The Paris Olympics 2024 concluded with a star-studded ceremony at the Stade de France in Paris, where shooter Manu Bhaker and hockey legend PR Sreejesh served as the flag bearers for India. Indian athletes were able to bag six medals this season. However, the country did not secure a gold medal this time. Amid this, false claims are rife on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), asserting that the reason behind the no gold medal is India’s preference for state-forced vegetarianism.

A pak-based handle named South Asia Index took to X and wrote: “Olympics: India has over 1.47 billion people, but zero gold medals. Do you think they are unhealthy because of state-forced vegetarianism?”

Fact-Check

To begin the fact-checking process, the DFRAC team searched some keywords on Google regarding the above-shared claim. We found a news article by The Times of India, published on Dec 4, 2023. The article states: ‘A recent report from the World Atlas has compiled a list of countries with the highest rates of vegetarianism. According to the report, India claims the top spot, with 38 per cent of its total population identifying as vegetarians.'”

Furthermore, the report cites that a vegetarian diet is often considered the healthiest form of diet, which is probably why the world is embracing it. As per experts, the reasons for the rise of vegetarianism in India could be religion, ethical motivations, economic considerations, distaste for meat, and cultural influences other than just health and environmental concerns.

Conclusion

It is evident from the DFRAC’s fact-check that the claim made by the Pak handle is misleading since there is no state-forced vegetarianism in India, but many people choose to stay vegetarian by choice .

Analysis: Misleading