Mood on Marina: More than Jallikattu, this is wrath of the underclass

WATCH VIDEO | Tamil Nadu CM O Panneerselvam Assures Protesters, Says Jallikattu Likely In 2 Days

At Marina, G Durga Devi, a printing press employee from Madurai who works in Chennai, sees it as a movement primarily against established politicians and their politics, “We never had a participation (in politics). We were always at the receiving end. They (politicians) made us beggars with freebies, and they decided our needs.”

Like Durga, the dozens of protesters who spoke with The Indian Express gave different reasons that brought them together: decades-long rule by two “exploitative” political parties; the Centre’s stand in the last leg of the Sri Lankan war; the feeling of being abandoned in the Cauvery water issue; Kudankulam and GAIL pipeline projects, the government’s cold response on the farmers’ issues for years; the drought, the Chennai floods and the Tamil fishermen issue, among tens of others.

Read | Chennai: 20 lakh join in, Jallikattu set for tomorrow

Chandra Mohan, a graduate from New York Film Academy, anti-corruption activist and another leading face coordinating with protesters across the state, said this agitation has “rewritten popular belief that the youth are selfish and apolitical” — and in that lies success. “This anger was building up for several years,” he said. “It is true that currently it is all about Jallikattu and Tamil pride, as they feel that Tamil culture is being threatened. People are tired of the parties ruling both the state and the Centre. They are suffering even now due to the authoritarian policies of the BJP, the currency ban (demonetisation), and unemployment.”

But calling it only a Tamil nationalist movement may be wrong, Mohan said, as “this is the same crowd that chased away Seeman (a crowd-pulling Tamil nationalist leader)” who wanted to join the protest.

While political corruption and a mistrust turns them against the ruling AIADMK and the opposition DMK in the state, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is attracting a lot of criticism from the protesters on Marina beach due to the BJP’s “nationalist agendas and imposition of Hindi” through various policies, and the “severe impact of demonetisation”.

Related |  Jallikattu protests: What is the uproar in Tamil Nadu all about?

Sivakumar, veteran Tamil actor who was part of the Dravidian movement and the anti-Hindi agitations in 1965, said, “You cannot compare any agitations or protests in the past with this youth movement. They (protesters) were that upset,” he emphasised.

Asked about the slogans in the ongoing movement, Sivakumar said it has nothing to do with the “so-called Tamil nationalism”. He said, “If a protestor shouts ‘Naan Thamizhan da (I am Tamil)’, that is just a way of expressing his pride and anger. Isn’t it harmless? Our nationalism is more cultural.”

As Chandra Mohan, who left Chennai two days ago to meet drought-hit farm workers and farmers across the state, predicted there will be “a major uprising of farmers and other weaker sections” next, P Ramajayam, senior political analyst with Centre for Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy, Trichy, said Jallikattu was the last resort for people to come to the streets. “They lost many chances; many protests were silenced or crushed in the past. If it was a weak government and an orphaned ruling party that led to this protest. It (the protest) is also sends a strong warning to Prime Minister Modi and the BJP (government at the Centre), telling them that their religious nationalism is different from a Tamilian’s linguistic and ethnic nationalism,” Ramajayam said.

Also read | Taking Jallikattu bull by the horns: Protests in Tamil Nadu and the many legal twists and turns

Ramajayam said that a section of progressive minds and activists continue to be suspicious of the protesters because of their ideological standings and a narrow spectrum through which they see the socio-political development. “This is a reaction to a larger political crisis. Many Left-leaning people look at it as a Jallikattu protest, and they oppose it since they don’t find any social relevance to this game,” he said. “Several attacks on Dalits during the Jallikattu events by Thevars (an agrarian community that largely holds Jallikattu events) have also turned a section (of people) against it. Activists, right groups and feminists look at it through a narrow spectrum, as they couldn’t afford to consider cultural aspects along with their primary concerns of rights. Essentially, they all fail to understand this social assertion,” he said.