Thread by @shrikanth_krish

It's amazing how people exclaim in opposite ways to the same number

E.g - Food habits

~30% of Indians abstain strictly from meat
Another ~15-20% eat occasionally

My reaction: Vegetarianism is v widespread in India

Liberal reaction:India is a predominantly non veg country

I'd like to think my reaction is more legitimate

Because the default for homo-sapiens is meat eating in most parts of the world

For most of human race, eating meat every day / every other day is norm

Strict vegetarianism < 5% in nearly all countries

So when you see ~30%, that's what should catch your attention

It should not lead you to exclaim how India is no different from the rest of the world in food habits

Yet the liberal reaction is one of trying to undermine / gloss over Indian exceptionalism in this regard

This little thread is prompted by some tweets where people are sharing a hackneyed map of India with some concentric circles showing % of vegetarians in each state

And then exclaiming - "India is non veg"

What they miss is Indians are some 8-10 times more likely to be vegetarian than any other nationality

Post-script : Many are predictably reacting to this little thread saying - "But hey..saying that majority of Indians have meat in their diet" is not technically wrong

Sure it is not. But that's not a headline worthy news
Default behavior for human beings is to eat meat!

What's remarkable and striking is that this one country among the 200 countries on earth, has about a third of its population that does not eat meat at all. Ever.

That's what you should find remarkable