Food Sparks Violence from Indian Radicals

In India, a wave of violence through the use of food is pervading communities. Radical Hindu Indians are targeting Muslim Indians for serving beef, specifically in a dish called biryani. The dish itself is made with rice and meat, layered several times. It is a simple and easy meal, cooked all in one pot, for convenience sake. In Haryana, an Indian state in the North, police have been sampling several restaurants to check for beef. Haryana’s Cow Service Commission have employed these police for this task, as many Indian Hindus consider the cow to be sacred and do not eat beef.

Indian Muslims, on the other hand, eat and serve beef. The dish itself comes from the Mughal empire, one-time Muslim rules of India. The dish was brought to India and has been a staple ever since. While police are investigating such dishes of Muslim origin, it puts many restaurant owners on edge, not only for fear of reprisal, but it is also traditionally their dish. A 2015 law in Haryana called for up to ten years in jail for the slaughter and consumption of cattle. About twenty other Indian states forbid the consumption of beef or the slaughtering of cows for their hide or meat.

Not only is their jail time to face, vigilante reprisal has been an issue. In Uttar Pradesh, a state of Northern India, a mob of angry citizens extracted a Muslim and his son from their home and attacked them on the suspicion that they participated in slaughtering cows and serving beef. The father later died from his wounds. This incident, which occurred in September 2014, leaves a sordid mark on the relations between Muslims and Hindus in the country. A second incident occurred in Gujarat this summer in which four people were beaten with metal rods for paring a dead cow. The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi lambasted the attackers with no real backing, merely calling the vigilantes to be dealt with.