The myth of the Indian vegetarian nation

A thing to note is that &quot;non-vegetarian&quot; for Indians and say, the US is very different. Being non-vegetarian in the US means eating meat every day, pretty much every meal. In India, there are a lot of people that only occasionally eat meat, say about once a week, or a few meals a week. There are a ton of vegetarian only eating places which are very very popular with the so called non-vegetarians.<p>Another difference is that meat based meals in restaurants are more expensive than their vegetarian counterparts(like it should be), not subsidized like in the US(through the form of animal meal subsidies like corn).<p>It would be nice to see per capita consumption of meat products among non-vegetarians of different countries.

The article does not include any context or reference at which level it would include a region to be &quot;vegetarian&quot; and not a &quot;myth&quot; and is quite ... optimistic... in its conclusions.<p>For instance, it lists the percentage of vegetarians as<p>- Indore: 49% - Meerut: 36% - Delhi: 30%<p>To me this would indicate that the &quot;myth&quot; is true. Similarly, they report that about 15% of people eat beef instead of the official estimate of about 7%. While the factor is interesting, this is still very far from high and does not support their summary that &quot;the extent of beef eating is much higher than claims and stereotypes suggest&quot;.

Narendra Modi&#x27;s ruling Hindu nationalist BJP promotes vegetarianism and believes that the cow should be protected, because the country&#x27;s majority Hindu population considers them holy. More than a dozen states have already banned the slaughter of cattle. And during Mr Modi&#x27;s rule, vigilante cow protection groups, operating with impunity, have killed people transporting cattle.<p>- This is a bit of a weird article, almost like its a point proving&#x2F;scoring to prove India isn&#x27;t vegetarian which a lot of people know that there are meat eaters in India. Forget politics, for anyone who is half educated about climate change, stopping cow slaughter for meat is one of the best ways to reduce our footprint, both in methane output as well as reducing the insane amount of crops used to fatten cattle.

Wait... I never thought that India was considered vegetarian? I know vegetarianism is more popular in India than in other countries, but I&#x27;ve always just assumed that it&#x27;s easier to get a vegetarian meal at an Indian restaurant.<p>The beef thing, though, came as a surprise. (I always thought beef was so taboo that no one would ever touch it.) I felt so weird the time I ate a steak at a steakhouse in India.

This reminds me of how I always associated South Indian food with vegetarian food growing up in Delhi, where the majority of South Indian restaurants are run by Brahmins. (As I now know) fish and meat are essential to southern cuisines, but my less adventurous or less informed friends still persist in that misconception to some extent.

I&#x27;m actually a bit surprised the number is estimated as high as 20%. I&#x27;d have expected much lower. The stereotype exists because a majority of the people who have emigrated West in the past have come from historically &quot;upper castes&quot; which have a much higher proportion of vegetarians.

Isn&#x27;t India more vegetarian than any other country in the world?

Reminds me of the last time I saw pork sausages in Islamabad

I&#x27;m surprised that this rather uncontroversial article got flagged. Anyone have any theories as to why?