fat people are eating, along with the fact that they
are taking less and less exercise, means health problems are inevitable.
“We’re seeing more and more of the so-called ‘lifestyle diseases’: heart
and circulation problems, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes,
strokes. Over the last three decades the numbers have shot up. And I can
predict that the situation will continue to get worse.” The people of
India’s growing middle class, whose well-paid jobs mean they can afford
to employ maids and drivers, are the most affected.
people, who model their new consumer lifestyle on the West. As a result,
vegetarianism is falling out of favor.
It sounds counterintuitive: India, the land of vegetarians, is
registering a rapid rise in meat consumption. Statistics show that 40
percent of Indians don’t eat meat – more than in any other country in
the world.
Nonetheless, over the past ten years the amount of meat eaten in India
has more than doubled. In 2009 it reached around 5.5 kilograms (12
pounds) per head, according to the World Food Program. That’s still very
little in comparison with Germany, where 61 kilograms of beef, pork and
poultry are consumed per person per year.
Meat as a status symbol
Fast-food chains with big neon signs are springing up all over the place
in every city in India. Young people find them particularly enticing,
and at the weekends the restaurants are full to bursting. In the big
metropolises like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai or Kolkata they’re very popular
with families, who like to gather over burgers, fries and Coke at
McDonalds, or with a box of deep-fried breaded chicken nuggets at
Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Dr. Sanjay Sanadhya, a diabetes expert from New Delhi, views the trend
with skepticism. “People in India are just imitating the Western
lifestyle,” he says. “Overall, we’re seeing them become distanced from
their own cultural traditions. Added to that, you have factors like
globalization and growing mobility, with people traveling more and more
often to the West.”
Wanting to conform
Many in the Indian middle class, and especially the younger generation,
equate meat-eating with a cosmopolitan attitude and a certain level of
education. It’s also seen as a sign of affluence, as meat dishes are
more expensive than vegetarian food.
Jaspreet Singh, a young student, has always eaten meat and fish. “I make
sure that I eat enough protein. I eat chicken, lamb and fish. My body
and my figure are very important to me,” he says, added that his
generation wants to try everything. “If you limit your interests, you’re
limiting your life. Even if I don’t like everything, or don’t like the
taste, I still want to try everything, especially where food and drink
are concerned.”
Jaspreet’s fellow student Neha Chauhan thinks of it as a need to
conform. She herself is a vegetarian, but her sister and father eat
meat. “My sister travels a lot,” she explains. “She has to conform. I
haven’t had to do that yet, so I can make my own decisions. But if I had
to live in a different social environment, maybe I’d conform as well and
start eating meat.”
Religious taboo
For a very long time, many people in Indian respected the religious
taboos on eating meat. Centuries-old Hindu texts extol the virtues of
forgoing meat. Devout Hindus believe that the cow is a holy animal, and
it’s forbidden to slaughter cows in India. Around 80 percent of the
Indian population is Hindu, and it used to be the case that meat-eaters
were regarded as uncivilized barbarians.
Mahatma Gandhi, the political and spiritual father of Indian
independence, was also a strict vegetarian. For him, the renunciation of
all forms of violence – the cornerstone of his teachings – began at the
table, with the food we choose to eat.
Kirti Sharma, a young woman from New Delhi in her early twenties, feels
the same way. But she admits that fewer and fewer people of her
generation do. “I believe it’s much better to be a vegetarian,” she
says. “Because slaughtering animals, killing other living creatures,
can’t be good.” Sharma says that according to the Hindu caste system she
is a Brahmin, and that Brahmins are not allowed to eat meat. She says
her parents make sure she doesn’t eat any animal products at all.
“Sometimes it’s difficult if I’m invited to parties, because a lot of
cakes contain eggs, and then I do kind of have to eat it,” she says.
Other religious groups in India, such as the Jains, are not only strict
vegetarians, they also don’t eat vegetables that grow under the earth,
such as potatoes, onions, or carrots, because living creatures might be
killed when they are pulled out of the ground. Orthodox Jains often wear
a thin mouth guard to prevent them from swallowing an insect by mistake.
Muslims, who make up around 13 percent of the Indian population, are
only forbidden to eat pork.
Big fast-food chains like McDonald’s have adapted to the Indian market.
The American company, which has been present in India since 1996,
doesn’t serve beef burgers there. Instead, it offers the so-called
“Chicken Maharajah Burger,” which, according to the adverts, will make
anyone eating it feel like a maharajah. Clever marketing using Bollywood
and cricket stars is presumably one of the reasons why more and more
people all over India are eating meat and fast-food.
New problems
But the growing consumption of meat brings with it new problems. No
direct link has been established between disease and the numbers of
Indians now eating poultry, but the general shift towards a more
unhealthy lifestyle, particularly among the urban population, is
believed to be increasing the risks.
Dr Sanjay Sanadhya, the diabetes expert, warns that the increase in the
amount of sugar and fat people are eating, along with the fact that they
are taking less and less exercise, means health problems are inevitable.
“We’re seeing more and more of the so-called ‘lifestyle diseases’: heart
and circulation problems, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes,
strokes. Over the last three decades the numbers have shot up. And I can
predict that the situation will continue to get worse.” The people of
India’s growing middle class, whose well-paid jobs mean they can afford
to employ maids and drivers, are the most affected.