The streets of Chennai are filled with people of all ages and genders, fighting for jallikattu. And even as it’s clear that the protests are not instigated by any one organisation, what is also clear is that this protest is led by students.
Thousands of students from various colleges in the city are out on the streets to demand that the Supreme Court ban on jallikattu be lifted. Whether it’s engineering students or those from law colleges, students are at the forefront of every agitation in the city.
At the Marina beach, around 500 students from the Central Polytechnic College are adding to the numbers, and promising to stay put until the ban on jallikattu is lifted. “We are protesting against jallikattu ban and for the people who were detained at Alanganallur in Madurai. We will be here till jallikattu is allowed,” said Karthik, a student from the institute.
Over 300 students from the School of Excellence in Law are also at the agitation in Marina beach. The law students joined the protest early Wednesday morning, and are demanding that PETA be banned.
Meanwhile, thousands of students of SRM and Valliammai engineering colleges are protesting outside their campus in Kattankullathur. According to some Twitter handles, their Principal allegedly joined the protests as well.
#SRM UNIVERSITY Students #JusticeforJallikattu #SaveOurCultureJALLIKATTU #AmendPCA pic.twitter.com/3QVV2QQT2W
— Smile Settai (@SmileSettai) January 18, 2017
SRM & VEC college students join our hands to support jallikattu.#JusticeforJallikattu#Jallikattu #Tamizhanda #SaveOurCultureJALLIKATTU pic.twitter.com/qG38pK4Per
— Cinema Updatez (@UpdatezCinema) January 18, 2017
Prinicipal joins with students #Valliammai and #SRM university Protests #jallikattu #JusticeforJallikattu #SaveOurCultureJALLIKATTU pic.twitter.com/PKR7AVcnzZ
— JusticeForJallikattu (@thala_speaks) January 18, 2017
Students of Sathyabhama University and St Joseph's College also joined the protests on Wednesday.
By early Wednesday morning, several districts in Tamil Nadu are out in support for jallikattu. The overwhelming voice of the protesters is that jallikattu is Tamil tradition, and should be respected as such and not be portrayed as cruelty to animals.
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