Jallikattu: Animal rights activists face toxic attacks on Twitter

The Twitter war that has broken out between pro-jallikattu and PETA camps has taken an increasingly ugly hue. Vicious trolling, racial slurs and abuse characterised the tweets. Many women activists, including prominent personalities such as PETA 's India head

Poorva Joshipura

, actor and PETA activist Trisha and Lt governor of Puducherry Kiran Bedi have come under attack.

While Subramanian Swamy upped the ante by continuing to use disparaging terms to describe protesters, jallikattu supporters said they were not what Swamy was calling them. The memes doing the rounds of Facebook, WhatsApp, Snapchat and Twitter have been particularly toxic with photoshopped images of the women activists, holding bottles of alcohol and cigarettes. PETA CEO Joshipura and Trisha de-activated their Twitter and Facebook accounts within hours of being at the receiving end of this backlash.

"Jallikattu is a cruel and illegal spectacle that celebrates bullying animals and machismo, though there is nothing manly about hurting bulls. It is no surprise that these same individuals are trying to rally illegitimate support through bullying, particularly of women. People who are allowed to be cruel to animals are often cruel to other people. By encouraging kindness for animals we can build a more compassionate society overall," said Joshipura.

Old-time jallikattu supporters, who have campaigned for the sport over more than two decades, have expressed outrage and condemnation of this attack against women. In a democratic country, people have the right to their opinion, even if different, said activists.

A Nizamuddin, who is fostering Ramu, the jallikattu bull who starred in Kamal Hassan-starrer Virumandi, said that such activities are giving a bad name to the movement. "Many jallikattu critics are already calling us barbarians and the sport is for illiterate, uncouth village idiots. Such actions will continue to perpetuate the stereotype that this is about machoism, aggression and not about bull welfare or preservation of native cattle breeds," said Nizamuddin, president,

Cattle Care Welfare Trust

, which is home to more than 210 bulls, abandoned by poverty-stricken farmers in Tamil Nadu.

Another fervent jallikattu proponent and Madurai farmer Elango Kallanai feels that women should file police complaints against such online stalkers and harassers. "People have the right to their opinion, we can't bully them into thinking our way. We stand in support of women. Our womenfolk handle our bulls more often that we do and there is no question of protecting Tamil culture, by abusing women," said Kallani.

Among true blue bull enthusiasts, there is a lot of respect for women, said Karthikeya Senapathy, founder, Senapathy Cattle Research Foundation. Citing the example of female bull breeder Soundaram Ramasamy, he said, "She is a woman bull keeper in the farmlands of western Tamil Nadu and she commands a lot of respect among men. People travel far to come to her farm in Kathasamipalayam to buy Kangeyam bulls, an indigenous cattle breed named after the region and used for rural sports like jallikattu, bull racing and farming," said Senapathy.

AWBI declined to comment despite repeated requests over phone and email.


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