Re: [silk] On popular protests, jallikattu and twitter revolutions

[Suresh Ramasubramanian]

The government had the right idea at the end of the day, bringing a high court 
judge over to explain the ordinance which had already been brought and how it 
actually was as close to the "permanent solution" the crowd was asking for as 
was feasible.  They should have brought him in much earlier in the day.

--srs

> On 24-Jan-2017, at 8:04 AM, Srini RamaKrishnan  wrote:
> 
> First some background to what happened: Jallikattu is a popular rural sport
> in Tamil Nadu that involves young men chasing fearsome bulls with sharpened
> horns through narrow allies and mounting them bare handed. It's an
> exciting, yet brutal (on the player more than the animal usually) sport for
> the rural youth. Since the last 10 days or so there has been a growing
> state wide youth protest fuelled almost entirely by social media, over the
> recent Supreme court's decision to ban Jallikattu on grounds of animal
> cruelty. It was popularly seen as an attack on Tamil culture - it is no
> secret xenophobia, racism and tribal identity gather crowds like nothing
> else.
> 
> Yesterday the protests turned violent and there were several incidents of
> violence reported that ended in police resorting to firing their guns. It's
> unclear who started the violence but there are certainly several social
> media videos of professional political goons and most surprisingly to many,
> the police in uniform indulging in vandalism and wanton violence.
> 
> Search #ShameonTNPolice and / or #JallikattuForever on twitter for the
> videos and reports.
> 
> There has been a lot of soul searching and confusion over how a protest
> that won much praise for its democratic and peaceful nature could turn
> violent so quickly. There's also been some chest thumping on the power of
> social media - which reminded me of the last time I saw it, during Arab
> Spring when I was still with Google, when everyone was toasting to a new
> possibility. We all know how Arab spring turned out.
> 
> I have never believed in popular revolutions alone bringing change - if the
> sense of injustice that powers revolutions are like seeds, they can't do
> much to grow justice without the sunshine, fertile soil and water, i.e.
> journalism + courts, the political climate and economic climate
> respectively.
> 
> None of what I am about to say excuses the actions of the police yesterday,
> or the inept manner in which the TN government and bureaucracy handled the
> protests.
> 
> We can't change human nature, or the greed of politicians and opportunists,
> or the natural human tendency of many to turn angry and violent when
> there's injustice. A seasoned government would have taken this into account
> and stepped in on day one and dispersed the agitators, amid accusations of
> being undemocratic, and at the same time followed up with Delhi and
> delivered results that pleased the crowd. Instead, the incumbent government
> allowed a fringe problem (jallikattu is a sport most haven't witnessed,
> including a huge majority of those protesting) to grow into a mass
> movement. Like a dumpster fire people began throwing everything that burned
> - every problem, grouse and injustice was attached to it. In India there is
> no shortage of such complaints.
> 
> As a result the crowd had become emotionally invested over disparate
> reasons not even remotely connected to the conduct of jalllikattu like
> ending corruption, poverty, and crime, and a visceral hatred of
> politicians, MNCs and distrust of every power centre and ruling clas,
> including hidden hands.
> 
> Consequently most of the crowd wouldn't disperse even when a political and
> legal solution to lift the ban on jallikattu had been reached. The end of
> the ban wasn't good enough for the vast majority who still saw injustice
> everywhere.
> 
> Regardless of the undeniable possibility of incitement of violence by
> opposition goons, and police, sadly, the rest that followed is pretty
> predictable.
> 
> Present day Indian police are trained in the same Orwellian manner that the
> British Raj used to train its police. During riots police are trained to
> cause property damage even before controlling the crowds, in order to show
> proof that they were justified in resorting to violence. The courts won't
> grant firing permission, or allow lathi charges unless the police can prove
> the situation had got out of hand and turned into a life threatening
> situation. Further, anyone they jail can be punished or intimidated
> severely only if the property damage is in the lakhs and crores.
> 
> It is no secret that we have a poor democracy in India that borders on
> fascism, and this is for the same reason that we still sell cars in this
> country without airbags - it'd be unaffordably expensive otherwise.
> 
> Safety and security isn't cheap. Justice, courts and police aren't free.
> 
> In a poor country there are always more problems than solutions. When
> unfairness is plentiful and fairness rare, maintaining 

[silk] On popular protests, jallikattu and twitter revolutions

[Srini RamaKrishnan]

First some background to what happened: Jallikattu is a popular rural sport
in Tamil Nadu that involves young men chasing fearsome bulls with sharpened
horns through narrow allies and mounting them bare handed. It's an
exciting, yet brutal (on the player more than the animal usually) sport for
the rural youth. Since the last 10 days or so there has been a growing
state wide youth protest fuelled almost entirely by social media, over the
recent Supreme court's decision to ban Jallikattu on grounds of animal
cruelty. It was popularly seen as an attack on Tamil culture - it is no
secret xenophobia, racism and tribal identity gather crowds like nothing
else.

Yesterday the protests turned violent and there were several incidents of
violence reported that ended in police resorting to firing their guns. It's
unclear who started the violence but there are certainly several social
media videos of professional political goons and most surprisingly to many,
the police in uniform indulging in vandalism and wanton violence.

Search #ShameonTNPolice and / or #JallikattuForever on twitter for the
videos and reports.

There has been a lot of soul searching and confusion over how a protest
that won much praise for its democratic and peaceful nature could turn
violent so quickly. There's also been some chest thumping on the power of
social media - which reminded me of the last time I saw it, during Arab
Spring when I was still with Google, when everyone was toasting to a new
possibility. We all know how Arab spring turned out.

I have never believed in popular revolutions alone bringing change - if the
sense of injustice that powers revolutions are like seeds, they can't do
much to grow justice without the sunshine, fertile soil and water, i.e.
journalism + courts, the political climate and economic climate
respectively.

None of what I am about to say excuses the actions of the police yesterday,
or the inept manner in which the TN government and bureaucracy handled the
protests.

We can't change human nature, or the greed of politicians and opportunists,
or the natural human tendency of many to turn angry and violent when
there's injustice. A seasoned government would have taken this into account
and stepped in on day one and dispersed the agitators, amid accusations of
being undemocratic, and at the same time followed up with Delhi and
delivered results that pleased the crowd. Instead, the incumbent government
allowed a fringe problem (jallikattu is a sport most haven't witnessed,
including a huge majority of those protesting) to grow into a mass
movement. Like a dumpster fire people began throwing everything that burned
- every problem, grouse and injustice was attached to it. In India there is
no shortage of such complaints.

As a result the crowd had become emotionally invested over disparate
reasons not even remotely connected to the conduct of jalllikattu like
ending corruption, poverty, and crime, and a visceral hatred of
politicians, MNCs and distrust of every power centre and ruling clas,
including hidden hands.

Consequently most of the crowd wouldn't disperse even when a political and
legal solution to lift the ban on jallikattu had been reached. The end of
the ban wasn't good enough for the vast majority who still saw injustice
everywhere.

Regardless of the undeniable possibility of incitement of violence by
opposition goons, and police, sadly, the rest that followed is pretty
predictable.

Present day Indian police are trained in the same Orwellian manner that the
British Raj used to train its police. During riots police are trained to
cause property damage even before controlling the crowds, in order to show
proof that they were justified in resorting to violence. The courts won't
grant firing permission, or allow lathi charges unless the police can prove
the situation had got out of hand and turned into a life threatening
situation. Further, anyone they jail can be punished or intimidated
severely only if the property damage is in the lakhs and crores.

It is no secret that we have a poor democracy in India that borders on
fascism, and this is for the same reason that we still sell cars in this
country without airbags - it'd be unaffordably expensive otherwise.

Safety and security isn't cheap. Justice, courts and police aren't free.

In a poor country there are always more problems than solutions. When
unfairness is plentiful and fairness rare, maintaining law and order is
achieved almost always through questionable tactics, because the police,
courts and the system will have no answer to a majority of legitimate
demands raised in the letter and spirit of the law.

A takeway from Foucault's "Discipline and Punish" is its examination of how
punishment in Europe evolved from physical torture like drawing and
quatering, where the victim is pulled by his 4 limbs in 4 directions by 4-8
horses to "civilized" mental torture like incarceration only when the
European rulers had the wealth to afford large prisons