The frenzy created over the discontinuance of Jallikattu is both perplexing and troubling. For a Sport popular only in a few pockets of southern Tamil Nadu with a small percentage of the state’s population having actually witnessed a Jallikattu, such an outpouring of rage and protest is perplexing.
That such protest is in the teeth of a ban in which the Supreme Court (perhaps the most respected institution in the country) has played a role, a public outcry against this august institution is troubling. Is Jallikattu really so much a part of the ethos and culture of the people of Tamil Nadu or is this reaction fanned by vested interests with an eye on the sport’s financial implications? If the answer could be traced to either, the problem would at least be understandable and manageable.
But the real concern is as to whether these protests are caused by something deeper and are the result of a far more invidious emotional reaction. The manner in which the protest has taken on the colour of an affront to Tamil pride and is linked with other issues where the people of Tamil Nadu feel both estranged and victimised by the rest of the country centred in New Delhi, is a matter of great worry.
The Jallikattu protests accompanied by diatribes of other incidents like the imposition of Hindi, non-implementation of the Cauvery award and a feeling of general indifference shown to Tamil Nadu by New Delhi indicate that the Jallikattu ban is seen as the latest affront to Tamil pride and has, therefore, magnified into an issue of far greater proportion than it otherwise deserves. Has the ban on Jallikattu now become the rallying point for the people of Tamil Nadu to vent their frustrations over a feeling of step-motherly treatment being meted out by the rest of the country to the state?
We cannot forget that one of the first speeches by the revered leader of the Dravidian people, Shri Annadurai, in the Rajya Sabha, was on the need for autonomy for Tamil Nadu. The extreme protests against Hindi being imposed in Tamil Nadu, leading to huge outbreaks of violence, self-immolations and other signs of distress indicate a possible disconnect between Tamil Nadu and the rest of the country. When the rest of the country mourned the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi and bayed for the blood of those behind it, Tamil Nadu strongly supported the LTTE and sought commutation of the assassins’ sentences! It is telling that invariably, the results of any election are diametrically opposite in the south and north. Politics is just one aspect!
The demographic profiles in the southern states are so different from those in the North that it has bred an almost jealous protection of the separate identity of the Tamilian—a disconnect fuelled by various political parties. The extraordinary reactions to the death of a Tamil leader is incomprehensible to the rest of the country! With the advent of the Dravidian parties, there has been no room for any other political party to make an impact in Tamil Nadu—another indicator of the “Tamil identity”. Historically too, the conquering armies of Harshavardhana, Samudragupta, Ashoka or even the Mughals could not make inroads into the south.
In this background, Jallikattu has now become a rallying point! When the sport is neither vital/ intrinsic to the culture of the Tamil people, nor its banning an onslaught on the Tamil culture, is this outburst of emotional protest really a symptom of the problem and not the problem itself?
That the sport inflicts cruelty on the animal and runs foul of the country’s laws is self evident. The judgment of the Supreme Court was neither an exercise of the court’s “public interest” jurisdiction nor an “overreach” by the judiciary but merely an exercise of the traditional jurisdiction of a court in interpreting the law and deciding a legal dispute between conflicting interests.
In the frenzy that has followed, the reaction has not been to consider the judgment, its effect, and what ought to be done to justify the continuance of the sport as it originally evolved, but an outcry against the central government for not taking steps to “preserve Tamil pride and culture” and against the Court for having rendered such a judgment.
This reaction is wholly unwarranted. More so, from people of a state known for its education and intellect. And therein lies the concern! Is the protest not just another indicator of a growing disconnect between the Union and a state and is it not this that demands resolution? Is there a strange parallel between the Jallikattu bull and the people of Tamil Nadu—normally docile unless goaded to a frenzy?
aryama_sundaram@hotmail.com