Dishes on display at a food stall at a vegetarian food festival in Bengaluru.
Dishes on display at a nutrient stall at a vegetarian food festival in Bengaluru. (Manjunath Kiran/AFP via Getty Images)

All of India'south nigh widely skilful religions have dietary laws and traditions. For example, Hindu texts ofttimes praise vegetarianism, and Hindus may also avoid eating beefiness considering cows are traditionally viewed every bit sacred. Muslim teachings, meanwhile, prohibit pork.

The vast majority of Indian adults (81%) follow some restrictions on meat in their nutrition, including refraining from eating certain meats, not eating meat on certain days, or both. However, almost Indians do not abjure from meat altogether – but 39% of Indian adults depict themselves as "vegetarian," according to a new Pew Research Heart survey. (While there are many means to define "vegetarian" in Bharat, the survey left the definition up to the respondent.)

A bar chart showing majorities in all of India's religious groups follow at least some restrictions on meat in their diet

Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to better understand how dietary laws and traditions in India are tied to religious identities, beliefs and attitudes. It is based on the 2021 written report "Religion in India: Tolerance and Segregation," the Centre'south most comprehensive, in-depth exploration of Indian public opinion to engagement. For this report, we completed 29,999 contiguous interviews in 17 languages with adults ages 18 and older living in 26 Indian states and three marriage territories. The sample included interviews with 22,975 Hindus, 3,336 Muslims, ane,782 Sikhs, i,011 Christians, 719 Buddhists and 109 Jains. An additional 67 respondents belong to other religions or are religiously unaffiliated. Interviews for this nationally representative survey were conducted from Nov. 17, 2019, to March 23, 2020.

Respondents were selected using a probability-based sample design that would let for robust assay of all major religious groups in India, too as all major regional zones. 6 groups were targeted for oversampling as part of the survey design: Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and those living in the Northeast region. Data was weighted to account for the different probabilities of selection amidst respondents and to marshal with demographic benchmarks for the Indian adult population from the 2011 demography.

Hither are the questions used for this report, forth with responses, and its methodology.

Among India'south 6 largest religious groups, some are much more likely than others to abjure from meat. For example, the vast majority of Jains say they are vegetarian (92%), compared with just 8% of Muslims and 10% of Christians. Hindus fall in between (44%).

Notwithstanding, even amid groups with depression rates of vegetarianism, many Indians restrict their meat consumption. For example, roughly two-thirds of Muslims (67%) and Christians (66%) avoid meat in some way, such as refraining from eating certain meats, non eating meat on sure days, or both. Among Hindus, in add-on to the 44% who are vegetarian, another 39% follow some other restriction on meat consumption.

Many Jains avoid not only meat but also root vegetables to avoid destroying the unabridged institute, which is seen as a form of violence in Jain theology. About two-thirds of Jains (67%) say they abjure from eating root vegetables such as garlic and onions (staples in many Indian cuisines). Even among Hindus and Sikhs, roughly one-in-5 say they practice not eat root vegetables (21% and eighteen%, respectively). Hindu vegetarians are near evenly divided between those who eat root vegetables and those who practice non.

Fasting is another mutual dietary exercise in India. About three-quarters of Indians overall (77%) fast, including about eight-in-ten or more among Muslims (85%), Jains (84%) and Hindus (79%). Smaller majorities of Christians and Buddhists fast (64% and 61%, respectively), while Sikhs are the least likely to fast (28%).

Religious groups in India fast to marker different occasions. Muslims, for example, fast during the calendar month of Ramadan each yr, while other Indians fast on certain days of the calendar week and to mark important life events. Hindus, especially in the Due south, may fast before every Skanda Sashti – a mean solar day devoted to Skanda, the god of war.

In addition to asking about personal dietary habits, the survey asked whether respondents would ever consume food in the abode of someone – or at a function hosted past people – whose religion has different rules almost food than their own. Overall, Indians are evenly carve up on these questions, but there are wide variations by group.

A bar chart showing Muslim, Christian, Buddhist vegetarians most flexible about where they eat

Roughly a quarter of Jains say they would eat in a habitation (24%) or at a role (27%) where the host'southward religious rules about food differ from their own, while slightly fewer than half of India'due south Hindus and Sikhs say the same. In contrast, six-in-ten or more Buddhists, Muslims and Christians would be willing to eat at a place with dissimilar rules nigh food.

In that location is a similar pattern when asking vegetarians about eating in different situations. Vegetarian Jains are the to the lowest degree likely to say they would always eat nutrient in a restaurant that serves both non-vegetarian and vegetarian food or in the home of a friend who is non vegetarian. In contrast, Buddhists, Muslims and Christians are the most probable to say this. Hindu and Sikh vegetarians, meanwhile, fall somewhere in the middle, with three-in-ten or more proverb they would e'er swallow food in these non-vegetarian settings.

Not only practise religious dietary traditions impact Indians' day-t0-mean solar day lives, but they also influence concepts of religious identity and belonging.

A bar chart showing many Indians view dietary restrictions as essential to religious identity

In fact, Indian adults are generally more probable to say that following dietary restrictions is a requirement for religious identity than to say that belief in God and prayer are essential. For instance, 72% of Hindus say someone cannot be Hindu if they consume beef, but fewer express the same sentiment about someone who does not believe in God (49%) or never prays (48%).

Among Muslims, Sikhs and Jains, even greater shares say that following dietary rules is essential to religious identity: 77% of Muslims say a person cannot be Muslim if they eat pork, compared with smaller shares who say this about a person who does non believe in God (60%) or never prays (67%). More than eight-in-ten Sikhs (82%) and Jains (85%) say that a person cannot be truly a member of their religion if they eat beef. Buddhists are split up on the issue, with about half expressing that someone cannot be a Buddhist if they swallow beef. (Christians were non asked about eating meat and Christian identity.)

Notation: Hither are the questions used for this study, forth with responses, and its methodology.

Manolo Corichi is a enquiry banana focusing on religion research at Pew Inquiry Center.