It was the 4th day of January and my third day at IIT Roorkee. As expected, I went to dinner around 9:00 PM in the Mess. I picked the plate I first laid eyes on, went over to the non-vegetarian counter where chicken was being served. On reaching, I found out that the vegetarian and non-vegetarian food was being served on entirely different batches of plates, there were even different batches of spoons. Additionally, there were only disposable glasses for drinking water for students having a non-vegetarian dinner.
After taking my food, I looked around and saw that the Mess had been divided into two sections using movable boards. One section was for non-vegetarians and other for vegetarians. Such a bizarre division of eating space in an esteemed institute like IIT Roorkee was strange and I suddenly realised the extent of division the caste system creates in our society.
The caste system in India manifests itself in many forms which are seen as most common. One of the most practised manifestations is in the form of dietary habits of the upper caste and the lower castes.
On dissecting food practices in this context, I stumbled upon how dietary restrictions serve as a form of incentive for upper castes to discriminate against lower castes.
While staunch Brahmins refuse to eat anything non-vegetarian, what is peculiar is that they even repudiate cleaned utensils which had been used to cook or eat non-vegetarians foods. This rejection served in first instance as the seclusion of Dalits from society. This also meant that the former refused to interact with the latter owing to their ‘uncleanliness’ due to meat consumption which finally culminated into distancing those from lower castes from education and rendering them marginalised in society.
Note: We contacted IIT Roorkee’s administration, who have reverted by saying,“In any mess students eat in the same kind of utensils regardless of their preference of food. Depending on their preference, some students mix with students having different food preferences and some do not. As an institute, we allow students to eat as per their choice.”