Last year, the Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand governments used the Kanwar Yatra — a Hindu religious pilgrimage — to direct eateries to display their owners’ names. The move was rightfully criticised as promoting prejudice towards non-Hindu-owned establishments, on grounds of reduced patronage and increased risk of violence. This year, the far-right Hindu Raksha Dal forced at least one Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) outlet in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, to stop selling meat products through the Kanwar Yatra and the month of Sawan.
Cases have been lodged against members, but the outlet complied to their demands, and put up a small poster that said “We Are Serving Only VEG”.
Certain international fast-food chains, including Pizza Hut, Domino’s and Subway, have opened a select number of all-vegetarian outlets in India before. Shortly after the inauguration of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, authorities indicated to the press that a wide range of eateries — including, specifically KFC — would be permitted to operate in the city, provided that their menus were exclusively vegetarian. There is a strong, separate case to be made for how such concessions are inherently discriminatory, even if delineated through protocol, and not through pressure from the fringe. (Rhetorically: what is the fringe in India today, when so many lines have been drawn, when the mainstream itself is rife with hatred?).
When it comes to this month’s situation in Ghaziabad, however, KFC has bowed down swiftly — and without comment — to this pressure. This is not a good sign, and only emboldens more such bullying. There is absolutely nothing that compels a vegetarian to patronise an establishment that exists primarily to serve chicken dishes out of anything but their own free will. There are plenty of eateries all over India that take pride in providing exclusively vegetarian fare, and their existence is not a cultural or practical threat to those who consume meat. The vegetarian vs. meat-eater clash in India is about people, not about food. It is people who are considered threatening, to the powerful vegetarian majority. “Other” people, that is.
Meanwhile, in the UK, a YouTuber went into a vegetarian/vegan restaurant operated by the religious group ISKCON and brandished a tub of KFC chicken, intending to shock and offend. Here in India, media outlets have highlighted the prankster’s race: British-African. If only it was possible to decry a vulgar stunt without using it to fuel anti-Black sentiment, which is already so prevalent here.
Finally, and this must be said: none of this is a defense of KFC, the corporate entity, which is on the Boycott, Divest, Sanction (BDS) list of companies that directly or indirectly support Israel’s war crimes in occupied Palestine. The people of Palestine are, at this very moment, experiencing a famine crafted by Israel’s blockades and persistent military action. Even our arguments about choices and impositions when it comes to food are because of our relative privilege. That doesn’t mean we ought to give in to communalist bigotries, only that it may be useful — at least ideologically — to recall that hatred exists on a spectrum, and to be more honest and less in denial about where we, as a country, are placed on it.