After jallikattu, what next? Tamil Nadu's young people seek to build on protests, push for change

Only a few walkers and children dot the sands of Chennai’s Marina Beach, which was ground zero of massive protests last month. For eight days from January 17, the beach had been teeming with people , protesting a Supreme Court ban on the bull-taming sport of jallikattu.

The few lakh supporters gathered on the beach had argued that the bull-taming sport, organised during the harvest festival of Pongal in January, was an intrinsic part of Tamil culture. Banning it amounted to insulting their tradition, they contended. The remarkable energy of the crowds compelled the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly to convene a special session to pass a bill on January 23 allowing jallikattu.

For some of the protestors, this marked the success of their week-long efforts. However, as many analysts pointed out, jallikattu was merely the trigger: the state-wide movement was the outcome of the deep-rooted frustration of many people in the state, a culmination of the anger and dissatisfaction they had felt with the Centre’s treatment of several issues – be it the persecution of Tamils in Sri Lanka or the dispute with Karnataka over sharing water from the Cauvery river.

More than two weeks since the protests died out, the energy that powered the jallikattu protests has clearly not disappeared. Many young people in Tamil Nadu are keen on taking the movement forward and broadening its scope.

Role of social media

Soon after the jallikattu protests ended, a Facebook page called for a meet on January 29 on the Marina Beach to discuss the formation of a new youth party in Tamil Nadu. The event was cancelled after the Chennai police imposed Section 144 of Criminal Procedure Code on the Marina Beach for two weeks, banning public meetings in the area from January 29 to February 12. But the response to the meet overwhelmed even the organisers – 16,000 people had said they were going for the event while 43,000 were interested, suggesting that the energy of the jallikattu protests still remained.

The page, “A Change – Tamil Nadu 16th Assembly under Students control with new System”, describes itself as the next political alternative in Tamil Nadu. The organisers, who did not wish to be identified, said the page was created to help Tamil Nadu become [a] better to best place to live.”

Other pages on the social networking site, even those that started out primarily to share jokes and memes, are also trying to strengthen the pitch for youth politics and activism. Facebook page Awesome Machi conducted a poll earlier this week asking whether the viewer would support or vote for young candidates in politics. The majority (over 3,000 out of close to 4,000) voted “yes”.

Gautham, the administrator of Chennai Memes – a website and company with a strong social media presence that actively expressed support for jallikattu – said that they would “take up different social issues every week and spread awareness about it.”

In early January, Chennai Memes put out a message on their Facebook page calling for a rally at Marina beach on January 8 in support of jallikattu. Around 20,000 citizens showed up. “Most people had coming seeing our message,” he said. “We also got a lot of help from another Facebook page, Chennai Pasanga Da. We had volunteers on three phones, each of whom received more than 800 phones calls each on one day, from people inquiring about the event.”

Anger of the masses

Although social media played an important role in spreading word of the protest, AS Panneerselvan, Reader’s Editor of The Hindu, said it could not be given credit for the popularity of the movement. “Attributing too much power for a tool is not giving respect for the collective wisdom,” he said. “Tools have an ability of facilitating a protest. But the collective agency is with the people.”

Panneerselvan said while no single factor can explain the mobilisation of jallikattu supporters, it was clear the protest was a reaction to the homogeneity imposed by the Centre on the state, which was perceived as a threat to Tamil cultural practices. There was no rural-urban, gender, age, caste or class divide during the protest, he said. It was able to transcend it all.

“There was a particular anger towards the Centre,” said Panneerselvan.

Panneerselvan said people sensed the Bharatiya Janata Party’s desire to gain a foothold in Tamil Nadu as the national party perceived a leadership vaccuum in the state after All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader and then Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s death on December 5.

The last time these many people came out on to the streets was in 1965, during the protests against efforts to make Hindi the sole official language of the country. In response to the agitation here and in other non-Hindi-speaking parts of the country, the government allowed English as well as Hindi to be used for official communication indefinitely.

“In these instances, this state as an idea of heterogeneity or plurality was challenged by the homogenised imagination of the Centre,” Panneerselvan said.

Discontent with Dravidian parties?

Besides anger towards the Centre, there has been a growing feeling of discontentment with Dravidian parties over the past 10 years, especially the current AIADMK government, said Ramu Manivannan, professor and head of department of Politics and Public Administration of University of Madras.

After the death of Jayalalithaa, there has been political turmoil and a power tussle in the AIADMK. VK Sasikala, Jayalalithaa’s aide, is attempting to take over the reins of the state from O Panneerselvam, who took over after the popular leader’s death in December.

“Tamil Nadu, in the recent period, has been going through a turbulent political transition with the passing away of Jayalalithaa,” he said. “There is a big transition in the leadership. But the party did not perform for the last four years, and there was very little governance during that time. All the manifested in the form of an anger against the state, jallikattu being a more cultural rallying point it really moved people into action.”

Manivannan said voters have been looking for an alternative to Dravidian parties, which has led to the involvement of youth in civil society spaces as well.

“I don’t think this protest would have happened just out of nowhere,” he said. “But although there may be frustration with Dravidian parties, the people of Tamil Nadu still find a lot of relevance with Dravidian political and social ideology.”

Impact on politics

Manu Sundaram of the Opposition DMK party said it was too soon to say what impact the jallikattu protest would have on the political situation and whether it was a harbinger of a new political movement. But he said people did have reason to be sceptical about the government.

“People asked for a state ordinance from the first day of the Marina beach protest which was ultimately achieved on day 8,” he said. “In the intermediate days we had a chief minister who went to meet the prime minister, only to be told that the state government would pass an ordinance. Why was this law not brought two years ago or last year or even the day before Pongal?”

According to Yuvaraja Muthusamy, state president of Tamil Maanila Congress’ youth wing, the impact of the protests may felt during the local body elections this year. “We may have more youngsters contesting as independent candidates,” he said. “But right now, no party can immediately benefit by the students. We have to wait and see who can take their votes.”

Aalur Shanavas, the deputy general secretary of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, said the protests may bring about polticial change, as their intensity and spread would prompt parties to think about revamping their way of functioning.

“After this protest, we are also motivated to look at where we went wrong,” said Shanavas. “We are discussing among ourselves why people have lost trust in politicians and what we may have done to incur their anger. We may have missed something somewhere.”