Jhatka

Jhatka (Punjabi: ਝਟਕਾ, romanized: jhaṭkā) is a method of slaughtering an animal for meat by a single strike of a sword or axe to sever its head within the Sikh religion.

[4] When jhatka meat was not allowed in jails, and Sikhs detained for their part in the Akali movement resorted to violence and agitations to secure this right.

Among the terms in the settlement between the Akalis and the Muslim Unionist government in Punjab in 1942 was that jhatka meat be continued by Sikhs.

[9] In early 1987 Kharkus issued a moral code banning the sale and consumption of meat and for jhatka shops to be closed.

Those who continued to sell or eat meat risked death and commonly would have their businesses destroyed and be killed.

In the kosher and halal methods, Shechita and Dhabihah respectively, the animal is slaughtered by one swift, uninterrupted cut severing the trachea, esophagus, carotid arteries, jugular veins, and vagus nerves, leaving the spinal cord intact, followed by a period where the blood of the animal is drained out.

Slaughter by means such as kosher, halal and bali does not meet the requirements of jhatka and the products of it are referred to as kutha meat – abstention from which is one of the requirements for a Sikh to be an initiated Khalsa or sahajdhari according to the Rehat Maryada (Sikh code of conduct).

[16][17][18][19] In Sikhism, there are three objections to non-jhatka or kutha products: the first being the belief that sacrificing an animal in the name of God is ritualism and something to be avoided; the second being the belief that killing an animal with a slow bleeding method is inhumane; and the third being historic opposition of the right of ruling Muslims to impose its practices on non-Muslims.