Opinion IIT-Bombay’s call for food segregation is a let-down

Months after a canteen in IIT-Bombay exhibited posters declaring portions of the communal eating space off-bounds for non-vegetarian students, an email from the mess council has formalised its legitimacy: Six tables of a total of 80-100 will now only accommodate vegetarian diners. Of course, with the preponderance of savarnas among those who make it to these institutions, the vegetarian hegemony is not a new or unusual phenomenon across IITs. As early as 2014, the HRD ministry had sought proposals from the IITs and IIMs on having separate canteens for vegetarian and non-vegetarians students. In 2018, an IIT Madras canteen had designated different entrances wash basins and utensils for the two groups, which was later rescinded. Informal segregation has existed in other campuses of the premier institute.

The myth of India as a vegetarian nation has gained momentum since 2014, gathering heft with each vegetarian banquet that the central government hosts for visiting dignitaries and with the more vigilante enforcements that rear up ahead of festivals such as Navratri. But data tells a different story. The NFHS-5 showed that more people are eating non-vegetarian food than ever before. And yet, calls for food segregation at educational institutions persist, toeing imaginations of caste purity.

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In essence, academic institutions are meant to be level playing fields, a world that offers a first glimpse of who people can be when they are not circumscribed by families or communities. It allows them the liberty to be bewildered — at the diversities that exist in food and customs, rituals and sensibilities, clothes and ideas. A meal at a community table is a lesson in shearing off layers of prejudice. Lifetimes of friendship have been forged over wilful ignorance of what has gone into the delicious pulao in a friend’s tiffin or the momo on the canteen menu that one was told to give a wide berth to. Perhaps, the gatekeepers of IIT-Bombay would do well to remember the unexpected joys of true inclusivity.