Food Apartheid: Non-vegetarians Not Allowed!

In 2016, an actor and his family living in an upscale housing complex in Dahisar, Mum­bai, had a nasty experience when vegetarians living in the complex started har­assing them over their consumption of animal protein. After a heated confrontation with the actor, their neighbours started leaving dog poop, garbage and other unsavoury stuff at their door. There was an unofficial social boy­cott of the family. The actor’s school-going son was teased mercilessly about “eating ani­mals”, called a “ghati” (a derogatory reference to Maharashtr­i­ans) and not allowed into the play area of the complex. Though the actor filed numerous police complaints, the harassment continued. Finally, fed up with the harassment, they sold the flat and moved on to a housing complex which was open to “non-vegetarians”.

Today, discrimination while renting or selling homes is rampant across the state, specifically in Mumbai. Scores of people are denied houses bec­a­use they are non-vegetarians. Such food preferen­ces are leading to an exten­ded sea­rch for good and aff­or­d­able accommodation, oft­en without succ­ess. Housing comple­xes­—­­whe­ther swanky high-ri­ses or more modest middle-class ones—have emb­arked on a silent campaign to turn the cosmopolitan Mum­bai into a vegetarian-only zone. Real est­ate brokers who spoke with Outlook said they have specific instructions to keep away Maha­r­a­shtrians, Mus­lims, Backward Castes and other meat-eating people from renting or buying flats. Since a majority of Maharashtri­ans are meat eaters, finding affordable housing in good complexes has become a herculean task for many.

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Inexorably, Maharashtrians are being pushed out to far-flung suburbs to the north of Mum­bai, what with redevelopment being pursued on a large scale in areas that were traditionally Mah­arashtrian pockets adding to the effect of the culinary discrimination. Some, who have been displaced by redevelopment projects, have settled in Valsad, which is all the way up to the Gujarat border.

Vegetarian enclaves in Mumbai are giving the evil eye to meat eaters, who often hide their food preference and claim to be vegetarian in order to avail flats, either on rent or to buy. They then cook non-vegetarian dishes in their new homes, trying to mask the aromas wafting from their kitchens with strong scented incense sticks, loban or dhoop.

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Priti Deshmane and her family love mutton. When their tenement in a chawl in Parel went under the redevelopment hammer, unlike many of their neighbours, they did not take the comp­e­nsation offered by the builder and move to a far­away suburb. Instead, they got a flat in a swa­nky highrise in 2018, for which they had to pay a part of the price. On being confronted about the­ir food habits, the Deshmanes told the managing committee of the society—comprising veg­etarian Gujaratis, Jains and Marwaris—that they too were vegetarians.

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Back in the chawl, they ate fish or meat on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays—and vegetarian fare on other days for religious reasons. Though there is a big fish and meat market in Parel, Priti takes a bus to the Byculla market farther away to buy her family’s quota of fish and meat. This is then wrapped in layers of pap­er and plastic for its journey home. She sprays the outer side of the plastic bag with sanitiser to mask the smell. “People in the society do not like us as we are not rich. Now I am used to sm­u­ggling non-veg food into my house. We can’t order non-veg via home delivery apps as the security guard has been instructed to check the receipt for possible infringement. I light loban, dhoop and agarbattis and keep them outside my door on all days, to avert the suspicion of my neighbours,” says Priti to Outlook. They don’t want to get into a confrontation with their nei­ghbours for the sake of their teenage children, she adds.

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Even celebrities who eat meat are not spared. Actor Saif Ali Khan had reve­a­led that when he was hunting for houses in 2012 after his marriage to Kareena Kapoor, he was turned away by many housing societies. In November 2014, actor Emraan Hashmi too air­ed a similar complaint—that a housing society for the well-hee­led had turned him down. In May 2015, Vai­sh­nav Rane, an engineer, wanted to book a 1-BHK flat for his sister in an under-­construc­tion high-rise in Malad (East)—a suburb to the north of Mumbai. He was told the flats were specifically meant for Gujaratis, Jains and Marwaris. Maharashtrians, Muslims and those from Backward Communities would not be allowed to buy flats, he was informed.

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There is a lack of political will to weed out this problem from the roots, say many of those who spoke to Outlook. Behind the recent drive to deny accommodation to meat eaters is reportedly an influential builder, an MLA of a national party. Even restaurants with fish and meat on the menu are not allowed to set up shop in the areas that fall within his assembly constituency.

Govardhan Deshmukh of the NGO Marathi Ekikaran Samiti (MES) is leading the fightback against this rising discrimination over food pre­ferences. Speaking to Outlook, Deshmukh said he too has been a victim. “It was October 2021. I was looking for a flat, saw an advertisement on Facebook for one in Mira Road, and contacted the owner. He told me the society had specific­ally instructed him not to sell his flat to Maha­r­a­shtrians, Muslims and people from com­m­u­nities who are known to eat meat. I filed a complaint at the Mira Road police station,” says Deshmukh.

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But, he says, the police were initially not keen on registering his complaint. They finally registered a non-cognisable offence after making him sit at the police station for six hours. Bec­a­use of Deshmukh’s tenacity, the police called the chairman and secretary of the society, as well as the flat seller. “The management denied they had put any such condition. The seller was arrested, but later released on bail. To date, neither has a chargesheet been filed, nor has the matter moved forward,” says Deshmukh.

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The MES has started collating data on this discriminatory practice from across Mahara­sh­tra. “Gujarati, Jain and Marwari builders are usi­ng their vast resources to buy huge tracts of land in Mumbai and other parts of Maharas­h­tra. They then build a Jain or Gujarati temple in the premises of housing societies they build, as casus belli to pre-empt sale of flats to meat eaters,” says Deshmukh.

Santosh Dhuri of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), too, claims he was denied accommodation in a housing complex in Goregaon in 2016. Then a corporator, he wanted to buy a 2-BHK flat, but was told that since he was a meat-­eating Maharashtrian, there were no flats available in the ‘Gujarati only’ complex. He had then filed a complaint against the builder, but the case is yet to move forward.

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Over a decade ago, residents of a ‘vegetarian zone’ in Chembur prevented an eatery selling kebabs to be set up in the area, arguing that a non-vegetarian eatery—even if were set up on the road—would attract the “wrong crowd”.

Across Mumbai and Maharashtra, a majority of schools, including expensive private English-medium ones, have implemented an unofficial “no-meat” tiffin policy on students for a while. A traumatic experience killed lawyer Jayshree Mohandas’s belief that Mumbai is a city of “open-­minded” people. “One day, I gave my daughter an egg sandwich as tiffin. I was called to school and categorically told by the class tea­cher to only send vegetarian food. My child was in tears and traumatised. She was ostracised, and friends stopped talking to her. I had to cha­nge her school because she refused to return to her old school,” says Mohandas.

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Across Mumbai, vegetarianism is considered a USP in the real estate industry, and has bec­ome a bullying exercise, say many. On Novem­ber 27, 2014, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Cor­pora­t­ion (BMC) passed a resolution stating that the civic body should stay the construction of any residential project if a builder refuses to sell flats on food preferences, caste or religion. But since builders do not give in writing that they are selling flats only to vegetarians, it is difficult for victims to file complaints, says Desh­m­ukh. The numbers of those who have been dis­criminated against is large, yet, the fear of social boycott by neighbours within a housing complex deters many from talking about their experience. “We have learnt to live with it,” said Suresh Bhoite, a marketing professional at a med­ia group. “My daughter has turned vegetarian. She says it will be easy to live with others now,” says Bhoite.

No political party in Maharashtra has seriou­sly taken up this issue. Even the MNS has been less than sincere on the topic. The BJP of cou­rse has stayed clear of addressing the issue, as a large chunk of Gujaratis, Jains and Marwaris are their traditional vote bank. According to sou­rces, the discrimination has increased manifold since the BJP cornered the chief minister­ial post in the state for the first time in 2014. This is the period when this discrimination spr­ead from Mumbai to Pune, Nasik, Thane and Nagpur.

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According to a sitting judge of the Bombay high court, there is no legal provision that all­ows members of a majority community in a cooperative housing society to impose their food preferences on others. “In case something like this takes place it is a violation of the fundame­n­tal right to choose one’s own food,” said the judge to Outlook.

The roots of the problem can be traced all the way back to the 1980s, when there was a real est­ate boom in Mumbai. Suddenly, “vegetarian only” housing projects began mushrooming in Parel, Lalbaug, Ghatkopar, Goregaon, Mulund, Vile Par­le, Malabar Hill, Byculla, Mazgaon, Bor­i­vali, Mal­ad and Goregaon. Today, areas such as Bandra, Khar, Nana Chowk, Juhu Scheme, Teen Batti, Walkeshwar, Napean Sea Road, Dadar, Gir­gaum etc., have succumbed to the silent rule, forbidding non-vegetarians from buying homes in societies.  

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Housing societies regularly use the No Objec­t­ion Certificate (NOC) that flat-owners have to seek from the society management before leasing or selling their flats to dictate terms to flat owners about whom to sell or rent their properties. But Section 23 of the Maharashtra Coope­r­ative Societies Act, 1960, states that housing soc­ieties cannot discriminate against a person over their food preference, religion or caste. Earlier this month, Maharashtra housing mini­s­ter Jitendra Awhad tweeted to reiterate that flat-owners who wanted to lease out or sell their flats do not need any NOC from the society man­agement, as it increased hatred. But prosp­ective customers remain unconvinced.

(This appeared in the print edition as "‘Non-vegetarians Not Allowed Here’")

Haima Deshpande in Mumbai