Jallikkatu Ban: School, Colleges Shut, Protest Turns Out To Be A Student Movement

New Delhi: As the protests spread across Tamil Nadu over the ban on Jallikattu, schools and colleges in Chennai and other parts of the state remained shut. Though the government had not officially declared any holiday after the protests erupted across the state, most of the colleges remain shut in the state capital from Wednesday. The educational institutions across the state are shut today after various organisations announced dawn to dusk bandh on January 20. Meanwhile, ground reports suggests, protests happening in the state capital and other places in Tamil Nadu over Jallikattu ban from Monday is mainly led by student activists along with young professionals.

According to reports, some District Collectors announced a holiday for schools in south Tamil Nadu, and in Chennai, individual schools said they would remain closed.

What started as a social media movement, has become a mass movement led by students, leaderless and largely peaceful to redeem 'Tamil identity and culture'. Women and children joined the protests on the Marina beach and the experts likened it with the anti-Hindi agitation in the 1960s, which was also fuelled by students. In Marina, as the crowd got bigger student volunteers distributed food and water and Chennai police praised the 'well behaved' protesters.

The protesters in Chennai kept the politicians at distance and they even asked politicians like DMK leader MK Stalin Naam Tamilar founder Seeman to leave. After the Marina protests gained momentum, students from various institutions across the state came out in support and organised programmes in solidarity. 

The Hindu reported that thousands of students from Dindigul, Theni, Ramanathapuram and Sivaganga came out in support for the protests happening in Tamil Nadu and they demanded a ban on People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and urged the administration for permission to conduct Jallikattu.

Latest reports say that Chief Minister O Panneerselvam assured the people of Tamil Nadu, an ordinance on Jallikattu in two days which he has already sent to central government.

Earlier today, the supreme court of India delayed the verdict on Jallikattu for a week as asked by centre government.

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