By Soutik Biswas, India correspondent
What are the most common myths and stereotypes about what Indians eat?
The biggest myth, of course, is that India is a largely vegetarian country.
But that’s not the case at all. Past “non-serious” estimates have suggested that more than a third of Indians ate vegetarian food.
If you go by three large-scale government surveys, 23%-37% of Indians are estimated to be vegetarian. By itself this is nothing remarkably revelatory.
But new research by US-based anthropologist Balmurli Natrajan and India-based economist Suraj Jacob, points to a heap of evidence that even these are inflated estimations because of “cultural and political pressures”. So people under-report eating meat – particularly beef – and over-report eating vegetarian food.
Taking all this into account, say the researchers, only about 20% of Indians are actually vegetarian – much lower than common claims and stereotypes suggest.
Hindus, who make up 80% of the Indian population, are major meat-eaters. Even only a third of the privileged, upper-caste Indians are vegetarian.
The government data shows that vegetarian households have higher income and consumption – are more affluent than meat-eating households. The lower castes, Dalits (formerly known as untouchables) and tribes-people are mainly meat eaters.
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The best hamburger I have ever eaten was in New Delhi, India. Have no idea if it was hamburger but it was damned good.
most likely made by an Indian Muslim, who knows what spices to use.
I personally know lots of Hindus here, even Brahmins, who are non-veg and eat more meat, including beef, in any given week than the non-Hindus in the population.
The interesting thing is that they love their meat!