Hyderabad: Renting a house out is no longer based on one’s finances but on the kind of food they eat. Maybe that is why landlords in Saifabad and Sitaphalmandi choose to give vegetarians a roof over their heads. Privately, they confess that they are not willing to share that roof with Muslims.
For instance, B. Eshwar, who earlier announced his two-bedroom apartment was available for rent, quietly told this reporter that he would not give it to a Muslim.
“If we give the house on rent to a Muslim, they will cook non-vegetarian food,” he said. “This might be unappealing to the neighbours. That is why we insist on a Hindu family to take the house on rent.”
Similarly, in Sitaphalmandi, owners were coy about giving the house out on rent to a Muslim, for reasons they did not wish to specify. They merely said the room had already been rented out, or that it was simply not available at the moment.
“We have been turned away from at least 10 houses,” says Faroouq (name changed), an IT employee house-hunting in Saifabad. “What can we do to get a new residence?”
The predominant but unspoken fear is of non-vegetarian food. This is despite the state trumping all other states with the highest consumption of meat and spices: 1.3 kgs of meat per capita, according to Prof Jayashankar Telangana State Agriculture University.
For Christians, it is the same story. “We usually do not encourage Christian tenants as they would conduct prayer meetings on Sunday. Sometime they have people over, giving out pamphlets, which look to convert people,” said Chandrasekhar (name changed), of Sitaphal-mandi.
