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It was a sensational charge in a country where food is yet another marker of political, religious and caste divides.
For centuries, the Tirupati temple in the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh has given laddu, a ball-shaped sweet, to devotees. The temple is the richest Hindu holy site in the world, with revenues each year of hundreds of millions of dollars, and it is spending about a million dollars a month just on ghee to fry the laddu in, according to M.K. Jagadish, an official at a state-owned dairy.
Last month, the state’s newly elected chief minister, a Hindu named N. Chandrababu Naidu, accused his Christian predecessor of allowing the temple’s laddu to be made in ghee, a clarified butter, that was adulterated with other animal fats. A majority of the temple’s devotees are vegetarian; Mr. Naidu’s allegation called into question the sanctity of the temple itself.
The case of the temple sweet shows how India’s food cultures have become increasingly politicized. In a nation where cows are viewed as sacred by most Hindus, many states have banned the slaughter of cows and made the transportation of beef a punishable offense. In some, even the cooking of eggs has drawn official condemnation. Restaurants are closely monitored for any mixing of vegetarian and nonvegetarian food. Some states have ordered the owners of food stalls to display their names clearly so consumers are aware of their religious and caste identity.
Cultural sensitivities surrounding food are not new in India. The Indian Rebellion of 1857 against the British was ignited by allegations that rifle cartridges, which had to be manually loaded by biting off the end, were greased in beef tallow and pig fat, antagonizing both Hindu and Muslim soldiers in the British Army.
But the politicization of food has become more pervasive with the rise of Hindu nationalism under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Vegetarianism and cow protection are now a staple of the political discourse. Mere accusations of eating or transporting beef — mostly against Muslims — can result in lynchings by cow-protection vigilantes and right-wing organizations.
In the temple case, Mr. Naidu took his accusations to the country’s Supreme Court.
Last month, the court criticized him for making his claims without conclusive lab results on the ghee samples. “You should have at least kept the gods away from politics,” Justice B.R. Gavai said.
The conception of those gods as vegetarian has no basis in Hinduism’s central scriptures, said Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd, an author of books including “Buffalo Nationalism” and “Why I Am Not a Hindu.” Instead, he said, it was manufactured by upper castes in India’s rigidly hierarchical society and is used to enforce their superiority.
Brahmins, the priestly caste at the top of the chain, link smell to purity and spirituality. Air permeated with the scent of cooked meat is considered impure. That proscribes not just the personal diets of Brahmins and other upper castes but also those of the people around them.
In the lower social strata are tribal, Dalit and Shudra communities, which make up a large part of the Hindu faith. Historically, they got nutrition despite their meager means by eating pork, beef and meat from other readily available animals.
“Food habits and caste cannot be separated in Indian culture. Just as caste is cemented at birth, so is diet,” wrote Shahu Patole in the book “Dalit Kitchens of Marathwada.”
Today, more than half of the population in India consumes meat, mostly chicken, and fish, according to the National Family Health Survey.
Still, governments across India promote vegetarianism. In a country that lags on global hunger indexes, state funding is usually allocated only to vegetarian sources. Under a large school lunch program, contracts are increasingly awarded to Hindu religious organizations that avoid eggs and meat in favor of vegetarian food.
Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, which has traditionally drawn support from upper castes, has presented the notion of “pure vegetarianism” as a nationalist ideology since it took power in 2014. That push is intended to shape a monolithic Hindu identity that paints over caste divisions, analysts say.
Increasingly, those who do not conform to these ideas of food purity or who question them — including religious minorities like Muslims, lower-caste communities and political activists — have come under attack. Some are trolled and shamed online. Others have had their homes bulldozed or even been lynched.
Mr. Naidu, the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, was widely seen as settling political scores with his Christian predecessor, Jagan Mohan Reddy, when he accused Mr. Reddy of awarding a contract for the temple — the government has considerable control over its administration — to a company that made ghee adulterated with other animal fats.
When Mr. Reddy announced that he would visit the temple earlier this month, Hindu organizations demanded that he sign a declaration form meant for non-Hindu pilgrims, affirming his faith in the temple deity. Mr. Reddy canceled the visit.
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