"Beef is my favorite red meat," says Caleb, who lives in the city of Bongaigaon in India's northeastern state of Assam.

But now he has to contend with his state government's mandate banning the consumption of beef in public places, including restaurants and events.

In 2021, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Assam had already banned the sale of beef and beef products in areas predominantly inhabited by non-beef-eating communities or near temples.

"The government is depriving me of my freedom to choose what I eat," Caleb says. "And it deliberately attacks my dietary rights, which is not constitutional at all."

While people like Caleb can still buy beef and eat it at home, for many who are unable to consume it at home, beef is off the menu.

In India, beef is a contentious subject because cows are sacred to the majority Hindus.

Yet, at the same time, it is a part of the diets of Muslims, Christians, some Indigenous communities, and Dalits, a historically marginalized group from the lowest level of India's centuries-old discriminatory caste hierarchy.

Regionally, beef consumption is negligible in northern and central India, while it is culturally ingrained in states like Kerala and Goa, and much of the northeastern region.

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At present, 20 out of India's 28 states have various laws regulating cow slaughter, including prohibitions on the slaughter or sale of cow meat.

India's beef bans have been a polarizing issue — intersecting religion with culture, and politics.

The recent ban in Assam, framed as part of a larger narrative of cow protection, has reignited debates on the implications of such laws on India's multicultural identity, freedom of choice and........

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