Nehru’s Elephant Envoys: Animal Modernity, Orientalist Gaze and India’s Soft Power

IF 0.3 Q4 POLITICAL SCIENCE

Studies in Indian Politics Pub Date : 2022-12-01 DOI:10.1177/23210230221135839

Aryama Ghosh

引用次数: 0

Abstract

The colonial masters classified Indian subjects according to animalistic iconographies of rebel tiger or docile elephant. Even prior to the colonial imaginings, orientalist gaze associated elephant with the Indian geographical imagery. After decolonization, due to circumstantial necessities India, one of the biggest elephant suppliers to Europe, started to gift elephants to war-stricken zoos not as merchandize but as envoys of peace and goodwill. This subverted the long tradition of environmental domination. This article argues that Nehru’s elephant gift diplomacy utilized the long-standing orientalist iconography to practise India’s soft power. Apart from that he successfully incorporated a colonial icon and rebranded it as nation’s diplomatic emblem.

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尼赫鲁的大象使者：动物的现代性、东方主义的凝视与印度的软实力

殖民统治者根据反抗的老虎和温顺的大象的动物形象来划分印度臣民。甚至在殖民想象之前，东方主义者的目光就将大象与印度的地理意象联系在一起。在非殖民化之后，由于环境需要，印度作为欧洲最大的大象供应国之一，开始将大象作为和平与善意的使者而不是商品赠送给饱受战争蹂躏的动物园。这颠覆了长期的环境统治传统。本文认为，尼赫鲁的大象礼物外交利用了长期存在的东方主义形象来实践印度的软实力。除此之外，他还成功地将一个殖民地的标志融入其中，并将其重新命名为国家的外交标志。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Studies in Indian Politics POLITICAL SCIENCE-

CiteScore

0.70

自引率

20.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： SIP will publish research writings that seek to explain different aspects of Indian politics. The Journal adopts a multi-method approach and will publish articles based on primary data in the qualitative and quantitative traditions, archival research, interpretation of texts and documents, and secondary data. The Journal will cover a wide variety of sub-fields in politics, such as political ideas and thought in India, political institutions and processes, Indian democracy and politics in a comparative perspective particularly with reference to the global South and South Asia, India in world affairs, and public policies. While such a scope will make it accessible to a large number of readers, keeping India at the centre of the focus will make it target-specific.