Eggs off menu at schools in Hindu row

[Cpt. Rishwat]

A teenage girl has become the public face of the latest battle against Hindu nationalists in India over the serving of eggs in schools, which they say is a “deviation” from a strict vegetarian diet.

In a popular video posted on social media, Anjali, 14, lashes out at religious leaders for seeking to ban eggs, which were introduced recently in government schools — with overwhelming support from parents — in an attempt to help tackle a 35 per cent malnutrition rate among impoverished Indian children.

The girl, from Gangavati in the southern state of Karnataka, is heard saying: “You don’t know the poor’s plight. We need eggs . . . It’s a question of survival.”

Recently the authorities in Modi’s home state of Gujarat sought to stop eggs from being sold in the street


The video was posted as influential Hindu maharishis or seers prepared to go on strike next week, saying they would “accept no deviation” from a vegetarian diet in state schools. The regional government, also led by the Hindu nationalists, said that it was looking for other “protein-rich foods” to replace eggs.

Anjali said that if the government removed eggs from school meals she and her classmates would “race to the monasteries and eat eggs there”. She added: “We aren’t scared. I’m not alone. Your monasteries won’t survive if we bring all the district’s girls. You won’t even have space to sit, we’re so many children.”

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...ationalists-in-row-over-school-eggs-p00jngjmv

I can understand eggs being off the menu from a Hindu point of view.

 

[mustang]

I can understand eggs being off the menu from a Hindu point of view.

Pretty bold statement to make. How do you reason eggs should be off menu for students in India?

 

[street cricketer]

It's an absolute shame that eggs are being denied to poor school children because of the dietary habits of caste Hindus.

The mid day meal programme was started in TN first to fight malnutrition and poor school attendance of children. Eggs are the primary ingredient served daily as part of mid day meals across every government school in TN. It's a shame that the idea has been appropriated to propagate the sangh ideals of eating pure vegetarian food elsewhere in the country.

 

[cricketjoshila]

Jisko jo khana hai khane do. You dont want eggs, dont eat.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

Pretty bold statement to make. How do you reason eggs should be off menu for students in India?

Eggs are embryo chickens, from what I know of Hindu beliefs they advocate vegetarian diet to avoid cruelty to animals.

 

[MenInG]

Jisko jo khana hai khane do. You dont want eggs, dont eat.

But is it not abhorrent for devout Hindus to be in a place where eggs (other forbidden items) are being served?

 

[street cricketer]

But is it not abhorrent for devout Hindus to be in a place where eggs (other forbidden items) are being served?

Brahmins tend to be vegetarian. And there are a few castes who are vegetarian in their dietary habits. I don't know the statistics, but if you took a survey, I think most hindus would be predominantly non vegetarian.

 

[Itachi]

But is it not abhorrent for devout Hindus to be in a place where eggs (other forbidden items) are being served?

Nope. Except brahmins (that too only in few states especially south India) most Hindus are non veg.

 

[street cricketer]

Nope. Except brahmins (that too only in few states especially south India) most Hindus are non veg.

Aren't north and west indian states like Rajasthan and Gujarat predominantly vegetarian?

 

[Itachi]

Aren't north and west indian states like Rajasthan and Gujarat predominantly vegetarian?

Yes. But most vegan are from South India.

 

[street cricketer]

Yes. But most vegan are from South India.

Vegetarians?

South India is probably the most meat eating region in India after the north east. North India tends to be the most vegetarian followed by western India.

 

[silentkiller187]

Eggs an embryo, plants have more life than an egg at the stage we eat it , were do you draw the line

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

Eggs an embryo, plants have more life than an egg at the stage we eat it , were do you draw the line

well we can't eat plastic so it's either eggs, plants or starve to death.

 

[silentkiller187]

well we can't eat plastic so it's either eggs, plants or starve to death.

Or you can understand their is a food chain and every organism plays it’s part within this.

 

[mustang]

Eggs are embryo chickens, from what I know of Hindu beliefs they advocate vegetarian diet to avoid cruelty to animals.

Please read before you post or at least try to do a google search and confirm before posting. I was not raised Hindu and even I know this is not true. The percentage of Hindus who are vegetarians is a minority (44%). If 56% of Hindus consider themselves meat eaters, then clearly eggs or most meat is not an affront for Hinduism.

Source from Pew research -- https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-ta...d-four-in-ten-consider-themselves-vegetarian/

Are you willing to retract your "bold" statement in the face of contradictory data?

 

[mustang]

But is it not abhorrent for devout Hindus to be in a place where eggs (other forbidden items) are being served?

Wrong and factually incorrect. Reference post #15 in this thread for details.

 

[PakLFC]

I work with a good many Hindu lads. Some previously had eggs even meat/beef for lunch where as others who are/were strict vegans did not. The vegan lot often forced the non vegans telling them to become like them leading to rows in the canteen. Now some vegans have began consuming eggs after concluding that as the eggs are sterilised they are "plants" making them edible even for them.

 

[mustang]

Eggs are embryo chickens, from what I know of Hindu beliefs they advocate vegetarian diet to avoid cruelty to animals.

But is it not abhorrent for devout Hindus to be in a place where eggs (other forbidden items) are being served?

Brahmins tend to be vegetarian. And there are a few castes who are vegetarian in their dietary habits. I don't know the statistics, but if you took a survey, I think most hindus would be predominantly non vegetarian.

So I was curious about some of the points being raised here and did a cursory search and hit upon this image.



Seems like most of India has meat eaters. A curious thing here is that the parts of India bordering Pakistan have significantly higher percentage of vegetarians? Any historical reason for this? Perhaps this also creates a perception for Pakistanis that a higher number of Indians are vegetarians than reality (since Pakistanis probably interact much more with those regions of India)?

Also interesting is that places like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal have 97% or 98% meat eaters which even for me was surprising. What is different in those places relative to north west India that has made them so meat heavy?

Would love to see if there are any thoughts from others about these.

 

[cricketjoshila]

But is it not abhorrent for devout Hindus to be in a place where eggs (other forbidden items) are being served?

No it isn't. Eggs are not beef that its forbidden completely. Some regions dont eat non veg but many hindus do eat eggs and thats fine.

 

[DeadlyVenom]

So I was curious about some of the points being raised here and did a cursory search and hit upon this image.

View attachment 113768

Seems like most of India has meat eaters. A curious thing here is that the parts of India bordering Pakistan have significantly higher percentage of vegetarians? Any historical reason for this? Perhaps this also creates a perception for Pakistanis that a higher number of Indians are vegetarians than reality (since Pakistanis probably interact much more with those regions of India)?

Also interesting is that places like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal have 97% or 98% meat eaters which even for me was surprising. What is different in those places relative to north west India that has made them so meat heavy?

Would love to see if there are any thoughts from others about these.

Tbh the average Pakistani doesn't know much about the South of India and most non Punjabis/Mohajjirs wont know much about India at all, beyond what they see in Bollywood films.

The South of India to most Pakistanis is like Timbuktu. It's not surprising then that for the majority of us our perception on Indians being vegetarian came from our forefathers who lived alongside Hindus in some of the regions your map has highlighted as being on the border of Pakistan.

 

[srh]

So I was curious about some of the points being raised here and did a cursory search and hit upon this image.

View attachment 113768

Seems like most of India has meat eaters. A curious thing here is that the parts of India bordering Pakistan have significantly higher percentage of vegetarians? Any historical reason for this? Perhaps this also creates a perception for Pakistanis that a higher number of Indians are vegetarians than reality (since Pakistanis probably interact much more with those regions of India)?

Also interesting is that places like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal have 97% or 98% meat eaters which even for me was surprising. What is different in those places relative to north west India that has made them so meat heavy?

Would love to see if there are any thoughts from others about these.

If most hindus eat non-veg food then why hindus are killing muslims over non-veg food in India? Does not make sense.

 

[mustang]

If most hindus eat non-veg food then why hindus are killing muslims over non-veg food in India? Does not make sense.

I believe most of those killings are over beef and not meat in general. There may be a few corner cases with non-beef meat killings but those are statistical anomalies per my understanding. I also read somewhere that most of the beef killings are concentrated in the cow belt states and the northwest (high veggie) states and not in the South or East. But thanks to media click baits and our minds tending to extrapolate a small data set, there could be an impression that "most Indians all over India want to lynch anyone who eats meat" when that clearly could not be the case.

This is of course my 2 cents. Someone from India please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[mustang]

Tbh the average Pakistani doesn't know much about the South of India and most non Punjabis/Mohajjirs wont know much about India at all, beyond what they see in Bollywood films.

The South of India to most Pakistanis is like Timbuktu. It's not surprising then that for the majority of us our perception on Indians being vegetarian came from our forefathers who lived alongside Hindus in some of the regions your map has highlighted as being on the border of Pakistan.

Thank you for this interesting input. I think this also explains the opinions of many Pakistanis towards Indians in general.

1. Saying most Indian movies are bad when they have only seen Bollywood movies and extrapolate that to India.
2. Most of India lynches any meat eater
3. No Hindu eats beef -- visit places in the South and you can see many Hindu beef eaters (at least a few years ago, not sure how much the BJP cancer has spread there).

Probably many more extrapolations where Pakistanis' only exposure to Indians have been former neighbors of their forefathers from the 4 or 5 northwest Indian states, and then thinking all of India is like that.

In all fairness - do you Pakistanis find the Indians doing a similar extrapolation of Pakistan and paint your country with a broad brush in any manner? Do Indians extrapolate Pakistanis only based on Punjabi or Sindhi cultures since those are geographically closer to Indians?

 

[DeadlyVenom]

Thank you for this interesting input. I think this also explains the opinions of many Pakistanis towards Indians in general.

1. Saying most Indian movies are bad when they have only seen Bollywood movies and extrapolate that to India.
2. Most of India lynches any meat eater
3. No Hindu eats beef -- visit places in the South and you can see many Hindu beef eaters (at least a few years ago, not sure how much the BJP cancer has spread there).

Probably many more extrapolations where Pakistanis' only exposure to Indians have been former neighbors of their forefathers from the 4 or 5 northwest Indian states, and then thinking all of India is like that.

In all fairness - do you Pakistanis find the Indians doing a similar extrapolation of Pakistan and paint your country with a broad brush in any manner? Do Indians extrapolate Pakistanis only based on Punjabi or Sindhi cultures since those are geographically closer to Indians?

There are of course a few "nerds" online who visit forums but I could almost guarantee that for most Pakistanis there is no real knowledge of South India.

For overseas Pakistanis, they will probably have a bit more knowledge through interacting with those communities particularly in the ME. I frequent a lot of Indian/Pakistan heritage groups on different online forums, mostly to look at the architecture but you will rarely see a Pakistani ask for pictures of South India or comment on them. In the same way most South Indians on these forums don't really care about Pakistan too much. My personal observation on these platforms is that South indians like to promote their own heritage because they feel dominated by the North but that may be a topic for another thread.

I'm not really sure how Indians view Pakistanis but I'd assume that as most of the "famous" Punjabis in cricket are Punjabis and they have a weird fascination with Pathans because their Bollywood was at one point dominated by Pashtuns they will probably know very little about other cultures.

In relation to your points - I dont think most Pakistanis think Indian films are bad, I personally think they are awful but they are heavily watched in Pakistan and people can quote actors/songs from these films.

Nobody believes that most of India lynches beef eaters. Indians however try to downplay the extent of it and it allows Pakistanis to try to illustrate to Indians that you can't judge a whole community based on the actions of a few.

Point 3 yeah probably most people do believe it.

 

[street cricketer]

So I was curious about some of the points being raised here and did a cursory search and hit upon this image.

View attachment 113768

Seems like most of India has meat eaters. A curious thing here is that the parts of India bordering Pakistan have significantly higher percentage of vegetarians? Any historical reason for this? Perhaps this also creates a perception for Pakistanis that a higher number of Indians are vegetarians than reality (since Pakistanis probably interact much more with those regions of India)?

Also interesting is that places like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal have 97% or 98% meat eaters which even for me was surprising. What is different in those places relative to north west India that has made them so meat heavy?

Would love to see if there are any thoughts from others about these.

North and South India have vastly different cultures, so much so that you wouldn't be out of place to think they are two different countries if you were air dropped as a foreigner in both those regions without having any idea about India. So why would you expect Punjab/Rajasthan and Kerala/Tamil Nadu to have the same dietary habits.

Another interesting observation is that the commonly used terminologies to differentiate cultures in India are usually along the north and south India lines. But if you see certain maps, you would find the differentiation is more along the north west - south east India lines.

The north-west regions eat more wheat and are more vegetarian. Whereas the south-east Indian regions eat more rice, eat more meat and eat much more seafood.

 

[Varun]

Nope. Except brahmins (that too only in few states especially south India) most Hindus are non veg.

I'm a South Indian brahmin and I eat beef, pork, chicken, seafood, mutton, you name it. Obviously I drink too. It's not a hard and fast rule.

On the subject - Karnataka should have expected this when for voting in the BJP.

 

[Ahmad-GERMANFC]

So I was curious about some of the points being raised here and did a cursory search and hit upon this image.

View attachment 113768

Seems like most of India has meat eaters. A curious thing here is that the parts of India bordering Pakistan have significantly higher percentage of vegetarians? Any historical reason for this? Perhaps this also creates a perception for Pakistanis that a higher number of Indians are vegetarians than reality (since Pakistanis probably interact much more with those regions of India)?

Also interesting is that places like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal have 97% or 98% meat eaters which even for me was surprising. What is different in those places relative to north west India that has made them so meat heavy?

Would love to see if there are any thoughts from others about these.

Another question is how is eaten. A few of my Indian Hindu friends eat chicken maybe once or twice every 4-6 months. So maximum 4-5 times all year.

In any survey they would be counted as meat eaters but in grand scheme of things it’s insignificant

 

[mustang]

Another question is how is eaten. A few of my Indian Hindu friends eat chicken maybe once or twice every 4-6 months. So maximum 4-5 times all year.

In any survey they would be counted as meat eaters but in grand scheme of things it’s insignificant

Good point and quite true. This could be the case for categorizing habitual meat eaters versus habitual vegetarians. I'm curious if this is the case for meat eaters especially in the South and East of India. Let's see what folks from India have to say.

In the context of people getting offended with serving meat/eggs (OP's post here) - A rare meat eater (even once a year) will in most cases not be offended simply because the moment they partake in meat (regardless of how infrequent) it stops being a personal taboo for them, right? At that point, their frequency (or lack thereof) meat intake is a function of eating preference and not an ideological preference (which is the source of objecting to a choice of food).

 

[mustang]

There are of course a few "nerds" online who visit forums but I could almost guarantee that for most Pakistanis there is no real knowledge of South India.

For overseas Pakistanis, they will probably have a bit more knowledge through interacting with those communities particularly in the ME. I frequent a lot of Indian/Pakistan heritage groups on different online forums, mostly to look at the architecture but you will rarely see a Pakistani ask for pictures of South India or comment on them. In the same way most South Indians on these forums don't really care about Pakistan too much. My personal observation on these platforms is that South indians like to promote their own heritage because they feel dominated by the North but that may be a topic for another thread.

I'm not really sure how Indians view Pakistanis but I'd assume that as most of the "famous" Punjabis in cricket are Punjabis and they have a weird fascination with Pathans because their Bollywood was at one point dominated by Pashtuns they will probably know very little about other cultures.

In relation to your points - I dont think most Pakistanis think Indian films are bad, I personally think they are awful but they are heavily watched in Pakistan and people can quote actors/songs from these films.

Nobody believes that most of India lynches beef eaters. Indians however try to downplay the extent of it and it allows Pakistanis to try to illustrate to Indians that you can't judge a whole community based on the actions of a few.

Point 3 yeah probably most people do believe it.

Great points above. One would think forums like this (ideally) should be vehicles for people to understand one another. Sadly that is not the case in most forums. If the "nerds" reading the forums cannot fathom the "other side" then how can one expect a non-nerdy commoner to understand?

Who are the famous Pathans in Bollywood? Only Bollywood actors I know are Shahrukh Khan and Amir Khan. Aren't Pathans in north west Pakistan? How did they come to take a dominant role in Bollywood in the post-partition subcontinent? Were these Pathans who did not move to Pakistan and chose to stay in India? This also makes me wonder if Pakistanis continued following Bollywood post-partition even though it is from an "enemy country" because they saw the lead actors to be one of their own.

North and South India have vastly different cultures, so much so that you wouldn't be out of place to think they are two different countries if you were air dropped as a foreigner in both those regions without having any idea about India. So why would you expect Punjab/Rajasthan and Kerala/Tamil Nadu to have the same dietary habits.

Another interesting observation is that the commonly used terminologies to differentiate cultures in India are usually along the north and south India lines. But if you see certain maps, you would find the differentiation is more along the north west - south east India lines.

The north-west regions eat more wheat and are more vegetarian. Whereas the south-east Indian regions eat more rice, eat more meat and eat much more seafood.

Interesting point, I have never thought of it as north-west and south-east but it seems to be true if we draw an imaginary diagonal line across a map of India. Do you think this divide exists mostly across food (wheat versus rice) which could be a function of climate or do you think this divide also exists across culture and politics?

 

[KingKhanWC]

Eggs are an important part of a healthy diet esp boiled or poached.

Its interesting in a nation who claim to be lovers of animals, so many are suffering on the streets of the same nation.

Another example of Hindu extremism coming out of secular India.

 

[Justcrazy]

Hindus can be vegetarian as well as Non-Vegetarian , Just like any other religions.

 

[Colorblind Genius]

If most hindus eat non-veg food then why hindus are killing muslims over non-veg food in India? Does not make sense.

Coming to think of it, we hardly ever hear of these savages lynching a Christian to death for eating beef. I guess Christians in these high veg states don’t eat beef? Doesn’t make sense.

Otherwise, if it was up to these savages, they would’ve invaded Vietnam or killed every Vietnamese tourist in India, as the one of the most popular Vietnamese street food is “Sweet n Sour Cow Vag*na.”

 

[RajBan]

Good point and quite true. This could be the case for categorizing habitual meat eaters versus habitual vegetarians. I'm curious if this is the case for meat eaters especially in the South and East of India. Let's see what folks from India have to say.

In the context of people getting offended with serving meat/eggs (OP's post here) - A rare meat eater (even once a year) will in most cases not be offended simply because the moment they partake in meat (regardless of how infrequent) it stops being a personal taboo for them, right? At that point, their frequency (or lack thereof) meat intake is a function of eating preference and not an ideological preference (which is the source of objecting to a choice of food).

That's a wrong generalization. Bengalis(Hindus/Muslims/Christians) are voracious meat eaters.

 

[mustang]

Coming to think of it, we hardly ever hear of these savages lynching a Christian to death for eating beef. I guess Christians in these high veg states don’t eat beef? Doesn’t make sense.

Otherwise, if it was up to these savages, they would’ve invaded Vietnam or killed every Vietnamese tourist in India, as the one of the most popular Vietnamese street food is “Sweet n Sour Cow Vag*na.”

Lynching over food is just an excuse for those extremists. same sad case all over the world where rationality is never the forte for extremist people.

 

[mustang]

That's a wrong generalization. Bengalis(Hindus/Muslims/Christians) are voracious meat eaters.

But perhaps his point was about meat eaters from other parts of India (not Bengal). They could be categorized as meat eaters but do not eat meat frequently.

 

[street cricketer]

Interesting point, I have never thought of it as north-west and south-east but it seems to be true if we draw an imaginary diagonal line across a map of India. Do you think this divide exists mostly across food (wheat versus rice) which could be a function of climate or do you think this divide also exists across culture and politics?

Well I have noticed more people in east India wear sarees and even lungis (similar to the south) than in the north western belt. Can't talk about politics a lot - Bengal and Kerala do have communist politics. Other states have their own regional politics.

 

[street cricketer]

Another question is how is eaten. A few of my Indian Hindu friends eat chicken maybe once or twice every 4-6 months. So maximum 4-5 times all year.

In any survey they would be counted as meat eaters but in grand scheme of things it’s insignificant

You have a weird bunch of friends. If he's okay with eating meat, why would he eat it omly 4-5 times an year..Makes little sense tbh. Either you don't eat it at all or you eat it normally.

Meat is consumed pretty regularly in India, but it would obviously be lesser in frequency than what's consumed in Pakistan. I would say we eat non veg for about 2-3 days per week, it's hard to eat meat daily as it can become an overkill. So we usually alternate it like having chicken one day, mutton the next time, seafood like fish, shrimps or even crabs from time to time. The other days of the week would usually be vegetarian food.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

But is it not abhorrent for devout Hindus to be in a place where eggs (other forbidden items) are being served?

Well clearly it is, otherwise why are authorities in Modi's home state seeking to ban the sale of eggs in public? See the OP, it is clearly mentioned that it has become a battleground between Hindu nationalists and student bodies which are arguing the right to eat eggs.

 

[mustang]

So I was curious about some of the points being raised here and did a cursory search and hit upon this image.

View attachment 113768

Seems like most of India has meat eaters. A curious thing here is that the parts of India bordering Pakistan have significantly higher percentage of vegetarians? Any historical reason for this? Perhaps this also creates a perception for Pakistanis that a higher number of Indians are vegetarians than reality (since Pakistanis probably interact much more with those regions of India)?

Also interesting is that places like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal have 97% or 98% meat eaters which even for me was surprising. What is different in those places relative to north west India that has made them so meat heavy?

Would love to see if there are any thoughts from others about these.

Well clearly it is, otherwise why are authorities in Modi's home state seeking to ban the sale of eggs in public? See the OP, it is clearly mentioned that it has become a battleground between Hindu nationalists and student bodies which are arguing the right to eat eggs.

They are probably doing that because they are right wing fanatics just like Trump, Boris, TTP, TLP, and anyone else. Are you going to extrapolate Boris' behavior to all of UK? Are you going to extrapolate TTP/TLP behaviors to all of Pakistan or Islam? I sincerely hope not.

Same way, there is no point extrapolating the behaviors of these right wing crazies with India/Hinduism.

What is more interesting is your posing of this question even after I posted an obvious graphic refuting this, with multiple discussions emerging from that in this very thread. Did you not notice that or did you see that and feel it is not valid for some reason (would love to hear why if so)?

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

They are probably doing that because they are right wing fanatics just like Trump, Boris, TTP, TLP, and anyone else. Are you going to extrapolate Boris' behavior to all of UK? Are you going to extrapolate TTP/TLP behaviors to all of Pakistan or Islam? I sincerely hope not.

Same way, there is no point extrapolating the behaviors of these right wing crazies with India/Hinduism.

What is more interesting is your posing of this question even after I posted an obvious graphic refuting this, with multiple discussions emerging from that in this very thread. Did you not notice that or did you see that and feel it is not valid for some reason (would love to hear why if so)?

I am returning to the topic after three days, I haven't had time yet to answer every tangent which posters may have veered off in. MiG asked a question which directly related to the OP, so I answered that. The rest of the posts seem to be generic waffle that there is no hard and fast rule about vegetarian diet in Hinduism. Which is fine, but that just makes the authorities fight to enforce them all the more intriguing. Clearly they feel there is, or should be.