The Tiger King

The Tiger King is the shortened name of the hero of the story titled, The Tiger King. He is the Maharaja of Pratibandapuram.

When he was born, the astrologers announced that he would die one day. The ten-day-old prince suddenly spoke and asked the astrologers how he would die, baffling them. He was told that his death would be caused by a tiger. The infant prince then growled and uttered:” Let tigers beware!” He was then named ' Tiger King'. Also the prince grows up to become a tiger-killer and spends most of his life in pursuit of his ambition of killing 100 tigers.

The crown prince grew taller and stronger daily. He drank milk from an English cow, was raised by an English Nanny. He also learned the English language from an Englishman and watched English films. At the age of 20, he took charge of the State and its affairs. After hearing the rumours and discussions of the Astrologer’s prediction from the subjects, the Maharaja decided to hunt and kill tigers in the innumerable forests in the State. It was for self-defence and to fulfil his self-ambition.

The Maharaja passed a law allowing none of his subjects to hunt tigers but him. Within 10 years, he was able to kill 70 tigers. He devoted all of his time in achieving his ambition of killing tigers instead of attending to stately affairs and was also at the risk of losing his throne because he had refused to allow a British officer to go on a tiger hunt or pose with a carcass of one killed by the Maharaja himself. When the Tigers began to get extinct, Maharaja told his Dewan that he wanted to marry into a royal family of a state with a large population of tigers. The Dewan found the suitable girl. Maharaja planned to kill five or six tigers each time he visited his father-in-law. Thus he was able to kill 99 tigers.

After killing 99 tigers, the Maharaja had to kill one more to realize his ambition. He was especially wary of it since it would cause his death. The Tigers were becoming extinct in his father-in-law's kingdom and it had become difficult to locate one more tiger anywhere. When he heard that one tiger had been located in a forest in his own kingdom, he set out to hunt for it but was unable to locate it. He waited until the tiger was found but to no avail. He was furious and fired several officers and ordered his Dewan to increase the land tax. The Dewan then bought the tiger from people's park in Madras and planned to drop it off at the forest where the Maharaja was hunting. But the tiger happened to encounter the Maharaja by chance, and with a single shot, the old beast collapsed. The Maharaja had fulfilled his vow.

The astrologer died before the Maharaja had killed the 100th tiger. His prediction, however, had ironically come true so it cannot be disapproved. The Maharaja had indeed been killed by a little wooden tiger after failing to kill the real one, who had collapsed due to shock and killed by his servant later on.

The story “The Tiger King” is a satire on the conceit of those in power. It is well known that the rulers in the past mostly neglected the needs of the people and showed little interest in working for public welfare. Instead, they spend their time, living luxuriously and leisurely off the taxes of the people and in foolish pursuits. Even the courtiers take undue advantage of their power. The story is full of instances of irony that reveals the follies of tyrannical rulers who disregard Nature and bend laws to suit their selfish wishes.

The author employs dramatic irony in the story by a twist of fate when the bullet of the Maharaja fails to kill the hundredth tiger and he remains unaware of it. In vain attempts to prove the astrologer wrong, the Maharaja had killed 100 tigers but by failing to kill the last tiger and celebrating his 'triumph' over his fate, Maharaja had invited death as he is ironically killed by a little wooden toy tiger.

Through this story, the author had revealed how the human being has subjected innocent animals to cruel methods, torture, and death, fulfilling only their own whims and desire. The Maharaja's reckless killing of tigers had led to their extinction in many forests, but he was unaware of the serious consequences his foolish actions would lead to. To save his own life and lead a comfortable one, the Maharaja mercilessly drove a species of helpless animals to extinction to prove his authority and power over Nature and his own destiny.

The Maharaja's minions or his servants are extremely submissive and obedient to his every command and order. This is mostly brought on by fear of the Maharaja's rage and so they obey him to save themselves from the death penalty and unemployment. The astrologer had hesitated while predicting in his death and the Dewan, who was his close advisor could not stop him from killing tigers, fearing his anger and arranged his marriage to a princess as per his wishes. Since he was afraid of losing his post, he even 'planted' an old tiger to pacify the King's anger and please him. Even the hunters of the King killed the old tiger in secret to preserve their means of livelihood. Finally, the shopkeeper, who sold the wooden tiger to the King declared a higher price to avoid punishment. Therefore. We can conclude that the servants of the King were always in constant fear of their ruler and had no feelings of devotion.

Today's political order is very similar to that of the past. Many people, nowadays, are occupying various positions of political power based solely on their influence and authority. They have almost little to no education or knowledge of politics but only assert their position on the basis of money, fame, and adopt corruptive practices to gain supporters and followers. Also, others flock to them for their own selfish interests and think little about eradicating the current public issues such as poverty, unemployment, pollution, illiteracy etc.

Game-hunting among the rich and the powerful in the present times is also prevalent and popular as much as it was in the past. Affluent people all over the world kill innocent animals for fun, egotistic pleasure. There are laws in India, banning and condemning poaching, hunting, and selling animal body parts such as bones, tusks, skin, furs, horns, scales etc. But these laws are not enforced properly so hunters and poachers illegally hunt, and sell animal parts across the border in the black market, to highest bidders and sellers for lakhs and crores of cash. They get away with killing animals such as elephants, tigers, deer, rhinos, birds, aquatic creatures etc., originally are protected by law. These poachers and hunters are armed with superior guns and vehicles and aided by corrupt forest guards and officials, politicians, with a mere exchange of cash are even able to hunt in protected parks and sanctuaries and reserves built to protect the animals from their activities. As a result, several species have become extinct and others are endangered as a result of commercial processing and encroachment by human beings. The only hope for the survival of the endangered species exists in the form of activists who champion animal rights and protesting strongly against such indiscriminate killing and hunting. Also, religious practices of indigenous communities like Bishnoi and the Kathi have aided significantly in preserving wildlife. We must join hands in protest and spread awareness of the severity and intensity of the crimes inflicted on helpless animals which are no less than murder on a capital degree. Strict penalties must be placed on the offenders of the laws passed to preserve wildlife.

Planet Earth is the home to all kinds of living beings, such as human beings, animals, birds, fish, insects, plants, etc. all contained and thriving in different ecosystems all over the planet. We, human’s beings, are gifted with superior intelligence and ability to produce speech. Therefore, we have a large variety of languages, based on culture, religion, and race. We must learn to recognize and acknowledge our differences and unite as a single species, working to eradicate cultural and religious riots, clashes, discrimination, prejudiced beliefs, racism, etc. We must also acknowledge and accept the fact that as a superior species, we have a greater and nobler responsibility of preserving the planet which is not only our home, and protect and preserve the natural resources such as forests, oceans, rivers, wetlands, and other such life-giving resources, and non-renewable energy sources such as fossil fuels, petroleum, minerals, which are being depleted on a massive scale due to man-made activities such as exploitation, extraction, degradation, deforestation, encroaching, and pollution. With the introduction of machinery, industries, brought on by Industrial Revolution, and scientific and technological inventions we have created a better lifestyle for ourselves, but at the cost of taking more than giving from nature. We must learn to limit our needs and extract less from the natural world, there is an ecological balance we must maintain in order to ensure our own continued existence. Before harming living creatures and exploiting nature we must place importance on the consequences of our actions such as the altering of global climate due to emission from industries and waste in form of solid, liquid and gas., depletion of resources and ozone layer that results in Global warming, causing the mass extinction of vital species. The rise of human population has also placed severe stress on the ecological systems and reduced resources required to thrive peacefully.

To face these challenges, we must adopt a new system for the age of ecology in order to preserve the balance between the ecosystems and promote healthy living. Creating awareness of the importance of universal responsibility and identifying ourselves with the larger world is a good way to start preserving our home and that of our fellow living beings; animals and plants.