> How does omnivore not cover most people’s diets in India? The dimensions of dietary regimes are even more complex in India than "omnivore" can capture. Som

> How does omnivore not cover most people’s diets in India? The dimensions of dietary regimes are even more complex in India than "omnivore" can capture. Some very religiously orthodox groups won't even eat onions and garlic because they are believed to encourage behavioral and spiritual "tendencies" that they seek to avoid. Some meat eating Hindus will avoid eating an animal that hasn't been killed with a single strike (in contrast to the Islamic Halal practice of bleeding animals when slaughtered). > It seems like Indians use vegetarian to describe frequency or proportion of one’s diet that is animals. Vegetarianism has a strong group-identitarian function in India. When it is used as a self-description, it generally is a claim to be 100% vegetarian (per the traditional definition). The extent to which vegetarianism is proportional to an omnivore's diet is often based on social context, not percentage. For example, in religious contexts most Hindus adhere to vegetarianism, even if they are not vegetarian in secular and daily life contexts. There is a fair amount of dietary code-switching, and it's considered normal in the contexts where it occurs. This is quite similar to the pattern seen in many other countries from Asia through to Christian Europe and Africa, where fasting often involves abstention from meat consumption. India also has major differences in vegetarianism rates by region. The peak rates of vegetarianism are in the west and northwest (~70% in the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Punjab), and the lowest rates are to be found in the south and east of India (~2%). https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/4nr8a2/vegetarianism_as_percentage_of_population_in/ https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/4nr8a2/vegetarianism...