Bullfight fans in Goa seek its revival
Eight years after bullfights were banned in Goa under cruelty to animal laws, a fresh debate is kicking up dust, with diehard fans rooting for its legal revival. Traditional bullfights, locally known as dhirio and immensely popular with young male spectators and punters in parts of coastal Goa, was halted in 1997, when animal rights groups went to court, asking authorities to take heed of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animal Act. The fights, held in open paddy fields, were deemed unsafe and cruel, as bulls were provoked by trainers before they entered the arena. Enforcing authorities, asked to prevent the fights by the high court, did so for a while. However, the sport refused to be stamped out, and merely went underground. Impromptu tournaments, advertised by word of mouth to its fan pool, have picked up over the years, while authorities lost interest and looked the other way. This month though, the police in a south Goa station called some 40 bullfight organisers to a meeting to warn them against staging the events at the start of its traditional post harvest high season that commences this time of the year. Since then, interest has gained ground, with the local Gomantak Times daily running a series on the views of several fighter bull owners and fans of the "traditional animal sport," spurring on a discussion for a more respectable revival. Among its followers in the villages of coastal Goa, fighter bulls enjoy all the fame of race horses, with flamboyant names to go with it. Their owners, many with huge investments in animal purchase and upkeep have unsuccessfully lobbied with politicians from the region to have legal amendments made or fresh legislation to regulate the sport. Since the Prevention of Cruelty Act falls under the concurrent list, the state government could technically make amendments to exempt the sport if it had the political will, one lawyer said. Supporters argue that its "regulated" resumption would assist better organisation in safe enclosures to ensure spectator safety and vets to treat the animals a practice followed in other states which host traditional animal sport. Goas animal husbandry minister, Mr Francisco Micky Pacheco, himself a fan of the sport, told this newspaper he was attempting to have "animal shows" started to demonstrate strength and agility. If Mr Pacheco manages to legally revive bull fights though he has not said so in so many words, preferring to call them "animal shows" he will have scored an important victory over rival member of Parliament, Churchill Alemao and other regional political parties who promised to have the sport legalised, in deference to its popularity. - By Pamela DMello The Asian Age
Bull fights: (courtesy: Goa Travel Guide)
But this is Goa at the end of the century. And the bullfight here is one in which the bulls fight one another. When there is bloodshed, it is not caused by an elegant matador, sequinned and rakish, but by a pair of horns filed and sharpened down to a lance point.
There are no fences or barricades here. Bullfights are usually held in an old rice field just outside a village, and the crowd -- whose complex Sunday lunches quickly become a liability when it's time to get out of the way of an unreasonable animal -- provides the enclosure. They do reluctantly put up the odd rickety bamboo fence to provide token protection for a visiting VIP, but everyone in the crowd knows that a few sticks of bamboo will do absolutely nothing to halt half a ton of charging bull.
Fighting bulls bear interesting names in Goa, and bout cards make slightly bizarre reading. Alibaba vs. Second Krishna. Brazil vs. Mad Max. Sea Harrier vs. Kingofsouth.
The animals are bred and trained to fight, and later retire as studs. Although trainers traditionally do not breathe a word about their ward's regimen and habits, the essence of bringing up a fighting bull is a carefully monitored diet, supplemented by enough vitamins and minerals to supply a small school. Late at night, in the tavernas around the village square, when feni -- that clear and dangerous liquor distilled from the cashew apple -- has loosened an incautious tongue or two, exotica like sardines and molasses are mentioned, as are puréed jackfruit and dried figs. But nothing's certain: what's said during these long and bibulous village nights, especially in deepest south Goa, vanishes like strange dreams, especially on the morning of a fight.
In Konkani, the local tongue, the fight is called dhirio. There is, of course, heavy betting, which is why the fights are advertised on the sports pages of the local daily papers. The bookies are influential enough to arrange matters so that the opening bout of the season is almost always attended by the nearest convenient dignitary. This past season, both the chief minister of Goa and the Portuguese consul general obliged. The bulls, I am told, did not charge them.
The morning of a fight, pickup vans are driven around the local villages, with banners fluttering, music blaring, and incomprehensible announcements booming out through election-rally-sized speakers. The pickup van is likely to be carrying one of the prize contestants, red-sashed and outraged at being made a spectacle of. It adds to the bull's already bad temper, and gets the betting going.
Large sums are involved: in some cases, allowing for long enough odds, 20,000 rupees (about $500) has been won on a single fight. This is a scale of betting that has naturally led to allegations of fixed fights and even the occasional nobbling of a prize bull. After a particularly questionable defeat, when post-mortems are being conducted in the bars, tempers run foul. Late into such nights, there is sometimes blood spilled that is no longer a bull's.
Before a fight, a trainer gets his animal down on its knees for as long as possible, keeping up a stream of chatter and patting it all the while. This apparently primes the bull, who is led out to the field and then strenuously encouraged to kneel again. Some bulls, who seem to respond to their trainers' words the way a hunting dog does, will comply. Others won't. It is only the very confident trainers who squat right there beside their charges, now haranguing them, building up the bulls' tempers and doing this, incredibly, with a hand clamped around the bulls' gonads. There is no dearth of opinion on this extraordinary tactic: some old-timers insist it tells the bull who the boss is and gives the trainer a degree of control he cannot otherwise hope to achieve. Others say the hand is there to provide a final infuriating squeeze, just as the other bull gets within snorting range.
At a recent fight in the village of Caranzalem, a strapping bull named Super Fighter decided he didn't like dhirios, crowds, and other bulls, and took off from the field, chased by a certain Johnny Baba, whom he was scheduled to fight. Instead of heading for the open road, though, Super Fighter barreled down a village path, which in Goa is full of twists and turns, overhanging thatch, and fish drying out in the sun. Fearful of the potential collateral damage, the organizers and trainers of both animals sped off in pursuit. As the fearful ruckus receded, a German camera crew that had arrived to film the affair looked around, puzzled: Was this at all about bullfighting?
The crowd knew better. Two minutes later Super Fighter reappeared and some perversion led him to charge back through the throng and into the rice field where the match was to be held. Johnny Baba was right behind him.
Super Fighter spun round to charge a very surprised Johnny Baba, who didn't stop to argue but instead shot away through the crowd and up one of the bunds that bordered the field. Johnny Baba toppled at least seven men in his mad rush, and on the way took a sideswipe at the German crew's video stand, sending a tripod and camera flying. Once he reached the road, Johnny Baba quickly galloped off toward the city of Panjim. Following close behind him, Super Fighter turned his head to keep track of his enemy but neglected to turn his body and crashed into the row of scooters parked along the road. He knocked them flat and then blundered away toward the city.
The crowd loved it and howled with laughter -- at the bulls but also at the Germans, who had hastily piled into their van in the hope of getting at least some footage of a maddened Goan bull.
Sometimes you are in the presence of a truly incorrigible mature bull, and the atmosphere quickly becomes tense. The betting slips are laid down, and the soda bottles are forgotten. Here and there, a few quick slugs of feni go down. Stepping deliberately through the crowd, the confident old fighting bulls don't really need to be led. Tense and trembling with anticipation, they nevertheless contain their anger for the field, their fast-talking trainers hurrying alongside toward the middle. As the bull sizes up its opponent, the crowd settles down into a contented murmuring, knowing a real contest is at hand.
These are bulls who are sure of their staying power and their ability to strike, who know how to hook viciously around and through the tough folds of skin on their opponent's necks, who know how to make the blood flow and weaken their foe, and who then plant their massive hooves into the red Goan soil and slash at the belly. These are the calculating warriors -- fewer and fewer are bred and fight nowadays -- and it still sends shivers down the spines of the old-timers when they hear of the steady-eyed fighting bulls of Goa.
Rahul Goswami is a journalist who lives in Dubai. He also writes for the The Indian Express and the Middle East portal of Orientation. Centre planning legal dhirio (Goa News) Sandesh Prabhudesai Bull fights, one of the tourist attractions in Goa, is likely to re-emerge in a more organised and legal manner, after the court had banned it since last October under the provisions of cruelty to animals act, thanks to the efforts of the local congress government and the united front government in Delhi.
It doesnt pay to abe a matador in Goa. Here, bullfights are between two bulls, no matador needed. The fighting season starts around early October and lasts till May. The most popular locations are in one of the villages around Panjim like Taleigao (the most famous fights are held here), Santa Cruz or Caranzalem. They are also held near and around Margao in south Goa at the villages of Velsao and Benaulim. The fights usually begin around 4 pm, after siesta to the sound of taped Konkani music.
There are fighting bulls in Goa, a small state on the west coast of India. They are the cause of enough noise, frantic sprinting, and even bloodshed to recall the bull runs of Pamplona earlier in the century.
http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/abroad/rg990616.htm
21 Aug 1997
The union law ministry, headed by union law minister Ramakant Khalap, the MP from North Goa, has decided to provide legal protection to the bull fights, more popularly known as dhirio, bowing down before the pressure of over five lakh dhirio lovers, which comprises around 40 per cent of Goa's population.
Former union minister Maneka Gandhi's people for animals got it banned, describing it as a cruel entertainment, in which the fighter bulls get injured and even get killed sometimes, while the spectators also got killed occasionally. All the efforts of the bull owners to intervene and argue that it is a popular sport proved
futile, while the supreme court also later on endorsed the high court order.
"Inciting any animal to fight any other animal with a view to providing entertainment or organising, using or acting in the management of, any place for animal fighting or for the purpose of the baiting any animal or permitting or offering any place to be so used and causing cruelty of other nature to the animals is clearly prohibited by section 11 of the prevention of cruelty to animals act", stated the historical judgement.
Though the legal battle was lost, the bull owners seem to be in the victorious mood on the political front. More than love for the game, it has become question of political survival for all the political parties here, if dhirio are not revived.
"Actually I am opposed in principle to starting dhirio back again. But my people are suffering due to sudden ban", states Luizinho Faleiro, the state industries minister, who took initiative in the state government to amend
the act.
The plan is to call it a sport, and not a fight, played to test each others' strength and stamina. If the plan succeeds, then dhirio would be then held at a well-built stadium, in an organised manner. Even the injuries, which the fighter bulls get occasionally, would be treated immediately with a veterinary doctor permanently recruited at the stadium.
"The bull fights are still held in Kerala while cock fights are held all over the country. Why then we also should not allow the entertaining sport in a legalised manner", asks Chandrakant Chodankar, the animal husbandry minister.
The Pratapsing Rane government has now unanimously decided to amend section 11 (3) of the cruelty to animals act, 1968, adding a new clause to it, describing dhirio as "traditional, popular, unique sport, where bulls are trained properly by owners to fight each other and to develop their strength and stamina".
It has been forwarded to the union law ministry as
the act falls into a concurrent list and requires assent from the centre as well. But the union law minister, representing the coalition government at the centre, has to overcome the legal hurdles. The result can also be negative, fear the bull owners, who have also lost the second season of dhirio.
"I have told them to propose such an amendment that it cannot be legally objected to. We can certainly allow a sport which is played to develop strength and stamina", states Khalap. To canvass for the proposal is also prepared south Goa MP Churchill Alemao, Khalap's arch rival otherwise, who personally owns a champion fighter bull.
The bull fights are more popular in four talukas of Salcete (South Goa), Tiswadi, Bardez and Pernem (all North Goa), for which all the three political parties headed by Rane, Khalap and Alemao are vying for. Over 80 per cent population here are dhirio fans while it's a livelihood for many families.
Taking note of the resentment among
thousands of families owning fighter bulls, the government has also stated that it's a source of livelihood for a large section of population, who maintain and nourish them. It also involves no cruelty. Injury is an occasional feature, which is treated immediately, claims the local government.
Dhirio are still popular in over 100 villages spread along the Goan coastline. Over 2000 people have been nourishing them, spending between Rs 50,000 to Rs one lakh each annually and training them specially for the fights.
The show of dhirio, held on every weekend, pulled a crowd of around 4000. While fighter bulls were paid between Rs 3000 to Rs 70,000, it involved lakhs of rupees of turnover. It was also a major tourist attraction here.
Judging the popularity, it slowly took a commercial shape with underworld intellectuals combining gambling with it, while the police was taken on their 'pay roll'.
But it all came to an end when the high court, responding to the
PFA's petition, stayed the traditional bull fights from October last, pending disposal. The local bench of Mumbai high court confirmed its order in December while the supreme court also later rejected the review petition.
- Forwarded by www.goa-world.com
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