Bangalore based meat retailer Licious has grown a massive customer base in several metros in the past few years. However, they have always sold Halal certified meat pandering to the needs of their Muslim customers, disregarding the choice of Hindu customers.
Back in July 2019, one Hyderabad-based Hindu customer quizzed Licious and another meat retailing brand, ‘Fresh to Home’, on their stand on Jhatka meat. The online stores refused. The customer stated that she was a Hindu and she needed Jhatka cut, to which the customer care representative of the respective outlets responded that they had no provisions to cater to her demands.
About a year later, the debate has come to the fore again, as a customer sent an email expressing his angst over the discrimination. “Are you serving in gulf countries Or India? Why halal certified? Only Muslims are buying from your portal? I have stopped ordering on your portal as you are halal certified. To be halal compliant don’t know how many jamatis you have on your payroll. Be secular and Stop being part of this halal economy,” wrote Manohar.
To this email, Licous responded stating that as an organization, they had taken a deliberate choice to serve only Halal meat, irrespective of the faith of the customer who ordered it, or the choice he bore. The meat retailer, in a subtle way, through this one email, alienated its entire Hindu customer-base.
Despite operating in a Hindu-majority country, the organization was confident in insulting the sentiments of its huge Hindu customers as the Hindus are a dormant community least bothered about their identities and explicit or implicit discrimination heaped on them. That is exactly why companies like Licious can show the audacity to take Hindus for a ride.
What is Halal Cut?
Firstly, the Halal cut is the prescribed way of slaughtering an animal as per Islamic texts. Any food that is Halal certified, adheres to the Islamic law, as stated in the Koran. The process of slaughtering subjects the animal to a slow and painful death. The animal must be alive and healthy when being slaughtered. A cut is made to the jugular vein, carotid artery and windpipe, and the animal suffers while the blood drains out from its body.
Further, during this process, a Muslim recites Islamic prayers, dedicating the animal meat to Allah. The dedication he recites is known as tasmiya or shahada. Please note that only a Muslim can perform the act of slaughter in the practice of Halal.
Discrimination Rooted in the Halal industry
By imposing a meat on which an Islamic prayer has been recited, and which has been dedicated to Allah, Licious and Fresh To Home are indirectly imposing Islam on all their non-Muslim buyers.
The multi-million Halal industry running on money shelved out by people from all faith systems and even atheists, employs only Muslims, and is discrimination in employment based on religion. The poor Hindu butchers are rendered jobless because customers in metro-cities prefer to buy commodities online and the online meat vendor serves only Halal thereby employing only Muslims. The employment discrimination is not limited to the process of slaughtering alone.
The religious diktat mandates every person involved in the industry, be it in the processing and packaging steps, to be a Muslim. This concentrates the accumulation of wealth to people of only one faith system, i.e, Islam, and denies non-Muslims, including Hindus (most of whom in the meat business are under-privileged SC/ST and OBCs) and Sikhs an income opportunity.
The Halal certification is not a Bharatiya phenomenon. It is an Arabic concept that is being pushed into the Bharatiya market where only 15% of the population is Muslim. The remaining non-Muslims are forced to finance a Muslim-only industry for their food. Here, I mention “food” and not just meat, because the Halal monopoly has already made inroads into the non-meat food products as well. For example, this Halal-certified vegetable stock/oil cubes by Nestle’s Maggie is being sold in Bharat through Flipkart.
Though production of this oil cube requires no slaughtering, the halal certificate assures the Muslim buyer that the product is not contaminated in any way during the production cycle by any ingredient considered ‘najis’ (ritually unclean as per Muslim Sharia Law).
So even though non-Muslims can still be employed in production of Halal vegetarian items, the Halal certification authority or body will only employ Muslims and charge a fee for inspection and certification. Therefore, Halal certification is a business operation that makes money off even non-animal products by monopolizing the certification process.
How to fight the discrimination?
Nassim Nicholas Taleb explains in his famous article “The Most Intolerant Wins: The Dictatorship of the Small Minority” how a segmented minority imposes its food choices over the silent and submissive majority. The silence of the Hindus, added with their “chalta hai” attitude is what has made the Hindus such an inconsequential lot in the only land they have remaining.
Do this. Search for a meat shop in your locality that sells Jhatka meat. Many Hindus and Sikhs engage in this business. But the race for ordering online has killed their business. Reach out to them. Many such stand-alone shops happily deliver at home. If they don’t, get on your bike and reach the shops.
If Hindus are being discriminated against and rendered unemployed in Bharat, because big corporates have sold out to Arabic values, take the onus to assist the poor Hindu yourself. At restaurants, ask for non-veg dishes prepared with Jhatka meat. If the eatery doesn’t serve Jhatka, write a note or give an online feedback. Make your presence felt Hindus, before your presence is washed off the planet.
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