International Politics

Animals in Service of Imperium!

Atul Bharadwaj

It is a well-known fact that British respect those who die for their cause. This respect is not limited to humans alone. A couple of years back the English constructed an interesting sculpture-animals in war-narrates a story of the British love for warriors and power equations in international politics.
It is one of many of Britain’s war memorials•only that this one is dedicated neither to any General nor any soldier. It is a mark of respect to those numerous horses, pigeons, mules, dogs and myriad other animals, who laid down their lives in service of the British nation during the first World War.
The memorial, near Hyde Park, is driven by British love for animals rather than the animals’ desire for recognition. Sculpted by David Backhouse, the monument shows a horse in the lead; followed by a dog. A wall divides these two warriors from two loaded mules bringing up the rear.
These nameless animals were neither citizen-soldiers nor mercenaries. They neither understood absolute war nor were they capable of comprehending perpetual peace. They merely followed the idiosyncratic and autocratic commands of their masters engaged in pursuit of power, because terms like glory, honour and sacrifice were alien to them. Unlike the human soldiers they never bothered their commanding officers with issues like morale, mother or matrimony. Barring the canine, the other animals could hardly distinguish between friend or foe. They neither required special wartime rations nor the morale booster booze to plunge themselves into war zones. They became witness to the most brutal periods in human history not for any entertainment value but because their DNA strands were networked to serve the humans.
Viewed purely in military terms the horse represents the strike core, the dog symbolizes the importance of intelligence to military operations, the pigeons form the signal corps and beast of burden carrying the supplies reveals the crucial role played by military logistics in any war.
However, viewed from the perspective of international politics, the animals get morphed into nations: the horse represents the power of British imperialism and the wall symbolizes the divide between the core and the periphery. One of the mules was certainly India (the jewel in the British crown), a faithful servant of the empire; obviously, it couldn't have been the dog because the British never considered Indians intelligent enough to be officers. In fact, the colonial rulers recruited large number of Sepoys (foot soldiers) to consolidate their empire. India, the mule, bore the burden of war without questioning the supremacy of its masters. The other mule represents the Africans soldiers, who much like the Indians, added to the British strength, without ever asking questions about the validity or legality of war.
But who was the dog? Who did they consider intelligent enough to provide them with battlefield information? It could not have been France, because it obviously was another big horse in the war? America was on the British side of the fence; moreover, it was a neutral observer at that time merely sniffing around to gauge the international situation. Possibly, America was the British dog during the First World War.
Today, Britain is still in the forefront, but it is no longer the horse in international power equations. America is the new horse and Britain is its sniffer dog. Is India still a coolie in the present scheme of things? India is no longer a mule; it has become an important American strategic ally. Moreover, war against terrorism and growing Chinese might has made it imperative for America to have better intelligence and therefore more number of dogs around the world.
So when India expresses it wishes to be a world power, it actually is hinting that it has crossed the Rubicon. It is no longer a dud mule on the other side of the wall, it is in fact fit enough to be a dog.
Years later, if an American sculptor decides to pay his tribute to animals in war, he probably will have many more dogs following the American horse and the private military contractors or robots will have the privilege of being depicted as mules.