Posts Tagged religion
Jallikattu- the juggernaut that must be stopped!
Posted by Abhishek Joshi in Grrrr..... on August 10, 2010
“The tendency to turn human judgments into divine commands makes religion one of the most dangerous forces in the world.” – Georgia Harkness
Treading back the alley of my scribbled sentiments, drawing on the thin fine line of the opium of the masses (read: religion), I wander in the wild & wilderness.
Every year a sleepy village in Tamil Nadu comes to mainstream media spotlight. Decorations and delight all around, the celebration is impregnated in the air and as hoards of spectators huddle together, the human perimeter around the field sinks in the fanfare. The frenzy of both locals and foreign tourists reaches an avalanche- a rural celebration of epic proportions? Wait!
Into this grand setting that may remind you of a tight budgeted amphitheater, an infuriated bull is unleashed — adorned with tawdry accessories, rubbed with bright colors and with money tied around its horns. The bull is chased by villagers. Their objective is to hold on to the animal for as long as possible in an effort to tame the animal and seize the money. Welcome to the 4,000 year old “sport” of Jallikattu, a local version of the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain.
The term Jallikattu comes from the term “Salli” kassu (coins) and “Kattu” (meaning a package) tied to the horns of the bulls as the prize money.
Now read this-
Not a single year has passed by without blood shed. Human lives are lost too.
D. Rajasekar, secretary of the Animal Welfare Board of India in Chennai says, “The bulls are abused by rubbing chilli powder in their eyes. That’s not all. They are forced to drink alcohol to drive them into frenzy.” Some bulls are raised exclusively for this purpose. Their testicles are pinched to make them more aggressive. Their tails are twisted and bitten.
But then, had it been about animal agony alone, who would have cared? In a world which has sensory detections for only one pain, that of a human. The ears were long turned deaf to the wails of the wild.
“Jallikattu has become an industry and people are making money. This is normally done during Pongal. How can you stretch it for five months upto May?” asked the The Supreme Court of India.
The next Jalli kattu hearing is on the 13th of August,2010. Please mail to AWBI against this blood sport so that they can present it at the hearing.
Here is the draft mail.
Every religion must go through a continuous self cleansing process to get rid of its orthodox mal practices, and when I say it, I mean it for ‘every’ religion. Modernity is a myth, if it doesn’t abolish orthodoxies which don’t find sync in the moral views of the new world.
If it is for being in the name of religion and pleasing the lord then why ban ‘Sati’? Wouldn’t it have got gods enraged? The Hinduism lawmakers Yajnavalkya & Manu Inc. had constituted many blasphemous rites in the name of religion, many of which leave my incisors dying to make mark in the back of the legislative ‘holier than thou’ flesh!
If it is in the name of tradition and cultural heritage then it must be noted that the historical evidences reveal that the sport was never what it is today.
For those hoisting the flag in favor of it being a veera velayattu(guts and glory sport), the difference between valour and stupidity is a thin fine line. Taming a strong animal and playing a pseudo hero? Why don’t serve in the fight against terrorism?And then there is a section esp. Tamilnadu Tourism department which wants Jallikattu continued as it attracts foreigners- well, if blood served as an effective tourist magnet than Afghanistan (or closer home Kashmir) would have had the maximum tourists flocking in?
Losing my religion!
Posted by Abhishek Joshi in Grrrr..... on November 1, 2009
Disclaimer: – The following post may ripple through your religious sentiments…so be it!
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated…I hold that, the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by [people] from the cruelty of [human kind]”—Mahatma Gandhi
Grr…Grrr…
The nefarious acts against animals seem to be on a never-ending spiral loop 😦
Every 5 years, the otherwise pristine Himalayan state of Nepal witnesses the gory bloodshed which notoriously relates to the ‘World’s largest animal sacrifice’. Animal rights activists have termed the sacrifices a ‘shame on Nepal’ and urged for immediate actions to stop the barbaric killing of animals. Come December 2009, the heinous act would be resurrected again and 200,000 animals would go under knives to please goddess Gadimai in Bariyarpur, Bara District. Call me an illiterate canine, if you please but then I fail to understand how the slaying of mute species would please a goddess? Gadimai mela’s carnage has animals attributed as the symbols of the mental smokescreens which are to be removed by the community. How enlightening is that? How can decapitation of 60,000 young buffaloes and 1, 40,000 wild rats, pigs, goats and little birds bring inner peace and sanctity to humans? Such an episode of atrocity and ruthlessness…all in the name of religion! His Holiness the Dalai Lama in his book ‘The Vegetarian Way’ had quoted ‘Life is as dear to the mute creature as it is to a man. Just as one wants happiness and fears pain, just as one wants to live and not to die, so do other creatures’.
Don’t you find it trivial that man has always maneuvered religious connotations to kill innocent animal kind? I guess that he’s doing something more vicious – killing the very soul of mankind. If religion calls for this then us animals have learned enough about the dining table preferences of the deities. The epicurean pleasures that Gods seek are idiosyncratic to themselves, Jesus relishes a baked turkey on a Christmas Eve, Allah prefers cattle and Kali mata will have nothing but the warmest of animal blood. All of it while no sacred text has ever called for animal killing.
I wonder if in this world of thousands gods and goddesses there is one who has a fetish for human flesh? For the truth remains that no sacred text, none of the doctrines call for animal sacrifices but the pundits, the padres and the ulemas have their own interpretations.
…And all of this when the so called human Gods have us as Ganesha’s mouse, Durga’s lion or the Shivji’s faithful bovine. Guess Lord Ganesha is himself part animal!
Is this massacre of God’s worthy creations and flowing ravines of innocent blood, the only salvation for human sins? I am brought back to the thought waves which question if the world in which we live (and where some wait to die silently) is a multitude of Gods and Goddesses for the man alone. Is there not a single divinity for the fauna to be blessed with? Where is the God of small things?
We, the animals also kill but never have we connoted a religious background to our killing for food. For we believe that it’s all in the food chain mechanisms and not in gospels. We kill for survival and not to appease the bible. I have always found the killing in the name of religion, the flagitious of all crimes possible. How in the name of sacred texts, the creed, the hymns and mantras can such a massacre be justified?
From what I’ve learned through Facebook pages, ‘Beauty without Cruelty’ has joined hands with Animal Nepal in their campaign “Worship without Cruelty” to eradicate such an atrocious barbaric ritual.
I therefore request you to please sign the petition:
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/stop-gadimai.html
Epilogue: call on your fatwa, charge me with voicing anathematized verses against the Bible…crucify me, slay me on the altars of goddess…for I know no fear as you have made me to believe my fate lies below the machete. I started out with the purest of rage in my bosom but now the feeling is also mingled with melancholy or rather regret. Regret for being the most faithful companion of man. I wonder whether my rage would match the atrocious vigor of you humans, truly you belong to a different race. Superior? I don’t think so.
PS The post got selected as one of the top posts by Blogadda’s ‘Tangy Tuesday Picks’ – Nov. 3, ‘09
Dog with the blog! 