Bombay exiles its meat eaters
Amrit Dhillon, Bombay
RICH vegetarians in Bombay are turning sections of their city into meat-free zones — to the indignation of meat eaters barred from living there. Housing complexes and whole neighbourhoods in India’s most cosmopolitan city are going vegetarian. Even on Malabar Hill, where foreigners and Indian millionaires live in mansions, some shops owners refuse to stock meat products.
Bollywood stars also risk being drawn into the row. Mahima Choudhury, the actress who is such a staunch vegetarian she has done free promotions for the campaigning group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, is appalled at the idea of banning meat eaters from flats.
“I think people should live in harmony whatever their beliefs,” she said last week. “I don’t agree with meat eaters being kept out of apartment blocks because vegetarians don’t want the smell of meat. You can’t impose your views on other people.”
Leading the stealthy enforcement of the meat fatwa are businessmen — diamond merchants, traders, industrialists and clothing exporters. Many are from Gujarat, where vegetarianism is common, or are Jains, vegans who do not even eat root vegetables such as onions, garlic and potatoes.
For a long stretch of Marine Drive — Bombay’s Champs Elysées — there are no restaurants serving meat, fish or eggs. Even Pizza Hut has gone vegetarian. This is not enough for the more radical vegetarians, however, who insist on the right to live among their kind.
Two years ago Jati Chedda, 32, moved into Ramkrupa Flats in south Bombay with her husband and was relieved to find the occupants of the 120 flats were all vegetarians.
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