Maneka Sanjay Gandhi
One of the worst festivals in India, that should celebrate animals and yet uses the occasion to torture them, is Jallikattu , a barbaric ritual done during Makara Sankranti or the heralding of the Spring Harvest. This should honour the bull, bullock, cow, buffalo – the beasts of burden who plough the fields , bring in the crop and on whose backs it will be taken to be sold. But instead, Jallikattu in Tamil Nadu became distorted into a rite of cruelty in which bulls were bitten repeatedly while confined in dark chambers, had chillies stuffed up their anuses, were fed alcohol till they were maddened with pain and dizziness and then made to run through jeering crowds of young men who hit them and leapt on them and pulled their horns. Every year both bulls and people died.
Thank god it has now been banned by the Supreme Court. Makara Sankranti in Karnataka was once celebrated by trapping and killing foxes after parading them through the streets in cages. My People For Animals team stopped this about twenty years ago .
Another hideous festival is Naga Panchami. According to religious scriptures, in the month of Shravan, Naagpuja is observed. Food is eaten only once that day. Women paint the rangoli pictures of a snake on the earth. Statues of snakes made of gold, silver, wood or clay are prayed to and mantras chanted asking for the blessings of whichever snakes reside on earth, sky, in sun rays and ponds. Again a harvest festival that should be celebrating snakes because they catch rats and protect the farmers’ crops, it has degenerated into a foul tamasha in which hundreds of snakes are caught weeks before, kept in pots and then pulled and tweaked like ropes. Defanged with hammers that break their jaws, they are displayed to housewives who pour milk down their throats. By evening thousands of snakes are dead from the pulling and the milk which they are allergic to. Their skins are then sold for bags and shoes.
From Koraput comes another dreadful festival: Chaitra Parva. It is also observed in Mayurbhanj, Sudargarh and Keonjhar in Odisha and goes through to Singbhum in Bihar. For the whole month of Chaitra the tribal people sing, dance and sacrifice animals and birds.The men go out hunting and kill whichever animal they can – even jackals. The meat is distributed among all the villagers.
The Bondas of Koraput live on hilltops have a ten day festival known as Sume-Gelirak.
The tribal priest sacrifices animals and birds and propitiates the deities with liquor. After which the young boys of the tribe alternately beat each other with branches and hug.
The Kedu festival of the Kondhs of Phulbani, Ganjam and Koraput started with human sacrifice. The British banned this so now they kill buffaloes in the most hideous manner possible. The animals are tied to trees. Men and women get drunk, dance and then kill the animal by cutting its limbs piece by piece. Then they carry the blood and a piece of meat and bury it in the fields where they produce turmeric.
Other Odisha tribes like the Ho, Oraon, Kisan and Kol celebrate the Magha Parab, which is a harvest festival. The ritual comprises a sacrifice of black fowls before the deity and offering of Mahua liquor.
In Jharkhand hundreds of tribals enter the forests and wildlife sanctuaries in May during the annual Bishu Sendra Parv (hunting festival). Armed with traditional weapons, tribals from Singhbhum and Seraikela-Kharswan districts as well as bordering districts of West Bengal and Odisha swarm all over the forests killing upto 20,000 wild animals and birds in a single day. This festival ceased being a festival many decades ago. It has now been taken over by smugglers and poachers who use the tribals to get trophies and bush meat they can sell.
The same number of animals – roosters, goats and buffaloes – are killed during the SuliaYatra, or the killing festival, in the villages of Bolangir district. Tribals first bathe the animals to be sacrificed and anoint them with turmeric. The animals are then hacked in the presence of thousands of people. The Dehuri, a woman considered an incarnation of goddess Suliya Devi, drinks the sacrificed animal’s blood amidst drum beating and chanting .
The Kharchi festival in July in Tripura is supposed to be an earth worshipping festival. But hundreds of buffaloes, goats and pigeons are killed. The reasoning? King Trilochan brought 14 deities and established them in Tripura. Once, these deities were chased by a wild buffalo and the mother of Trilochan helped kill him.
Dassehra , the annual October harvest festival is now the most bloody of all festivals At Kalighat, Kolkata, amidst drum-beating thousands of sheep are sacrificed resulting in unforgettable “rivers of blood” as lamented by Mahatma Gandhi.
The Durga Pooja/Dassera celebrations include animal sacrifice/bali in many parts of India. Buffaloes, cocks, goats, and sheep are ritually sacrificed in hundreds; their flesh consumed as prasad.
At the Kamakhya Devi Temple near Guwahati in Assam, male animals are sacrificed in thousands.
On Mahashtami Day goats, lambs and cocks are sacrificed at a Durga temple in Sirlo, Orissa.
Animal sacrifices are still happening throughout the year. During October and November it is due to the Dussera and Kali festivals. January to April it is due to harvest season. And then there are many different kinds of “jataras” throughout the year.
Andhra Pradesh has the worst of all sacrifices. To illustrate just one: a piglet, upside-down, is impaled on a spear fixed to the ground and slowly lowered down the spear. The higher the pitch of the animal screams the better they say it is for their village and harvest. In one temple that has six-foot high walls. animals are sacrificed until the level of blood reaches the top of these walls. At Durajpally, Warangal the “priest” has to kill a young goat with one bite to the throat.
Religion is merely a pretext for blood lust and violence. Uttarakhand is the first state in India which has stopped all animal sacrifice. This was done by the BJP government headed by Shri Nishank and the High Court. Police and NGOs, especially People for Animals, worked very hard to achieve this miracle. But next door is Himachal Pradesh which still carries on with its killing.
The new Government can stop this. If Kemal Ataturk could keep the culture of Turkey intact even after modernizing it, why can’t we? One can no longer pander to violence because it is dangerous to all of us. Do a study – as we have done. Many of those that kill animals at these festivals are apprehended at various times during the year for violence on women and children.
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