🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Indians

Indians are the people of India, a South Asian country regarded as the world's largest milk producer. In India, the world’s largest milk producer, dairy products are part of everyday food for hundreds of millions of people, including many vegetarians for whom milk is an important source of protein. The milk comes from both zebu cows and buffalo.

In the hot climate, milk is almost always boiled or processed. Dahi (curd) is served with every meal and used to make lassi and buttermilk; paneer is a fresh cheese curdled with acid; ghee is clarified butter that keeps for a long time. Boiled-down milk is used for sweets such as kheer, burfi and rasgulla.

In Hinduism the cow is revered as a mother who provides food, and milk and ghee are used in rituals: ghee is poured into the sacred fire, images of deities are bathed in milk, and milk sweets are offered at temples and festivals. Attitudes to milk in India are diverse and depend on region, faith and family.