It’s easy to be a vegetarian in India. We have a culture of veggie foods that goes beyond lettuce, tomatoes and tofu. Moreover, we have a history of vegetarianism, with large sections of the population shunning meat for over two thousand years. So, if you reveal your vegetarianism at a dinner party, the whole table won’t look at you as

if you suffer from a painful medical condition.

In many parts of the world, it is only now that vegetarianism is considered a viable lifestyle option. People are turning veggie for humanitarian, spiritual, ecological and health reasons. Many celebrities have spoken out passionately against the farming of animals including Paul McCartney, Pamela Anderson, Bob Dylan, Alicia Silverstone, Alec Baldwin, Richard Gere, even the cartoon Lisa Simpson. Although the numbers are still small, the vegetarian voice can now be heard and a fundamental change is taking place in both thought and menus.

To my mind, vegetarians the world over can be divided into two categories; accidental vegetarians and deliberate vegetarians. Those belonging to the first category are simply born into a community and family that is vegetarian, where the eating of meat is prohibited due to cultural or religious reasons. They are often repulsed by the idea of meat simply because it is too alien. The second type of vegetarian is the one who takes a conscious, personal decision to not eat meat. Whether or not they are born into a vegetarian environment, deliberate veggies usually denounce meat for humanitarian reasons as a principled stand against cruelty to animals. Those who go green for health reasons also fall into this category.

Most vegetarians in India belong to the first category. Here, being an herbivore is institutionalised. Ahimsa forbids the killing and eating of other living beings. There is a strong belief that inflicting pain on living beings will have karmic consequences. Indian scriptures have always denounced the eating of meat. In the Mahabharata, for instance, Bhishma explains to Yuddhisthira that eating the flesh of animals is like eating the flesh of one’s own son. The Tirukural repeatedly asserts that eating meat is sinful and refusing to slaughter is virtuous.

However, the current veggie movement in other parts of the world is driven by the second category of vegetarians, the size of which is increasing in India as well. Deliberate vegetarians support their cause with many arguments. The main ones are, of course, protecting animals and decreasing the amount of saturated fat making its way into the body. Additional arguments include research that indicates vegetarianism saves energy resources, reduces the rate of global warming and is, in general, far more eco-friendly.

However, the world of deliberate vegetarians is deeply imbued with debate and discussion. It is a much less stable world than that of accidental vegetarians. For one, there are several types of vegetarians: from pesco-pollo-vegetarians who eat chicken and fish, to eggitarians who don’t eat meat but do eat eggs, to vegans who don’t consume any animal products, including dairy. Since deliberate vegetarians are vegetarian out of choice, they can define the rules as best suits their own ethical parameters and health concerns.

Since theirs is an intellectual stance, veggies-by-choice have to stand up against the age-old arguments put forward by carnivores; if you’re vegetarian, where do you get your protein? Why change now if our hunter-gatherer ancestors were meat-eaters? However, this debate is healthier than one may imagine for it stimulates thought and is slowly causing a revolution in human eating habits. Philosophers and writers have long argued that the evolution of human civilization will eventually lead to a complete rejection of all meat. The American philosopher Henry David Thoreau believed that “it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals, as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating each other.” The biggest obstacle before non-veggies today is the inability to take advantage of the large plant kingdom out there to whip up delicious, nutritious, balanced meals. Soon, nutritionists, doctors, chefs and vegetarians will dissolve this obstacle altogether. Delicious vegetarian options will proliferate across the dinner table, soya and cottage cheese will provide the protein our sedentary lives require and medical statistics will speak for themselves.

At that point, accidental vegetarians may roll their eyes and state that they had accepted this line of thought at birth itself. But their reasons for being vegetarian are unconvincing, regressive and even a little off-putting. One of the most famous vegetarians of all time, Leonardo Da Vinci, once said: “the time will come when men such as I will look on the murder of animals as they now look on the murder of men.” This will not happen because one’s grandmother forbade the

eating of flesh but because one will be intellectually won over by the arguments supporting vegetarianism.

One of the greatest triumphs of human civilisation is its immense culinary ingenuity, something that will allow us to outgrow the hunter-gatherer in us while keeping our taste buds satisfied. We can now look our pets squarely in the eye and also live longer, healthier lives. We can easily give up our position at the top of the food chain, realise that we stepped away from that chain altogether when we left the jungle and built concrete high-rises, and that giving up meat is just the next logical step in our biological, intellectual and moral evolution.

Himani Dalmia is a commentator on social and cultural issues