Call it the 'Tamil Arab Spring' or call it a misguided people's movement mobilised to validate animal cruelty using sheer brute force. But the massive movement in favour of jallikattu that's sweeping across Tamil Nadu has reduced the fight to legalise the ancient sport into a Tamil pride vs Peta debate.
While the largely apolitical, peaceful movement was praised for setting a precedent in portraying civil dissent, many argued that it will set a dangerous precedent, of amending laws to commensurate with public sentiment.
Swarming masses of youth gathered on the streets of Chennai, Madurai and elsewhere in Tamil Nadu, which may have forced the government to buckle under, but the raging debate around the issue has opened a Pandora's Box — will other such banned or controversial sports that are also cruel to animals be allowed to continue?
While the anti-jallikattu camp is accused of cherry-picking their fight and focussing only on Tamil culture, we decided to look at similar sports practiced across the country in the name of religion, which are opposed by animal rights activists.
Bulbul fight in Assam
Bulbul fight in Assam. News18
Bulbul fight in Assam. News18
Assam celebrates Bhogali Bihu with much frolic and merriment in January each year. However, the festival that coincides with Makar Sankranti, Pongal and Lohri — all celebrated at the end of the harvest season — has ironically also drawn controversy for the same reason.
Hundreds of people have been engaged for generations in catching and training the nightingales or bulbuls, as the bird is commonly known in other parts of India, for bird fights in the state. The endangered species is then trained and fed in preparation of the fight for a month before the festival. Subsequently, they are egged on to fight each other till one dies.
The festival could not be held since the past two years, in view of the Supreme Court judgement banning animal cruelty. However, voices of protest to reinstate the popular sport, which the locals argue is a tradition and ironically a way to conserve local species, have grown in the wake of pro-jallikattu protests. The law of the land can't view two cases with difference lens, they say.
Cock fights in Andhra Pradesh
Cock fight in Andhra Pradesh. Wikimedia Commons
Cock fight in Andhra Pradesh. Wikimedia Commons
Another animal sport associated with the harvest festival in January is cock-fighting that takes place in the rural swathes of Andhra Pradesh. These cock fights often result in the death of the warrior birds.
According to a report in The Times of India, people spend anything upwards of Rs 2 lakh per