Ths is a post I came across in fb.... Wanted to share with you all here ::
JALLIKATTU EXPLAINED TO NON-TAMILIANS.
Firstly, let me tell you jallikattu isn't a tamil problem at all. It is India's. It is as much your issue as it is tamil nadu's.
I'm of marathi & rajasthani descent on father's side with a tamil iyengar mom born in karnataka with a sister married to a bengali & maternal cousins who are half telugu & paternal cousins who are half Gujarati, some punjabi. So if anyone understands the importance of not being hung on language or ethnicity - its me.
Many of these ngo's supporting jallikattu ban will tell you that is a culture thing with tamils , that chauvinistic tamil men like to dominate their women and bulls, beat, slap or torture animals in the name of festivities among other lies that break your heart & make you sign yet another petition supporting complete bans of such festivities.
Anyone who knows me knows that i'm not the type of woman that can be dominated & it sickens me that these ngos use feminism to subliminally create a sick mental manipulative link to a harvest festival to make you hate jallikattu whilst hiding the truth from you. Here's what they won't tell you :
1. Instances of cruelty or animals being hurt during jallikattu are extemely rare. Since 2012 there have been added regulations to prevent animals or humans being hurt during the festivities. The horrific footage you may see are mostly doctored and the ones that are real are over 10 years old.(regulations have already been put in place to prevent recurrences)
2. Jallikattu is a festival that is meant not for the sole purpose of human entertainment, but also to assess the strength of the bull, the strongest bull is then used to inseminate the cows of the village. This bull is managed generally by the local temple with everyone's contribution thereby easing / sharing the expense of managing the bull.
The bulls that dont perform in jallikattu are used for farming.
3. For us city dwellers it is easy to say just remove the bulls and use tractors but the real india is in the villages, our rosy utopian vision will not work for our villages. Farmers across our country are already committing suicide (over other issues),how will they fund tractors? Also, remember bulls used in farming are cared for as family members, loved & revered. Their dung is used as manure. This method of agriculture is eco friendly & sustainable. Tractors cause pollution & need fuel. Banning jallikattu will send bulls to the slaughter house instead of farms to work.
4. Orgs like peta, hsi who are out to remove animals from our lives have a long track record of killing 84- 97% of animals they seize through color of law. (For details, please check humanewatch.org or petakillsanimals.com)
Since this issue started, lakhs of bulls have been slaughtered.
These orgs only garner sympathy, ask for donations, pass laws by bribing our corrupt judiciaries. Animals be damned.
They never plan for what happens to these animals once laws are passed.
5. Our native breed of cows are superior in genetic strength & quality of milk produced compared to the western jersey cows. There are several accusations that these orgs are partly funded by those looking to make india completely dependent on jersey cows and eradicate native breeds.
In any case, our native cow breeds are going extinct and festivities like jallikattu helps preserve them.
6. Cows are only the beginning. Once they remove cows, they will go after all other animals. They are already looking to take away our elephants through fake doctored videos(thats a story for another post)
They will take away camels of rajasthan, the buffalos of karnataka, then they will take away your dogs and cats citing that keeping a pet in human confines is cruelty. Ever heard of divide and conquer? No? That's how the british managed to defeat all the Indian kings & rule over India for so long.
Hinduism reveres animals, we include animals in our daily life, which in turn helps protect them.
If you are not a hindu, don't worry they will eventually come for your festivals too, because this is not about our religion or ethnicity or language at all.
Its about building a sane, sustainable way of life for all our country men, it is about saving all our animals by inculcating them into our lives. Don't let a simple language barrier stop you from supporting what is right.
Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated - Confucius
