INTRODUCTION:

Social media allow users to create, generate, share and acknowledge information on any subject matter. According to Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein, social media are a group of internet-based applications that are built on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content¹. Every year, throughout the world, new forms and uses of social media are coming up, enjoying immediate popularity, with long-lasting effects. With millions of internet users across world, social media connect people with online communities.

The digital platforms influence the formation of civil society groups, which may take the form of mobs or movements. The world has witnessed many movements and revolutions in which social media has been one of the main motivators. From the Arab Spring to the Anna Hazare-led anti-corruption movement in India, to the unprecedented street protests demanding justice for the brutal Delhi gang rape of 2012, social media acted as a catalyst, giving millions of people a voice. A short video of the self-immolation of a Tunisian fruit vendor, Mohammed Bouazizi, shared and reshared on social media, could spark the Arab spring uprising². One of the fundamental reasons why social media has been so readily embraced by the public is that it helps connect people with each other in ways that are valuable, meaningful and convenient on their own terms and on an unprecedented scale³. The brave new cyber-world has revolutionized communication, relationships, business and knowledge. It has certainly demolished the old hierarchies of journalism. Social media plays a very significant role in the life of young people, who share their thoughts and dreams with their friends and even strangers whom they meet online⁴.There are a variety of ways through which social networks have changed activism. The first is with regard to the mobility of information. Social networks have enhanced the flow of information by increasing the speed with which it moves and reducing the barriers along its path. After any natural or man-made calamity, people engage with each other on the social networks to offer support to the affected and to determine the situation of their friends and families⁵. Secondly, social networks have enhanced word-of-mouth communication. Thirdly, social networks have been used to relay a sense of urgency in events, thus leading to immediate individual response. This helps mostly when the situation requires immediate evacuation efforts or funding⁴. An example of this is during the Chennai floods of 2015, when masses of civilians organised to help people who were affected, through social networks.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE:

While uprisings instigated through social media were making ripples all over the world, including Philippines, Tunisia and Egypt, India also felt a wave of such a movement on a nationwide scale when the activist Anna Hazare started an anti-corruption movement in 2011, which contributed to the change of the then-government itself. Facebook and Twitter played a major role and various pages were created with the aim of making India corruption-free. The message passed on was simple: “If you want a corruption-free India, join the movement”⁶. Several people signed online petitions through different social media platforms, raising their voices against the decades-long problem of corruption. Politician ArvindKejriwal, who, at that point, supported Anna Hazare’s movement, became a leader and later formed a party of his own, the AamAadmi Party. The newly formed party went on to win the elections in Delhi, as the party’s appeal matched with the popular voice.

Social media has come to act as a catalyst for opening up new platforms for dialogue, debate and deliberations based on different issues⁷. In a convocation lecture delivered at the Asian College of Journalism, C.P. Chandrasekhar says that there is much talk today of how proliferation of the social media is creating a fifth estate that will displace the fourth estate. “The fifth estate is indeed delivering through tweets, Facebook posts, blogs and the like – a large volume of information and opinion of newsworthy events and other subjects,” he adds⁸. Anarticle by Clay Shirky in Foreign Affairs magazine, mentions that political movements all over the world, including Philippines (Joseph Estrada was ousted), Iran (Green Movement to protest the miscount of votes for Mir Hossein Mousavi), Moldova and Thailand (Red Shirt uprising), used social media including text messaging, email, photo sharing, etc. The question he asks in the article is: Do digital tools enhance democracy? He concludes that these tools might help in the long run and might have very dramatic effects⁹.

OBJECTIVES:

Using a study of the development of the jallikattu movement in Tamil Nadu – a brief movement that sought to revoke a ban on the bull-taming sport jallikattu indigenous to Tamil Nadu – this paper seeks to:

1. Analyse emerging roles of social media

2. Understand how social media activism draws external attention to offline locations of protests or conflicts

3. Identify and study the prominent characteristics of social media activism and the factors contributing to the propagation of such movements

METHODOLOGY:

The aim of this case study was to chart the course of social media activities that helped to organise the pro-jallikattu protests that took place in Tamil Nadu in January 2017. To do this, social media entities that were active during the jallikattu protests were identified from mainstream media news reports on the protests. By studying these entities’ social media activities during December 2016 and January 2017, other social media entities were identified. The period was chosen as the protests were organised, gained strength and finally dispersed during the course of these two months.

A total of eight social media entities were thus identified and studied. The entities chosen were popular social media organisations Chennai Memes, Tamizhan Memes, Chennaites and PutChutney; celebrity film industry professionals Raghava Lawrence, Hip Hop Tamizha and RJ Balaji; and KarthikeyaSivasenapathy, a managing trustee of SenapathyKangayam Cattle Research Foundation, an NGO that is involved in promotion of a native breed of cattle called Kangayam. Through a survey of these entities’ Facebook and Twitter activities – as these tools were the most frequented media for the jallikattu protests – during the period, the researchers attempted to identify prominent characteristics of these activities, and the factors contributing to the protests.Further, from the survey of the timelines of the social media players under study, popular hashtags associated with jallikattu were identified, using which the researchers sought to map the reach of the message on social media.

Background:

The bull-taming sport, jallikkattu, is estimated to be 2,500 – 10,000 years old in the state of Tamil Nadu, India, and is usually held during the harvest season, i.e., in the middle of January. The bull fight, jallikattu, is generally conducted on the second day of the month of Thai, according to the Tamil calendar. Unlike the bullfights of Spain, where a single matador takes on the bull, jallikattu launches a group of participants to take on the charging bull. The participant who hangs on for the longest amount of time or distance, or who manages to retrieve flags hung from one of the bull’s horns, is declared the winner¹⁰. The most well-known jallikattu event is the one held in the town of Alanganallur, in district of Madurai in Tamil Nadu.

The sport has had a chequered history in Tamil Nadu. It had long been under the scanner of animal rights groups for alleged mistreatment of the bulls to provoke them and make them charge into the jallikattu arena¹¹. The highlights of the judicial and legislative attempts to regulate and deregulate jallikattu are as follows:

· In, 2006 the Madras High Court ruled that all forms of sport involving bulls could not take place as the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act (PCAA) prohibited it¹².

· In 2009, the Tamil Nadu government passed the Tamil Nadu Regulation of Jallikattu Act No 27, through which it permitted jallikkattu to take place. The law mandated certain regulations such as written permission from the respective collector 30 days prior to the scheduled event; double barricades to protect spectators; and tests conducted on the bulls by the Animal Husbandry Department to ensure that drugs, liquor or other irritants have not been administered to the bulls¹².

· In November 2010, the Supreme Court permitted Jallikkattu under the provisions of the 2009 Tamil Nadu state law, for a period of five months, starting on January 15 of every year. All participating animals were to be registered with the Animal Welfare Board of India¹³.

· In January 2011, in response to an appeal by actor Hema Malini, the Ministry of Environment and Forests issued a notification that bulls may not be used as performing animals in India¹⁴. However, jallikattu continued to be held, under the state government act of 2009¹².

· In May 2014, the Supreme court ruling struck down the Tamil Nadu Regulation of Jallikattu Act of 2009 and banned the sports as a result of a petition filed by PETA¹⁵.

· In January 2015, defying the ban, people tried to organise the sport at a few venues, and were arrested¹⁶.

· On January 8, 2016, the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change amended its own 2011 ruling, to reflect that jallikattu and bullock cart races could be held¹².

· January 14, 2016, the Supreme Court upheld the ban, after a petition was filed by PETA. In July 2016, the Supreme Court refused to review its decision. Thus, the government decision was overturned, and once again jallikkattu was banned¹².

Despite protests in Chennai held in opposition to the ban in January 2016, the protests did not really gain traction until January 2017.

ON-THE-GROUND EVENTS OF JALLIKATTU PROTESTS, JANUARY 2017:

· A few pro-jallikattu demonstrations were held at various locations on January 4, 2017, but the protests did not gain momentum until two weeks later¹⁷. The protests attained visibility when several large groups gathered on the Marina Beach on January 8 with two demands: revoke the ban on jallikkattu and ban PETA.

· On January 16, a day-long protest was held in Alanganallur, the town in Madurai district where the most famous jallikkattu event is held. On that day, jallikattu events were also held in defiance of the ban. Some 200 protesters were arrested¹⁸.

· Perhaps motivated by the Alanganallur protests, through the night on January 16, and on January 17, large crowds gathered on the Marina Beach to protest for the same cause¹⁹. Following this, protests were held in many other places in the state.

· Once again, on January 19, hundreds of protesters gathered at the Marina Beach and remained there overnight²⁰.

· On January 19, then Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and requested the Centre’s approval for an ordinance to resolve the issue²¹. As the subject is on the concurrent list of the Indian Constitution, both Centre and State must agree for any legislation on the matter. The next day, the draft ordinance was approved by the Home, Environmental and Cultural Ministries.

· On January 21, the State Government passed the ordinance, allowing jallikkattu to proceed²².

· On January 22, jallikkattu events were held in several places in Tamil Nadu. The chief minister, who had been scheduled to inaugurate an event in Alanganallur, was turned away, as protestors demanding a permanent solution did not allow the event to proceed²³.

· By January 23, many protesters had dispersed. Those remaining at the Marina Beach were forcefully evicted by the police. By the evening of that day, the Tamil Nadu legislature had passed a bill to replace the ordinance, and sent it to the president for approval²⁴.

ONLINE COMPONENT OF JALLIKATTU PROTESTS, DECEMBER 2016 – JANUARY 2017:

Throughout most of December 2016, most social media activists were preoccupied with late Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa’s hospitalisation and subsequent demise, and then with Cyclone Vardah, which made landfall near Chennai.

Around mid-December, awareness of jallikattu began manifesting itself on several social media pages, besides those dedicated to jallikattu, that have been steadily discussing the issue for several years – some since 2014.

This section attempts to identify some characteristics of the activities of some prominent social media entities during December 2016 and January 2017.

Functions performed by the social media entities under study:

1. Mobilise support for the cause and build a community around it: The social media entities worked to gather support for the cause and build a sense of kinship with it, in several ways.

a. Chennai Memes, a new media company that specialises in meme-creation, for instance, on December 28, tweeted pictures of youth who had been asked to post pictures of themselves holding placards saying “I am not an educated illiterate. I support jallikattu,” with the hashtag #TNstandsforjallikattu. This post recorded 55 retweets and 72 likes, up from any previous post on the topic.

b. Chennai Memes also pursued its community-building goal by posting on the success of the protests and rallies that it helped to organise. On January 8, their Twitter page had a post reporting, “22,000 youngsters came to Marina to protest” on that day.

c. On January 16, a Chennai Memes tweet invoked collective anguish by saying, “It's just been 16days in 2017 and TN has suffered enough sorrows to last the whole year,” with the hashtags #Alanganallur and #Jallikattu. This referred to the January 16 protest in Alanganallur, the primary location in Tamil Nadu for jallikattu events, in which around 200 protestors had been arrested by the police. This post garnered 4 comments, 153 retweets and 228 likes.

d. The Twitter handle Tamizhan Memes mobilised support and rallied the community with humourous and sarcastic memes, many of them parodies of Tamil movie scenarios or personalities.

e. PutChutney, a social media company that is popular for its original videos, with 16.4 lakh followers on Facebook as of Sept. 2016, released an awareness-spreading video on December 30, drawing 578 reactions, 20 comments and 72 shares.

f. By January 11, when PutChutney released another video on Facebook, this time on the purported role played by jallikattu in preserving native breeds, it engagement numbers showed a drastic jump. The post garnered 57,000 reactions, 390 comments, and 49,000 shares. Videos and memes steadily kept up the engagement rate.

g. However, a Facebook poster regarding an upcoming panel discussion organised by PutChutney on YouTube live, featuring members of the Bio-Diversity Conservation Council, garnered a mere 122 reactions and 2 comments, suggesting that visual-based, succinct posts resonated most with audiences.

h. KarthikeyaSivasenapathy, a promoter of the native Kangayam cattle, was one of the links between the protestors, most of whom had never been to a jallikattu tournament, and the milieu of bull rearing and cattle stewardship. With a following of 6.3 lakh on Facebook as of Sept. 2017, he released a video on January 17 rallying support for protest. This garnered 25,000 shares.

i. On Twitter, Sivasenapathy, who, as of Sept. 2017 had 18,600 followers, posted a number of awareness-raising videos, and other posts, which, interestingly, saw very little audience engagement between January 11 and January 16. From January 16 onwards, when the Alanganallur arrests happened and the Chennai mega-protests were organised, engagement numbers jumped from single or double digits to triple digits. This could be because he gathered a Twitter following only during this period due to exposure on other social media pages or on mainstream media. It could also be because his early posts do not use common engagement-boosting techniques such as hashtagging or tagging of other handles. Later posts, however, show these attributes, suggesting either that he has picked up these skills quickly, or that he has received advice to modify his Twitter technique.

j. The social media page Chennaites garnered huge numbers of shares, mostly in the four digits, for their posts announcing protests by college students at various venues. But one post, in particular, garnered 20,000 reactions, 1.6 lakh shares, and 406 comments. This was a collage of three photos of women protestors in Coimbatore who brought their children to the protests. This suggests that posts with emotional content resonate most with audiences.

2. Communicate logistics regarding on-the-ground protests and rallies:

a. On December 29, the Chennai Memes twitter page carried a poster calling for a public rally on January 8 with the hashtags #TNneedsJalikattu, #VoiceForJallikattu, and #SaveJallikattu. This post showed even greater engagement numbers than previously, with 2 comments, 103 retweets and 94 likes. On January 1, a post had a meme calling for a ban on People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), based on whose complaint the Supreme Court had ruled to ban jallikattu. Along with this, the page announced more details about the January 8 rally, including the venue and the time. January 6 saw another post about the January 8 rally, and also an announcement that it would be followed by a hunger strike to save farmers.

b. On December 26 on Facebook, Chennai Memes announced tentative plans for a candlelight vigil to be held on Marina on January 2, pending police permission for the public gathering. Illustrating the unique nature of a crowd-organised movement, the post requests readers to comment with suggestions for similar protests in other places in Tamil Nadu.

c. On December 27, a Facebook post by Chennai Memes illustrated links with protest organisers in other places in Tamil Nadu. The post announced a candlelight vigil in Chennai, Coimbatore and Trichy on a date between January 2 and 8.

d. A Facebook post on January 9 issued an offer to help promote jallikattu protests planned in places outside Chennai. The post specified that an image of a letter from the police permitting the protest had to be attached when organisers reached out to them.

e. On January 17, Chennai Memes reached out through Facebook seeking water for protestors at a Coimbatore location. This saw 4,700 reactions, 57 comments and 3,700 shares, illustrating the logistical support for the protests provided by the social media networks.

f. Chennaites announced protest locations and times on a regular basis, and engagement numbers show that the word was spread effectively.

3. Issue advisories and guide policy: With the goal of keeping the leaderless protest on a single track, the larger social media entities issued periodic advisories to protestors.

a. On January 17, ahead of the few days or protests that saw the largest turnout, a post, with the hashtag #marina, advised followers not to avoid or abuse national media if they approached protestors on Marina Beach. This saw 11 comments, 160 retweets, and 306 likes. The majority of the protestors reportedly had a negative opinion about national and mainstream media, as they perceived them to be biased in the favour of multi-national corporations, and also because of the opinion that the jallikattu issue was neglected by the national media until the protests gained strength. The same attitude could be seen in a January 21 Facebook post, after the jallikattu ordinance was passed, in which Chennai Memes issued a request to jallikattu event organisers not to invite politicians to inaugurate tournaments. The post likely reflected the prevailing sentiment within the protest community, and its effect could be seen the next day, when Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam was turned away from the Alanganallurjallikattu event, which he had been scheduled to inaugurate²³.

b. Also on January 17, on Facebook, Chennai Memes distanced itself from protests calling for Tamil Nadu to secede from India. “Let us protest in a progressive manner and make Jallikkattu happen. But as a Thamizhan and as an Indian,” the post said, and garnered 6,900 reactions, 180 comments and 1,500 shares.

c. A Facebook post by Chennai Memes on January 18 attempts to focus disparate voices onto a single message by advising protestors to tell mainstream media, if approached, that the only way goal was to amend the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.

d. Also on January 19, a post on Chennai Memes illustrated the aversion that many protestors reportedly had towards political parties’ involvement in the protests. The post requested all protestors not to take part in rail-stopping activities (which had been organised by the DravidaMunnetraKazhagam (DMK) party) or in the protest organised by the NadigarSangam, which is viewed as a politicised institution. The post saw 18 comments, 678 retweets and 924 likes. Two other posts particularly criticising the inconvenience caused to the public and to protestors by the DMK-organised rail-stopping activity, appeared on the same day and saw high audience engagement.

e. In a Facebook post on January 23, Chennai Memes, in consultation with a lawyer, provided an analysis of the ordinance passed by the government. This move is in contrast with most top-down movements, in which the rank-and-file members are told what to think, but not why.

f. PutChutney nudged audiences in the direction of peaceful protest with January 24 Facebook post saying, “Tag a friend who is a peaceful protestor.”

g. On January 18 and again on January 28, KarthikeyaSivasenapathy put up Facebook posts warning readers not to be duped by opportunists seeking to collect donations in his name or that of his organisation.

h. In several Facebook posts in the latter half of January, Chennaites directed audiences to boycott foreign beverages and adopt an Indian way of life. This bears out theories that the protests were at least in part triggered by the perception that globalisation was rooting out the livelihood and a way of life of Indians.

4. Provide reportage to the public away from the protests:

When the protests gained strength on the Marina, the police placed the mainstream media corps a distance away from the protests. At these times, social media players provided ground reports. For instance, on January 17, a Facebook post by Chennai Memes reproduced a message from a protestor saying that mobile internet had been cut off on the beach, and was available only rarely. A January 18 post by Chennai Memes provides a 5.30 a.m. update: “Drop out of 30 to 40% crowd compared to 2 hours before. This protesting area had been taken under their (police) complete control by making the main road route one way at two junction one at Anna Square and other at Gandhi statue. So protesters are in between. Pindrop silence in the crowd. No media coverage as they are made to sit opp (sic) to Protest area. Thousands police had been deployed and now they are rounding up the crowd. Can't give the clear image though sent some images. We need Moreppl (sic) to strengthen our unity, once the crowd gets bigger they can't do anything.”

Pattern of propagation of the movement:

It may be said that prominent social media entities with large follower groups seeded the movement, which then took on a life of its own, spreading far and wide in very short periods of time. Tracking the prominent hashtags used during the campaign demonstrates the range of the spread.The hashtag #Jallikattu was in at least 6 lakh tweets, mostly from various places in Tamil Nadu, between January 5 and January 20. Between January 17 and 20, #JusticeForJallikatu had been tweeted over a million times²⁵. Another early hashtag that emerged was #WeDoJallikattu, surfacing on January 7. After stray incidents of people flouting the Supreme Court ban were reported, the hashtag #WeDidJallikattu made an appearance on January 13. It gained traction a few days later when people started posting image grabs of such incidents from television news reports²⁵. #iSupportJallikattu, which started appearing on January 9, was initially used to garner support for the movement, but after the ground protests began, it was used to coordinate the events, and plan food and water for the protestors.

Impact of celebrity on social media activism:

While factors contributing to virality are difficult to pinpoint, celebrity presence on social media as well as on the ground definitely contribute to it. “The culture of celebrity is marked by power, influence, and consumer interest and judgement, thus making a celebrity, voice above others, a voice that is channelled into the media as being legitimately significant”²⁶. Any culture puts celebrity on a pedestal where they looked upon as influencers created and offered up for public consumption. In South India, celebrities are looked upon more as demi-gods. With the advent of social media, celebrities are today able to connect with people more extensively than before. It is believed celebrities have been able to pull crowd utilising their celebrated status, which is good news for social movements. Celebrities may be influential for multiple reasons. They have millions of followers on their social networks when they post a social issue. They can garner media presence and raise public awareness. They can create fan relationships through their social media networks. This will further help to shape public opinion amongst their fans.

The jallikattu movement saw its first breakthrough when a video, “TakkaruTakkaru,” based on the sport, was released by musician Hip Hop Tamizha in June 2016. Despite the song’s far-reaching success, no significant reaction was visible. The movement began to pick up pace in the month of December 2016, though the initiator were the public. Actor Silambarasanheld a press conference and issued a statement supporting jallikattu on December 30, 2016, ahead of the curve as far as celebrity involvement goes. Later, the protests saw mega-stars like Kamal Hassan, Rajnikanth and Dhanush utilising social media to be vocal about their thoughts and also celebrated people rooting for a cause. For the most part, their social media posts expressed appreciation for the youngsters behind the Marina movement.

The jallikattu movement, which was seen as a victory to the masses, definitely had a celebrity hand in it. Some celebrities connected with the film industry did engage in day-long protests, but many refused to give long speeches or audio bytes to mainstream media as they wanted the focus to be on the young protestors at the Marina²⁷. When they wanted to communicate with audiences, they did so directly through videos or other posts on their Twitter, Facebook or YouTube accounts, which were heavily shared by their followers. For instance, dance choreographer and actor Raghava Lawrence, with 3 lakh Twitter followers as of Sept. 2017, tweeted a link to his Facebook post on January 17, in which he makes an emotional appeal for the government to permit jallikattu to take place. The tweet garnered 707 retweets, 61 replies and 6,900 likes, numbers that would be impossible to achieve for most other social media entities. At a time when national TV anchors had difficulty understanding the intricacies of jallikattu, it was these social media heroes whose voices reached greater audiences²⁸.

Radio presenter Balaji, popularly known as RJ Balaji, with 2.24 million followers on Twitter and 7.5 lakh on Facebook as of Sept. 2017, was active both on social media and on the ground. He used video appeals effectively. Several of his videos, posted on his Twitter and Facebook pages, garnered likes, retweets and shares in the thousands. A January 20 video of his speech on Marina beach during the protest, which he shared on Twitter with the comment, “The best day of my life,” garnered 15,000 shares. Actor Vijay who is considered as a conservative celebrity, released a video in support of Jallikattu, which won his audience’s attention and brought them on Marina. While celebrities may have been genuinely moved by the cause, it should also be noted that it was a safe cause to get behind, as it supported Tamil culture, and resonated with their target market. Besides, as it was apolitical, the celebrities did not have to be cautious about expressing support.

From Social Media to the Streets – Factors:

Many issues become trending topics each day on social media. Some last for days or even months. Many of them are protests against injustices perceived by a small or large section of society. However, not all of these make the leap from social media to the physical world, and not at the scale witnessed in Chennai and other parts of Tamil Nadu in January 2017. Various long-term and short-term factors combined to create the perfect storm conditions for the pro-jallikattu protests in January 2017.

Political alienation:

Several observers have pointed out that the jallikattu protests were a culmination of long-simmering resentment against the Central government for what was perceived as high-handed treatment that failed to consider that the emotions of the people of Tamil Nadu. In several well-reported cases in the years prior – the protests against the Kudankulam nuclear plant and the Oil and Natural Gas pipeline projects (ONGC), and the call for the Centre to intervene to support Tamil Nadu fishermen in their struggle with Sri Lankan authorities over fishing rights in the seas between the two countries – the Central government did not yield to the expressed desire of the Tamil people, many felt. Further, when neighbouring state Karnataka did not abide by the Supreme Court order of 2016 to release the waters of River Cauvery to Tamil Nadu, the Centre did not do enough to enforce the ruling³². This was compounded by the news of 17 farmer suicides in Tamil Nadu in the two months leading up to the protests. On January 10, 2017, Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam declared all districts in the state as drought-hit districts³³. “While the individual movements for each of these issues had failed to invoke a united Tamil conscience, the Jallikattu protests became the point at which they converged,” an article in Caravan magazine points out³². By some accounts, the intensity of anger against the Centre was insufficiently covered by mainstream media, which instead framed the protests as mainly anti-PETA³⁴. Many social media entities helping organise the protests took an apolitical stand and issued repeated advisories asking protestors to tone down their rhetoric against the Centre so as keep the protest focused on getting the jallikattu ban revoked.

Economic alienation:

Though the jallikattu protests invoked injury to the culture of the Tamils, the protests were only a symbol of deeper malaise, some analysts say. “Culture isn’t an isolated, narrow entity confined to linguistic and artistic expressions. It is rather a composite construct encompassing the material conditions that produce it. Any damage to that ecosystem would affect material well-being, which in turn endangers identity, inherent values and cultural heritage,” writes a liberal arts professor in a commentary in the Wire news portal³⁵. Although Tamil Nadu is touted as a model state in terms of successfully pursuing foreign investments following globalisation and liberalisation, global recession has hit it hard, data suggests. The growth rate of the industrial Gross State Domestic Product fell from 28.66% in 2009-10 to negative 1.17% in 2012-13. Further, during the 11^th Five-Year Plan period of 2007-12, Tamil Nadu’s annual average rate of agricultural production fell by 2.37%. These economic conditions primed the state for an explosion of anger, which arrived in the form of the jallikattu protests.

DE politicisation of campuses:

Some political observers, taking the long view, cite the deprivation of opportunity for young people to express their political views. In an article in the Times of India, they remember student protests being crushed by both the prominent Dravidian parties when they were in power in Tamil Nadu. As a result of this suppression, young people have found a different avenue for political expression in the jallikattu protests, they say³⁶.

Near-term factors:

In the near-term, however, a few factors contributed to set off the jallikattu protests.

· The jallikattu uprising took place in the wake of the death of Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa, when the tussle for succession was beginning. As a commentator on Huffington Post India noted, if Jayalalithaa had been alive, the protests would likely not have snowballed to the scale seen in January 2017. “Probably, the youth and others wouldn't have been this fearless and she would have aborted the swell in its infancy itself. What obviously empowered them this time is the lack of political will in Chief Minister O Panneerselvam and AIADMK chief VK Sasikala. Both are new and uncertain, and hence are risk-averse or clueless”³⁷. The writer notes the authority with which Jayalalithaa quelled the government employees’ protest in 2003, having thousands arrested and dismissing many more.

· To add fuel to the simmering resentment, it suddenly hit the news cycle on January 9, 2017 that the harvest festival of Pongal was not on the Central government list of compulsory holidays for the year. After several Tamil Nadu political parties expressed their outrage at this, the Centre made it a compulsory holiday³⁸. This further contributed to public perception that the Centre’s policies were adversely affecting the people of Tamil Nadu, and, particularly, farmers.

· The police permitted the protests to take place, as it would have been a politically incorrect move for the nascent post-Jayalalithaa government to use police force to quell the popular agitation. Tweeting about the recent protests in Tamil Nadu against the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) being made mandatory for medical college admissions, R.K. Radhakrishnan, associate editor, Frontline news magazine, posted, “No #jallikattu type agitations will happen now. #jallikattu happened because of #Tamilnadu #police laxity, believe officials”³⁹. It was only after the State government passed the ordinance on January 21 to permit jallikattu to proceed, that the police, on January 23, took action to disperse crowds from Marina beach, some say, to clear the area for the upcoming Republic Day parade⁴⁰.

Does Social Media Activism Produce Policy Change?

Evocatively sometimes called “hashtag activism,” much of social media activism involves just that – complaining, outraging, and expressing sympathy, solidarity or criticism from the comfort of one’s in front of a digital screen. When divorced from traditional, on-the-ground action as seen in the jallikattu case, can social media activism alone bring about policy change?Proponents of hashtag activism claim that, at the very least, it helps in raising awareness, and at its best, it can produce tangible impact. Critics claim that hashtag activists often support a trending cause to feel socially responsible, but cannot be relied upon for support that demands greater effort or sacrifice⁴¹.

EvgenyMorozov, a sceptic regarding the power of social media, writes that ideas alone cannot change the world – they must be backed up by strong institutions and strategies. “’Not by memes alone’ would be an apt slogan for any contemporary social movement,” he writes in the context of the Occupy Wall Street movement of 2011. “Alas, this basic insight – that political reform cannot be reduced to a war of memes and aesthetics alone, even if the Internet offers an effective platform for waging them – has mostly been lost on the Occupy Wall Street crowd”⁴².Clay Shirky, a proponent of social media movements, acknowledges that much of online activism is superficial. However, he writes, “the fact that barely committed actors cannot click their way to a better world does not mean that committed actors cannot use social media effectively”⁹.

On the e-petition website Change.org, which seeks to help petitions gain awareness and action through the number of signatures that online media users attach to the petitions they support, most petitions do not produce the results they seek. Data suggests that actionable petitions targeted at companies more often produce results more easily than those targeted at politicians or other entities⁴³. This is likely because, in the case of companies, bad publicity can have an immediate effect on sales, whereas, for political entities, election time comes only once in four years, and public memory, particularly online petitioners’ memory, can be short⁴¹. According to Change.org officials, while online petitions have made support mobilisation easier, they cannot be the end of the effort to bring about policy change⁴⁴. The indication of support then helps organisers get a database for future action online or offline, and attracts the interest of mainstream media, thus setting the course for a sustained campaign.

CONCLUSION:

A number of factors converged to help jallikattu become the successful movement that it was. The fact that the Tamil Nadu government managed to get the ordinance passed to end the protest begs the question why it was not done in the past. After all, late Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa had written to the Centre several times to consider passing an ordinance permitting the conduct of jallikattu. The answer likely lies in political expediency⁴⁵. With a political vacuum in Tamil Nadu after Jayalalithaa’s death in December 2016, the time was likely right for the Centre to support the State’s bid to resolve the jallikattu issue by passing an ordinance. Further, the ordinance was framed so that would jallikattu would be moved out of the purview of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, so that there would be no conflict between the Central and State laws, which was the case in 2014, when the State law permitting and regulating jallikattu was struck down as it ran counter to the PCAA.

Therefore, was the successful outcome of the protest entirely due to the intensity of the movement? Probably not. Without the political will of the Centre and State, it likely would not have materialised. However, there is no doubt that the show of strength heavily mobilised by social media forced the hand of the legislators.This study confirms findings by many researchers showing that, while social media as a stand-alone mechanism may not help achieve the goals of a movement, it is a vital tool that speeds up organisation and message propagation, making it possible for movements to gain traction in a matter of days or even just hours, unimaginable in the pre-digital era.

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Received on 24.10.2017 Modified on 03.12.2017

Res. J. Humanities and Social Sciences. 2018; 9(1): 40-48.

DOI: 10.5958/2321-5828.2018.00008.6