The right to food and the freedom of choice: Should meat be banned during religious festivals? – Times Now

The dust has barely settled on the row over halal and jhatka meat in Karnataka that Delhi has jumped in the fray. No, not over the manner of slaughtering, but over the selling of meat itself. The South Delhi Municipal Corporation Mayor sought "closure of meat shops during the nine-days of Navratri festival from April 2 to April 11".

In a letter to the South Delhi Municipal Corporation commissioner dated April 4, Mayor Mukesh Suryan wrote that since devotees of Goddess Durga fast observe fast for nine days during the Navaratri festival with a strict vegetarian diet and abstaining from the use of non-vegetarian food items, the sight of meat being sold in open or near temples makes them uncomfortable. Therefore, meat shops should be closed during the period of Navratri, says Suryan. The period is from April 5 (Tuesday) till April 11.

Suryan has asked the SDMC commissioner to ensure strict adherence to his directives. With nearly 1,500 registered meat shops in SDMCs jurisdiction, this is the first time that the civic body has asked for the closure of meat shops during Navratri.

And with this begins a fresh saga in policing what one eats, how one eats and when one eats. One would have thought that policing the sale and consumption of meat and the kind of meat would be pointless in a country where 80 per cent of people are meat-eaters. A paper published in March 2018 in the Economic and Political Weekly titled 'Provincialising' Vegetarianism, cites data from the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) that puts a figure on the number of Indian meat consumers. The data even offers demographics nearly 59 per cent of Hindus eat meat, besides over 93 per cent of Christians and Muslims, around 21 per cent of Sikhs and over 78 per cent of Buddhists were meat-eaters. Among the Hindus, nearly 35 per cent of Brahmins were meat-eaters as per India Human Development Survey (IHDS).

In fact, India exported processed meat worth over USD 1.7 million in the fiscal year 2021, making it among the largest exporters of meat. Biryani is the most-searched dish on Google and chicken biryani has been consistently topping the charts over the years for being the most ordered dish on online food apps.

Yet, hypocritical moral policing comes as a societal force when it comes to meat-eater shaming. Especially around festivals or religiously significant days. This takes me back to a childhood memory when as a lone South Indian student in a second-grade classroom in Delhi, I would dread opening my lunch box on Tuesdays. Heavens forbid if my mother had packed the (very yummy) kal-dosais for lunch. You see, the dish resembled an omelette to my North Indian classmates (and even some teachers), who would shame me for eating eggs on Tuesday.

It was not the eggs that were a problem, you see. My classmates used to bring boiled eggs on every other day of the week. Except for Tuesdays. On Tuesdays, they were taught, that eating eggs (or any non-vegetarian food) was a sin, and no amount of convincing and pleading that what I was eating was actually fried rice-and-lentil pancakes would make them change their militant stance.

The irony is that I had never tasted an egg until that point, hailing from a staunchly vegetarian family. Nor (at that point, as a seven-year-old) did I know what an omelette looked like. Funnily enough, a Muslim classmate who was a staunch non-vegetarian used to defend me, having tasted my mothers kal-dosais at my home and knowing what they actually were.

Decades thence we dont seem to have progressed an inch from the ignorant bunch of seven-year-olds who found a reason to moral police and shame a vegetarian for eating (what they assumed was) eggs on a religiously significant day. We still find reasons to moral police eating (and selling) meat during Navaratri.

The upholders of gastronomic policing need to be retold what the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court told the Yogi Adityanath government during its crackdown on illegitimate slaughterhouses. Justices Amreshwar Pratap Sahi and Sanjay Harkauli said: To provide an immediate check on the unlawful activity should be simultaneous with facilitating the carrying of lawful activity, particularly that relating to food, food habits and vending thereof that is undisputedly connected with the right to life and livelihood. Food that is conducive to health cannot be treated as a wrong choice.

When he was asked about those who dont observe the festival or the fast, Mayor Suryan said they should respect the sentiments of others. Interestingly, the self-anointed guardians of religious sentiments barely raise a question on whether pork should be banned during Ramzan. Perhaps because of the high(er) incidence of meat-eating among Muslims as compared to the Hindus. Or perhaps because the sensibilities of one religion matter more than that of the other. But then, lets save that absurd debate for another day.

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The right to food and the freedom of choice: Should meat be banned during religious festivals? - Times Now