28/04/2019 Meat Eating and the Transition from Plant-Based Diets among Urban Indians | Khara | M/C Journal journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/view/1509 1/6 M/C JOURNAL HOME CURRENT ISSUE UPCOMING ISSUES ARCHIVES CONTRIBUTORS ABOUT M/C JOURNAL USER HOME JOURNAL CONTENT SEARCH SEARCH SCOPE All BROWSE BY ISSUE BY AUTHOR BY TITLE CURRENT ISSUE USER USERNAME tanikhara PASSWORD •••••••• REMEMBER ME INFORMATION FOR READERS FOR AUTHORS FOR LIBRARIANS FONT SIZE JOURNAL HELP OPEN JOURNAL SYSTEMS ARTICLE TOOLS PRINT THIS ARTICLE INDEXING METADATA HOW TO CITE ITEM FINDING REFERENCES EMAIL THIS ARTICLE (LOGIN REQUIRED) EMAIL THE AUTHOR (LOGIN REQUIRED) ABOUT THE AUTHORS Tani Khara University of Technology Sydney Australia Tani Khara is a PhD student at the Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney. She is currently undertaking her thesis in cross cultural meateating practices with a view towards encouraging a reduced meat diet. Prior to undertaking her thesis, she worked as an insights and strategy manager in several industries—some of which include media, consulting and food products—spanning markets in Asia, Europe and Australia. Her research interests include animal welfare, ethical veganism and food cultures in emerging markets. Matthew Ruby La Trobe University Australia Dr. Matthew Ruby is a Lecturer in Psychology at La Trobe University. His research centres on “the modern omnivore’s dilemma—the conflict between people’s desire for meat and the costs of indulging this desire. In particular, he investigates how people decide which (animal) foods are acceptable to eat and which are not, how people reconcile the dissonance between loving meat and loving animals, and how omnivores and veg*ns perceive one another. He primarily lectures across the disciplines of social, cultural, and health psychology. Home > Vol 22, No 2 (2019) > Khara Meat Eating and the Transition from Plant-Based Diets among Urban Indians Tani Khara, Matthew Ruby India has one of the world’s highest proportions of plantbased consumers relative to its total population (Sawe). However, the view that India is a predominantly vegetarian nation is likely inaccurate, as recent findings from the 2014 Indian Census indicate that only three in ten Indians selfidentity as vegetarian (Census of India). Other studies similarly estimate the prevalence of vegetarianism to range from about 25% (Mintel Global) to about 40% (Euromonitor International; Statista, “Share”), and many Indians are shifting from strict plant based diets to more flexible versions of plantbased eating (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). When it comes to meat eating, poultry is the most widely consumed (USDA Foreign Agricultural Service; Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development). Some claim that the changing consumer landscape is also eroding traditional taboos associated with beef and buffalo meat consumption (Kala; Bansal), with many tending to underreport their meat consumption due to religious and cultural stigmas (Bansal). This change in food choices is driven by several factors, such as increasing urbanisation (Devi et al.), rising disposable incomes (Devi et al.; Rukhmini), globalisation, and crosscultural influences (Majumdar; Sinha). Today, the urban middleclass is one of India’s fastest growing consumer segments (Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania), and the rise in the consumption of animal products is primarily occurring in urban India (National Sample Survey Office), making this an important market to investigate. From a global perspective, while many Western nations are increasingly adopting plantbased diets (Eswaran), the growth in meat consumption is predicted to mainly come from emerging markets (OECD/FAO) like India. With these points in mind, the purpose of this study was to explore contemporary eating practices in urban India and to understand how social structures, cultures, and traditions influence these practices. The findings indicate that the key reasons why many are transitioning away from plantbased diets are the rise of new and diverse meat based foods in urban India, emerging tastes for meatbased cuisines, and meat becoming to be viewed as a status symbol. These factors are further elaborated upon in this article. Method A key question of this research was “What are eating practices like in urban India today?” The question itself is a challenge, given India’s varied cultures and traditions, along with its myriad eating practices. Given this diversity, the study used an exploratory qualitative approach, where the main mode of data gathering was twentyfive unstructured individual facetoface interviews, each approximately sixty minutes in duration. The discussions were left largely open to allow participants to share their unique eating practices and reflect on how their practices are shaped by other sociocultural practices. The research used an iterative study design, which entailed cycles of simultaneous data collection, analysis, and subsequent adaptations made to some questions to refine the emerging theory. Within the defined parameters of the research objectives, saturation was adequately reached upon completion of twentyfive interviews. The sample comprised Mumbai residents aged 23 to 45 years, which is fairly representative given about a third of India’s population is aged under 40 (Central Intelligence Agency). Mumbai was selected as it is one of India’s largest cities (Central Intelligence Agency) and is considered the country’s commercial capital (Raghavan) and multicultural hub (Gulliver). The interviews were conducted at a popular restaurant in downtown Mumbai. The interviews were conducted predominantly in English, as it is India’s subsidiary official language (Central Intelligence Agency) and the participants were comfortable conversing in English. The sample included participants from two of India’s largest religions—Hindus (80%) and Muslims (13%) (Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India), and comprised an even split of males and females. The Market Research Society of India has developed a socioeconomic classification (SEC) grid that segments urban households into twelve groups (Market Research Society of India). This segmentation is based on two questions: level of education—from illiteracy to a postgraduate degree—and the ownership of eleven items that range from fairly basic (e.g., electricity connection, gas stove) to relatively sophisticated (e.g., refrigerator, personal computer ). As previous qualitative work has found that education levels and disposable incomes can significantly impact one’s ability to make informed and deliberate food choices (Khara), and given meat is a relatively expensive commodity in India (PuskarPasewicz), the study focused on the most affluent segments—i.e., SEC A1 and some of SEC A2. It is said that researcher values and predispositions are to some extent inseparable from the research process, and therefore that potential researcher bias must be managed by being self aware, looking for contradictory data, and being open to different interpretations of the data (Ogden). As the interviewer is a vegan of Indian ethnicity, she attempted to manage researcher bias in several ways. Triangulation of data sources (e.g., interviews, observations, product analysis) helped provide a multifaceted understanding of the topic (Patton). The discussion guide and findings were also discussed with researchers from different cultural and dietary backgrounds. It is also argued that when a researcher shares the same background as the participants—as was the case in this study—participants may remain silent on certain issues, as they may assume the researcher knows the context and nuances in relation to these issues (McGinn). This arose in some instances as some participants said, “it’s standard stuff you know?” The interviewer hence took an “outsider” role, stating “I’ll need to know what standard stuff is”, so as to reduce any expectation that she ought to understand the social norms, conventions, and cultural practices related to the issue (Leckie). This helped yield more elaborate discussions and greater insight into the topic from the participant’s own unique perspective. The Rise of New and Diverse Meat-based Foods in Urban India Since the early 1990s, which marked the beginning of globalisation in India, urban Indian food culture has undergone a significant change as food imports have been liberalised and international food brands have made their way into the domestic market (Vepa). As a result, India’s major urban centres appear to be witnessing a food revolution: Bombay has become so metropolitan, I mean it always was but it’s so much more in terms of food now … and it’s so tempting. (Female,