Is Varanasi becoming the world's second vegetarian city?
When Om Prakash Singh's family gathered last Sunday at their home in Varanasi's Sigra neighbourhood to celebrate a family occasion, the menu was exactly what
When Om Prakash Singh's family gathered last Sunday at their home in Varanasi's Sigra neighbourhood to celebrate a family occasion, the menu was exactly what one would expect at a traditional feast in eastern Uttar Pradesh. Fish, chicken, mutton, pork, and an assortment of other delicacies, veg and non-veg. But arranging that feast was not as easy as it used to be. Read Full Story A member of the Thakur community, Singh grew up in a household where meat had always been a regular part of the diet. Chicken and mutton are typically cooked three times a week — on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. "I would normally have picked up the meat from nearby Lallapura, barely a kilometre from my home near Sigra Stadium," said Singh. This time, however, "I had to travel across the Ganga, to Ramnagar". Buying meat, not just for the feast, but in general, was a quick errand. Now, to get different varieties of proteins, Singh needs planning. The shops in Lallapura, where Singh had been a regular customer for decades, have already begun shutting down. All meat shops within the Varanasi Municipal Corporation (VMC) limits would be relocated to the city's outskirts over the next six months, said the city's Mayor, Ashok Tiwari. Varanasi is not becoming a vegetarian city, but meat shops have been barred from operating within city limits. At present, Palitana in Gujarat remains the only town in the world that is strictly vegetarian. In Palitana, which houses several Jain shrines, sale and consumption of meat, even at homes, is strictly prohibited. In Varanasi, Singh's struggle is increasingly becoming the norm for the city's residents, as it's moving ahead with a major civic decision of relocating meat, fish and poultry shops from the city's core to its outskirts. Earlier this month, the VMC approved a plan to shift around 350 to 400 meat-related businesses in phases over the next six months. The shops will be moved to five designated localities outside the city — Ramnagar, Sujabad, Ganeshpur, Awaleshpur and Shivpur — with authorities hoping to complete the process before Diwali (in November this year).
Municipal officials say the objective is cleaner streets, better waste management and less congestion in one of India's most important temple towns. VMC's Public Relations Officer, Sandeep Srivastava, last week described the move as part of a broader effort to make Kashi more organised while preserving its cultural and spiritual character. Varanasi, a city in Uttar Pradesh, is known for the Kashi Vishwanath temple and the ghats by the Ganga. Two of the ghats, Manikarnika and Harishchandra, are used for cremation. The city attracts devotees who believe it to be the site to attain moksha (liberation from the cycle of births and deaths). Over the past decade, the city has undergone a dramatic transformation, with redeveloped ghats, widened roads around the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor, and major infrastructure projects designed to modernise one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities. VARANASI, A CITY OF MANY COMMUNITIES, MANY FOOD TRADITIONS While popular perception says that non-veg should be prohibited in Shiva's Kashi, Varanasi is also a city of many communities and food traditions. While Kashi is often associated with vegetarianism because of its religious significance, the reality of everyday life is more diverse. Meat and fish remain part of the diet for significant sections of the population, including many Thakur families, Muslims and Bengalis, whose culinary traditions have long included fish, chicken and mutton. Varanasi has historically been home to a sizeable Muslim population (including the weaver community). As a result, the relocation of meat, fish and poultry shops is likely to affect not just traders but also a substantial number of residents who regularly consume non-vegetarian food. Two statisticians India Today Digital spoke to said determining exactly how many people from each community live within the city's municipal limits was difficult because the last Census was conducted in 2011. There is no recent community-wise or caste-wise population data available for the urban area, which is about 82 sq km compared to the Lok Sabha constituency's expanse of over 1,500 sq km, which includes over 1,200 villages.
The BriefWire