Sudha Murty, the Indian billionaire and philanthropist, who also happens to be Rishi Sunak’s mother-in-law, has something of a fixation with the cleanliness of spoons. Speaking on a popular food show, Murty revealed herself to be quite the tyrant in the kitchen:
‘I am a pure vegetarian, I don’t even eat eggs or garlic. What I am scared of is that the same spoon will be used for both vegetarian and non-vegetarian food. It weighs on my mind a lot!’
The sensible reaction to these somewhat innocuous comments might be to think Murty a touch obsessional, and wonder at the impractical and time-consuming nature of her kitchen habits. Instead her remarks have provoked a storm of controversy across India, which says less about Murty’s views on food preparation and more about the growing cultural and social divide in the country.
The nub of the issue is her use of the phrase ‘a pure vegetarian’. On the one hand, this is a common term used by millions of Indians to distinguish themselves from those who describe themselves as vegetarians but choose to eat eggs.
The nub of the issue is her use of the phrase ‘a pure vegetarian’
Not everyone sees it this way, unfortunately. The concept of ‘purity’ has a more sinister meaning in the minds of some of those attacking Murty, India’s most high-profile granny. In the eyes of these self-appointed arbiters of the hidden meanings behind the country’s food habits, purity is rooted in discriminatory notions of cleanliness dictated by India’s ancient caste system, a rigid social hierarchy long outlawed but still pervasive in daily life.
The Brahmins (to which Murty belongs) sit at the top of the caste tree. According to critics, her brand of vegetarianism is not simply about avoiding eating meat and eggs but more a way for the higher ups in India’s caste system to demonstrate their purity and distance themselves from those they perceive as belonging to the lower orders. By this logic, Murty has revealed her true upper-caste sensibilities by waffling on about pure vegetarianism and is guilty of the prejudice of ‘casteism’ — even though she didn’t at any point in her interview specifically mention caste.
The unerring capacity of some to take offence regardless is well captured in one outraged message doing the rounds on Indian social media:
‘This level of paranoia and focus on ‘purity’ and ‘contamination’ is 100% a product of Brahminism’.
An alternative view might be to suggest that it amounts to nothing more than a case of expressing an innocent preference for clean spoons. Others, while not going quite so far down the rabbit hole of caste conspiracy theories, suggested Murty should have been more careful in her choice of words in public because of her stature and profile. Why though? If someone cannot speak openly about their dietary habits on a food programme, then where? Surely if Murty is uncomfortable with the same spoons being used for veg and non-veg food, that is her problem and really no one else’s concern.
The problem of course is that Murty is no ordinary grandmother. She is super-rich and married to NR Narayana Murthy, the founder of the software firm Infosys, a multinational that employs 340,000 people. Their combined wealth is estimated at roughly £4 billion. Her daughter Akshata is married to Rishi Sunak. It is not the first time Murty’s views have attracted widespread comment. In April, she joked that ‘just as I made my husband a businessman’, her daughter had ‘made her husband (Mr Sunak) a prime minister’.
In May, she told an interviewer that an immigration officer in London refused to believe her address was 10 Downing Street, the residence of her son-in-law, and asked if she was ‘joking’. She claimed it was because of her ‘simple appearance’. Indeed Murty’s habit of claiming to shun luxury, living by strong family values and stressing hard work, has turned her into something of a celebrity hate figure. Some in India rile at the idea of a billionaire lecturing others on the virtues of plain living and humility in a country marked by widespread disparities in wealth. That is what this row is really about: some people simply can’t stand her because she is rich, successful, and not afraid to speak her mind. It has little to do with Murty’s preference for clean spoons.
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