Jallikattu protests spread: What is fuelling the fire

CHENNAI: Is it love for Tamil culture that has brought tens of thousands of youngsters to the streets in Tamil Nadu in the name of jallikattu, virtually holding the state government hostage? Yes and no.

For the protester and the sympathiser, it's a fight for one's cultural heritage being trampled upon by biased, insensitive, even ignorant, decision-makers. Look beyond the placard-holding student who is boycotting classes to be a sentinel of Tamil culture and you see a deeper reason: angst of a second-generation muffled through systemic de-politicisation of campuses.

Also read: Is ban on Jallikattu a case of misplaced activism?

What makes this reading difficult for even the discerning is that the protester himself is not conscious that he represents a generation denied the right to stand up and be heard. With the last of powerful leaders gone with Jayalalithaa's death, what we see today could be an eruption of that pent-up anger, say observers. Jallikattu came as a spark, with all the ingredients of hurt pride and unrecognised valour.

The prime culprit here, says political commentator Gnani Sankaran, is M Karunanidhi, who quelled two student protests in the 1970s, one in Trichy Clive's college hostel and the other in Annamalai University. Ironically, his party had ridden the student wave during the anti-Hindi agitations to attain power. Not much of the Trichy history remains in public domain, but old-timers remember the hostel residents' attempt to protest being met with police lathis.

In 1972, when Annamalai University decided to confer a doctorate on Karunanidhi, who was then CM, the Students Federation of India organised a protest. Police beat up activists and a body was found in a water tank on the campus. Many students identified it as that of Udayakumar, a second year maths student. After a state-wide protest by the SFI, the government set up an inquiry panel which submitted the body was not of Udayakumar.

"There was fear," says retired judge K Chandru, who led the stir as an SFI neta. "But an organisation like the SFI had enough members to sacrifice. There are not many now."

MGR, who became CM in 1977, wasn't much different. "He crushed several protests," says C Lakshmanan, associate professor at Madras Institute of Development Studies. Jayalalithaa continued with the legacy, ensuring that students union elections were not fought on political lines. Adds Lakshmanan, "Students unions are either non-existent or hand-picked without political banners. This de-politicisation is at the core of the jingoism that we are seeing now."

Chandru says DMK not just depoliticised campuses, it also diverted youths' attention from greater issues to Tamil causes. "The result is today's students interact less with each other over ideas, and social media has occupied the space. This leads to interested parties playing puppetry," says the former judge who sees "the jallikattu movement" as a mix of spontaneous crowds and some pulled in by such parties. "But the sad thing is that most of our students have no political orientation," says Chandru.