Tamil Nadu is one of the few well governed states of India. Tamilians in general are disciplined, law abiding and hardworking citizens, making their state one of the topmost 5 states in India based on various development indices. Most of the Nobel Laurates in Science from India are from this Southern state. And they certainly don't condone cruelty to animals.
The growing Jallikattu agitation there has less to do with cruelty towards animals, more to do with those North of the Vindyas (the mountain chain in Central India, known as a natural divider between North and South) who don't understand the sensitivity of South and are often found lacking sensibility in handling touchy, cultural matters. The end result, some big screw ups.
Once during my stay in Delhi a local colleague asked a guy from Andhra, GHAR KAHA HAI TERA (Where is your house) ? He replied - "Srikakulam". TOH TU MADRASI HAI (Oh, you're a Madrasi). In fact Srikakulam as close to Madras as Belgaum in Karnataka is. Yet everyone South of the Vindyas is a Madrasi in Delhi. (It's no coincidence that many in our nation's Capital think Odisha a part of BANGAAL or Bengal and Jagannath Puri is some Punjabi BAI***OD or sister slammer).
Bollywood movies are known to mock at Southern culture, especially the Tamilians. In one such movie I saw a while ago, a guy wearing spotless white DHOTI (loincloth wound around the waist), with BIBHUTI (Sacred white ash) smeared on his forehead arrives at a DHABA (a North Indian Eaterery), scanning for SAMBAR (A typical South Indian dish) on the menu.
Now walks in the popular Hindi movie comedian Johny Walker, dressed as a Sardar (Sikh) uttering - OEE MADRASI. KYA SAMBHAR KE SAATH NAAN KHAEGA (Will you eat flatbread dipped in Sambhar, an unlikely combo) to the cacophonic bursts of laughter around him.
From Mehmood in movie PADOSAN doing "AIYO, CHATURA NAAR" to "Chennai Express" for its Lungi dance song sequence, there are many instances of South Indians being mocked on Bollywood screen. More conspicuous was Mithun Chakraborty for his Bharat Natyam dance to the tune of Tamil accented "YUM KRISHNA AIYYAAR YEMME (Hum Krishna Aiyar MA) in Amitabh's movie "AGNEEPATH".
The list is endless.
India is a loosely tied Federation, where a lot of cultures and languages conglomerate to form an Union. It needs a glue to bind them for sustainability. That glue is not Bollywood or Cricket, but mutual trust and respect, based on a good understanding of different cultural aspects from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, from Dwarka to Dibrugarh. A knee jerk judgement by those at position of power without looking at regional sensitivities can only fuel antipathy towards the center, nothing else.
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