Jhatka-nomics: Non-halal meat movement is going mainstream in India

India primarily exports meat to West Asia, where halal certification is mandatory. So, jhatka entrepreneurs are counting on India's demographics, which present a huge captive market for their product

In 2015, as political tectonics started pushing India’s mainstream cultural discourse towards the right, Mumbai-based Sikh entrepreneur Eshwinder Sethi got a novel idea. He opened what he claims to be India’s first non-halal or jhatka meat processing plant in a food park in Maharashtra’s Pune. Branded as ‘Punjab Maratha’, all raw and processed poultry and goat meat from his plant was labelled jhatka and thus ‘free from ritual & torture’ that symbolises the Islamic halal way of slaughtering animals for consumption.
 
"We are Sikhs and are not allowed to eat halal meat which is butchered as per rituals of a particular religion. Of course this practice derives from Hinduism. I came upon this idea in 2015 after realising that it was nearly impossible to get jhatka meat in Mumbai and Maharashtra. All meat being sold was halal. Many people don’t know they are being served halal. If they knew, many would be offended. In fact a lot of Muslims also appreciate my products since it is clearly and transparently mentioned that the meat is non-halal and is jhatka", said Sethi.

 
Sethi claims his products have recently evinced interest from a major airline caterer, in addition to the armed forces. His products retail on online grocery delivery stores. The armed forces don’t specify whether the meat should be halal or jhatka in their tenders. But Sikhs are estimated to comprise 20 per cent of all soldiers and officers in the Indian army, even though they make up just about two per cent of India’s population.
 

In jhatka, which has its roots in Hinduism and Sikhism, the animal is killed in a single stroke of the blade. The single stroke stuns the animal without scaring it while it is being butchered. In the Islamic halal way, the animals’ jugular vein is cut, letting the blood drain as the butcher recites a prayer (called the tasmiya or shahada). As opposed to jhatka, where the animal is killed instantaneously, halal ensures a slow death with the animal slaughtered while it is still alive. Proponents of jhatka say stunning the animal causes least suffering while halal supporters say slowly killing the animal makes the meat tastier. Muslims eat only halal meat purely on religious grounds. The Khalsa Code of Conduct (Rehat Maryada) established by Guru Gobind Singh prohibits Sikhs from consuming ritualistically slaughtered meat. Slow-bled and ritualistically butchered meat like halal is termed kutha and it is considered a sin for Sikhs to consume it.

 
The halal-jhatka distinction in India isn’t new. Thousands of small jhatka butchers who have existed in the unorganised sector in India for decades clearly mention the kind of meat they are selling in their shops. Sethi claims that his is the first big-scale certified operation. Where did Sethi’s company get a jhatka certification from when neither the government nor internationally recognised certification agencies (like those for halal) exist?
 
Enter Ravi Ranjan Singh, a crusader of sorts against halal meat in the country. A former journalist who used to cover Parliament, Singh runs the Jhatka Certification Agency in addition to a Delhi-based NGO named Live Value Foundation, which issues the ‘free from ritual & torture’ certificate that ensures the meat has not been butchered according to Islamic principles. Singh had also launched a movement to introduce jhatka meat in canteens of the Indian Parliament which hasn’t made much headway yet. "Certificates are issued to only those who butcher the animal with jhatka. One cannot produce both halal and jhatka in the same establishment," said Singh.

 
His certification agency has a three-tier system in place to ensure the meat is non-halal. Suppliers of the meat are inspected to ensure they are purely into slaughtering the jhatka way and are not mixing it with halal. This is followed by an undertaking from the certificate seeking establishment that it will not mix both meats. Subsequently ground inspections are conducted by Singh’s hired staff who knock on restaurants checking supplier bills to ensure the meat is being bought from non-halal sources. Singh charges anywhere between Rs 1,000 from a small butcher seeking validation to several lakhs of rupees from big establishments for the certificate. "Why should people who do not subscribe to Islam be forced to eat meat butchered by Islamic principles? Most of the meat sold in India is halal. You have everything from cosmetics, vaccines and even holidays that are certified halal. It is a religion-driven $7-trillion global business," added Singh.

 
While there is a silent under-current of mainstreaming jhatka meat in India, there is still a long way to go before it could pose any threat to the burgeoning business of halal certification. There are three main halal certification agencies based in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai whose endorsement is primarily accepted domestically and by Islamic nations importing meat from India. Each has its own logo stamped on products, and they mostly charge the same fees. For instance, the Mumbai-based Jamait Ulama Halal Foundation registers suppliers for a nominal payment and then charges an annual fee ranging from Rs 20,000 for a single stamp to Rs 1.5 lakh for multiple product certifications. The certification is valid for a year and has to be renewed annually.

 
India primarily exports meat to West Asia, where halal certification is mandatory. So, jhatka entrepreneurs and proponents are counting on India’s demographics, which present a huge captive market for their product in addition to being culturally coaxed into eating non-halal meat. A 2018 study authored by Balamurali Natrajan and Suraj Jacob published in the Economic and Political Weekly indicated that more than 80 per cent of Indians or around 900 million people were meat eaters. It quoted the National Sample Survey Orgnaisation (NSSO) to estimate that 58 per cent of Hindus, 93 per cent of Christians, 21 per cent of Sikhs and 78 per cent of all Buddhists were meat eaters. While these communities could be potential target customers of non-halal meat, the Hindu community presents the most lucrative opportunity. The study used India Human Development Survey (IHDS) findings, which estimated that among Hindus almost 70 per cent of forward castes and other backward castes (OBCs) were meat eaters, while 87 per cent of Scheduled Castes (SCs) were non-vegetarian. The study also estimated that over 30 per cent of all Brahmins were meat eaters.

 
The exploitation of these demographics to expand the organised market for jhatka meat in India has also been subtly prodded by administrative actions in recent months. In January 2021, the Agricultural Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), a body under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, dropped the word ‘halal’ from its red meat manual. Many believed this was the impact of the anti-halal campaigns launched by various right-wings groups in states across India. APEDA reportedly deleted the portions that required exporters to ensure "animals are slaughtered by halal system under strict vigilance of recognised and registered Islamic body as per the tenets of Islamic Shariyat and the certificate for halal is issued by the representative of registered Islamic body under whose supervision the slaughter is conducted in order to meet the requirement of (the) importing country". APEDA’s manual now requires animals "slaughtered according to the requirement of importing country/importer".

 
Last year, two municipal corporations in national capital Delhi issued instructions to restaurants to clearly display whether they were selling halal or jhatka meat. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) controls Delhi’s municipal corporations. There have been informal segregations of ritualistic halal meat from jhatka at wholesale markets. Nitin Kumar, a butcher who runs a jhatka meat shop in East Delhi’s Shahdara said: "There are separate sections for jhatka and halal at Ghazipur from where we buy meat. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) stamps every jhatka animal slaughtered this way. I have a dedicated customer base coming to me for years. In recent years, I have seen newer customers coming to my shop as they prefer jhatka meat for religious reasons even though there is no price difference between halal and jhatka." There are thousands of small jhatka butchers like Kumar in Delhi and across the country who cater to a dedicated non-Muslim clientele.

 
However, bigger restaurant owners accuse the administration in Delhi and elsewhere of creating undue hurdles at a time when the industry has been battered by the coronavirus pandemic. "Nobody cares whether they are being served halal or jhatka. My customers come to me for the quality of my food. If I serve them the best quality meat procured fresh from across the world from top suppliers, they don’t care whether it’s been butchered keeping in mind the tenets of a particular religion. It is just another way of harassment and high-handedness by mindless politicians," said a restaurateur who runs a popular high-end café in South Delhi’s Greater Kailash market.

 
The jhatka push in India is happening alongside similar developments in neighbouring countries and others nations in the developed world. Sri Lanka, a Buddhist majority nation where 10 per cent of the population is Muslim, withdrew halal labelling of meat in 2013. In recent years, it has also put in place a ban on cattle slaughter. China has launched an anti-halal crackdown in Xinjiang province, where half the population is estimated to be that of Uyghur Muslims. In 2018, Reuters reported that Chinese authorities were asking Communist party cadres to "fight a decisive battle against pan-halalisation." It further quoted the official state publication that wrote "halal was fuelling hostility towards religion and allowing Islam to penetrate secular life".

 
Many Scandinavian nations like Sweden, Norway and Iceland require animals to be butchered only through stunning (jhatka). Various other nations like Switzerland, Austria and others also have rules that prohibit ritualistic butchering as practised under the halal system. Nations like France and Germany allow halal killing on religious grounds as exceptions to the general rule that all animals should be slaughtered by stunning. In 2017, Belgium imposed a ban on ritualistic slaughter which was challenged by Muslim and Jewish religious groups. In December 2020, the European Court of Justice upheld the Belgian ban on halal and kosher sacrifice on the grounds of minimising animal suffering. In October 2020, the Supreme Court of India rejected a plea seeking a ban on the Islamic halal way of killing animals. The court observed "those who want to eat halal can eat halal meat. Those who want to eat jhatka can eat jhatka meat".