Literally a cockfight...
We've been on a "plot hunt" for ages now, roaming around by scooted from village to village along the beautiful west coast of India. Most of the empty land was purchased by people from Mumbai years ago; people with so much money that they don't know What to do with it. Imagine one would have such a "problem" - what would you do?
Suddenly while roaming around in a village area we noticed a bunch of men standing in a circle, shouting och cheering - a cockfight was going on. A Cockfight is a common activity happening in villages around in India. Men take their strongest rooster with greatest stamina, bind a sharp knife on their foot, make the rooster agitated and angry and let it fight against another rooster. And before the fight start illegal bettings is going on on which rooster they think is going to win, and hopefully come out of the fight alive. Most commonly I guess both of the rooaters will die in the end and end up on a family dining table...It was not a delightful scen to watch the roosters fight, making each other bleed to finally fall exchausted to the ground and slowly, slowly die...
On the other hand it was quite fascinating to be a part of the whole experience and to see how much energy that was created among all the men making bettings and cheering on "their" rooster hoping it to win. The energy level among those men was crazy!
Only imagine if all that energy was put into much important social activities how much better things could be done than making innocent animals kill each other for a simple enjoyment for men.
I would of course not want this activity to continue. But what power do I have in my hands as an outsider to tell Them what's right or what's wrong? What is right for you might not be right for me. This is a sport that has been going on in many countries for thousands of years. And while dogs are brought up and eaten by humans in China and bullfights are still happening in Spain, how can we bring change to these awefull activities without blaming the people in these villages and telling them that what they are doing is wrong when me as an outsoder is not even a part of it.
An animal rights activist would clearly scream out loud and try to stop those men then and there. But look at the picture as a whole. Who are you? Who are you in the whole process of the decision of righteousness?
I hope the majority in India would Not want to support this. And only and insider have to take the first step.