By now, restaurant delivery aggregator Zomato’s recent blunder is old news — everyone knows the company proudly announced that “pure” vegetarian food could be availed on dedicated delivery fleets, and rolled back parts of its decision after online criticism. The discussion may have lost its fire, but deeply-entrenched discrimination behind the debacle remains.
Many have called out the semantics of usage of the word “pure” when it comes to vegetarianism, and how it implies extremely caste-loaded concepts of impurity and touch- pollution. But there’s also this: the word “non-vegetarian” doesn’t really exist outside of India. Only 38% of Indians are vegetarian. It’s a misnomer that centres the powerful minority, and is tied inextricably to upper caste control and narrative-crafting.
That delivery workers wearing the colour red, indicating that they carry food that contains meat, seafood or eggs, would be more liable to physical danger or harassment is something that those criticising the move noted immediately (identifiable uniforms were rolled back). This is the reality of India today, a country in which people have been lynched because of meat stored in their own freezers — and also one in which a booming e-commerce infrastructure (which I benefit from, as you almost certainly do too) is built on the labour of an exploited working class.
That consumers would also be at risk was another concern. In Chennai, I’ve lost a home because a Brahmin landlord who knew we ate normal food — which is to say, that we weren’t vegetarians — was still persuaded by Brahmin neighbours to send us away. In interviews, Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal admitted that he and his team were oblivious to all the religious and caste connotations involved in their experiment. He said: “We are indifferent to this. I think that’s the purest form of letting go of any casteism, any religion, any biases.”
Goyal is completely, gobsmackingly wrong. He grew up and lives in India. If he lacked such knowledge, it’s only because he has spent his life in a bubble. Caste-privileged people tend to, even if they’re not financially-privileged.
Once, there was a party in a home where, to accommodate the younger generation’s lifestyle, there was a begrudging provision for separate crockery for meat (ordered in, never cooked). It goes without saying that this was only one among many insidious as well as overt segregation practices. That night, our friend was very upset that someone had placed chicken, her own personal favourite, on a “vegetarian” plate. Later that night, someone drunkenly and suddenly needed to vomit, and to save the carpet and the couch, a random plate was rushed beneath his mouth. Guess which one.
It’s the kind of funny story that softens the blow of the many layers of discrimination imbued within it. It’s incredible, no, how much we the not-so-hyperprivileged acquiesce to in the name of love, in the hope of co-existence, and out of sheer fear? It’s just as incredible how much entitlement is exhibited, in the name of choices, old habits and animal rights defenses that cannot be applied unexaminedly in a caste-driven country. If only bigotry could be washed off as cleanly and as easily as a plate can be.
Sharanya Manivannan
@she_of_the_sea
The columnist is a writer and illustrator