Tag Archives: Beef ban

Culture, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

#BreakTheSilence – Chennai against mob lynching: Madhura Balasubramaniam and Padmapriya Govindarajan

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Guest Post by Madhura Balasubramaniam and Padmapriya Govindarajan 

On July 1, 2017 a gathering of citizens congregated at the Valluvar Kottam monument in Chennai, India, in solidarity with the spate of demonstrations across the nation condemning the rise in instances of mob lynching and violence that disproportionately targeted Dalit and Muslim citizens for beef consumption. The protests were triggered by the murder of 16 year old Junaid Khan by a train mob. Since July 28, peaceful citizen gatherings have joined a wave that attempts to call out government silence, and thereby perceived tacit complicity, regarding the actions ofGau Rakshaks and other vigilante mobs that engage in lynching with a strongly communal or casteist skew. They have been collectively termed as #NotInMyName protests, alluding to the argument that these murders occurred in the name of the cow and in the name of Hinduism. Continue reading #BreakTheSilence – Chennai against mob lynching: Madhura Balasubramaniam and Padmapriya Govindarajan →

Bad ideas, Capitalism, Centre watch, Culture, Debates, Education, Government, Identities, Movements, Politics, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

Solidarity Statement of Students from Northeast India, TISS, Mumbai 20th February 2016

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We, the undersigned, students and research students from various states of northeastern region of India studying in Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai would like to highlight on the unprecedented shrinkage of academic spaces across various universities in India. We condemn the politically motivated interferences of the state in Jawaharlal Nehru University and in Hyderabad Central University (HCU), and other universities. We also condemn the mob justice perpetrated by lawyers against students, journalist, activists etc in the Patiala House Courts, New Delhi, and media trial led by prominent journalists from New Delhi. Continue reading Solidarity Statement of Students from Northeast India, TISS, Mumbai 20th February 2016 →

Culture, Identities, Politics

Jain Tandoori – When the State Chickens Out: Gita Jayaraj

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Guest post by GITA JAYARAJ

New shocks seem to await non-vegetarians almost daily, now. At a popular supermarket chain in Besant Nagar, one of the go-to places in namma Chennai, there seems nothing unusual on the evening of November 11. The floor is littered with stuff as the young shop assistants squat in the narrow aisles trying to stack the packets on the shelves; or laze in small clusters discussing workplace politics, oblivious of the customers milling around.

Seems like a normal evening. Heading towards the billing counter, I decide at the last minute to pick up some chicken. The young girl at the fresh-ground coffee counter, next to the fresh chicken refrigerator, giggles nervously as I open it. “Sale of chicken not permitted today madam”, she tells me hesitantly in Tamil. I am puzzled, has the beef ban in some states been extended to cover chicken as well in all states? Continue reading Jain Tandoori – When the State Chickens Out: Gita Jayaraj →

Ecology/Environment, Everyday Life, Violence/Conflict

Remove ban on food items like beef and meat

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Sign the petition posted at Change.org by SANKET CHHABRA

I am a Jain vegetarian person, but moreover I am a supporter of free will! It started with the ban of beef in Maharashtra, but now it’s spreading, I know the government means respect for the Jain community, but if they are banning meat during our festival, should’t it also force us to eat meat during the celebration of Id, all I am asking for is for everyone to choose what they want to eat and whenever they want it! I call for support for this petition as I do not want the people of a DEMOCRATIC country to be forced into doing something they don’t believe in! Thank You to all the Governments for the respect you have given this small community of ours, but please don’t force the people with different beliefs to do the same!

SIGN THE PETITION HERE

Bad ideas, Right watch

Animal rights or Hindutva Wrongs? Sriranjini R

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Guest Post by SRIRANJINI R

Finally it has happened. ‘Debeefing Kerala’ has arrived. That’s not what the leader of Hindu Makkal Katchi said, though. He said that he’s out to defend animal rights. Really? Then, do animal rights in India help to protect all animals or only specific animals?

These were the questions that popped into my mind when I saw the news of Hindu rightwing activists physically preventing the export of beef from Tamil Nadu to Kerala (The Hindu, Trivandrum edition, July 21, 2015).  The trucks carrying the cattle for slaughter to Kerala, are being stopped by the Hindu Makkal Katchi and the Hanuman Sena on the Tamil Nadu border and taken to a Goshala near Coimbatore, where these animals are supposedly being taken care of. But according to the traders, the cattle are being mistreated in the Goshalas. If this is true, it is not only the traders who are in big trouble, it is also the cattle that probably prefer quick and painless deaths rather than life as pawns of the Hindutvavaadis in the Goshalas!

And all this is happening because the leader of Hindu Makkal Katchi, Arjun Sampath, claims that almost 50 heads of cattle are being stuffed into a truck during transportation, such that they are not able to drink water or even move. The Hindutvavaadis are out to stop this. This is where the animal rights card is being played. Even if we consider all these as violations of animal rights, then the question arises: why does the Hindu zealot have no mercy for other animals apart from cattle? Elephants, chickens, goats – these animals also go through terrible things humans do to them. Don’t they deserve animal rights?

Continue reading Animal rights or Hindutva Wrongs? Sriranjini R →