You are right on the last point (unfortunately)… We tend to look at too much of economics of things…
Earlier praises were welcome, but critisicms were not. I think people change with time, hopefully for good 
Well, I will have to agree with all your points except - Most are only vegitarians because meat is expensive!
Seriously? I am a vegan, but completely because I was bought up that way (thanks to my caste) and I cant change. I cant even eat egg So I am forced to pick and choose places to eat as I cant eat Pork, Meat, Egg or Fish :)) Its not easy trying to stick to this diet when you travel you know!
May be you have a point… So I tend to cook food (of course not in US where I lived for a few months, I could happily find many vegan food on the street and at restaurants) whenever possible! Not sure it was due to the economics involved there; ok let me not generalize its not due to “monetary” part for me atleast…
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the meat is expensive part was bullshit.ignore him
there are 150 million + muslims here and they all eat meat.
Bullshit? Do you think India could sustain 1 billion “non-veg” people currently? Nope. The economics of eating veg must play a role in this enormous population growth. Yes it’s cultural but you also have to ask yourself what created that culture? It’s a theory at least.
While urban Indians with CFA charters can afford to eat meat, I don’t see it happening very often in the rural populations. Meat is too expensive. They can barely afford animals for dairy purposes.
Urban Indians, except for those who have strict religious convictions like Jains, tend to eat lots of eggs, dairy, chicken and even bison. Eating meat is generally in most cultures a sign that you’ve got money or that your civilization has gained wealth. Just like all the other crazy crap farmers do when they score a windfall of money, eating non-veg is one of these things. They might not brag to Mom and Dad about it though.
Indians carry their own food wherever they go because they are the most fussy eaters on the planet, along with the Halal and Kosher lunatics
I dont think its a question of affordability. In the south part of India, its mostly the so called lesser privileged who eat meat. I am from a caste who is “supposed to be elite” - then why is that this caste was historically eating vegetarian food. In India the caste was based on the work you do. So those who worked in temples as priests never ate Non Veg. Its got nothing to do with economics IMHO.
Meat from supermarkets might be expensive.
every place in india will have a muslim area where they catch,skin,cook the animal on their own.it’s not expensive.
definately more religious.
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Agreed, fussy because of dietary restrictions than due to the monetary calculations involved.
No idea, about the caste element, but yes I know many jain brahmans who have to keep rediculous diets when they go to visit their relatives. So that sounds right. And of course the poor will eat whatever they can. So that makes sense too.
But think about what I’m saying here for a minute. What caused your culture to develop this strict veg belief in the first place? Was the culture there before the economics? I dont think so.
I’ve established earlier the stereotype that Indians are highly economical and parsimonious. It would therefore make sense that over time a a relgious conviction that eating meat, which violates those two qualities, would emerge.
If you eat the cow, you are depriving everyone the milk and the long term benefit of the cow. It would make sense that eating the cow over time would become taboo and the cow sacred for this reason. Or maybe cows really are just innately sacred? I’m dubious of this. As plenty of other cultures don’t think so.
I read somewhere that the likely reason that pork is taboo in Islam and Judaism is that pork smells a lot like human flesh when cooked. Firefighters usually won’t eat bacon for this reason. Also pigs, when you kill them, sound pretty damn human when they squeel. Pigs even have sweat glands like humans and are apparently closely related to us genetically. Somewhere along the line people got creaped out by this and decided it was bad.
Or are pigs just innately taboo? I’m dubious of this, as plenty of other cultures don’t think so.
I understand where you are coming from…
As you would know each religion has many castes… Its only certain castes were these are taboo, its not taboo for an entire religion. Unlike say in Islam.
And castes as we all know were created out of the occupation of the people. Hence my theory that it was all not done based on economics… Well we both could be wrong here, I accept…
I thought this list was hilarious.
Er…this is mostly because we don’t like paying for food (rule 1). Just today my brother is leaving to move out, and my mother cooked him a whole bunch of food to eat on the flight. This is in US,. When it comes to dietary restrictions, a lot o f people have a constant fear of touching meat.
Also, you had a good point about being cheap - Indians compare themselves to other Indians. Ironically, we think all other Indians are cheap.
Awful.
CT you have to make a distinction between actual vegetarians and those who are “vegetarian” bc they cannot afford meat. Historically actually, vegetarianism is a consequence of wealth, not poverty. Rich gujaratis, etc, as you well know, would never eat meat. In many communities, as you also likely know, there is just a huge stigma over meat (I’m guessing it has something to do with Muslims ).
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Er…this is mostly because we don’t like paying for food (rule 1)
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You havent visited the country and watched the crowd in the restaurants then. I dont think it has got anything to do with paying for food, its a lot about the fear of touching meat!
Cool. We can only speculate about the past and how it got to be there.
But also if you look at the situation nowadays the economics of Indians eating veg, it is cultural, but it is also about money.
I think a McChicken sandwhich costs about 100 rupees (l2 dollars) at mcdonalds. That’s a lot of money for a small sandwhich. The Mcveg costs roughly half as much. That price diference is substantial is about a dollar in difference and for Indians making 100 dollars a month it is collosal.
Mcdonalds is for wealthy Indians. The Indian Burger, “Wadda Padda” I think usually costs me about 15 rupees (.25 cents US) and this is something much more realistic for the average Indian’s price range. It’s just not realistic to eat non-veg if you’re on a typical Indian salary <100 US dollars per month
And Palintir is right. Indians don’t wanna spend big money on eating out. The same logical extension on that is not wanting to spend money on expensive ass non-veg.
Amongst the wealthy Indians, we now have steak houses and sushi resaurants which cost London prices. Nobody eating Veg there except for the grandmas.
There are economic reasons to favor vegetarian, there is no doubt about that, but that is different from the Indians who are traditionally “veg”…even Indians who eat “nonveg” tend to not eat much meat, and I think you are thinking them to be vegetarian. Among many, meat has a stigma. Even my family, who have started eating meat, tend to feel “guilty” about it…
Yep I’m aware and not disagreeing with what you are saying, there are cultural taboos. Where those came from, we can only speculate. I’m speculating that it was economics that led people to say its bad to kill the cow when you can get milk from it for years. That cow became sacred for that reason and not for any other. Someone, somewhere along Indian civilisation got sick of rich people eating cows when you could milk them more efficiently and decided to make it a taboo. The desire for large families necessitated non veg taboos in India. Or you can believe that God told you so. I get that the rich high caste people have stricter diets etc. well of course they were the ones making up the rules and the ones who needed to be convinced not to eat meat. They are the only ones important enough to worry about this stuff. I give my leftovers to street kids and they never refuse non veg because they are street kids and fucking starving, The other point that I’m making is that, in addition to these taboos, eating non veg for your average indian is the difference between an American buying a Cheeseburger vs a filet mignon for lunch. It’s just not affordable everyday, unless you’re really rich. I don’t think I could ever hope to feed a family of non veg people on 100 dollars a month. Impossible. so while there is a cultural stigma undeniably so, I wouldn’t be surprised if it were rooted and is still affected by the economy of eating veg.