Short Fiction · Chapter
The Mahout explained
John Hawley witnesses a mahout training an elephant to toss a dummy, later recognizing the same mahout during a royal procession where the elephant, Raja, hurls the Maharaja Krishna Singh to his death.
What happens
John Hawley witnesses a mahout training an elephant to toss a dummy, later recognizing the same mahout during a royal procession where the elephant, Raja, hurls the Maharaja Krishna Singh to his death. A letter reveals the mahout is the son of a man executed by Krishna Singh, who sought revenge by becoming an elephant driver and training Raja to kill.
Themes in this chapter
Betrayal and Revenge
The mahout's elaborate plot to avenge his father's execution by training an elephant to kill the Maharaja.
Colonialism and Imperialism
British observers like Hawley and Merton view Indian customs with a mix of curiosity and condescension, reflecting colonial attitudes.
Characters to notice
- John Hawley
Observes the mahout's strange behavior in the jungle and later identifies him during the fatal procession; receives the mahout's confessional letter.
- Arthur Merton
Hawley's cousin who dismisses the mahout's actions as incomprehensible native behavior.
- Krishna Singh
The Maharaja of Jizapur, killed when his elephant Raja tosses him during his wedding procession.
- Raja
The State elephant trained by the mahout to kill Krishna Singh.
- Yussuf Ali Borah
The mahout and son of Krishna Singh's executed half-brother; writes the letter confessing his revenge plot.
Key passages
“He did not see the mahout again that day. He spoke of what he had seen to Merton that evening, but his cousin paid little attention to the tale, saying that no one could comprehend anything done by natives, and that it wasn’t worth while to wonder at their actions anyway.”
Hawley told Merton about the mahout, but Merton dismissed it, saying native actions are incomprehensible and not worth understanding.
Illustrates colonial dismissiveness toward local practices.
“The death that my father met has been visited upon his murderer, and the shadow of those dreadful days and of that unavenged crime has at last been lifted from my heart.”
The mahout feels his father's murder has been avenged, freeing him from the burden of the past.
Climactic expression of the revenge theme.