We all know how exhausting it is to find places for bachelors in India. Landlords here are something else. Some won’t accept couples, others won’t accept their religion, and the remaining will find another ridiculous reason to reject bachelors. Like their food-eating habits, for instance!
But guess what? Desis carry their instinctual whims, fancies, prejudices, casteism, and conservatism abroad. An Indian couple in Ireland denied accommodation to a Sikh man at the very last moment because he’s a non-vegetarian.
💬”They saw I was Sikh because of my name and the woman said, ‘You can’t live here because you eat non-veg’.” An angry Simran added: “I asked her if she wanted more money for the rent or if me eating non-veg was an issue. She said we strictly want vegetarian people.” pic.twitter.com/gykdcO0IIJ
— DublinLive (@DublinLive) July 26, 2022
India is the most vegetarian country in the world with only 39% of adults claiming to be vegetarians. This minority group has many people deifying vegetarianism as a moral virtue. They boast of it as if it’s some kind of symbol of pride to be vegetarians when more than half of our country and the world eats meat daily.
It’s like people now have clearly forgotten that our species thrived on non-vegetarian food at the very beginning of humankind. You can see that in how the Indian couple was fine with Simran’s girlfriend; they just had an issue with him.
💬”My girlfriend is vegetarian so she tells me, ‘If your girlfriend wants to live in the single room that’s fine with me but you can’t live here’. I even said I won’t cook non-veg at home and I’ll just eat meat at restaurants, and she still said no. It was so frustrating.”
— DublinLive (@DublinLive) July 26, 2022
And these reservations against non-vegetarian Indians are deeply rooted in caste and religion and not because people give two effs about the planet and sustainability. Back then, people from the upper caste prohibited eating meat on religious and moral grounds. In the present times, people continue to follow their principles with free moral policing to anybody who disagrees.
🇮🇳 Simran’s experience isn’t a rare occurrence as a number of Indian professionals in Dublin have found themselves being refused housing by other Indian landlords or subletters due to their dietary habits.https://t.co/7LLxlLDdxd
— DublinLive (@DublinLive) July 26, 2022
LOL.
💬A cursory glance at a number of Facebook groups for Indian immigrants in Ireland will reveal several rooms being advertised for “vegetarians only”. A recent survey by Pew Research found that only 39% of adults in India described themselves as vegetarian. pic.twitter.com/73cdcmF1ir
— DublinLive (@DublinLive) July 26, 2022
And instances like these are so common that you may as well bang your head against the wall because you — my non-vegetarian committed friend — are getting no place anywhere in the world by a desi vegetarian.
🇮🇳 When Vinit Sawant decided to move to Dublin from Limerick, he was shocked to see the number of prerequisites put in place by subletters. He said: “Things like you should be a working professional, you should be single, you shouldn’t eat non-veg, there should be no visitors.”
— DublinLive (@DublinLive) July 26, 2022
💬Gopi Talari also faced similar issues when he moved to Ireland with his wife in March. He told Dublin Live: “People have also said no to us because we eat non-vegetarian food.” pic.twitter.com/QCBalb7i5B
— DublinLive (@DublinLive) July 26, 2022
Here’s how Twitter reacted to this.
You can take the samaaj out of India but you cannot take the sada hua pun out of them. From U.S to Europe, increasing stories of Indian desis and their apartheid like behavior with other Indians of different castes and in this case, meat eaters. https://t.co/X8b5daxMmc
— Mellowed Genie (@alladinsgenie4u) July 27, 2022
Caste prevails on Irish land too. https://t.co/kTJWWs1GwU
— SID (@sidartistt) July 27, 2022
Indian diaspora taking the inter community issues wherever they go it’s dietary restrictions today, will be religion tomorrow!! https://t.co/Qf4du1azE3
— Maria (@mariaa_awd) July 27, 2022
Vegetarian diets considerably increase the risk of incurable peripheral neuropathy.https://t.co/Hp2rCbFCtx
— Nob12deficiency (@nob12deficiency) July 28, 2022
Apparently, that’s true!
Babasaheb decoded so well, his words are being proven right.
— 🖤 Kaala Seth 🖤 (@4m_raj) July 27, 2022
“If Hindus migrate to other regions on earth, Indian caste would become a world problem”- Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. https://t.co/HPwqznzbuv
Hindu landlords refuse rental to Sikh couple… This is not an Irish problem. https://t.co/NbFlIDcGhY
— 🌲💀Birth Control Productions💀🌲 (@bcphates) July 27, 2022
happened with me as well in 2019 when I’d just arrived in Dublin and desperately needed a place – some ppl are just terrible https://t.co/9jrTgPPoTz
— Ashhar A. Qureshi (@ashharaqureshi) July 27, 2022
Congratulations Ireland! You have successfully imported and installed caste system in your country. https://t.co/3lRnz1rsyk
— NastikMan (@ManNastik) July 27, 2022
I understand the need for people in a house share to be selective with prospective housemates, but this criteria seems very cruel in the midst of a housing/rental crisis. https://t.co/Ftjz8ER8oW
— Ben Kiely (@TheJivemaster) July 26, 2022
Clearly, casteism by Desis for Desis is not a thing of India alone. We’re crossing borders!