Tradition before Business; We Want Jallikattu: Madurai IT Dealers

Jallikattu, a cultural sport of Indian state, Tamil Nadu, in which a bull is released into a crowd of people is currently the major talk of the nation.

Days after the Jallikattu protests began in Chennai, protesters burnt down the Ice-House police station and set vehicles on fire after being forcefully evicted from the sites of protests.

Celebrating Pongal in Tamil Nadu on Mattu Pongal day multiple participants attempt to grab the large hump of the animal with both arms and hang on to it while the bull attempts to escape.

Those participating hold the hump for as long as possible, attempting to bring the bull to a stop. In some cases, participants must ride long enough to remove flags on the bull’s horns.

The rural bull-taming sport was banned by the Supreme Court in 2014 after animal rights activists highlighted several incidents of abuse.

Recently some districts of Tamil Nadu conducted bull-taming competitions. But protests continued as people demanded a permanent law allowing Jallikattu.

Students, IT professionals, movie stars participated in the week-long demonstrations and said the sport is part of their ancient cultural traditions.

From past few days, a part of population in the southern state was busy in protesting while the IT dealers in Madurai faced some market down issues.

Talking to The DQ Week, Saleem, an IT dealer in Madurai shared, “Because of the protests in the state from last 3-4 days, market is down and there are no customers in the market.”

Saleem also added that all the dealers are facing the same market problems but we all are in support of Jallikattu and want Jallikattu to be safe from legal challenges.

“Some of the problems which affected the business were courier deliveries and travelling issues which resulted in no revenue during the phase,” said M. Saravana Sathish, a local dealer in Madurai.

Dealing with the issues, the IT dealers support Jallikattu as the ban has evoked intense emotions and they want to practice their tradition without any legal restrictions. The dealers in the southern state believes that business will be back on track after some time once the protest gets over but their tradition should not be interfered.