Opinion IIT-B’s ‘vegetarian tables’ policy: Vegetarianism of purity promotes segregation, hierarchy and even violence

However, this mild erosion of hierarchical values and caste ethics in food consumption is not a linear process. Militant vegetarians seek to continually sustain the traditional ethics and aesthetics of segregation and hierarchy in food consumption. They occasionally appropriate the argument of compassion for animals and the environmental impact of mass meat production for political gains — turning the pure-vegetarian nationalist project into an environmental one.

Not surprisingly, the Director of IIT Mandi recently remarked that the cloud bursts and landslides in Himachal Pradesh were linked to meat eating. While he was criticised for his comments, IIT Mandi does not practice or encourage segregated dining in hostels. Vegetarians and meatarians dine together here, a sign of a new post-caste sociality where caste sentiments of touch, purity and pollution are not turned into public sentiment.

Two recent incidents in Mumbai underline the vegetarian and meatarian divide. One case is that of Trupti Devrukhkar who was denied office space in a Gujarati society. In a video of the incident, a society member can be heard saying that Maharashtrians are not allowed there. This incident has been linked to the vegetarian vs meatarian divide in Mumbai’s real estate, with allegations that “pure vegetarian” Gujaratis look down upon those who eat meat, including Maharashtrians. Another incident was in IIT Bombay, where a meatarian student was fined for consuming meat at a table earmarked for vegetarians and thereby violating a student council rule. He has been accused of intentionally causing disharmony through his act of protest.

Rules of segregation based on food preferences cannot be formally institutionalised in public spaces or even in housing societies. There can only be informal social pressures and regulations. A productive comparison can be made between the prescriptions and proscriptions around the consumption of meat in India and menstrual cycles — there are surprising similarities. In “vegetarian” localities, meat is usually packed in black polythene bags, similar to how sanitary pads are hidden by pharmacists. Both meat and sanitary pads are associated with shame and guilt. While women may be seen as being temporarily “impure”, meatarians embody permanent impurities, with beef eaters being deemed outcastes.

Mixed eating public spaces are mostly sensitive to the religious sentiments of Muslims and Savarna Hindus as neither beef nor pork is served in such spaces. Despite some progress, nothing divides us like food. While militant vegetarians feel disgust and anger at the very sight of meat, there is also hidden anxiety among many vegetarian parents that their children are attracted to meat-foods, which leads to aggressive demands for the abolition of meat from all possible spaces.

Such militant vegetarianism is a social illness that seeks continual segregation and hierarchy and even leads to violence. The violence is not only against the other but also against oneself. Unlike veganism, which may emerge from compassion, the foundations of militant vegetarianism lie in varnashrama dharma and graded inequality. The hegemony of vegetarianism over the last century has institutionalised disgust against beef eaters, particularly against “outcastes”, Christians and Muslims. Parvis Ghassem-Fachandi’s study of anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat points to the role of vegetarianism, sacrifice, and bovine nationalism in such violence.

Academic spaces too are increasingly turning into conservative sites for performing the politics of militant vegetarianism and cow nationalism. These seemingly cosmopolitan bubbles should instead invest in scientific temper and higher learning that celebrates diversity, not hierarchy. Experiencing and practising equality in public life is essential for cultivating civic virtues among younger generations and mixed dining is a minimal sign of such higher living beyond caste.

The writer is professor of sociology, IIT-B