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| Roasted Meat ‘Seekh Tuj‘ being sold in Srinagar. November 2010. Often its the meat from brain. |
Conversation veered to the subject of ‘Bod Cheer’ and ‘Lokut Cheer‘.
‘Bod Cheer‘ or the Big Cut is the word used for Beef, more popular in countryside and ‘Lokut Cheer‘ or the Small Cut is the word used for the other meats, obviously discounting pork.
But I thought that beef was never sold in the Valley. I thought it was an unsaid understanding that we had with our muslim brothers that we would not eat pork and they would not eat/sell beef. Am i wrong? Can you shed some light on this?
Cow slaughter was banned under the Dogra rule but as things with bans go, they don't actually stop anything. Western tourist who visited Kashmir during those days mentioned the sheer number of cows on the streets of Srinagar and often attributed to the ban on cow slaughter. I guess their reasoning was that if you have hungry starving people and a cow, its good to do the math.
I have mentioned that Beef isn't particularly popular in Srinagar but mostly in the countryside. In Srinagar there were only certain shops that dealt in beef. And even some Kashmiri Muslims like 'Peers' would not go anyway near it cause that meat is considered to be unclean. I hear now that the Beef is sort of making a comeback, which itself is no crime after all it is sold in Goa and even in Puna and one can have Beef in certain posh hotels and restaurants all over metropolitan India. The local Kashmiris often ascribe the tread to non-kashmiri muslim mostly from India who moved to Kashmir.
Hi,
just remembered this post the other day. On Eid, there were lot of camels on sale in Kashmir. It seems to be the new wave of cultural manipulation in the Valley. People now kurbaan camels instead of sheep. I thought you might want to add your version of Camel cheer.
That is News to me.