JALLIKATTU. Honestly as a city bred boy, I never got connected myself to this. I never got a chance to experience this and the normal view I get about this is from the movies where the protagonist/hero single-handedly controls the bull by grabbing its horns. Apparently, the actual Jallikattu seems a lot different than this one.
For being someone so ignorant about this, some videos circulated online did make me feel bad for those creatures. It was really barbaric. It created an impression that irrespective of whether we manage to stop other cruelties, this cruelty should stop. Naturally, I got happy when it was banned. But this time I have seen a lot of opposition for banning this event. I started reading a lot of articles about this and watched quite a few talk shows/videos supporting Jallikattu. I even tried to discuss in social networking sites to understand this better. Sadly, none of them answered my questions. A friend of my friend bluntly closed the conversation that it is not of any use to talk to someone who knows nothing about Jallikattu. If he is not able to convince someone who was born here and who values Tamil culture so much, how will he manage to explain this to others? Is this the start of the failure? We are not ready to discuss and just expect everyone to blindly agree to our point.
My questions/comments on Jallikattu:
1. One of the most important points mentioned by Jallikattu supporters is that this will force the farmers to stop grooming the local breed of bulls (the 4 types) and in turn this will affect the offsprings from their cows resulting in the low quality of our cattle. But my questions here are:
a. Why should the farmers stop grooming their bulls in the absence of Jallikattu? Don't they still need the bulls to be groomed for mating their cows. Do they always have to be sent to the butchers?
b. Jallikattu is conducted only in certain places. If this is the way to identify the best bulls for mating what is happening to the other cows in TN and even in other parts of the country?
c. If PETA wanted to stop Indians breeding local cattle breed, then they should attack the entire Indian cattle and not just TN. Are you saying that cattle in TN are the best breed in the entire world?
d. Can't we find alternative methods for this that is more humane?
2. Another important statement from them is that the farmers love their bulls and they would not allow any harm to come to them. We have heard about several parents who even beat their children to perform well in reality shows. They do love their children but fame/popularity/pride/money blinds their eye.
a. Considering that a winning bull brings more revenue what would the person do push their bull to win? Also to bear in mind that unlike children the bulls can't complain to anyone.
b. Again if they love their bulls so much, will they kill their bulls just because it does not fetch them money? This is a bit tricky and emotional question.
3. If only winning bulls get money what will happen to the other bulls?
4. Regarding the funding for these:
a. If the bull catchers get prizes and so do the bulls. There seem to be a lot of money involved especially to keep the bull groomers to be interested. When there is a lot of money involved then dont that really push for mal-practices (bribing the cattle inspectors etc)?
5. There is a statement that this competition is only for grabbing the hump of the bull for a certain distance.
a. This is just one variety of this. What about the other varieties where the bulls are really tamed?
b. Out of curiousity, this is not what is being shown in Tamil movies (right from Veerapandiya Kattabomman). Why didn't anyone protest against such a wrong depiction ever? (You will really feel bad if you see the depiction in Virumaandi movie).
6. A lot of people have agreed that till 2009 there were a lot of mal-practices that were happening. Only after 2009, this entire competition was conducted more humanely. Also, for every competition, the collector & the SP have to be physically present missing out all their other duties. What would happen if there is a personal/official emergency for those Collectors/SPs? Can't there be really some other better alternatives to maintain our precious native breed?
I have huge respect for our Indian culture and I feel bad that we are losing it due to the influence of the western culture. If there is a real reason to keep conducting Jallikattu, I want to be one of those supporters but after getting the answers for these.I am really hoping to find the answers for these questions.
