There are certainly some Sikhs who are vegetarian; their argument is largely based around compassion and the need to avoid negative karma by causing harm. They claim that eating meat is a major breach of the Sikh Reht Maryada (Code of Conduct) and claim that those who eat meat will go to hell. The basis for this is one of saint Kabir’s statements in the Guru Granth Sahib on page 1377. Such an interpretation is at odds with Sikh thought.

The published Code of Conduct says that Sikhs can eat meat, but is not allowed to be 'eating the meat of an animal slaughtered the Muslim way' (Sikh Reht Maryada, Article 24 [p]).

Moreover, such an interpretation also contradicts the universality of Sikh thought since many cultures such as the Inuit, and religions including Christians, Muslims and Jews consume meat. Are all of them consigned to hell? If this was such an important issue the Guru would surely have devoted a huge volume of energy to it. Surely it would have been the overwhelming part of his ministry to the Muslims? However, there is no evidence for this.

Furthermore, the logical outcome of thought based around compassion and the law of karma is ahimsa (absolute non-violence), which has been rejected by the Guru in Asa Ki Var (Guru Granth Sahib : 442) and Malar Ki Var (Guru Granth Sahib: 1288). It appears that ideological vegetarianism among Sikhs is an ill-thought out throwback to Buddhist forms of thought that were adopted by the Hindu Vaishnavs (Vishnu worshippers) only after they adopted Buddha as an avatar (incarnation) of Vishnu.

The accounts of the lives of the Gurus (janam sakhis) are very much a secondary source of knowledge for Sikhs after the Guru Granth Sahib. However, they suggest that Guru Nanak cooked a meat dish at Kurukshetra thereby earning the anger of the Brahmins. In the hymn in the Guru Granth Sahib that is often attached to this event, he reminds them that their Vedic ancestors sacrificed meat. The Guru Granth Sahib says, "Only fools argue whether to eat meat or not. Who can define what is meat and what is not meat? Who knows where the sin lies, being a vegetarian or a non-vegetarian?" (1289)

Guru Nanak has pointed out that plants as well as animals are living organisms. By making people aware of the difficulty of separating the animal and plant kingdoms he demonstrated how irrelevant diet was to spiritual development. "None of the grain of corn is without life. To start with, there is life in water, by which all are made green" (Guru Granth Sahib: 472). Moreover, there is rejection of the idea that one can become polluted by food. 'All food is pure; for God has provided it for our sustenance' (Guru Granth Sahib: 472).

Moreover, vegetarianism was often only part of the rejection of ‘flesh’. It is, therefore, linked to a view that rejects the senses and the world as maya (illusion). The Gurus rejected this view of life proposing a contradictory vision in which the world was holy as God dwelt in it.

Unsurprisingly, therefore, many Sikhs eat meat. The Nihang group of Sikhs trace their lineage to Guru Hargobind, the sixth Guru, who practised hunting and was the first Guru to engage in active warfare. There is thus a tradition of hunting and meat-eating among Sikhs.

All Sikhs agree that Guru Gobind Singh practised hunting and also that Sikhs in the ‘heroic period’ of Sikh history in the eighteenth century hunted and consumed meat. The vegetarians argue that they hunted and ate meat because they had no other option. However, if this is a ‘major breach’ of the Khalsa code of conduct (Sikh Reht Maryada) as they suggest, it is impossible to see how Sikhs would break this vow in order to save their lives, but not others, such as cutting their hair.

Furthermore, it is also difficult to see how the Gurus could include the writings of different holy people (bhagats) in the Guru Granth Sahib if meat-eating and the use of meat products was an unforgivable evil. For instance, there are the writings of Muslims, including the Sufi Sheikh Farid. Following Islamic sh’ariah they would have engaged in the sacrifice of an animal and eating from that sacrifice. Moreover, one contributor to the Guru Granth Sahib, Saddna, came from the butcher caste, and another, Ravidas, came from the leather working caste. Together with the use of horse hair in the chaur sahib (royal fan) waved over the Guru Granth Sahib and the widespread use of dairy products in the langar (free kitchen), it is clear that veganism cannot be part of the Sikh tradition.

Why then the rejection of kutta or halal meat? The first is that halal meat is produced through a particular religious rite and Sikhs should not take part in religious rites apart from the Sikh Reht Maryada (Code of Conduct). From this perspective eating halal meat could be compared to receiving Christian communion. The second reason may be that the Khalsa rules seem directed to Muslim converts. The four prohibitions are: cutting of hair, sex with a Muslim lady, use of tobacco, eating halal meat. These are all things that a Muslim male might do and the prohibitions are designed as boundary markers for them.

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