Jallikattu Uprising Tamil Spring

Despite a legal ban that declares the event as outlawed, it is impossible to ignore the popular sentiment.

- Chandrshekhar Shrivastava

After a gap of two years, Jallikattu bulls charged through the famed vadivasal – the passage that leads to the arena – with the state government moving swiftly on the Ordinance to amend the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. Chief minister O. Panneeselvam himself inaugurated the event at Allanganallur, the home of the sport in Madurai.

That the game enjoys full political patronage is clear from the fact that all the legislators of AIADMK were asked to fan out to their respective constituencies and restart the bull sport in places it had been suspended. The state government had promulgated the ordinance in a bid to diffuse the protests against the ban on Jallikattu. Despite the ordinance, thousands continued to pour down at Marina Beach to show their solidarity with the protesters.

In the past also, Tamil Nadu has seen many protests. But nothing was so widespread to qualify as an uprising. How and why this protest became so viral is still intriguing, given that this is only the third year Jallikattu was not conducted. Protests for Jallikattu spread in a more phenomenal way than other burning issues that the state faced, such as Cauvery, Mullaiperiyar and killings of Sri Lankan Tamils in Eelam war.

The protests did not start just overnight. Last few weeks saw the social media full of stuff protesting the ban on Jallikattu and popular narration was along two lines. One, a western corporate business trying to stall Jallikattu to destroy the native cattle breeds. Two, Tamils are discriminated in India by taking away their tradition through the same courts rulings of which did not guarantee the state’s rights in interstate water disputes.

As days progressed, it was not just Jallikattu. The jeans-clad youths even advocated anything they saw as native.