New Book Examines How Food Biases and Casteism Shape Health and Diet in India

A new book examines how deeply rooted food biases in India go far beyond simple diet choices and actively endanger health. Sylvia Karpagam's book, The Meat of the Matter published by HarperCollins India, points out that entrenched vegetarianism physically and socially distances itself from meat and meat-eaters. This social distance translates into discrimination, neglect, humiliation, and untouchability. Separate plates, counters, kitchens, sinks, and cutlery show that untouchability remains active in India. This avoidance starts as a refusal to sit beside a meat-eater and transforms into denying them entry into classrooms and educational institutions. The belief that vegetarians are superior sustains casteism in all its forms. These behaviors carry heavy consequences and help erase nutritious and diverse food traditions. Karpagam notes that 29 percent of women and 17 percent of men in India are vegetarians, but self-identification remains unreliable because meat-eaters often call themselves vegetarian due to social pressure. Aggressive promotion of vegetarianism makes nutritious foods harder to access, placing animal-source foods other than dairy at risk of erasure. Advertisements from international brands often cater only to vegetarian preferences, pushing meat-eaters to feel like outliers. Historically, food has long been tied to social control and caste status. When Buchanan-Hamilton was deputed by the East India Company in 1807 to report on food practices, he documented the large differences in diet between castes. In the 1840s, attempts to introduce a common mess for prisoners in British jails sparked riots and protests because food preparation and consumption in India are tied to caste status. Today, government policies and data manipulation further hide nutritional realities. The text warns that attempts to remove anaemia estimation from the NFHS-6 and lower haemoglobin and height cutoffs are dangerous. Boyd Orr, a former director of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, stated that improving diets for poorer communities requires increased consumption of expensive foods like milk, eggs, butter, fruit, vegetables, and meat, which raises economic and political problems. Shatrugna also warned that focusing only on cheap calories leads to diets heavy in cereals, pulses, and sugar, fueling the malnutrition crisis in India.