The raging bull

The thousands of youngsters thronging the Marina beach in Chennai may have a point against the banning of jallikattu, a bull-taming sport staged in Tamil Nadu on Pongal (Lohri). Prime Minister Narendra Modi also acknowledged its cultural significance when the TN Chief Minister urged him to issue an ordinance to override the Supreme Court’s judgment. But the protesting youngsters and their backers in the shadows do not have reason on their side. They are perhaps unaware that the Supreme Court’s ire is not exclusively against jallikattu. The apex court had banned similar sports in Punjab, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Goa as well.

The Supreme Court also gave a long rope. The organisers flouted the court’s special conditions for staging the sport for several years. It is now that the Tamil Nadu Jallikattu Federation realised the implications. It is now talking of what should have been done earlier — regulate the sport to prevent cruelty to bulls in consultation with the Animal Welfare Board. This is exactly how the Kila Raipur Sports Festival will be held next month near Ludhiana. The protesters in Chennai are citing violation of centuries-old Tamil culture and tradition. But they forget that in a diverse country like ours, there will be chaos if culture and precedence take primacy over law. This is what happened after the law in the Shah Bano case where the political class allowed itself to be swayed by arguments of orthodoxy and religion.  

Apprehensions in Tamil Nadu might have been triggered by auxiliary causes rather than a conspiracy against the local culture. The state is in the grip of a drought, some felt let down by the apex court’s judgment in the Cauvery case. After a long time, Chennai is politically unsettled with the passing away of J Jayalalithaa. Moreover, the young minds protesting an old sport must realise the times have changed. There can be no performing animal on the streets or in a cage. Commercialisation has changed the way jallikattu is staged and tradition has taken a toss for inhumanity on bulls. It can no longer be business as usual in jallikattu or any other animal sport.