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Come Pongal, will the bulls run again?

The antagonists are modern animal welfare activists who owe no allegiance to ancient customs.

The bulls will run again, they say. Never has there been such an outpouring of sentiment in favour of the valorous or brutal sport of Jallikattu, which, perhaps, is owed to this being an election year in Tamil Nadu. The sport’s protagonists see a glimmer of hope in the battle for the ballot box taking a curious turn in favour of the running of the bulls.
The capital may be far away from the rural hinterland of Tamil Nadu where the sport has been practised into the modern age, but bull taming was depicted even in a seal
dating back to the Indus Valley Civilisation.
The antagonists are modern animal welfare activists who owe no allegiance to ancient customs. Their sustained campaigns led to the top court finally banning the sport in 2014. There is one great difference between the ancient sport of Jallikattu and the almost as ancient (14th century) Spanish festival held in Pamplona, Spain. All bulls that run in Pamplona are slaughtered at the end of the run.
The bulls of Jallikattu are favoured creatures, bred from ‘Jellicut’ bulls and steers and nurtured to be the ‘angry’ runners that test the bravery or foolhardiness of India’s version of matadors, who are bull cuddlers rather than full-fledged bullfighters who kill bulls.
History has it that Jallikattu was a sport among ancient tribes who lived in the ‘Mullai’ geographical division of ancient Tamil country. The sport finds mention in Sangam period literature. Only later did the prize money come into the sport with gold and silver coins (‘Jalli’) being tied (‘kattu’) to the bull’s horns, which our matadors try to pluck as they cling to the bull’s hump hanging on from the bull in funny rodeo style. A cave painting in white ‘kaolin’ in Madurai
district dates back about
1,500 years ago. In a nutshell, this is a very ancient tradition.
It is also basically harmless to the beasts, apart from their being challenged by the Tamil version of matadors who are far more likely to be hurt than the bulls. There is none of the denouement of the Pamplona bull run which ends with the bulls ending up being slaughtered for their meat, the same fate also befalling the six prize bulls that are usually featured in
bullfights in the ring the same day. Since record keeping began in 1910, as many as 15 people have died, mostly from being gored in the Pamplona bull run.
The deaths among spectators are more in Tamil Nadu because crowd control becomes a nightmare as light casuarinas pole fencing is all that separates the people from the raging bulls. A number of bull tacklers has been injured and even killed over the years. But, the point is they inflict such cruelty on themselves rather than inflicting cruelty on the animals.
There could be a society for the prevention of cruelty to bull ‘fighters’ rather than for animals although some crude practices are known to be practised widely to get the bulls into an ‘angry’ mood to charge through the army of tacklers who try to ‘ride’ them to victory.
It has been rumoured that bulls are fed all kinds of stuff, including meat, to get their temper up and chilli powder may be thrown into their eyes to elicit a ferocious response. Jallikattu organisers could easily be dissuaded
from such practices whenever the permission for the sport to resume comes through because such acts are indeed cruel to
animals. With Parliament generally in limbo, it is unlikely any fresh legislation will be attempted to allow the sport this Pongal season. An ordinance is the only possible timely route out, but then is the Centre (read Prime Minister Modi) convinced enough to institute such an emergency measure when it is so fashionable for the urban elite to frown upon Jallikattu
as a primordial sport which inflicts cruelty on the bulls.

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( Source : deccan chronicle )
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