Bhopinder Singh
As the white Kathiawari mare Shaktiman backed away in self-defense from the alleged assaults by a lawmaker and his associates in Dehradun, one of her hind legs tragically caught the railing, resulting in a horrific injury that might ensure it never recovers. Ensuing politics of blame-game and “brownie-point visits” to see the injured animal aside, absurdity hit a new low with the lawmaker naively suggesting that he only “snatched” a stick from the policemen on duty and had not physically hit the animal – however, theconsequences and the apparent spirit displayed in taking law into your own hands never crossed the mind of the lawmaker (imagine the audio-visuals of the same incident, had it been a regulation gun instead of the regulation danda that the lawmaker had snatched?). The incident also showcased the hollowness of actual implementation of the law that mandates having the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCAs) in every district, SPCA exists in Delhi only. However, a parallel narrative questioning the logic of mounted police (with allusions to the practice as a colonial-era legacy), merits debate and defense.
The link between soldiers and horses goes back to the pre-Iron Age period, the trust, mobility and distance afforded by the mount has been immortalized in history from our own Chetakto the fearless horse manship of the marauding Cossacks. Even the fabled Cavalry owe their origin to the French cavalerie (‘Cheval’, horse). However, with the advent of technology the armies abandoned their sabres and started conversion of its horsed regiments to mechanized/tank cavalry.In fact, the 61st Cavalry Regiment of the Indian Army is the largest non-ceremonial horse-mounted cavalry unit remaining in the world – it did undertake mounted patrol tasks in the Indo-Pak war of 1971. Within the DNA of the 61st Cavalry is ancestry of Jodhpur Lancers who in 1918, led, possibly the finest cavalry charge in history with just lances and swords, these cavaliers decimated the heavily armed and fortified Turks that counts amongst the greatest cavalry charges and is celebrated annually as the “Haifa Day”. Today, the role and relevance of the horses and mules in the Army is redefined to doing yeoman service of hauling loads and critical provisions in inaccessible high mountain areas, besides the ceremonial roles and contribution to equestrian sports by regiments like the 61st Cavalry and the President’s Body Guards. The Remount Veterinary Corps (RVC) is the 236 year old service that is responsible for the breeding and training of the Indian Army’s equine and canine resources. The relevance of the horse for the Army is reduced, but still very relevant and irreplaceable at many fronts.
Similarly in Police functions, while the roles for horses have reduced and the cost of maintenance have made it difficult to sustain the earlier scale, sight of mounted police in New York City, London to Sydney is ubiquitous,world over. Like in the Dehradun incident, primarily the mounted police are deployed for crowd control situations like protests – empirical data pointing to high efficacy of the same with minimum damage to either the assemblage of people or the horses, as raised by some concerned activists and the lawmaker concerned in Dehradun. It is believed that in such crowd control situations, a mounted policeman is as effective as 7 to 10 policeman on ground. However, on a day to day basis, high-visibility patrols in areas that are inaccessible to motorized transportation like parks, narrow lanes and unlevelled areas makes mounted police effective for policing purposes. It is a scientifically proven fact that their highly visible presence can deter urban crimes and have a reassuring presence for the public. Rand Europe in partnership with Oxford University conducted an extensive study to assess the qualitative and quantitative indicators of the value of mounted police in various scenarios and the same study confirmed higher levels of visibility, trust and confidence in neighbourhood settings that were patrolled with mounted police. Critically, mounted police was said to evince six times more casual public engagements and interactions in equivalent time versus foot patrols, alluding to the sensitive empathy and connect that is invaluable in a public-police relationship.
That said, constraints like the inability to respond swiftly to basic policing requirements like emergency calls and the inherent danger of causing injury inadvertently to the mass in front has often led to the half-truth of “show horses”, which are used only for ceremonial purposes. Actually, the New York mounted force is an elite and much sought after unit that is actively and very usefully deployed for daily policing operations. These “10-feet-tall cops” afford a preventive outcome with the added heights and visibility allowing the mounted policemen to assess the situation deeper into a crowd, as also conversely positing the presence of the law enforcers in a melee of a large gathering. With proper training, requisite equipment and established charge procedures, the incidents of collateral damage have been negligible and in fact figures suggest higher crowd control ability by the mounted police as opposed to policemen on foot.
Any concerns on the work conditions and the health of the horses used in either the Army or the Police Forces is allayed by the apparent physicality and the institutionalized ration, care and upkeep procedures that are part of the operational norms in such institutions – as opposed to horses and mules that are seen to be working as transportation carriers, draught animals or even for marriage purposes, where the exploitative conditions are borne out by the apparent sight of the animals health. There are estimated to be 1000 horses in the mounted police across India (with overall numbers for horses sharply declining by 24% as compared to 20 years back, in India) – besides invaluable policing service, these bastions are keeping alive the Indian breeds like the Marwari, Kathiawari etc. which have seen a worrying trend with the advent of mechanization of transportation.
The real question in the Dehradun incident is one of identifying the perpetrator of the brutal attack on Shaktiman, and the final verdict on the same is still out there – irrespective of the name, party or political allegiance, the age old adage about a horse;”Let the horse teach you about yourself, for you may be at the age where no one else can”, rings so true for the perpetrator!
(The author is former Lt Governor of Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Puducherry.)
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