(Posting this again since it got zero replies last time)
In the Indian subcontinent, pork is a rarely found meat on menus with some notable exceptions (Goa, Kerala, Coorg, Naga, Sikkimese as well as assorted Christian communities across the region). Hindus have no specific religious restrictions against pork, yet the dominant meats are chicken, goat/sheep and seafood. However in SE Asia, pork is a staple meat even in areas (Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Bali) which share the same rough climatic conditions as the subcontinent (and hence similar issues with food handling and safety and disease). One popular explanation is that pigs in the subcontinent are not raised for food; they are only ever seen rooting around in garbage and muck in towns and villages, thus contributing to pork's image as "dirty". But this does not explain why pigs were not raised for food in the first place.
How did this situation come about? Was there a cultural taboo against pork in the region that existed/exists independent of the Islamic taboo? Or is there something more complex at play here?
First, some numbers. About 30% of the Indian population is vegetarian, another 30% eats meat regularly. The remaining 40% are somewhere in the middle - predominantly vegetarian, but will eat eggs, or sometimes fish. Or rarely they will eat meat on social occasions.
Of the 30% of the Indian population that regularly eats meat, about half are Muslims who don't eat pork for religious reasons. So obviously, pork consumption will be lower than that of other animals based on that alone.
Government of India statistics from 2010 shows overall meat consumption (not counting fish) as follows:
| Source | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Chicken | 36.6% |
| Buffalo | 23.3% |
| Cattle | 17.4% |
| Goats | 9.4% |
| Pigs | 5.3% |
| Sheep | 4.6% |
| Others | 3.8% |
It's sort of like you said - pigs aren't raised as food through much of India. Possibly this has something to do with both the vegetarianism from Hinduism which makes meat eating uncommon, plus the cultural influence of Muslims, for whom pork is forbidden. If you look at the state-wise distribution of pork consumption, it's lowest in north Indian states which also happened to be under Muslim rule the longest - in some cases for a thousand years. Official discouragement of raising swine or eating pork can produce pretty significant effects if it continues for hundreds of years.
There is actually a strong caste divide among Hindus for pork consumption: lower castes eat pork a lot more than upper castes. In fact, the highest pork consumption is from the state of Bihar, which is predominantly Hindu, not Christian. It's mostly lower caste Hindus who breed pigs for food in Bihar.
Other states with high pork consumption include Jharkhand (same lower caste pork eating Hindu demographic), West Bengal (large Chinese community), Assam and Nagaland (Christian influence), as well as some localized communities in Goa, Kerala, etc.
The distribution of pork consumption shows a positive correlation with Christian and tribal populations, a negative correlation with Muslims and traditionally Muslim ruled areas, and a positive association with unusually poor states with large lower caste Hindu populations such as Bihar and Jharkhand.
The probable explanation seems to be the Muslim influence, specially among a Hindu population that was largely vegetarian to begin with - so those who did turn to meat-eating took the path of least resistance and went for mutton and chicken rather than pork.