Animals, Humans and Circus

Tags: animals, circus, cruelty, performance | 2 comments | 10,782 views

“We cannot survive without our animals.”- Sujit Chakravorty, Owner, Empire Circus

“Circus owners frequently flout rules and treat animals in the worst possible way.” – Anuradha Sawhney, People for Ethical Treatment of Animals
(November 2002, TOI Report)

Indian circus community has been in a quandary since the Union Environment Ministry banned the training and performance of wild animals such as bears, monkeys, tigers, lions and panthers in 1991. The order, based on the 1960 Prevention of Cruelty against Animals Act had been fateful in the lives of thousands of circus artists and workers roaming around the country. It has also become a decisive moment in the collective memory of the community. Even those who had retired from the trade long before the ban would usually start telling their life stories with some statement about its aftermath.

Circus, the traveling zoos, always had a rich unit of the fauna of the world: Roaring lions, ferocious tigers, unruly cheetahs, fierce leopards, venomous serpents, shy zebras, outrageous chimpanzees, feral bears, gorgeous elephants, rainbow parrots….. It is common knowledge that the animal trainers use crude and cruel methods to train and tame animals. The creatures are kept in undersized, filthy cages without adequate ventilation and also transported from place to place in appalling conditions.

It is said, in the earlier circus establishments of the subcontinent human performers had less significance compared to their animal counterparts. Though in the first decades of twentieth century acrobats from north Malabar became the stars of ring one could hardly neglect the importance of the performing animals. The greater the number and variety of animals the wider, fame of the company. For instance, The Kamala Three Ring Circus had one hundred and twenty five animals including twenty elephants in 1950s. The animals walked on high bamboo rods, leapt through fire rings, played football and cricket, rode bicycles and bikes, danced…

It should be noted that both our laws and the colonial laws which we had followed have been absolutely hypocritical in the case of wild animals. Besides promoting hunting as a ‘manly’ sport, colonial government had cash awards for those who killed wild animals and issued guns to interested parties. Ironically enough this was part of their forest policy; clearing forests and slaughtering wild species. And the very structure had established the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Whether one should stand by the circus community or the animals dreaming of thick forests and high mountains is a complex ethical problem. Anyway the Indian circus companies seem to have found a very interesting way out for the time being. The colonial exhibitions, we all know, used to put on display the ‘natives’ of their ‘dark’ colonies to gratify the white gaze. Now the empire is returning the gaze. Indian circus companies are importing more and more white, European performers and showcasing them as the ‘main attraction’.

July 31st, 2009 | Category: culture | (15 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
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