Term Report For Anthropology By Bijar Khan

Term report for anthropology

Bull racing

Made by bijar khan domki Bba 3/1 Submitted to miss. Betina robotka

INTRODUCTION

The very reason I chose this topic was because I wanted to depict my cultural background, I wanted to display my real identity , my heritage, my sense of belonging to a place. Although I have intermingled with the urban man since I was a child, but occasionally I have been part of the rural population of my area. It was during this time that I got to understand the ways of the people, understand their mindset, their habit patterns, understand their varying personalities.i have an opportunity to give out knowledge about my peoples culture to the urbanites (karachietes) and maybe to the whole country. Now, one of their most favourite pastimes is bull racing, and that is why I thought that I should do a detailed project on it in order to understand the whole concept behind it and to share this knowledge with my fellow anthropologists at I.B.A. Bull racing is a very old tradition in sindh, it takes place in different cities and villages throughout sindh, cities like khairpur,sukkur, shikarpur, thatta, larkana, sehwand, mirpurkhas, moro, Jacobabad(my district). It is also a part of Punjab”s culture and is very prominent in gujarkhan, sahiwal, sheikhupura, Rawalpindi, chitral, Lahore, Sialkot. My focus here is going to be sindh because I belong here, but I will also depict the Punjabi practice in detail and compare the two provincial practices. Also, I will add a little international perspective to it , as it takes place in different parts of south asia as well as Africa.

TOPIC The topic, bull racing itself is a concept applicable to basic agrarian societies only. Agrarian societies : an agararian society is one that focuses mainly on agro based products, where the source of income is mostly agriculture. Our country in an agricultural state, and bull racing is a part of it. It is one of the most prominent pastimes of rural people. The agararian culture still persists in our state and hence this traditional practice lives on.

Tribal culture : due to lack of amenities people are motivated towards primitive activities.it promotes primitism, not a very modern society Cultural Materialism : the rural population value their bull’s , and almost every household has one. so they utilize this possession of theirs and they cherish the best of their breeds and the best animals amongst them. Kinship : often it is a family tradition to be part of this sport , and the hobby being passed on from father to son. As a child , youngsters see their elders taking active part in the sport and enjoying it to the fullest, so they too get motivated and feel the urge to do it themselves when they grow up. Often a certain breed stays in the family for decades reproducing and passing on from father to son. Cross cultural analysis : well although this practice is common to many areas in our own country and is also practiced throughout southAsia in countries like India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Srilanka and the Maldives.

Symbolic value : the symbolic value of the bull to the rural population is immense , as has been previously discussed. Traditional society: as part of a rural society people still have most of their values intact and those who don’t are considered corrupt and out of line. For such a society this primitive form of sport and entertainment remains of great value.

METHODOLOGY Bull racing is an old tradition , and there is not much research on the topic available on the internet, or in magazines. I tried different libraries but very few had any material on this, and none had a detailed report or book. So I decided that I would take up this task , gather sufficient information about bull racing and then share it with my class and also post it on my blogs. To do this I needed to find the relevant sources and my sources needed to be authentic, the questions I was to ask them needed to be structured properly so as to get the right kind of information. This was a particularly difficult task because the my sample population is not educated. Illiterate people are not aware of the charactertistics and the format of reports and research papers, they are not very specific about answering questions,often they will give you irrelevant info, plus they love to discuss other things like politics, the would not understand the importance of a research project. First of all I interviewed the “FAIS”. This is the person who is responsible for training the race bull. He could be called the most important person for the bull, he is responsible for the diet of the bull, for the exercise , for the massage ,muscle stretching. I started off by asking him about the bulls diet , and he mentioned the fact that it is very much different from a normal bulls diet because it consists of protein rich diet rather than fat and carbohydrate rich.

Then I interviewed the manager of the bull. He is the person responsible for arranging race venues, dealing with the opponents, deciding on the bet rate and dealings with the bookies, spreading the word out to the public. He is the front line man, he is the spokesperson for the bull as well as its owner. I asked him about the race venue, the management of the events, the bets and prizes, the timings and the season. Then I interviewed the owner of the bull. My cousin, jazib khan domki owns many race bulls, so he proved to be a valuable source of information. He gave me a lilltle background on the sport, about how my grandfather used to love this sport, how active our family is in the sport. Plus, he gave me details about the pricing of these bulls, the markets, who owns the top most bulls in the province, the interprovincial games that take place, and most importantly he mentioned different breeds/”nasal” of bulls that are used in races. Then I asked my dad a couple of questions regarding the cultural significance of the sport, what it meant for the tribe and the area. He told me that when a bullowner won, his tribe got specially jubiliated and celebrated all day long. The town/city people would talk about it for days, each person tying to tell the story in a different way than the other. To put it differently, my method was focused on primary research and first had interviews. I met these people face to face or conducted interviews on the telephone. The interviews were thorough and I had prepared my queries in advance for each sample of the population. As there was no source of info available on the internet or in the library, the right kind of info was very hard to find, but thanks to my cousin who provided me with a detailed video of the complete event . I studied the video thoroughly and put it into words. But just to supplement the report and to facilitate the teacher I have included a c.d of the whole event.

LIST YOUR FINDINGS Bull racing started centuries ago, and the sport is a way of showing the rich agrarian background of the rural inhabitants. The bull is a symbol of their society, a symbol of strength and pride , and showing off this symbol is considered an honor and a privilege. Bulls belonging to an area are usually called by the same name as the place, and it is a pride for the area, for its population when their bulls are mentioned in conversations of heroic wins and tantalizing competition.the races take place in winters mostly , but in certain parts of Punjab some festivals are held in may. In sindh , the most popular breeds include the thari, which belongs to the Thar desert area , and the nari which is actually a cross breed from balochistan. These bulls are taller than normal ones, they are more muscular and have a straight body stature. they have very strong legs which is considered the most important part of the animal. A picture of the bull will depict a better visual of the beast. Now coming to the reason behind their awesome body. These creatures receive a very high protein and mineral diet,they are given barley, and different pulses like bajri and joar which are both very high in fibre. This keeps their body in shape and

maintains the high energy levels needed during exercise and specially during races. the second most important factor behind their physique is their trainer whom we call “fais”. The duties assigned to the fais have been mentioned earlier in the report. Now , training a bull is a difficult and rigourous excercise . and finding a good trainer is a tedious task. There is a great demand for the expert trainer and hence they are paid very well. The most highly paid these days is called SOOMAR SHEIKH and he is from shikarpur. Now about the track and the race itself. The track is a straight path , flat ground straightened by a tractor . the bulls are supposed to run in pairs always and the male is supposed to gather the pace and momentum and lead the female to do the same. The track itself is 600 metres long , and the path is broad enough for two or maybe three pairs to run simultaneously. Each pair is adjusted into a cart, which is a different from a normal cart. It is greater in length than the usual cart, and the seat is leaned towards the back. Traditionally the tires used to be of wood but quite recently they changed the structure and fit in rubber tyres.just like in a horse race , they use a whip to stimulate the animal into more speed but this whip is different. Its called a” chamba” and it is a lilltle pointed towards the end.

The prices of the bulls vary a lot , with the lowest selling for a 100,00 rs and going up to 1.5 million for the best ones. This depends on two things firstly the achievements of the bull , and secondly the breed of the animal. Top breed animals that are physically fit are the best ones, and with good training they become success stories. Also bets are placed within groups and friends which is sort of less formal, but there are professional bookies on the race grounds (just like those at horse race courses) who take collateral and place bets. Bets can go upto 100,000 at times. The funny part is their names, people in sindh like indina movies and dramas a lot. They men watch Indian movies at the local hotels(dhabas) where as the women watch Indian drama series, so people name their bulls after them . they have names lke rishi, soojal, rhitik, prem, etc. of course, this is a very recent development , and many still prefer traditional names depicting strength and glory. Names like shheeh, dhadiyal, etc.

The bull represents the culture of the area, province, country. Agrarian culture has bull as its symbol, the cultivation used to be done by bulls, although tractors have taken over now but even these tractors take their symbolic significance from the strength of the bull.

The social signifacnce of the event is magnanimous. The race takes place usually as part of an overall mela or an urs which is a grand gathering of thousands of people. Children and elders wait all year for major melas like the sehwan mela where people from different tribes and districts come into contact , meet their friends, socialize with others, meet their political allies or foes and have discussions, or sometimes they are found doing business. The tribe or city to which the bull belongs feels extremely proud of their heritage, and a victorious bull represents victory for the tribe as well as for the district. The owner of the winning bull then has a gathering at his place of his friends and family to celebrate the occasion with foods and music and dance. The practice is a little different in Punjab ,with relevance to the race cart there are no tyres on the cart in Punjab, the track itself is dug a little so that moving through it gets difficult. Also the overall trend in melas in Punjab is different from sindh. The Punjabi mela wil have arch throwing, shotput, and even motorcycle race but these wont be found here in sindh. Also the mela in Punjab is more commercialized.

INTERPRETATION the sport itself still has its charm left, with the same overall gatherings, similar traditions, similar symbolic significance and values. I have mentioned the significance of the sport and its traditional values as mentioned by the interviewees but I observed a change in the overall activities that were taking place and the pace that they had achieved. The sport itself has been recognized by different local governing bodies like the Rawalpindi cdgk and the gujarkhan cdk , who host some of the sporting events and

melas and are responsible for the prize distribution. But most of the events are hosted by elders in the area or senior politicians. For eg , the yearly mela in pathwaar is organized by retd gen. qayyum , who is also the ex-chairman of Pakistan steel mills. These prizes and awards have been introduced recently by the local body govt just to promote the sport and reward the hard work of the racing teams’. The sport used to be a sport only until betting was properly introduced into the sport. As of right now , betting is a part of the overall games, with professional bookies(just like those at race courses) at every event and many people placing bets with them. This was when the sport changed from a fun based activity to a commercial activity/business. The old tradition of betting between families or in groups with say friends still exists, and is enjoyed a lot. Also, another aspect of the sport’s commercialization is the introduction of celebrities and different artists performing at the events. These artists recently targeted this new audience and now are making a buck out of the whole event. Even professional dancers may be called at personal post-event gatherings. The kinds of activities have also changed , become more 21st century like , activites such as motorcycle riding, magic shows and tricks etc. To sum it all up, I think that my fellow anthropologists at iba will appreciate my topic because they are not very much aware of the sport. The love and passion these rural people have for their animals and for the game shows that traditional cultural values are still held high in these areas unlike our urban masses who I feel are gradually forgetting their cultural values and traditions. So I come to the purpose of my report which is to present the case of my people and to show this as an example to our urabanites that we should stick to our own cultural values, that we should not ignore or feel ashamed by them. Instead we should cherish them and hold our heads high ,take pride in our traditions and protect our identity and the identity of our forefathers.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Mr.Jazib khan domki Mir zaffarullah khan domki Soomar sheikh Pandh mohammad Rafae zahid sheikh Omar hayat www.rawalpindi.com www.flickr.com prince videos