Tamil Nadu passes order to lift bull-taming ban

NEW DELHI: Lawmakers in India’s Tamil Nadu state passed an emergency order on Monday allowing bull-taming festivals to resume after a court ban on the traditional events led to mass protests.

Hours before the state government lifted the ban, police firing tear gas clashed with stone-throwing protesters who were demanding the resumption of “jallikattu” bullfights, in which men wrestle with rampaging bulls.

At least 100 protesters were arrested and 22 police officials were hurt. “Jallikattu will be celebrated. We urge the protesters to go back home immediately,” said senior police officer P K Kannan in Chennai, Tamil Nadu’s capital.

Thousands of people had taken part in a week of protests, which also hit the state’s auto industry. A spokesman for Ford India, which has a manufacturing unit near Chennai, said the company had called off its second shift due to employee safety concerns.

Ashok Leyland, a tractor and truck-maker which has a corporate office in Chennai, also closed down work early on Monday. Animal rights activists say the tradition is cruel and have urged the government to keep the ban in place.

Many in Tamil Nadu say it forms an important part of the Pongal harvest festival, which some Hindus celebrate after the winter solstice.

Hundreds of bulls are injured annually because participants twist their tails, beat them and even stab them with knives to control the animals.

More than 1,200 spectators have been injured at such events between 2010 and 2014, according to animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.The central and state government had tried to lift the ban, resented by some ethnic Tamils as an encroachment on their cultural rights by India’s more populous Hindi-speaking north.

Police used tear gas and baton charges on Monday morning to disperse the thousands of demonstrators who had occupied Chennai’s Marina Beach for the past six days to demand the legalisation of jallikattu festivals.As officers closed in, Indian media said the crowd sang the country’s national anthem and made threats to drown themselves in the ocean, though no casualties were confirmed.

A police station near the beach was torched while fishing boats displaying black flags were stopped as they tried to resupply the protesters with food and water by sea.

Among the the demonstrators to be forcibly removed from Marina Beach was Ashwin Kumar, who told the Guardian the sport was integral to Tamil culture and was misunderstood by outsiders.

“Cows get hurt at times and humans also get hurt,” said Kumar, 28. “But when you have a kid, you play with them, and if something happens you take your kid to the doctor, right?

“That’s what we do. If a cow gets hurt it is treated by a vet or the owner of the cow – its father – who has been breeding it from day one. And if anything happens, the whole family will sit and pray for the cow.”