Jallikattu: An introspection

Facebook has been throwing up memories of Jallikattu protests three years ago, during which I participated passively and wrote actively. My interest in and ardent support for the jallikattu protests was based on one key aspect:

It united and politicised the entire student community in Tamil Nadu. It brought a generation of students and parents who had become selfishly career-oriented to come to the streets for a common social cause. From what I saw during the protests, I hoped it could lead to a larger awareness and involvement of students in green issues.

The protests did create a certain level of interest in farming and environmental issues. Many youngsters may have got themselves deeply involved in such activities. It maybe regarded as an important milestone in the environmental movement in Tamil Nadu. But it did not lead to or become a sustained movement by itself, partly because the protests were ended prematurely by some of the key mobilizers of the protests, saying their demands were restricted to jallikattu, while the protests all along focussed on larger issues. It subsequently led to the brutal, bloody, orchestrated attacks by the police on the remaining students, thereby crushing any scope for the protests becoming an organized movement or for that set of students coming back to the streets again for any other cause. I conjecture that the lukewarm participation from the student community in protests against NEET or the current anit-CAA/NRC protests is a result of the deadly scars inflicted then. It also exposed our lack of understanding and training in non-violent movements.

It was also claimed that jallikattu will lead to renewed interest in native cattle. The prices of native cows went up after jallikattu protests. But I do not see any enhanced interest in native cattle among traditional farmers, at least in our area, where jallikattu is not present. It may be different in areas where jallikattu is held. But at best, it is only an artificial means to keep the interest alive. It doesn’t address the real economic factors needed to make the farmers go back to native cows.

The jallikattu protests were also important on another count. They served to assert the rights of local communities to practice their customs, and resist the hegemonic hand of Delhi or international organisations from dictating terms. However, while I remain sceptical about external interference in the practices of local communities, I firmly believe people from within the local communities must question and evolve their practices and customs on a continuous basis.

As a sport or as a ritual, I am personally not drawn to jallikattu. Looking at it dispassionately now, I do not feel any enthusiasm for it. I have not seen jallikattu live in person – seen it only on TV. But that shouldn’t quite disqualify me from saying I personally see no aesthetic merit or a higher purpose in the sport that has contemporary relevance.

If it is a celebration of bravery, we have to question the place of such bravery in the contemporary world. One need not run after raging bulls to learn the bravery needed for democratic governance or non-violent resistance or just simple living. Jallikattu has not given the participants the courage to tread away from the beaten path. It is certainly an important heritage. But not all heritage needs to be continued perpetually. Do we still need a sport that injures and kills people on such regular basis? It deeply saddens me to see these deaths and injuries and the deep insensitivity we are showing towards these inevitable mishaps by drawing parallels to other events and sports. Jallikattu, in the current age and form, is unfair to both man and the animal. Oh yes, I am all for calling boxing and wrestling and all forms of violent western and oriental sports as barbaric too.

Native breeds of cattle – not just cows but buffalos too, need saving. For that we have to make organic farming using native cows attractive and financially sustainable. Else, no amount of props like jallikattu will help in the long run.

Now that we have asserted our right to determine our course of action, we have to exercise that right wisely.

Shaheen Bagh protests

Shaheen Bagh protests are historical in many ways. The protests have been on for over a month in the winter of Delhi. Women have been at the forefront, and many of them are Muslims. When Muslims in India are part of sustained non-violent protests, the government repression is brutal, making it doubly hard for them. Though Shaheen Bagh seems to have transcended the religious barrier to a great extent, drawing people of all religions there, we live in a country where the PM identifies protestors by their clothes. We saw how the presence of Muslims was twisted and cited as an excuse to bring down the heavy and crooked hand of the police machinery on the peaceful jallikattu protests in Tamil Nadu. We witnessed the same in Jamia Millia and Uttar Pradesh in the last two months.

I heard glowing first-hand accounts of Shaheen Bagh from some of the senior Gandhians from Delhi, during a meeting last week. While my Twitter timeline is abuzz with news about Shaheen Bagh, my Facebook wall is relatively quiet about it. Here are some articles that give a sense of what Shaheen Bagh is about.

The jallikattu protests were crushed in a hurry in time for a ‘peaceful’ Republic Day. Another Republic Day is nearing. We and the people of Shaheen Bagh should be concerned about and prepared for what could be in store for them this week.

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/The anti-CAA-NRC protests in Shaheen Bagh began on 15 December. For the last thirty days, women have been peacefully protesting on the road. Their resistance has inspired many more Shaheen Bagh-like protests to mushroom in Kanpur, Allahabad, Nagpur and Kolkata.
The leaderless movement has been supported by a team of volunteers, locals and students. They work in shifts to provide bedding, food, medicines and security./

/A woman protester had a seizure and was rushed to the hospital with Nazir Ali Khan, a doctor, and his friends. On the same evening, they formed a WhatsApp group, pooled in all their resources, and set up a free medical camp at the protest site the following day.
“My friends and I pooled in our resources for the camp. Some people also made donations. But we don’t ask people for money. When someone expresses their desire to help, we hand them a list of medicines,” Nazir told The Quint.
Khalid, an IT professional and a local, was also present at the protest with a box of Frooti. He has come to the protests for 24 days out of 30. And he makes sure to get biryani, biscuits, snacks and water./

https://www.thequint.com/…/behind-shaheen-bagh-women-an-arm…

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/In the beginning, a major question that popped up was: for how many days would the Shaheen Bagh protesters be able to leave work, home and hearth, and sit on the roads? “The women told the men: go to work, earn the bread and butter, we’ll carry the torch of protecting the Constitution; we’ll carry the burden of fighting for a just India,” Shabina says. “No doubt it’s insanely cold, but in light of the barbarity we have seen, this cold is not being felt. We don’t feel it because we are fighting for our kids.” /

https://theswaddle.com/in-shaheen-bagh-muslim-women-redefi…/

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/The leaderless, self-discipline of the Shaheen Bagh satyagraha is almost unique in our history of dissent and protest. Comparisons with the Gandhian movement immediately spring to the mind. But Shaheen Bagh has no charismatic leader, nor have its members been given the training in self-discipline that Gandhi enjoined on his satyagrahis. They sit with self-possession and patience, as they approach the two-month mark in the ravaging cold of this Delhi winter./

https://www.business-standard.com/…/shaheen-bagh-a-new-kind…

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/When asked about funds, Mustaqeem waves a dismissive hand. “No one gathers funds collectively,” he says. “Whatever we have in our pockets at the moment, we give. Be it a 100 rupee note or a 500. We trust the volunteers here to put it to use.” Nizar, a doctor at the 4-10 PM medical camp says something similar about medicines: “People come and ask us what we need and we hand over a list. it’s as simple as that,” he shrugs, adding that they’ve never run short of medication. /

https://www.goyajournal.in/…/fuel-for-the-fire-stories-from…

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Notes on CAA/NRC, Kashmir

(My posts in FB/Twitter on CAA/NRC)

Religion is no test of nationality, but a personal matter between man and his God. In the sense of nationality they are Indians first and Indians last, no matter what religion they profess.

– Gandhi (Harijan, 29-6-1947)

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It seemed relevant when I posted this 6 years ago, and sadly, even more pertinent now.

This probably is a great antidote to the Godse-eulogizing seen on FB and elsewhere.

Ram Manohar Lohia, not exactly an unquestioning acolyte of Gandhi, and a bitter critic of Nehru, on Hindu fanaticism and Partition :

‘Opposition of fanatical Hinduism to Partition did not and could not make any sense, for one of the forces that partitioned the country was precisely this Hindu fanaticism. It was like the murderer recoiling from his crime, after it had been done.

Let there be no mistake about it. Those who have shouted loudest of Akhand Bharat, the present Jan Sangh and its predecessors of the curiously un-Hindu spirit of Hinduism, have helped Britain and the Muslim League partition the country, if the consequences of their acts and not their motivations are taken into account. They did nothing whatever to bring the Muslim close to the Hindu within a single nation. They did almost everything to estrange them from each other. Such estrangement is the root cause of Partition. To espouse the philosophy of estrangement and at the same time, the concept of undivided India is an act of grievous self-deception, only if we assume that those who do so are honest men.
[…] The opponent of Muslims in India is the friend of Pakistan.

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‘We are not a nation built just by laws, or even by just laws, but by concord, no matter how difficult the times.’

An important, balanced essay by Sanjoy Hazarika to help understand the historical context and the current turmoil in Assam.

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(16-Dec-2019)

When students across the world are going on climate strikes and fighting for their futures, our students have been forced to fight for their present. It doesn’t matter who is affected and who is not. This fear is real. The rage and tears are real. The fight is for everyone. This government has bared its fangs. So has everyone who supports it, directly or indirectly.

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(19-Dec-2019)

Modi supporters need more saving from Modi-Shah than Muslims. They can only delay or deny citizenship to Muslims. But, Modi supporters, they are stripping you of your humanity. Save yourselves.

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What would have happened/would happen if India had a state religion?

The statement of objects and reasons as given in the CAB, 2019 inadvertently paints this picture [Bold letters, mine]:

“The constitutions of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh provide for a specific state religion. AS A RESULT, many persons belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities have faced persecution on grounds of religion in those countries. Some of them also have fears about such persecution in their day-to-day life where right to practice, profess and propagate their religion has been obstructed and restricted.”

That’s precisely why this act must be opposed.

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Any of you who want to give the benefit of doubt to the BJP government should watch these videos of Amit Shah on this link. (https://scroll.in/…/who-is-linking-citizenship-act-to-nrc-h…)

He cleverly plays with the words refugees and infiltrators, and often openly spews hatred. How can only Muslims from abroad (and those who can’t prove their citizenship) be infiltrators while all the rest are refugees?

The link between CAA and NRC is not an imaginary fear of the protestors. It is the stated objective of this government.

I am seeing BJP supporters updating their profile picture on FB with the slogan ‘I support CAB and NRC”. Not just CAA but ‘CAA and NRC’. In their minds the core BJP supporters are pretty clear on what their party is trying to achieve with this devious act.

It is not about inclusion. It is about exclusion. There is no doubt about it either for the protestors or for the core supporters. Those purporting to be in the middle are the ones who are attributing a certain goodness to this government, which it doesn’t even pretend to possess.

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Democracy is as much about dialogue, disagreement, dissent, civil disobedience and protest as it is about voting once in 5 years or supporting the government. Any government which suppresses dissent with brute force is just fearful and nowhere close to being courageous or democratic.

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11-Jan-2020

The animated movie ‘The Point’ from the 1970s, now showing on Mubi, is a good, light philosophical musical for children and adults.

It is about a village where everyone/everything is pointed. A boy is born without a point. He rubs the conceited Count of the village the wrong way. The Count brandishes an old law which provides for expelling anybody without a point, and the boy is banished to a pointless forest as per that law. His faithful pointed dog is also banished for being a traitor in supporting him. The boy returns to show the pointlessness of the law.

A good way to initiate a discussion on CAA/NRC with children.

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2-Jan-2020

It is repeatedly said that NO Indian Citizen will be affected by CAA-NRC-NPR. A case can be made to show how all Indians will be affected. But really, should it matter only if Indian citizens are affected?

Even if not a single Indian citizen is affected but it discriminates against a section of immigrants, it should be opposed. Why is it so hard to get this?

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Why only Hindus? Let us follow due process and help as many as we can irrespective of their religion.

Pakistan has declared themselves as Islamic. We haven’t declared ourselves as Hindu. We can criticize what they do, we should influence them on how they treat their citizens; but within our country we have to treat all people, whether they are our citizens or immigrants or refugees, equally. I think it is a fair demand.

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Yes, there are no simple solutions, especially in Assam where the problem is not religious. It needs patience, statesmanship and a participative approach. Which is why many people don’t trust this blatantly partisan government to do the best for everyone.

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Combined with NRC, CAA is totally discriminatory, especially in the immediate context of Assam. As it is, we had an almost unsolvable problem in Assam, which demanded great statesmanship and patience, and not hasty laws and diktats. This complicates the situation there. And it could be replicated everywhere.

But by itself also, CAA is discriminatory. Persecution can be based on race, colour, religion, sect, language, caste or even ideology. To have a law only for religious persecution and to choose only specific neighbours and to leave out only a specific religion from the scope, beats me. Once a certain law is enacted, it becomes a precedent for future laws.

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15-Jan-2020

Too much media attention is on fixing the blame for JNU attacks on young students from ABVP. They could be mere tools. It does not help explain why the police were mute spectators and facilitators. Exposing the role of govt/police is more important.

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9-Jan-2020

If there is normalcy in Kashmir, you don’t have to spend so much time and money in taking diplomats to Kashmir to showcase it. Just turn on the internet, and they can see it for themselves from wherever they are.

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10-Jan-2020

Free Kashmir is ultimately about the right to self-determination. If internet and pizza are what they want, any govt would give it to them. But is that why Kashmiris have been shedding blood? If we have the courage to put this up on a placard, have the courage to own it up.

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10-Jan-2020

Indian SC has delegated the responsibility of stopping the accused to the victims, and that of determining the sentence to the convicts.

Nice trolling of the entire opposition by Gandhi

A WELCOME MOVE

On the Deliverance Thanksgiving Day (1) declared by Jinnah Saheb I had the following wire from Gulbarga Muslims : “Deliverance Day greetings, Quaid-e-Azam Jinnah Zindabad”. I took it as a message sent to ruffle my feelings. The senders little knew that the wire could not serve its purpose. When I received it, I silently joined the senders in the wish “Long Live Quaid-e-Azam Jinnah.” The Quaid-e-Azam is an old comrade. What does it matter that today we do not see eye to eye in some matters ? That can make no difference in my goodwill towards him.

But the Quaid-e-Azam has given me special reason for congratulating him. I had the pleasure of wiring him congratulations on his excellent Id day broadcast. And now he commands further congratulations on forming pacts with parties who are opposed to the Congress policies and politics. He is thus lifting the Muslim League out of the communal rut and giving it a national character. I regard his step as perfectly legitimate. I observe that the Justice Party and Dr. Ambedkar’s party have already joined Jinnah Saheb. The papers report too that Shri Savarkar, the President of the Hindu Mahasabha, is to see him presently. Jinnah Saheb himself has informed the public that many non-Congress Hindus have expressed their sympathy with him. I regard this development as thoroughly healthy. Nothing can be better than that we should have in the country mainly two parties— Congress and non-Congress or anti-Congress, if the latter expression is preferred. Jinnah Saheb is giving the word ‘minority’ a new and good content. The Congress majority is made up of a combination of caste Hindus, non-caste Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Parsis and Jews. Therefore it is a majority drawn from all classes, representing a particular body of opinion; and the proposed combination becomes a minority representing another body of opinion. This may any day convert itself into a majority by commending itself to the electorate. Such an alignment of parties is a consummation devoutly to be wished. If the Quaid-e-Azam can bring about the combination, not only I but the whole of india will shout with one acclamation : ‘Long Live Quaid-e-Azam Jinnah.’ For he will have brought about permanent and living unity for which I am sure the whole nation is thirsting.

SEGAON, January 15, 1940 Harijan, 20-1-1940

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_Deliverance_(India)?fbclid=IwAR0yuwKRxxQhUqPuGBGK2UHA0xAdf9HFl0MXbvXS2DdB19RDIoh_uBZoPXM

Craft week

(29-Nov-2019)

We took three boys from our village and our daughter to the Crafts’ Week at Marudam Farm School, Tiruvannamalai. For a person like me who is really bad at using my hands to create anything useful, a week of watching artisans at work, fleetingly trying my hands at different crafts and reconfirming my inadequacy is an ego-grounding exercise. We, self-professed intellectuals, presume that mastering a craft is something we can do in a jiffy, whenever we choose to do it. It’s a nice theory as long as we don’t attempt to validate it.

We don’t have to romanticize craft as art. Craft by itself is valuable. The intrinsic value and expertise of a good craftsman is as much as that of a manager or a doctor. The market does not value their contribution but current market value is not everything. We have to move increasingly towards local production and consumption, if we are serious about carbon footprints, climate emergency, etc. Artisans will have a huge role to play in such an economy. They are keeping alive a possibility essential for our existence.

Theft of my phone and more

(From my Facebook – 2-Jan-2020)

My phone was stolen (yet again) 2 weeks ago. But this time, the sting was milder because much more is being stolen from under our feet. We are quickly losing what we grew up thinking of as our nation.

The good thief, probably a young boy who had to drop out of school due to public exam pressure, did me a favour. I have been, by and large, forced away from the social media during this time, insulated from all the depressing news. I am on my old no-internet Nokia, wondering if I should continue with this blissful existence in a remote village. But wouldn’t it be selfish not to share the anguish of my fellow people?

I come back this week to realise that the prime minister has shared and endorsed the arguments of a quackish guru in favour of CAA. Yes, a man who has built a vastly expanding tourist empire in our own Coimbatore, allegedly flouting all laws, should indeed be a constitutional expert and the fount of compassion.

P.S. 1: The tourist operator seems to be gunning to take over the Vellingiri hills in entirety, moving up from its encroached foothills and has launched a new product line, a 42 day sadhana to climb the hills. I have fond memories of trekking up the seven hills on a full moon night during my childhood days and taking a bath in a cold stream on the sixth hill, without the help of any charlatan. So have many of my family members who cherish the spiritual experience, and the people of Coimbatore who have always flocked to the hills in April-May. Hope our children don’t lose that joy.

P.S. 2: I wouldn’t have cared much for him but for the ads on this Vellingiri scam that are taking over my timeline. After much struggle I had muted his other channels. Now this! How can I permanently avoid seeing this man and the grotesque statue he built? I am not saying his name or his titles anywhere on my post, only because I do not want Mark to mistakenly take it as an excuse to flood my timeline with more of his ads.

P.S. 3: அறத்தாறு இதுவென வேண்டா….Don’t tell me, my phone got stolen because I deserve it for writing such posts.

JNU Attacks

From my Facebook

(6-Jan-2020)

Masked goons in JNU:
The goons who gave them a free run are wearing no masks. If those who voted for them continue to support them, continue to overlook all the violence unleashed by the police, continue to blame only the protestors for the burnt buses and stones, continue to hide behind lack of a credible opposition, continue to wait and watch, we shall surely beget the country we deserve.

If this can happen in Delhi, and at the most vocal university, one can imagine what must be happening in UP (and Kashmir for 5 months).

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(6-Jan-2020)

More than all the blood we saw on JNU, this message disturbed me.

Someone is having fun.

It’s not blind hatred that is driving them.

They are actually having fun.

Patriotism is an excuse.

They are just having fun.

The sight of blood and the screams of pain are giving them maza.

These are also young people. I would hate to call them psychopaths.

But we have given power to those who drive them to do this.

They are having fun.

Collective conscience and capital punishment

What does the collective conscience of India feel about the (accidental?) arrest of the DSP, Davinder Singh, and Naveed Babu, another ex-policeman and alleged Hizbul militant, who has been accused of killing non-Kashmiri migrants after withdrawal of 370?

Apparently, Afzal Guru had mentioned about the torture he suffered at the hands of Davinder Singh, and how Davinder Singh forced him to take the terrorists who attacked the parliament to Delhi and rent a flat. There is a detailed interview with him in The Caravan on this.

I have no idea if Afzal Guru was a willing participant or forced by Davinder Singh. But he made such an accusation, and now with the arrest of Davinder Singh, the accusation cannot be brushed aside as nonchalantly as it was earlier.

Was/is Davinder Singh acting against the establishment or for the establishment, we may never know. It is as murky as it can get.

Davinder still has a chance to make his defence. Mohammad Afzal doesn’t.

This is one of the reasons why I oppose capital punishment and police encounters and mob lynching, whatever be the nature of the crime and whoever is the accused.

My Books

Taking stock: I am myself surprised to realise that 5 of my short works have been published so far, and some long ones are at various stages of completion.

1.a) A Bridge to the Times of Gandhi : An interview with Narayan Desai (Sarvodaya Ilakkiya Pannai)
b) காந்திய காலத்துக்கொரு பாலம் : நாராயண் தேசாயுடன் ஒரு நேர்காணல் (சர்வோதய இலக்கியப் பண்ணை)
2. போரும் அகிம்சையும் : காஷ்மீர் குறித்து காந்தி (யாவரும் பதிப்பகம்)
3. மகாத்மா காந்தி (இளையோருக்கான எளிய வாழ்க்கை வரலாறு) – தமிழினி
4. நெல்சன் மண்டேலா (எளிய வாழ்க்கை வரலாறு) – தமிழினி

Three more on the way:

1. The Ba in the Bapu
2. Gandhi in Tamil : An anthology of writings on Gandhi in Tamil Literature (Translation – Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan )
3. Thirukkural in English

The English version of War and Ahimsa: Gandhi on Kashmir is also ready to be published. I am thinking of putting it on Amazon.