Let sleeping bulls lie

Ratna Raman

AS things stand, 2017 might not be the year of the bull despite the imposing sculpture of a giant bull, 200 metres from the Veerabhadra Temple at Lepakshi or the granite bull curling its painted pink tongue as it sits, protected by steel grills, at the Rameshwaram Temple. The celestial bull was Shiva’s carrier and mode of transport enfamille (along with his spouse and children). Real bulls continue to be a mode of transport in democratic India. Bulls not selected for labour or as beasts of burden are slaughtered for their meat. The castrated bull’s energies are channelised into the hardworking ox. The expression ‘kolhu ka bael’ draws attention to the ox made to perambulate endlessly around ‘ghanis’ or large presses crushing oilseeds or sugarcane sticks to produce oil or juice. 

 Despite the availability of diesel-powered machines and vehicular transportation, humans continue to exploit bulls. Ironically, while ‘horsepower’ is still used to highlight the speed of modern vehicles over steeds, bull power is seldom discussed. Usually, bulls are projected as aggressive animals. They are contrary creatures to have in a china shop. Giant machines that knock over buildings or forests are ‘bulldozers’ and powerful humans demonstrate their clout by systematically ‘bulldozing’ both ideas and people.

Language has been designed to give bulls a bad name. Gory bullfighting has left us with bloodied animals and bleeding or dead matadors. San Fermin or the Bull Run, the annual festival of Pamplona, continues to attract visitors from all over the world who believe that we only live once and concur that a life where animals are not brutalised for human pleasure is inadequate. Endorsing this viewpoint, the producers of Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara pit their hero against a frightened and goaded bull. 

This ‘dangerous show’ where wild bulls are goaded into chasing humans is precisely that; a show put up by unthinking humans who draw upon savage forgettable histories of torturing large herbivorous animals.

 ‘Jallikattu’ (jalli/salli, silver or gold coins; kattu, tied to the horns) refers to a primitive practice of humans wrestling with the specially bred bulls and subduing them to establish benchmarks of strength and courage, on the occasion of harvest festival celebrations.

This barbarous event was banned by the Supreme Court after prolonged protests by animal rights activists in 2014.  Attempts to resume the practice by the Ministry of Environment and Forests in 2016 were struck down by the court which issued a stay overturning the ministry’s order in less than a week. 

 Inconceivably, rallies supportingJallikattu in different parts of Tamil Nadu have prompted its CM to ask the Centre to intervene to re-establish it, terming it a sport from a hoary cultural tradition.

Humane decrees issued by the court cannot be overturned in favour of gory practices. Political satraps must sensitise fellow citizens instead of locking horns with the law. Antediluvian (outdated), anachronistic and bloody narratives blotting our past must not be continued in 21st Century India. An end to violence against hapless animals is both ethical and welcome.