Why people don't eat meat in India (9 photos)

India, a fascinating country of diverse cultures, traditions and religions, is known throughout the world for its predominantly vegetarian diet. In a country where gastronomic delights are deeply rooted in plant-based cuisine, the concept of vegetarianism has cultural and religious significance.





Are there more or fewer vegetarians?



There are a lot of thin people in India, but it's because they are hungry, it doesn't matter that they are malnourished

An interesting fact is that there are more pure vegetarians in the world. Due to advanced countries and the promotion of this way of life. For example, in Sweden there are 12%. Still several times less than in India.

And at the same time, the number of vegetarians in India is falling. One gets the feeling that India doesn’t need this, so it exports vegetarianism - away from itself, thank you, it’s fed up.





Vegetable markets here, of course, my respects. Everything is so saturated with the sun

Why don't people eat meat in India?

Religion and beliefs, that's what everyone will say if you ask any foreigner. India very nicely sells the status of “spiritual guru for those who want enlightenment.”

But only the very poor are subject to strict beliefs.

It is ironic that the richer a person is, the less likely he is to adhere to vegetarianism out of conviction.



I don’t really believe all the vegetarians who want to become enlightened in India. Because most people there don’t eat meat because of spirituality.

In fact, people in India don't eat meat...

Because it's expensive. In India they raise goats, sheep, and buffaloes (do you know that India is the first exporter of beef in the world? Here is a sacred animal for you). But at the same time they don’t eat, not because it’s a pity.

Because one goat can produce wool and milk for a long time, and if it is slaughtered, then within a week there will be nothing to eat. The poor simply cannot afford to kill the “nurse”, preferring to receive milk for years.

That’s why paneer is so popular here – a soft cheese that is cooked in all sorts of spices.



This is masala paneer. And it tastes great, try it if you get the chance

If a poor person has an extra animal, it will not be slaughtered for meat, but will be sold to buy a bag of rice and eat it for a month with the whole family. They would be happy to keep it, but otherwise the poor farmers will starve.

Most Indian vegetarians come from poverty. By the way, they were identified not so much by their beliefs, but by the questions “when was the last time you ate meat.” Otherwise, everyone is good at talking, but as soon as he moves to another country, he gives up such a diet to a greater extent.

And behind poverty there is another reason hanging like a thread - tradition.



All these are very aromatic and rich-tasting dishes without meat.

Housewives who have not eaten meat for years have already gotten used to cooking from rice, chickpeas, various legumes, and goat’s milk cheese. In poor areas, a woman may not know how to cook meat; she always has the five most popular vegetable dishes on hand.

From an early age, children are prepared only vegetarian dishes, and they carry these eating habits into adulthood. Without interfering with religious beliefs.

The third reason is heat

When it’s hot, you crave meat much less often, as they say (I don’t know, I always want to. God himself commanded me to eat noodles with meat in Thailand in the evening).



And in the desert they invented kebabs and kebabs, somehow they don’t fight the heat...

The human body uses animal fat to keep warm because it contains a lot of calories (and calories are energy, aka heat). And if the air is always warm, the body does not need such “complex” food to live normally.

Vitamins and moisture are much easier to obtain from fruits. They say that if you live long enough in a hot country, you yourself stop eating meat - you won’t want to.



These people never have rupees to buy a portion of meat

By the way, the country with the second largest number of vegetarians is Mexico, where 19% do not eat meat. Mexico is also very hot, so maybe there is some truth in this...