In 1981, Nasir al Din Shah of Qajar Iran granted exclusive concession on tobacco for an Englishman, Major G. F. Talbot. Talbot did not wait more time to occupy the monopoly of the exporting and importing the cancer sticks. The local tobacco industry failed to stand up before the cheaper tobacco products of Talbot.
Protests began to rise from different corners of the region. The political and spiritual leaders of the Shia community united despite their difference over the legitimacy of tobacco. The merchants of Tehran, Shiraz and Isfahan protested in the street. The events suddenly took an unprecedent twist with the Fatwa banning usage of tobacco. Fatwa is a binding clerical statement of Islam ought to be followed by the followers.
Everybody stopped smoking, Even the women in Qajar harem quit smoking and the servants of Shah refused to serve water pipe to smoke. Qajar became entirely different from what it was yesterday. Shah and Talbot were dismayed and confounded by the events happening in Qajar.
In 1892, Shah cancelled the concession for Talbot. We don’t know how many people might have returned to the habit of smoking afterwards, but, at least for a dozen days, the people of Qajar have not smoked, or the toxic tobacco has not entered the body of Qajar people.
Boycott is the best democratic power that people can exert in a consumerist world. Mahatma Ghandi is internationally acclaimed as a champion of the non-violent boycott which even bestowed India long-waited independence from the British empire. The products that he boycotted comprises all the products which was manufactured by the British. This deliberate abandonment of British products incurred heavy loss for upon the British Empire as it retarded the wealth flow to the British East India Company.
The ongoing calls to boycott Israeli products have evidently affected the market of many tycoons. The restaurant giant Starbucks has lost $11 billion dollars after the accusations of the providing food for the Israeli soldiers. McDonalds also lost $1 million dollars after the Boycott Divestment Movement and Coca Cola were removed from the shelves of many shop keepers who support the movement.
The loss incurred upon the industries translates differently for the different people. The boycott helped many people to maintain a diet which may easily be broken otherwise, many boycotters observed it as a deaddiction period and as an opportunity to invent better alternatives. But the overwhelming notion was the helplessness before biryani without Cola.
Even it is not comparable with tobacco boycott, there are certain lines of similarity that can be drawn between many of the boycotted products and tobacco movement. For example, cola and tobacco are the products which people consume despite their complete awareness of the fact that both are unhealthy.
According to WHO, intake of more than six teaspoons of the sugar on daily basis is harmful to the body whereas a single can of the Cola contains 37 grams of the sugar which will amount to 10 spoons. As per the report published by the National Library of Medicine of US government, annually, 184,000 deaths are attributed to the consumption of sugary drinks.
According to Harvard School of Public health “People who consume sugary drinks regularly 1 to 2 cars a day or more—have a 26% greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes than people who rarely have such drinks.” Another study conducted by the same school of health upon forty thousand people also suggests that the consumption of sugary drinks is also linked with the high risk of heart attacks.
Cola caters multiple drinks in multiple names, many of them contain more sugar than coke, for example, one liter of sprite contains more than a hundred grams of sugar which will be equal to near 30 spoons of the sugar. Other products like Minutes Maid, Fanta, Maaza and Thumbs up are also cut in the same mold and contain high amount of sugar.
The data tells that the boycotters are shooting two birds with single stone, along with gaining the political satisfaction with striking a financial blow against their political opponents, they are also paving their ways for healthier lifestyle. For sure, there are shades of distinction between the tobacco movement and the ongoing boycott against the Israeli products.
The ongoing boycott do not have a binding fatwa or similar commands and even the lives of many pro-boycotters also tied closely with these sugary drinks and the alternatives fall short before it. “Nothing will be on shelf if we removed all Israeli products, Pepsi, coco cola, Miranda, everything is Israel” laments Musavirudheen (name changed) a shop keeper who support the boycott movement against Israel.
In the beverage industry, all eggs are in the basket of Israel and there are rarely any alternatives that are widely available in the market. This forced many pro-boycott members to stick to the water than consume sugary beverages. Many of them have assured themselves to continue that habit even after the war. (quote from a person who stopped drinking coke).
Addicts are more creative when they have to stop their favourite food items. Kulsoom, who occasionally visits McDonald says that she has started to make her own ‘McDonalds’ at home. Homely made McDonalds and Starbucks can be considered another level of the protests for the healthy food. Most of the fast foods including McDonalds are loaded with simple carbohydrates and hidden added sugar which even go against the standardized parameters of the developed countries like UK and USA.
A double big McDonalds contains 740 calories and 44 grams of the fat which exceeds the recommended daily intake of many people. Many people have called for attachment of the warning tags on the foods that have higher calories and fat. Famous
Australian celebrity chef, Curtis Stone says that the burger of the McDonalds should come with the warning “eat on your own risk.” The counter argument says that those who are continuing to have McDonalds are completely aware of the fact that it is unhealthy. Here the boycott works as an additional deterrence which will suppress the craving for having the McDonalds.
After the video of McDonalds catering free foods among the Israeli army, the tycoon was the major target of the boycott movement. Many of its middle east outlets were completely and partially closed due to the boycott. Despite the craving of the people for their favourite food, they dropped it for the sake of their brothers in Gaza. Even at least for two- or three-month months, the apart from political solidarity, it helps them to realize the way of life without fast food or at least, to develop an opportunity for a better alternative.
Boycott is a non-violent way to protest anything in the world and whenever we boycott the wrong thing, we will be guided into the right way. But the absence of better alternatives will always paint ourselves into the corners. In an interview with Nirmal Kumar Bose, Ghandhi said “Boycott of foreign cloth through picketing may easily be violent; through the use of khadi, it is most natural and absolutely nonviolent”. If the food is harmful to our health, we should consider non-violent ways of boycotting it by inventing and relying on new tasty healthy food.