Ban and benevolence: Circus, animals and Indian state

Social sciences and humanities have recently begun posing enquiries such as do animals have histories, memories and subjectivities. Circus animals hardly figure in the discourses on animals while a wide variety of animals existed in the rings globally as performers and workers. The ban of the training and performance of certain wild animals by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, India in 1991 was a watershed moment for the almost 150-year-old circus industry in the subcontinent. This article explores the legal battle that followed the ban, various discourses around animals, both wild and captive, the human and non-human association in circuses and the history of animal training and performance and critically examines the ideas of rescue, rehabilitation and conservation. The acquisition, taming and trade of animals are implicated in the history of hunting, wildlife policies of the colonial and postcolonial states in India. The ‘rescue’ and ‘rehabilitation’ of animals from the ‘private’ circus companies to the ‘public’ zoos would unravel how the very idea of scientific conservation becomes a violent guile of state and civil society actively propagating the binary of cruelty and mercy. The article will also briefly discuss the questions of intimacy and emotions between the animal and the animal trainer beyond the common representations.