Indian police have beef with biriyani

By Oscar Rousseau

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags Script async src= Beef

Beef consumption in India is an incredibly taboo subject
Beef consumption in India is an incredibly taboo subject
The north Indian state of Haryana has the second-highest number of complaints reported to the police, but authorities have bizarrely been tasked with sniffing out beef-laced biriyani. 

The Islamic festival of Eid al Adha is set to kick off on Sunday 11 September in India and police have been tasked with taking samples of biriyani from street food stalls in Mewat, Haryana, to check for beef – a meat that is illegal to sell in the state. This comes despite statistics from the National Crime Record Bureau showing high levels of reported criminality in the state.

The unusual police order comes direct from the government of Haryana, according to a Times of India report on 7 September.

Mewat is the only one of Haryana’s 21 districts with a Muslim-majority population, and the directive came after the state government received a number of complaints that street vendors may be serving biriyani with beef, according to reports. 

Beef taboo

The decision has been met with a wide range of responses on social media, from ridicule targeted at the government for trying to control Indian diets, to support for the crackdown.

Despite India being one of the world’s largest beef exports, slaughter and consumption in the country is an incredibly taboo subject due to the religious significance of the cow in Hindu religion. Only three of India’s 23 states allow the slaughter of cows and law-breakers could face up to 10 years in prison.

Last year, a 50-year-old man was murdered​ by a lynch mob in the state of Uttar Pradesh over rumours he and his family had been storing and eating beef.

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1 comment

Beef with Biryani - political and police priorities in India

Posted by S Dev,

Given the level of rape and sexual attacks on Indian females (female children through to women) you would think the Indian authorities have bigger issues to focus on.

Inundated with popular religious fervour and political corruption, the regime seems to dwell on sideshows as distractions to real, more pressing issues.

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