Are a million mutinies creating a thousand segregations in India?

Food segregation at India's elite institutions of higher education is a worrying sign of rising anti-modernism and intolerance

- SANJOY CHAKRAVORTY

Over the last few days, a familiar drama played out at IIT Kharagpur. At Ambedkar Hall (irony noted), students were mandated to comply with “vegetarian and non-vegetarian seating arrangements.”

In other words, segregation by food preference was to be enforced because some vegetarians had complained about sharing tables with students who ate eggs, chicken or meat. This circular raised a hue and cry among alumni (who had never seen this in their time) and current students. As I write this, the word is that the directive has been withdrawn.

This dining segregation policy may be new to IIT Kharagpur, but is well trodden ground for other Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), unfortunately. There have been reports in the last decade of similar policies of segregating vegetarian and non-vegetarian tables in the IITs at Madras, Bombay, Hyderabad and Mandi, though it is hard to tell how long the policies lasted and whether the practice continued even if there was no official policy. Many observers have roundly condemned these actions as overtly casteist and intolerant. One could be tempted to ask the youngsters demanding food segregation whether they would or could insist on it once they graduate to corporate life, or, even better, life abroad, perhaps in the US. One could ask whether these 'moral' or 'ethical' standards are strictly situational; that is, whether ethics is simply a matter of convenience, a stick to beat those who are different?