India has the world's largest number of vegetarians. Many communities in India have always been vegetarian. Many Indians who are not strict vegetarian, take vegetarian diet during religious festivals.
Also, many Indian vegetarians eschew eggs as well as meat. However, all consume dairy products. Veganism is generally not well known in India.
There are many vegetarian cuisines in India. Some of them are:
- Punjabi vegetarian cuisine: common in popular 'Vaishnav' dhabas, e.g. Dal makhani, pindi chana.
- Marwari vegetarian cuisine: e.g. dal-bati
- Marwari sweets: e.g. Choorma and Lapsi
- Gujarati cuisine: e.g. dhokla
- Jain (Satvika) cuisine: e.g. gatte
- UP vegetarian cuisine: e.g. Motichoor ka Ladoo
- Karnataka vegetarian cuisine: e.g. dosa
- Tamil Nadu vegetarian cuisine: e.g. rasam, sambar
- Bengali sweets: e.g. Rasgulla
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“A vegetarian is not a person who lives on vegetables, any more than a Catholic is a person who lives on cats.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
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