Conspiracy Theory: Fattening the caste
Diabetes slaughters Indian upper crust
By Leela Pereira, senior writer
Posted on October 19, 2006

Two years ago, my sisters and I sat laughing over breakfast in a wealthy Mumbai apartment. A chart on the back of a cereal box amused us. According to the chart, my eldest sister was mildly overweight. My sister is actually quite slim. However, in a third world country like India, the prevalence of malnutrition among children makes skinniness a standard.

Across the table from us sat a paradox. He was a bright Indian boy, the only child of our well-to-do hosts. He was pudgy. While my sisters and I feasted on generic cereal, he wolfed down eggs, toast and chapatti. I was a little disturbed by how much our hostess was feeding the little guy. Surely, the chart on the cereal box was meant to educate families about child obesity. The chart was blatantly ignored.

What I witnessed in Mumbai is not uncommon. India hosts the highest diabetes rate in the world. Thirty five million Indians suffer from Type II diabetes, and experts expect the number to double by 2025. The Indian medical community attributes the diabetes epidemic to inactivity, wealth, busy careers and unhealthy eating habits. But the primary culprit is culture. More specifically, diabetes is a symptom of caste.

In many ways, modernization and westernization have debilitated the caste, the ancient class system in India. Industrial society allowed those born into lower castes to work their way into the middle or upper classes. But caste persists. Wealthier members of Indian society flaunt their status by flouting their health.

The young, overfed Indian boy serves as a prime example of upper-crust behavior. His mother wanted the boy to be chubby, since obesity is a sign of wealth in impoverished India. Incidentally, many of the well-off adults we met in Mumbai were plump. Often, the only slim members of their households were the servants. “In perverse fashion, obesity and diabetes stand as joint totems of success,” N. R. Kleinfield reports for The New York Times from Chennai (formerly Madras) in September. The incidence of diabetes looms larger in consumer-friendly urbanized cities, the International Diabetes Federation asserts.

According to a Sept. 21 article in The Times of India, one in every 10 Mumbai residents is diabetic. While visiting Mumbai, my sisters and I toured a shopping center frequented by students and housewives. College students slurped iced coffees in air-conditioned Starbucks rip-offs. On a similar day at JMU, students would be playing pick-up sports on the Quad. The few open fields, pools and playgrounds we spotted in Mumbai were completely empty. Seemingly, the wealthy class maintains its obesity via inactivity. Leisure is a currency of the rich.

Indians also express their status by eating out. Despite the availability of healthful items, Indian patrons prefer American fast food and traditional fried fare sold by vendors, according to The Times of India. Vendors conveniently offer Indian sweets — often flour and sugar, deep fried in oil and steeped in syrup. Indians traditionally consume sweets to fete occasions, from a neighbor’s visit to a wedding. Only a sector of Indians can afford to take part in the tradition, though. The ritual is costing the upper class its health.

Health experts agree that the antidote for genetic and non-genetic diabetes is lifestyle adjustment. In India, however, doctors alone cannot tamper with the strongholds of tradition and culture. The onset of diabetes in India must result in death. Which will go first, though: old habits, or the wealthy class?

Leela Pereira is a senior history major.