From: dsouza@hplred.HP.COM (Roy D'Souza)
Newsgroups: rec.food.veg
Subject: Re: India (was Re: Dairy farming (Was: Ben & Jerry's ice cream))
Date: 16 Apr 92 19:18:14 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Laboratories



  >[Michael Traub:]
  >The  dietary  restrictions  of  the  religions  in  India  range  from near
  >fruitarian   (the   Pharsees)

Any Parsi fruitarians would be the exception rather than the rule.
Parsees are descendents of Zoroastrians from Persia/Iran who fled to India
to escape Islam. Parsees have no religious taboos against any kind of food.
For example, dhansak - a Parsee staple, is meat-based.

Most Parsees in India live in the city of Bombay, or in Gujarat state.
Gujarat has a very high percentage of vegetarians due to the influence of
the Jain religion. It is possible that Parsees in Gujarat have adopted a
less meat-based out of respect for local customs & traditions.


  >[Michael Traub:]
  >Within  the  Hindu  religion there are many who consume cows without qualm.
  >Generally  it  is  only  the  lowest castes (through lack of money) and the
  >highest  caste,  the  Brahmins (or priest caste) who practice vegetarianism
  >exclusively.

Meat eating is not uncommon among present-day Brahmins.


  >[Michael Traub:]
  > The  other  castes  mostly  refrain  from  eating  cows  but
  >Hinduism  is  a  very tolerant religion so many people ignore the religious
  >edicts.

Several Indian states have enacted laws that prohibit the slaughter of cows.


  >[Michael Traub:]
  >The  Christians  in India (and there are quite a few) take great delight in
  >the  "foolishness"  of  the  other religions and eat whatever is going. All
  >the  Catholics  I  met  in  India considered we were insane to not eat meat
  >and  they  ate  meat at every meal, much like a backward western diet. They
  >have  some  really  foolish  dietary  habits, for example when we went to a
  >relations  house  to have afternoon tea they were quite happy for us not to
  >have  milk  (I'll  explain why later) but were up in arms when we suggested
  >that  we  would prefer our tea without sugar. In the end we ended up having
  >tea  with  one  sugar  even  though  we asked for none. To them sugar was a
  >necessary ingredient for health.

I am an Indian Christian and a vegan.

Most Christians/Catholics in India are "non-vegetarian", but a few will not
eat beef. I suspect this is due to our Hindu heritage.

I have not yet had the privilege of meeting one that believed sugar to be
a necessary ingredient for health. (Though I am sure we have a few of those
too.)

Some present-day Indian Christians have adopted meat-free diets.
A few of them believe that Christ was an Essene, hence a vegetarian.


  >[Michael Traub:]
  >milk  to  go  round.  Most Indians do not consume milk, only those addicted
  >to  tea  are  milk  drinkers.  The majority of the milk is used for cheese.
  >The  cheese  is  almost  all  suitable for vegetarians, though I personally
  >thought  it  tasted  revolting.  The  rest  of  the milk is used for Indian
  >desserts.

Most of the dairy consumption in India is in the form of milk and yogurt.
Indian vegetarians usually consume yogurt with every meal.
Indian cheese (paneer) is quite rare, especially in South India.
Paneer appears only in special "rich" dishes rather than in "usual" food.
Clarified butter (ghee) is usually used for cooking in India if one can 
afford it.

Roy D'Souza
HP Labs
(415) 857-5397