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The Laws of the Jungle

 

One of most quoted poems of Zehra Nigah begins: ‘suna hai jungalon ka bhi koi dastur hota hai’-  I have heard that jungles also have established  customs,  and ends with a plea to God ‘mere is shahr men ab jungalon hi ka koi qanun nafiz kar!’ - Impose some law of the jungle in my city. 

 

Today humanity reels from the lawlessness and callousness of humans turning upon each other, as we face endless wars and genocides, rising crime and economic exploitation. 

 

 The jungle is often used as a metaphor for unruly lawless behaviour, even using the term urban jungle to reflect the chaos of city life. Animals are said to have been created for the use of humans which is often misinterpreted as an assumption that they are of less importance.

 

Humans have a very ambivalent attitude to animals. Animals are hunted, tamed for humans, their habitats destroyed, and many are bred for food or entertainment.  Yet our children are taught moral lessons through children’s stories, nursery rhymes, folk lore and fables depicting the wisdom and skills of animals, perhaps because while human societal values change, animal behaviour remains consistent.  The internet is flooded with videos of charming cute animals that get millions of hits. Pets are loved and seen as family members. Animal qualities are adopted by many societies – the soaring eagle, the strength and menace of a panther, the longevity of the crane, the majesty of the lion. The boxer Muhammad Ali moved like a butterfly and stung like a bee. A powerful man may be described as a cheetah, a foolish one as an ullu ka patha - a baby owl.

 

Over the years scientists have revealed the complexity and sophistication of non-human life. We share our planet with 2.16 million species so far identified. At present there is only one human species- homo sapiens, with eight earlier versions that are now extinct.  We share 90 percent of our DNA with many animals, yet we feel far removed from them and infinitely superior.  The difference in DNA between one human being and another is only 0.01 percent. Yet that 0.01 percent is enough to divide people, create wars of unspeakable cruelty, make one race or religion feel superior to the other, or make someone feel ostracized by a family or social group.

 

Generations that have grown up with National Geographic and David Attenborough, know well how ordered nature and the animal world is. The animal kingdom is not a kind place, but its an ordered space, a predictable space where animals behave as they are expected to.  Animals learn to co-exist despite the danger of predators, many even associating for mutual benefit such as the egret that picks troublesome insects off the back of buffaloes. The most important lesson the animal kingdom provides is the presence of the many invisible lines that maintain the order of nature, and that are never crossed.

 

The interaction between animals and humans has been a source of fascination. Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book and Edgar Rice Burrough’s Tarzan, speculate on the nature of humans brought up by animals in the wild. The fictional character Dr. Dolittle, can talk to animals.  Cartoons frequently anthropomorphise animals, giving them human expressions and emotions, from Mickey Mouse to Nemo. The 19th  century Bengali Kalighat paintings depicted babus, British Rulers and the middle classes satirically as animals.

Apart from the more obvious inventions such as the aeroplane inspired by birds, observing mosquitoes helped develop painless needles, the mollusc, strong adhesives, the woodpecker made airplane black boxes more shock resistant, humming birds inspired the design of helicopters, observing whales improved turbine design, the iridescence in butterfly wings helped develop the anti-counterfeiting stamps on banknotes.

 

Religions ask their followers to observe animals to better understand God’s gifts to humans. ‘The Case of the Animals versus Man’ written in 10th Century Iraq by the mysterious Brethren of Purity (Ikhwan al-Ṣafa), is a debate by a group of talking animals who testify against humans, challenging their claim to superiority in a session chaired by the ruler of the jinn.

 

Aristotle notes that ‘brutishness is a lesser thing than vice, even though it is more frightening’. He says "At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice, he is the worst."

 

Durriya Kazi

April 6, 2024

Karachi

 durriyakazi1918@gmail.com

 

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