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Understanding transition in animal based food consumption: a case study in the city of Vadodara in Gujarat (India)

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Abstract

India is experiencing a modernisation process characterised by rapid urbanisation and the emergence of a new middle class. This process is expected to lead to a change in lifestyles and dietary patterns, and notably higher consumption of animal based foods. The present article focuses on this changing dietary trend in the city of Vadodara in Gujarat (India). A stratified sample of 432 women and men was selected, representing Brahmin, non-Brahmin and Jain communities from high, medium and low socioeconomic strata. The results revealed that, in the transition process, the supposed protein shift from plant- to animal based foods takes specific forms in this cultural context because of more complex drivers that shape food consumption than the socioeconomic position in the society. It highlights that beyond the supra-determination of castes and socioeconomic classes, major drivers of this consumption are the norms and values attached to foods and their interrelations with eating practices according to spatiotemporal and social dimensions. This Indian case reveals that dietary change is not unidirectional towards the Western model but each culture has a unique form of transition.

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Notes

  1. Animals whose physical attributes and reproduction differ from those of humans.

  2. The food model is a sociotechnical and symbolic set that marks the identity of a group and participates in the differentiation process. The food model is circumstantial and not static because it considers food as a dynamic process resulting from biological, environmental, cultural and social interactions. This tool overcomes the aporia of opposing these dimensions, by linking them together and providing a ‘free space’, for both the societies that face these constraints, and individuals caught in the social structures.

  3. Besides, the butcher function is relegated to the lower castes and Muslims but to priests as in the case of the imam or rabbi.

  4. These mechanisms can be understood in the light of the principle of incorporation described by Claude Fischler (1988). The principle conveys that eating determines the eater’s inclusion or exclusion in different social groups since food carries cultural and social values.

  5. Sanskritization, a particular form of social change found in India, denotes the process by which castes placed lower in the caste hierarchy seek upward mobility by emulating the rituals and practices of the upper or dominant castes (Srinivas 1952).

  6. The middle class in India, however, constitutes a heterogeneous group and is often split into sub-economic groups (Sridharan 2004). On that matter, Deshpande (2006) accurately pointed out that popular meanings of middle class in India do not position it in the middle along the class spectrum. Actually, the term refers to the affluent class rather than the middle class by any reasonable definition (occupation, revenue, consumption patterns, lifestyle).

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Acknowledgments

We were able to conduct this study thanks to the CIRAD’s research fellowship program during Estelle Fourat’s PhD thesis. This research was supported by French National Research Agency (“Investment for the Future Program” ANR-10-LABX-0001-01) through Agropolis Fondation Labex Agro under the reference ID 1300-011 and by Danone Research. We also thank the reviewers whose criticisms helped us to considerably improve our argument. Thank you also to David Manley for proofreading. A special thank you to the field investigators who persisted in conducting the survey through various difficult situations (floods, strikes, etc.): Hetal Chavda, Jemima Chauhan, Trupti Desai, Priyanka Patel, Surekha Rathwa, and Divya Vasava. We also thank the research and office staff of the Women’s Studies Research Center who pitched in at different stages of the study: Falguni Helaiya, Krupali Patel, Sushma Parekh, Priya Parikh, Khushbu Suthar. Last, but certainly not the least, we owe a debt of gratitude to all the participants who offered their time to respond to the interviews.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université Libre de Bruxelles, Avenue Jeanne, 44, B-1050, Bruxelles, Belgium

    Estelle Fourat

  2. Department of Human Development and Family Studies, and Women’s Studies Research Center, Faculty of Family and Community Sciences, The M.S. University of Baroda, Gujarat, India

    Shagufa Kapadia

  3. Population Research Centre, Faculty of Science, The M.S. University of Baroda, Gujarat, India

    Urvi Shah

  4. Women’s Studies Research Center, Faculty of Family and Community Sciences, The M.S. University of Baroda, Gujarat, India

    Vaishali Zararia

  5. CIRAD, UMR MOISA, F-34398, Montpellier, France

    Nicolas Bricas

  6. MOISA, Université Montpellier, Montpellier, France

    Nicolas Bricas

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  1. Estelle Fourat
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Correspondence to Estelle Fourat.

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Fourat, E., Kapadia, S., Shah, U. et al. Understanding transition in animal based food consumption: a case study in the city of Vadodara in Gujarat (India). Rev Agric Food Environ Stud 99, 189–205 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41130-018-0076-7

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