Public health practitioner and Bengaluru-based researcher Sylvia Karpagam confronts the dominant caste notions of the Whole Indian Diet
Public health practitioner and Bengaluru-based researcher Sylvia Karpagam confronts the dominant caste notions of the Whole Indian Diet
A young man told Sylvia Karpagam that he had seen a video of her and thanked her for her insights on nutrition and caste. “My teacher kept saying that if you eat meat the tongue becomes thick and hence you cannot speak as clearly as Brahmin children, but I thanked you,” he told her. Karpagam says it is these moments that make her work worthwhile. “Especially in terms of nutrition, people don’t have the vocabulary to fight for.”
When we meet at her home in Vivek Nagar, Bengaluru, Karpagam, 51, throws such truths my way in a concise manner, alternating smiling and blushing. His calm demeanor defies the enormity of the work he has done – to counter the dominant casteist ideas of the entire Indian diet. In a country that is increasingly criminalizing meat eating, Karpagam, the product of an interracial, inter-religious, inter-linguistic marriage between an ISRO pharmacist and a plane crash investigation officer, challenges the belief that India is a ‘ Vegetarian nation. In fact, less than a quarter of Indians eat only vegetarian food.
She argues against the removal of eggs from the mid-day meal menu in government schools and believes that the state should not allow organizations such as the Akshaya Patra Foundation, an initiative of ISKCON and the largest suppliers of these meals (millions across the country) . To organize nutrition within the framework of its broader Vedic ideology, ignoring Indians who have traditionally eaten nutrient-rich foods such as organ meats, beef and dried fish. Along with other experts working with Karnataka-based Ahara Namma Hakku (Our Food, Our Right), Karpagam advocates for ‘right to nutrition’ rather than just ‘right to food’. They are against the National Education Policy which says that laying eggs to school children would be discriminatory to those who do not eat eggs and who believe that eggs are the menstrual cycle of chickens.
Sylvia Karpagam became interested in the social determinants of health in 2013 as a medical relief worker in a Bengaluru slum. photo credit: special arrangement
eradicating vegetarian bias
“thoughts of Moral Food for poor children is a way to unify food… one food, one nation, one language,” says Karpagam, who regularly uses data and science to counter ideas like meat. vengeful Food that allows ‘destructive qualities’ to flourish.
“In the health system, the messages are all about fruits, vegetables and supplements,” she says, adding that most government programs are grain and grain-focused, and insufficient to tackle childhood malnutrition. “Doctors also tell their patients to give up meat. The belief that vegetarian is better is deeply rooted.” When she asked a group of principals of Catholic institutions what was the best source of iron, they also said spinach. The correct answer? Liver among other meats.
Karpagam became interested in social determinants of health in 2013 as a medical relief worker in a Bengaluru slum, where he observed that displaced people’s health deteriorated within a week. Before that, she wanted to be a pediatrician, but couldn’t handle the emotional toll that was likely to be taken from the job. So instead, she opted for community therapy. Now, a decade later, he is one of the most outspoken public health doctors/researchers on social media. She even clarified her rusty Tamil take on director Pa Ranjith’s popular YouTube channel Neelam Social.
Sylvia Karpagum is also working on the role of the healthcare system in enabling custodial violence and torture. photo credit: special arrangement
control the trolls
Although Karpagam focuses on nutrition, she often talks/writes on a range of issues. She waits on Twitter to edit an excerpt she wrote for a medical journal on open racism and Islamophobia among doctors. She is also working on the role of the healthcare system in enabling custodial violence and torture.
“You get thrown into things only because no one else is talking about it… the silence is shocking,” she says, referring to the fact that most experts approach issues through the lens of caste. avoid looking. At a rights organization where she documented undertrials and death sentences, the words Dalit and Muslim were replaced with ‘financially poor’, she says.
“When people ask me why I join trolls, I tell them it is like street theatre. Unless you have an audience, you can’t have your say. Once someone criticizes you, you can say, ‘Here’s all the data’. However, the real audience is the one who is tracking the discussions with the trolls, she adds. These days, however, with a surge of Ambedkarite voices on Indian social media, Karpagam always comes back to his posts only to see that someone outspoken has already taken on the trolls. She is glad that she is helping them find the words.
Priya Ramani is a journalist on the editorial board of Article 14. She is the co-founder of India Love Project.