A bizarre controversy over food has grabbed the spotlight in India recently. Calls for a meat ban by right-wing politicians during a Hindu religious festival sparked a fierce debate about unwanted interference in people’s food choices.

Many see this as an assault on secularism - one of the key principles on which independent India was founded. Experts also point out that despite common beliefs about India being a largely vegetarian country, research has shown that only about 20% of Indians are actually vegetarian. Hindus, who make up 80% of the country's population, are major meat-eaters.

While the Hindu nationalist government has reasserted its commitment to secularism, there is rising fear that the call for a meat ban is just another part of the process, which aims to gradually undermine the freedom of choice that minority communities have so far enjoyed. And what about the Constitutional rights to food and livelihood?

In this edition of WorklifeIndia, we discuss whether the state should be policing people’s food choices.

Presenter: Devina Gupta

Image: A view of a meat shop, at INA market on April 6, 2022 in New Delhi, India (Credit: Raj K Raj/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)