On a knife-edge

The halal controversy, which followed the ban on hijabs and non-Hindu vendors on temple premises, has helped the BJP and the SDPI in Karnataka

- PRATHIMA NANDAKUMAR

BEVU-BELLA, a mixture of neem flowers and jaggery eaten on Ugadi, signifies the sweet and bitter experiences of life, and the value of equanimity. This year, though, the Hindu new year festival was more bitter than sweet in Karnataka. After the recent hijab row and the ban on Muslim vendors on temple premises, the call to boycott halal meat has fanned communal flames in the southern state.

On the eve of Ugadi, April 1, Vishva Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal workers distributed handbills to convince meat-eating Hindus to boycott halal; they were asked to choose jhatka meat to celebrate Hosa Thodaku, the customary non-vegetarian feast prepared on the day after the new year.

“Halal meat is creating a parallel economy where Muslims get to dominate the business,” said BJP national general secretary C.T. Ravi. “Halal meat is dear to Muslims as the animal is slaughtered as per Islamic norms and offered to their god (Allah). For Hindus, halal meat is somebody’s leftover food and cannot be offered to our gods or eaten. While religious harmony is necessary, it cannot be one-way. There is nothing secular about halal.”

While halal (permissible) refers to meat from an animal killed by cutting the carotid artery, the jugular vein, and the windpipe—allowing the animal to die a slow death as the blood drains out—jhatka refers to killing the animal with a single blow. There is no consensus on the less painful method. A Central government order under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Slaughter House) Rules, 2001, mandates stunning (electric shock) the animal before slaughter. But the rule exists only on paper; most meat stalls and abattoirs prefer halal as Hindu customers have not opposed it.