Madurai: A pall of gloom descended on the villages in and around Madurai preparing for the conduct of jallikattu with renewed vigor and enthusiasm after January 8.
Ever since the central government notified the lifting of the ban on bull taming sport close to Pongal, the villagers have been preparing for the event, marking the programme for various activities including painting the Vaadivasal and preparation of the arena, training of the bulls and inviting tamers from across the state for the sport.
But, on Tuesday, people were crestfallen, with a youth even attempting self immolation near the Vaadivasal at Alanganallur village and around 11 youth tonsured their heads at Palamedu.
People, including women and children, gathered in the streets raising slogans against animal activists.
“It is an assault on the sentiments of Tamil people. It clearly shows the apex court will only serve the interests of a few urban elites in the country, but not respect the cultural tradition of Tamils,” said a group of women gathered at the protest site in Palamedu village where the jallikattu organizing committee has almost completed the preparatory work for the event scheduled on Jan. 16.
The shops in Palamedu and Alanganallur village downed their shutters and hundreds of villagers gathered in the main roads to protest against the stay order.
Bull tamer Mani attempted to self immolate near the Vaadivasal, but the villagers prevented him. “Jallikattu is our soul, why is the apex court refusing to understand this?” asked the youth.
Alangallur municipality chairperson Geeta Balaji said they would observe an indefinite protest fast till the court lifts the ban against jallikattu. The jallikattu orgaising committee in Alanganallur, Palamedu and Avaniyapuram decided not to celebrate this Pongal.
“We suspect that the BJP has played a trick using jallikattu to gain election mileage. The BJP high command very well knew that the union minister Maneka Gandhi is campaigning against jallikattu and also supporting the animal activists. If Prime Minister Modi would have convinced her, she couldn’t have prevented the animal activist from approaching the court,” said
Narayanaswamy (75), a retired military man from Palamedu. “Now they will try to put the blame on court to escape from the responsibilities, but we are not fools,” he said.
Like Narayanasawamy, many elders who are custodians of the jallikattu tradition, said they would boycott this election. At Avaniyapuram, where jallikattu would have been organised first in the district on Jan. 15, people were outraged when the police stopped them from preparatory work.
“The government has evolved law only to safeguard the people from atrocities, but not to suppress the people’s culture and tradition using it. Now it is clear to us that the apex court is using the law to serve the interest of animal activists who know nothing about our tradition,” said Kannan, chairman of the jallikattu oraganising committee, Avaniyapuram.
When DC contacted Collector L Subramanian, he said he had already given instructions to the police and revenue officials to maintain law and order in the district and to prevent the illegal conduct of jallikattu. SP Vijayendra S. Bidari deployed police in the sensitive places.
