Jallikattu is not Bull Fight

 

Jallikattu is not Bull Fight

At the outset, let me affirm that I am not in favour of either, the jallikattu as practised mainly in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu and the bull fight in Spain. Yet, were I to be forced to choose between the two, I would choose jallikattu. The reason for my choice is that it is the sport (?) festival owned by a region in the state I belong to, Tamil Nadu. This does not make me parochial, far be it. My choice is my assessment of the level of cruelty visited upon the animal.

I am not a card carrying member of PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals), yet I carry an intense level of empathy for animals (not for insects!). This write-up is to make the distinction crystal clear.

First off, the tile is wrong. The bull is being taken by its hump, not by its horns! This appeared in an English language daily newspaper. The photo editor skipped a beat.

For the substantive issue, the statement explaining the photo got it precisely right – a “gutsy tamer”, and not a fighter as in Spain’s bull fights (a choreographed dance, it actually is, with three matadors, each taking on two bulls, culminating in the bulls’ death). In Jallikattu, the bull will be repeatedly irritated before being let out into the ring (an annual “celebration”). On this count I am not as much in favour of Jallikattu as this too is annual torture, not clearly more humane than clear-cut once-and-for all execution.

I am trying to be consistent across issues with a number of ifs and bu s. There can be no consistent morality for a human being, unsullied by her sensibilities. I will not thik twice before crushing a cockroach or a spider. I live with this cognitive dissonance.

Raghuram Ekambaram