Urban educated youngsters root for jallikattu

COIMBATORE: T Arjuna, a third-year student of psychology at an arts college on Avinashi Road, whose knowledge of jallikattu was confined to reports appeared in newspapers, plans to turn up at CODISSIA Grounds on Thursday evening in support of the demand for lifting the ban on the sporting event.
If likes and shares on Facebook pages are to be believed, more than 500 college students like Arjuna are likely to turn up at CODISSIA Grounds in a campaign to bring back jallikattu.
In the last one month, the demand for jallikattu had grown into a movement among the urban educated youngsters, besides the rural farmers and some Hindu outfits. “Around four-years-back when I was a school student and had read briefly about its ban and the reasons, I actually supported the ban,” Arjuna said. “While I still do not support cruelty to animals, I do not support the blanket ban either,” he said.
Students of several colleges in the district staged protest in support of jallikattu. While students of the Government Arts College protested against the ban on jallikattu on Tuesday, a youth group staged a demonstration on Monday.
Hardly a week after a young woman from Puducherry went on a four-day bike ride to campaign for jallikattu, many youngsters have been sharing posts on Facebook and even conducting awareness campaigns on bull fighting and bull racing.
Some colleges are conducting awareness campaigns on jallikattu. “This year, we see a lot more youngsters knowing about native breeds like the Kangeyam and Alanganallur bulls. They are also aware of the fact that native breeds will become extinct if the ban on jallikattu is not lifted,” T Navaneethan, one of the organisers of the ‘Coimbatore Voice for Jallikattu’ meet at CODISSIA on Thursday, said.
Activists say a recent song by ‘Hip Hop’ Thamizha on jallikattu has helped elicit support from youngsters for the sporting event. “The song and a debate on a TV channel about jallikattu have helped draw support from the people for the event,” M Prem, 19, a farmer’s son and college student from Salem, said. He has been a jallikattu campaigner for the past four years.
The urban youngster says they are fighting to protect an age-old tradition of the western region but maintain that they are against animal cruelty. “We are definitely against practices of feeding alcohol to the animal, rubbing chilli on their eyes or making them run on a rocky terrain that would hurt their legs,” Atul Krishna, who maintains a farm with native breed of bulls, said.
“But after beginning to maintain my farm for the past two years, I understand the importance of encouraging and raising the population of native breeds and selling their milk. The milk is so much healthier than Jersey cow milk,” he said.
“If jallikattu and rekla helps more people to breed such cows, then it should be supported,” R Vidhya, a software professional, said. “Maybe they can have a monitoring system to strictly ensure that the bulls are treated well by the owners,” she said.