On Tuesday evening, Zomato founder-CEO Deepinder Goyal, Zomato’s founder-CEO Zomato, set off a vociferous online debate when he announced that the food-delivery service had launched a “pure veg” fleet.
Using the “pure veg” mode on the Zomato app would only display offerings from “pure veg” restaurants, he said, and the food would be delivered by special riders dressed in green instead of the company’s customary red uniforms.
Many on social media contended that his phrasing betrayed a caste bias by suggesting that while vegetarians were “pure”, people who eat meat, fish and eggs – the majority of Indians – were not. Others pointed out that the green uniforms would make riders vulnerable to attacks by mobs aiming to enforce vegetarianism.
By Wednesday morning, Goyal had rolled back the idea of the special uniforms. But his announcement was a showcase of the biases that underlie dietary preferences in India.
To help view this controversy in context, here are five Scroll articles on the subject.
Why do we insist on calling India a vegetarian country when two-thirds of us eat meat?
Nowhere but in India is eating meat considered a deviance. Read here.
In charts: Vegetarianism in India has more to do with caste hierarchy than love for animals
Given that the majority of Hindus eat meat, how and why is the democratic state anxious over a non-vegetarian diet? Read here.
From Ramayana to the scriptures, it's clear India has a long history of eating meat
The Vedas refer to about 50 animals deemed fit for sacrifice and, by inference, for eating. Read here.
What makes Indian vegetarians different from Westerners who have given up meat?
In the West, it’s an act of rebellion. In India, it’s largely driven by conformity to traditional social norms. Read here.
How I became a ‘non-vegetarian’: Lessons from India’s diverse food systems
My personal journey has taught me that meat is an essential component of food systems and that it is no less ecological and humane than plant foods. Read here.