Why state banquets reveal India's vegetarian imposition problem

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* 

India's vegetarian supremacists are only making a mockery of their understanding of food culture in India. The point is not about our food habits, which are not merely cultural but geographical too, but the problem arises when we start looking at everything from our own perspective, as though what others feel or think does not matter.

Recently, the menu details of President Murmu's state banquet for visiting Vietnamese President To Lam were circulating on social media. It was a purely vegetarian meal, as per reports in various news channels.

According to NDTV, the main course included:

Bharwan Vilayati Gobi, Hare Tamatar Makhni — Stuffed broccoli served in a green tomato-based makhni gravy.

- Gajar Matar Naal Wadiyaan — A traditional Punjabi preparation of carrots and peas stir-fried with urad dal wadis (sun-dried dumplings).

- Bhatinde Wale Aloo — Baby potatoes tossed with freshly pounded kadhai spices and dried mango powder.

- Dal Amritsari — Made from two lentils — whole black gram (sabut urad dal) and split Bengal gram (chana dal), slow-cooked and mildly spiced.

- Matar Wale Chawl — Fragrant basmati rice cooked with green peas.

- Hisar Bajra Khichdi — A comforting Haryana speciality made with pearl millet, lentils, and vegetables.

- Achar, Papad and Chutney — Tukke da achar (made from tender acacia pods), pachranga achar (North Indian mixed pickle), phool wadiyaan, papad, and sirke wali pyaaz.

Breads — Masoor dal ki roti, pethi wali roti, chukandari chilgoza naan, and methi pudina paratha.

- Dessert — Bajra Gud Churma Doda, Saunfiya Dona, Malai Kulfi: millet and jaggery crumble on a fennel-infused base, served with creamy kulfi. Ganne De Ras Di Kheer with Panjiri: sugarcane-based rice pudding served with traditional wheat panjiri. The dessert also included fresh fruits.

- Beverages included masala zafrani chai, mint tea, and coffee.

Vietnam is a Southeast Asian country and, like most of its neighbours, one where people love seafood as well as meat. Most countries in that region — Thailand, Cambodia, China, Vietnam, the Philippines — are enthusiastic meat-eating, seafood-loving nations. So when a visiting president is being hosted, should we not also offer him the best of India's diverse food traditions? The presidential menu should reflect India's true food heritage, which is certainly not limited to aloo puri, dal makhni, or gobhi ki sabji from a handful of North Indian states. We saw the same vegetarian drama earlier at the banquet held in honor of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Two points emerge from this vegetarian insistence. The first is the desire to "showcase" India's rich food heritage through vegetarian food alone. But the fact of the matter is that India has far more meat variety than so-called vegetarian variety. Beef, pork, goat, lamb, chicken, shrimp, fish, and many more are widely consumed across the country. Hindutva's WhatsApp experts might suggest that all meat eaters are Muslims or Christians, but the fact is that a majority of Hindus eat meat. The BJP did not succeed in forcing its vegetarian agenda in Bengal, Goa, or the Northeast, and it will not work in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, or Telangana either. Even in North Indian states — Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand — a large number of people eat meat. The meat-eating traditions of the Himalayan region differ from those of the plains mainly in the use of oils and spices, but the meat is very much there. Presenting India as a nation of vegetarians is a outright falsehood and an attempt to recast India's food history according to Bania-Marwadi-Jain values — and not even accurately, since not all Brahmins are vegetarians.

Now, consider the other side of this practice. The government wants its guests to eat what it likes. It favors dhoklas, dal makhani, and similar dishes, and apparently expects guests of honor to cheerfully comply. Interestingly, when the same people travel abroad, they have no desire to eat the local food offered to them. In fact, most of them would rather bring their dhoklas and fafads along, or travel with their own cook.

What does this tell us? It tells us that the current leadership expects everyone to honor its preferences while showing no intention of reciprocating. They do not care to honor or respect the food choices of others, yet they want others to respect their values. You travel abroad and hunt for a vegetarian dhaba, but you will not provide food that suits your visiting guests. India's greatest soft power lies in its food, music, culture, and Buddhism, and this vegetarian fanaticism is doing more harm to India's global image than almost anything else. India's greatest strength is its cultural and religious diversity. It is home to Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, among others. It has more Muslims than the majority of Muslim-majority nations. Christianity arrived here long before it spread across Europe. The diversity is not merely religious but regional and linguistic too. Even vegetarian food in India is enormously diverse, and India must reflect all of those values whenever it presents itself to the world.

The vegetarian cuisine of Gujarat would taste bland to people of Uttarakhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Punjab, where people love spicier food. The bamboo shoot vegetables of Uttarakhand and the Northeast are supremely delicious and would likely resonate with many flavors found in Southeast Asia.

I have no issue with vegetarianism — but where is the vegetarian food from Uttarakhand in the menu? Vegetarianism does not mean imposing Gujarati-Marwadi-Jain food on everyone. There is a vast variety of vegetarian food in India, but appreciating it requires a willingness to accept food diversity. Expecting others to respect your choices while refusing to respect theirs will not take us anywhere.

The problem does not end there. There is a deliberate effort to erase inconvenient facts about our culinary lives, as though meat-eating were never really part of Indian food culture. Consider the food packaging recently released by the Uttar Pradesh government to communicate the food culture of each district. One must ask: was the samosa really an Uttar Pradesh dish to begin with? More tellingly, the exercise makes no mention of nihari or kebabs. This is nothing short of deliberate erasure driven by communal bias. How can you define the culinary culture of a state while omitting its most celebrated dishes? Sattu and chura are among the most iconic foods of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. And Champaran mutton from Bihar, Muradabadi biryani, and Lucknow's Mughlai dishes are beloved across the country.

As someone from Uttarakhand, I would urge people to try kandali ka saag, chainsoo, fresh green vegetables, and mooli ki thinchuni. The variety is immense — but only visible to those willing to look beyond a narrow frame of mind.

We must learn to respect food habits rather than weaponize them against people. Vegetarianism is not the issue; the issue is when it becomes a tool to humiliate, criminalize, or even lynch those who eat differently. That is vegetarian supremacism, and it must be opposed. Food is to be enjoyed by all according to their choices. When we welcome a guest, we offer them food they will enjoy — we do not impose our preferences on them. Indians have historically been gracious hosts, and we know what it means to honor a guest. One hopes that Rashtrapati Bhavan will, in future, include dishes from the Northeast, South India, West Bengal, and Adivasi communities in its menus for visiting guests.

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*Human rights defender