Now that the dust has settled on Marina beach, where young protesters had camped to demand that the ban on jallikattu—a traditional sport of bull jostling—be lifted, let’s discuss the larger and more serious issue of culture, tradition and their practice in the modern world. For a practising environmentalist (like me), this is a contentious and highly polarising issue. There is no doubt that traditional cultures had empathy with ecology—people had learnt to live with nature, optimise its resources and rationalise its use during scarcity. This “sustainable use” was woven into rituals, practices and beliefs, and became part of cultures. But times change, and so do the approaches and sensibilities of society. How do traditions live on? Should they? Or, should the focus be on the reasons why we did what we did, and not on the ritual that has only become symbolic now? I ask this when the country is learning (and definitely mispronouncing) a new word, jallikattu. The Tamils practise this...