Hip Hop Tamizha, who garnered over 5 million views on YouTube with their Club le Mubbu le number, are back with Takkaru Takkaru. This is a song that celebrates ‘Jallikattu’, the traditional bull control sport that is held each year between 14 and 17 of January, during the Pongal festivities.
The song and the ‘short-film’ that precedes it talk of a huge conspiracy to wipe out local bull breeds by banning the sport. But the actual bull owners, talking about their ‘brothers’, is more convincing and endearing.
The SC Ban-Allow-Ban Game
Due to continued pressure from PETA, Animal Welfare Board of India and other Animal Rights activists, Jallikattu was first banned in 2008, then allowed the same year. So too, in 2009 (for a month or so).
In 2014, the Supreme Court banned the event, by giving legal recognition to the World Organisation for Animal Health’s principles of animal rights. These included;
- Freedom from hunger, thirst and malnutrition
- Freedom from fear and distress
- Freedom from physical and thermal discomfort
- Freedom from pain, injury and disease
- Freedom to express normal patterns of behaviour
The Problem With the Ban
The murattu kalai (wild bull), that features in the sport is pampered all through its life. It is left to roam freely across the village and is fed in every home. This is because the bulls are prized not just for the sport, but for breeding. In the absence of the traditional sport, local breeds die off. Only 33 of over a hundred Tamil bull breeds remain today. In a sense, Jallikattu is much more humane than traditional farming, as it does not involve castration, or subjecting the animal to hard labour.
What sets apart Jallikattu from bull fighting traditions across the world, is that in this case, the bulls are neither killed nor maimed during the sport. In fact, stronger bulls run to the other side without being held or stopped at all.
Speciesism Argument
There is no substantial proof of physical cruelty (broken tails, horns, hooves, bruises and blood). But the court ruled that the bulls must not be subject to mental torture either, which would make it an act of speciesism (the assumption of human superiority leading to the exploitation of animals).
The only recorded death of a bull, was because it was hit by a bus, as it ran out of the cordoned-off area.
The Downside
There have been cases of rubbing chilli powder or lime in the bull’s nose and feeding it alcohol. There is also the risk of humans being injured. This was why Animal Rights activists intervened in the first place. None of these practices are part of tradition.
A Non-emotional Response is Needed
Curbing malpractices in the sport, stricter supervision of the animals before and after the event and actively working with animal rights NGOs and the bull owners must be considered before an outright ban.
It would be wrong to compare Jallikattu to a circus, caged birds and other cruel versions of exhibitionism. There is also no taming, training or conditioning of any sort. The bull is wild in all respects, except for the love it shares for its human ‘brother’.
Local bull breeds, knowledge of bull husbandry, the livelihood of breeders and farmers; there is too much at stake here, to generalise.
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