Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, Vegans and Vegetarians have launched a widespread petition along with Dough Maw to stop the Bank of England from using animal fat (in form of tallow) in the new £5 and £10 notes. The petition has reached almost 137,500 signatures so far and needs 12,500 more signatures to reach a desired 150,000.
The Bank of England in a statement wrote, “The Bank is today announcing that after careful and serious consideration and extensive public consultation there will be no change to the composition of polymer used for future banknotes. The new polymer £20 note and future print runs of £5 and £10 notes will continue to be made from polymer manufactured using trace amounts of chemicals, typically less than 0.05%, ultimately derived from animal products.”
The decision by the Bank of England to take no heed of the contributions of 88% of respondents who submitted details of a value based position to the Bank has left the diaspora disappointed. The affected communities believe that the bank's decision is based upon what is offered as “value for money” and are deeply concerning, as the Bank has chosen its own perspective in determining what is deemed as “value” and has completely ignored what is perceived as 'value' by what is not limited to the materialistically bounded perspective of a Central Bank.They believe that for many Hindus Sikhs and Jains, and for vegans and vegetarians as well, the spirit of all monetary transactions will be now tainted to varying degrees and the donations and monetary activities of Hindu Temples will be be felt to be polluted on a moral and emotional level.
Pt Satish K Sharma, General Secretary, National Council of Hindu Temples (UK), Chair, British Board of Hindu Scholars and Chair, City of London InterFaith From said, “This perspective they appear to have forgotten that the sole function of currency is facilitating the attainment of prosperity, happiness and tranquil existence through exchange of values, values which are not only confined to numbers on bank statements and promissory notes.
“Some traditions will not use the proceeds of gambling, being attuned to the corruption such activities introduce into society, playing upon and exploiting human vulnerabilities and other traditions have learned that it is possible to corrupt human well-being as well as our relationship with other beings, when we undervalue their right to life and existence.
“These are wisdom principles acquired over many generations and the argument that 0.05% is acceptable is seen to be grossly devoid of the perception of the nature of moral principles and surprising in its lack of relevance to the core issues. If a human finger were to fall into the production line of 100,000 bars of chocolate at which quantity level would it become “cost effective” to permit it? 0.05%? This shallow logic is deeply flawed.
“The decision of the Bank establishes that there is a cost based rationale upon which these decisions can be made - the previous example establishes the falsehood of this line of thinking. If it were simply down to molecules and percentages, we could justify the repulsive suggestion that human cadavers also contain the same constituents and on precisely the same basis are eligible for industrial utility. It is not a monetary decision which prevents us from making this choice, it is something far deeper and many feel the same level of repulsion when applied to other sentient beings. It is disappointing that this dimension of understanding appears to be valueless and still absent from the Bank of England’s view of existence.”
To sign the petition go to: https://www.change.org/p/bank-of-england-remove-tallow-from-bank-notes
