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One Day of the Fox ... came a time remembered well M D Riti
Huge, old pots simmering slowly on gas flames, brimming with peppery white pongal. Varieties of sesame seeds, jaggery and tiny coloured sweets overflowing from the shelves of grocery shops. Tall stacks of sugarcane and bushels of turmeric roots crowding the pavements outside vegetable markets. These are the images that fill one's mind during Makara Sankranthi, the harvest festival of Karnataka, known as Pongal in other states. This festival has its own goddess -- Sankranthi Devathe. According to the panchanga or written forecast for this year, the Devathe this time around goes by the name of Mandakini. She will be born in North America and reach the Deccan plateau after bathing in the Narmada river and drinking milk from a glass tumbler. This implies trouble for both the people of North America and the residents of South India. Inflation, the forecast predicts, will rise and the prices of essentials, like milk, might soar. Not everyone in Karnataka looks forward to Sankranthi quite so happily, though. For the animal rights activists, it is a time of hard field work, especially in the Mysore region, where certain barbaric customs still prevail. During this festival, foxes are trapped, tortured and eventually released into the hungry mouths of savage dogs, all in the name of puja. This particular custom, which exists in the village of Udpur and its environs, dates back to a famine of a couple of centuries ago. As people died of hunger through the nights preceding Sankranthi, the foxes in the surrounding areas howled incessantly. Their continuous wailing pleased the gods, who sent rain to the village and saved the survivors. Ever since, the people of Udpur venerate the fox. You might consider their form of veneration strange. A week before the festival, these villages go on a massive fox hunt. Drums are beaten all through the bush to drive the foxes into open areas. Then, they capture several of these animals from the wilds, through traps, snares and nets. Often, mother foxes are caught, leaving young fox cubs who die of starvation or attacks by other predators. Many of the trapped animals die in captivity, out of fear, suffocation or voluntary starvation. The survivors are in for an even worse fate. On Sankranthi day, their ears are pierced with gold rings and their mouths and legs trussed securely. They are anointed with kumkum, turmeric and sandal paste and put in small, cramped cages. They are then taken on procession through the village to temples for prayers. Finally, they are released, sometimes with firecrackers tied to their bushy tails as a part of the mood of celebration prevailing. Hungry dogs are released immediately after them. The smell of the blood oozing from the foxes ears and other minute injuries are normally enough to bring the dogs in hot pursuit. The now-free foxes, weakened by loss of blood and general trauma, are no match for the starved dogs and reach a gory end. Those who manage to outrun the dogs seldom last long out in the bush, falling prey to other predators or their own injuries. This Sankranthi, as happened last year, it is likely that this entire ritual might be carried out in a less barbaric manner. This is because of the intervention of animal rights organisations like People for Animals and Beauty without Cruelty, who have involved the government and the police in their crusade. Last year, the foxes were kept in slightly larger cages and released without injury or trauma. It is unlikely that the activists will achieve their goal of having the foxes left alone at this time of year. This not the only animal sacrifice that takes place in this region. Many families sacrifice goats to appease the harvest deities. NGOs and activists have managed to prevent temples from permitting sacrifice on their premises. The temple priests took an oath recently that they would ban this kind of sacrifice. However, people do sacrifice goats in their own homes, even though they have been warned that animal sacrifice is illegal and might get them into prison. "For every fox being sacrificed, there are 300 or 400 goats that lose their lives," says Ranjit Konkar of BWC. "In 1997, I saw almost 150 goats being prepared for sacrifice in one village in the Mandya region. Through interaction with village panchayats and elders, we have managed to persuade the priests to stop encouraging this custom." This kind of Sankranthi goat sacrifice is again special to the villages near Mandya and Mysore, like Udpur. If there is a new threat taking over in urban centres like Bangalore, it is the demon of consumerism. Every festival now sees the middle classes on a shopping spree for new clothes and domestic appliances, often on credit, either in the form of office loans or through finance companies. The focus of festivals like Sankranthi has shifted largely from a simple celebration of a plentiful harvest to a display of clothes and assets. However, as Sankranthi approaches, there is certainly an air of festivity both in the cities and the villages of Karnataka. This new year promises to have more than its share of excitement with assembly elections scheduled for the year end and the Government consequently sure of being on its best behaviour. The harvest too has been adequate and consequently both farmers and city dwellers are all ready to welcome the new year with joy in their hearts and full stomachs. Sketch by Dominic Xavier
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