Unpacking the Indian community’s tussle with non-vegetarian food at festivals

A debate over the inclusion of non-vegetarian food at cultural celebrations in recent years has raised some curly questions within the Indian community.

The discourse reflects a deeper tension over how Indian cultural practices are defined in New Zealand.

Some groups, including the Hindu Council of New Zealand and the Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin, have criticised the inclusion of meat in some dishes at cultural festivals nationwide.

Other groups, including Wellington Mutamizh Sangam, have supported it.

The polarised positions highlight the way India's diverse culinary practices have been interpreted and adapted in New Zealand.

Diwali, also known as Deepavali, is now widely recognised as one of the largest annual celebrations in New Zealand's multicultural calendar.

A prominent Hindu festival celebrating the return of Ram and Sita to the kingdom of Ayodhya, Diwali is traditionally celebrated with vibrant lights, fireworks and community fairs that include music, dance and delectable Indian cuisine.

The festival is also celebrated by Jains, Sikhs and some Buddhists as well, although for different reasons.

In October, the Hindu Organisations, Temples and Associations (HOTA) Forum NZ published a statement that urged people to celebrate Diwali with "purity and dignity", calling for festive gatherings to exclude meat.

HOTA Forum NZ, which is part of the Hindu Council, said some government agencies, councils and commercial groups were hosting Diwali events that misrepresented the festival.

"These events sometimes include meat, alcohol or a party-like atmosphere, which directly contradict the sacred nature of Deepawali," the statement said.

Vijeshni Rattan, president of the Hindu Council Central Division, said such behaviour was unacceptable.

"Some organisations have been celebrating Diwali with meat and that is not right because it is a religious festival," Rattan said.

"Our media release was to create awareness because people were doing it out of ignorance and it was hurting the sentiment of many Hindus," she said.

Most Diwali events in New Zealand are organised by councils or Indian community associations.

Council events in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch were advertised as being vegetarian, but community-led celebrations varied, reflecting the diversity of the diaspora.

India itself has been grappling with an increasingly politicised debate over food.

Northern Hindi-speaking states traditionally lean more towards vegetarianism, while southern states such as Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as several eastern and northeastern states - West Bengal, Odisha, Tripura, Assam, Sikkim and Manipur, in particular - include meat dishes in Diwali festivities.

Some indigenous communities also eat meat.

A National Family Health Survey report from India in 2021 showed that 80 percent of Indians age 15 to 49 years old ate some form of meat, challenging the perception of India as a mostly vegetarian country.

The Indian community in New Zealand has been debating the politics of food for some time.

In September, Massey University published a research paper titled "Racism and Exclusion in Council-supported Diwali Events: The politics of food and cultural narratives."

The paper examined how a ban placed on non-vegetarian food at council festivals reflected deeper structures of exclusion that were rooted in caste hierarchies and cultural dominance.

"One of the things that has consistently emerged in our research is the marginalization and disenfranchisement of diverse Indian voices, with often the notion of what is India or who makes up India being taken over by certain voices, which I call hegemonic voices in the community," said Mohan Dutta, dean's chair professor of communication at Massey University and author of the paper.

Dutta said the portrayal of large Diwali events as strictly vegetarian stemmed from upper caste and Hindi dominance.

He also criticised organisations linked to Hindutva for downplaying minority Hindu viewpoints.

Rattan said the Hindu Council was not denying anyone the right to eat meat.

"People can do whatever they want in their homes," she said.

"But if you are organising a community event and educating other cultures, you should not send mixed or wrong messages that do not align with our scriptures. Those things need proper reference."

Rattan said the issue was not about suppressing minority [Hindu] voices but about protecting the core meaning of the festival.

"I respect the rights of [Hindu] minorities, but if those voices overtake our culture and present it in a negative way and we stay silent, then the next generation will have no idea what Diwali truly is," she said.

Dutta called for more awareness of India's diversity and for councils to include a broader range of communities in advisory group discussions.

The organiser of this year's Auckland Diwali Festival said the event had been fully vegetarian since its inception in 2002.

"Tātaki Auckland Unlimited acknowledges that, globally, Diwali is not exclusively a vegetarian celebration," said Jep Savali, group events manager of the organisation.

"The decision was made to reflect traditional interpretations of Diwali and to create an inclusive environment for all communities, recognising that vegetarian food was widely accepted across diverse Indian cultural and religious practices," Savali said.

The organisation had no plans to change its vegetarian policy, and any future review would be undertaken only after consulting the advisory group, he said.

Wellington City Council said it had not been involved in decisions about the food sold or consumed during this year's Diwali celebrations.

But Murali Kumar, spokesperson for Communities Action Trust, said the event organiser wanted to respect the traditions and culture surrounding Diwali.

"The festival began in New Zealand in the early 2000s," Kumar said. "Based on community discussions with leaders and wider Indian communities at the time, the celebration was designed to be vegetarian and non-alcoholic, keeping in line with the traditions and culture of the Hindu religion."

However, Dutta, a Hindu from West Bengal, said many Hindu communities, including those in the northeast and south, ate meat as part of their celebrations.

Wellington Mutamizh Sangam president Karuna Muthu agreed.

"Deepavali is a celebration of light over darkness, and the darkness of religious zeal is not the Hindu spirit," he said. "Hinduism is a way of life."

Muthu said the Tamil practice of Hinduism differed sharply from traditions celebrated in other parts of India.

"You do not need to be a vegetarian to be a Hindu," Muthu said. "You do not need to be a Hindu to be a Tamil. And you do not need to be an Indian to celebrate Deepavali."

He said vegetarian-only interpretations represented the beliefs of a single group, while Diwali itself was celebrated globally.

Muthu believed council preferences for vegetarian events could be traced to migration history.

Early Indian migrants brought by the British, followed by Indo-Fijian arrivals in the 1980s and later Sri Lankan Tamils and professional migrants, had shaped the community, he said.

"Perhaps the genesis of celebrating Deepavali as vegetarian came from people who believed it should be a religious festival?" he said.

"It stuck with councils, and we never questioned it because we were happy to see something Indian happening in New Zealand."

He described it as an outcome of history.

"Time and migration patterns are the reason councils still celebrate Diwali with a vegetarian slant," he said.

Sekhar Bandopadhyay, emeritus professor of history at Victoria University of Wellington, said the vegetarian debate had only recently emerged in New Zealand.

"This debate is very recent," he said.

"Even 10 years ago I never heard of any group objecting to non-vegetarian food or trying to impose vegetarianism on others at public cultural events."

Bandopadhyay said Hinduism has never been a monolithic religion and India's popular religious practices did not depend only on scriptures but were also determined by myriad local customs.

"There have always been wide regional variations," he said.

He said while northern and western India followed strict vegetarian diets during Navratri and Diwali, eastern India had long practised the Sakta tradition, which historically involved animal sacrifice.

"That practice has faded, but offering meat to deities continues," he said.

During Diwali, Bengalis typically worship Goddess Kali and offer meat that is later consumed as prasad (a religious offering).

"Along with vegetarianism, meat eating is also a part of the religious practices of many Hindus," he said.

Bandopadhyay said he had attended various community Diwali festivals in Wellington where meat dishes were available.

No one objected, he said, because the event was celebrated as a cultural festival, not a religious one.

He said the Indian community in New Zealand included both vegetarians and non-vegetarians who respected each other.

"Indian festivals should continue to serve both non-vegetarian and vegetarian dishes in the true spirit of pluralist India," he said.