THE RUPA BOOK OF SHIKAR STORIES
Edited by Ruskin Bond,
Rs 295

Shikar, or hunting, was a favourite pastime of the Indian kings in the ancient and medieval times. The elaborate regalia and the royal entourage which accompanied the shikar expeditions of the Mughal emperors are as mythical as they are historical. When the British came to India, shikar became not only a prime sport for the amateur and professional British marksmen, but also a valid option for the ?civilized? Europeans to relate to, and explore, the ?wild? Orient. Metaphorically, shikar represented a hunt for images which were conjured up to construct a culture, antithetical to the West?s.

This motif of image-hunting is discernible in the fifteen shikar stories that Ruskin Bond compiles. These stories appeared in Indian State Railways magazines in the Twenties and Thirties when, Bond feels, ?the popularity of ?Shikar? was at its peak?. The contributors to this periodical were all high-ranking government officials who took to shikar mainly to protect the villagers and their livestock from predatory beasts. But, as Bond points out, ?motives were often mixed? and villagers? interest served merely as a pretext to satisfy the lust for adventure that shikar stands for. Deeper inside, there lurked an obsessive drive ?to know? the Orient, with its fierce animals and laws of the jungle.

The stories in the book are well selected in that they capture the thrill and suspense of the expeditions and, at the same time, demonstrate how meticulously the hunters observed jungle life and animal behaviour. While C.A. Kincaid?s tale takes the form of a panegyric to the Indian lions of the Gir forest, C.H. Donald tells a delightful story about the stupid Guddis of the Kangra Valley, while N.B. Mehta takes a different route, narrating the story of an escape from being hunted by a tigress near the hill fortress, Narnala, in the Central Provinces.

It is not merely the hunter and the hunted who reverse roles in the stories, but the notion of hunting itself undergoes various ramifications. For example, F.W. Champion, the renowned wildlife photographer, writes about his ?hunting with a camera? in a forest at the Himalayan foothills near Lachmanjhula.

August Somerville records a blood-curdling incident of soul-hunting, a horrifying semi-barbaric tribal ritual. C.H. Donald?s ?The Haunts of Isabeline? has very little do with hunting per se, dealing with the tender bonding in a bear family. On the same vein, F.W. Champion?s ?Drought in the Jungle? is a humane portrayal of wildlife during troubled times. C.A. Renny?s ?The Midnight Visitor? strikes a different note, being a delineation of gruesome revenge acts by a forlorn tusker.

With due apologies to animal rights groups, it must be admitted that shikar stories, if well told, enthral readers of all ages. The stories in this volume could attract a wide readership simply on the strength of their subject. As a bonus, the readers get an idea of the colonizers? attempt to ?reinvent? a country which was an enigma to them.