Protesters draw attention to Tamil Nadu’s oldest martial arts

As part of the protests, many students and private firm employees exhibited their talents. It helped those who had gathered there to relieve themselves off stress. Dividing themselves into groups they took turns to demonstrate the martial arts. A section of agitators mocked the political leaders and staged plays. At these plays, they went on to depict how politicians cheated the people at the eleventh hour particularly in conducting jallikattu game. 

The arts exhibited include Si lambattam, Thappattam and various other folk dances. The performances were given by women and children who were actively participating in the protest. “We are coming from Pallavaram and we decided to remind our government about some of our old martial arts like Silambattam and folk dance,” said A Manikandan, who drew the attention of the protesters. He added that only Tamil Nadu had valorous sports like jallikattu. Thappattam another popular Tamil folk art was held in various venues. 

“Thappattam is one of the state’s oldest traditional dance forms. It is performed in all the festivals across the state and many educational institutions are conducting this during their fine arts festivals,” said M Giridharan, who attracted a huge crowd by his exemplary Thappattam performance. 

B Prabhakaran, a private firm employee and secretary of Melakuppam, who organised a novel play in which a considerable number of protesters picked up micro phones and spoke to each other like politicians said, “I hope the protesters’ voice has reached far and wide. We decided to stage such a play as we want to take a dig at the politicians by mimicking them and also to alert them,” he concluded.