THE YOUNG ELEPHANT by DHAN GOPAL MUKERJI

THE YOUNG ELEPHANT by DHAN GOPAL MUKERJI

INTRODUCTION:  Dhan Gopal Mukerji was born in Bengal in 1890. He got his education from the Universities of Calcutta, Tokyo, California and Stanford. He wrote numerous books and stories for children, most of which describe the animal life of India and Hindu tradition and beliefs. He is considered the first Asian Indian writer of significance in the United States. ‘The Young Elephant’ is taken from his book ‘Chief of the Herd’. Here a male elephant who is the narrator explains how he and his wife Radha, trained their young calf, Bahadur.

The formation of elephants at night:  The story begins with a group of elephants headed by its chief marching towards the Sundarbans. Bahadur is a young calf of three months old. As the night approached the sleeping arrangement for the young elephants were made in four rings. The first inner ring was formed by all the youngsters below ten years of age. Next to them all the mothers of the group formed the second ring, followed by the male elephants below thirty years as the third ring. The fourth ring was by the big male elephants standing nose to tail. Thus all the young elephants including Bahadur had their peaceful sleep.

Bahadur’s first swimming experience:  The following afternoon all the parents decided to teach the youngsters how to swim. After all the precautious steps were taken, the chief gave the signal. Even then the mothers would not let the children to get into water. So the male elephants stood in a crescent shape in order to clear a few yards of water from all dangerous animals. Still the infants refused to move as they preferred the shore to the swim. It took quite a long time to drag Bahadur to water. Radha pulled Bahadur and soon he tried to wriggle his legs to balance himself in water. Still he found it difficult to keep his trunk above the water level. At last with the efforts of his parents he learnt swimming.

Conquest of air:  In an elephant’s life, a calf, before he is a year old, should be able to tell by the odour in the atmosphere what animal is passing him. First they should distinguish the vegetarian and other meat eating beasts. Further they have to categorize cats from dogs, wolves from wild dogs and leopards from tigers. Bahadur found it difficult to recognize wolves, leopards and the cobra.

 Moral law of the jungle:  During the calamity of drought or flood all the animals, whether killers or prey, they stopped hunting and hurting one another. They stood together and helped each other to escape from the zone of danger. This is the moral law of the jungle.  Once there was no rain until July. Brooks dried and rivers grew thin. The news about the calamity of drought was first spread by the birds. All the animals moved towards the mouth of the Ganges. Following the birds, monkeys, buffaloes and leopards marched in search of water. Next it was the group of all the elephants. After them antelopes, deers, bears, dogs and many other tribes followed.  Thus with utmost friendliness all the animals moved towards the water source. After a week’s journey they reached a river with half-full of water. Excited animals happily drank the water.  All animals stood united.

Bahadur’s experience in the battle of the wolves:  One evening the narrator with his wife Radha and Bahadur was eating twigs from the nearby trees. Suddenly they heard the bark of distress from a sambur, a big deer. Both the parents failed to identify the animal which was approaching. But Bahadur told that a dog or two were coming closer. Since he had no fear dogs, it moved forward in their direction. Soon the parents heard a ghastly call for help from Bahadur which was followed by a ghastly yell of wolves. The horrified parents trumpeted and ran madly to save their only son. Bahadur was surrounded by a pack of wolves. Along with his parents he also fought against the hundreds of wolves and he was saved. Bahadur regretted for his mistake in identifying the odours of animals.

Conclusion:  Through this charming narrative the writer effectively points out that man has to learn a lot from the birds and animals of jungle regarding the unity in diversity during critical situations.