THE TIGER KING BY KALKI

   
GIST OF THE LESSON

The Maharaja Sir Jilani Jung Jung Bhadur was called “Tiger King”.
When he was just 10 days old he asked intelligent questions to the astrologers and was told that he would be killed by a tiger.  He uttered “Let tigers beware!”
No other miracle took place, the child grew like any other Royal child drinking white cow’s milk, taught by an English tutor, looked after by an English nanny and watched English films.
When he was 20, he was crowned as king. It was then the prediction of his death by the tiger reached the Maharaja’s ear and he in turn to safe guard himself killed a tiger and being thrilled he told the astrologer who replied that he can kill 99 tigers but should be careful with the 100th.
From then on he started killing tiger and none was allowed to hunt tigers. A high-ranking British officer visited the state that was fond of hunting tiger and his wish was declined.
The officer requested for getting a photograph with a tiger killed by Maharaja and this request was rejected.
So to please the officer’s wife he sent 50 diamond rings expecting that she would take 1 or 2 instead she kept all the rings costing 3 lakh rupees and sent ‘thanks’ to the Maharaja. But his state was secured.
In 10 years he killed 70 tiger and didn’t find any in Pratibandapuram so he decided to marry a girl from royal state which had more tigers to complete his target.
Whenever he visited his in-laws he killed 5-6 tigers. So he killed 99 tigers and was feverishly anxious to kill the 100th but couldn’t find.
News about the presence of a tiger near a village proved disappointing.
Now the Dewan was warned of his danger so he visited ‘People’s Park in Madras’ and brought an old tiger and placed it in the forest and informed the Maharaja.
The Maharaja took great care and shot the tiger and left the place with great triumph.
The bullet did not hit the tiger but out of fear the tiger had collapsed. Now the staff killed the tiger and brought it in grand procession.
It was the 3rd birthday of the Maharaja’s son and he wanted to buy a present from the toyshop. He bought a wooden tiger which was poorly carved.
While the Maharaja was playing with the prince a tiny sliver of the wooden tiger pierced his right hand which later on caused his death. Thus the hundredth tiger takes his final revenge upon the “Tiger King”.

NCERT QUESTIONS
Q1. “The story is a satire on the conceit of those in power”. How does the author employ the literary device of dramatic irony in the story?
The story – a satire on the conceits, whims & fancies of people in power. The king’s arrogance, obstinacy & anger are of very high dimension – All his minions tremble when he calls them

(Dramatic irony involves a situation in which the readers shares with the author knowledge  of which a character is ignorant.)
Examples:
King didn’t know the 100th tiger was brought by dewan , but readers knew
King did not know that the actual cost of the toy tiger was 2 annas
When the king had shot the tiger ,he thought he killed the 100th tiger. But the readers as well as king’s officers and minions knew that it was not killed , but only fainted.
King was not aware that the prediction of the astrologer proved correct and he was killed by 100th tiger (i.e. toy tiger)

Q2 What is the author’s indirect comment on subjecting innocent animals to the wilfulness of human beings?
Ans. Through this satirical story the author has rightly portrayed how human beings have subjected    innocent animals to untold torture and death, merely to fulfill their own whims and fancies. The maharaja’s indiscriminate killing of tigers led to their extinction in some states, but the  maharaja was oblivious to the grave consequences his action was leading to.  In order to prove   an astrologer wrong the maharaja went on a killing spree proving his dominance over the hapless animals.

Q3. How would you describe the behaviour of the Maharaja’s minions towards him? Do you find them truly sincere towards him or are they driven by fear when they obey him? Do we find a similarity in today’s political order?
Ans. Maharaja’s minions were subservient and sycophantic. Most of them were scared of Maharaja  and tried to keep him in good humour by obeying his orders. They did not dare to disobey him as his displeasure could mean loss of their job or even loss of their lives.
The astrologer was afraid of predicting his death , till Maharaja told him to “ speak without fear”. Dewan who should have advised the king not to kill  the tigers did not dare to go against his wishes and aided his marriage to a princess whose father’s kingdom possessed a large number of tigers. Being afraid of losing his job, he presented an old tiger to satisfy the whims of his Maharaja. Likewise , the hunters chose not to inform him of the survival of the 100th tiger and instead killed it themselves fearing that they might lose their jobs.  Even the shopkeeper, who sold the king a cheap wooden toy tiger, quoted a higher price lest he should be punished under the rules of emergency.
So ,it is evident that the king’s minions were driven by fear rather than any feelings of sincerity towards their ruler.

Today’s political order is no different--- we know too well that many of the people in power are not there because of their ability but because of their influence and power. Moreover, others pander to them for their own vested interests rather than for the good of the country.

ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS

Q1 Why do you think, the author goes into detailed identification of the Tiger King through a variety of titles ? Does he really mean to humour him ?
Answer : Kalki, the author of the story , has no intention of praising the king. In fact, immediately after addressing him with a variety of titles, he brings an anticlimax by telling his readers that his name is shortened to “ Tiger King “ .

Q2 How did the tiger king acquire his name? (2009)
Ans. The Tiger King was Maharaja of Pratibandapuram. He came to be known as tiger king as at his birth it was predicted by the royal astrologer that he would be killed by a tiger .And to disprove this prediction he  started killing the tigers indiscriminately and killed 99 tigers.. Moreover , he was ferocious like a tiger.

Q3.What do you understand by “threat of a Stuka bomber”?
Ans. Stuka Bomber was a German ground attack aircraft which was known for its high accuracy in hitting its target and terrorizing sound it emitted.
Through the reference of Stuka Bomber , the author wants to convey that he intends to tell why Maharaja of Pratibandapuram came to be known as Tiger King and nothing ,not even horrifying Stuka Bomber could compel him to digress from the topic.

Q4 What was the miracle that took place in the royal palace?
Ans. When the Maharaja was a 10 day old infant, he spoke and asked intelligent questions about his death. After knowing that he would be killed by a tiger he uttered saying “Let tigers beware.”

Q5 What predictions did the astrologers make at the birth of the tiger king?
Ans: The astrologers predicted that the newly born prince will grow up to become the hero of heroes, brave of the bravest and a great warrior. He also predicted that the baby was born in the hour of the bull. The bull and tiger were enemies. Therefore, he would die because of the tiger.

Q6 What led Maharaja to set on tiger hunt?

Q7 What justification did the tiger king give before he started out on tiger hunt?
( Believes in the saying ‘You may kill a cow in self defence’
Had no objection in killing tigers in self defence)

Q8 What did the State astrologer say he would do ‘if the hundredth tiger were also killed’?
Ans. The State astrologer was so sure of his prediction that he announced that he would cut off his ceremonial tuft, crop his hair short and become an insurance agent in case the king was able to kill the 100th tiger, too. He was sure that the Maharaja’s death would be caused by the 100th tiger.

Q9. What did the high-ranking British officer wish to do? Was his wish fulfilled?
Ans. The high-ranking British officer wanted to kill a tiger. When he was denied the permission for hunting, he sent a word to the king that he would be happy if he was allowed to get photographed with the dead body of a tiger killed by the king. However, his wish remained unfulfilled.

Q10 What did the British officer’s secretary tell the Maharaja? Why did the Maharaja refuse permission?


Q11 How did the Maharaja manage to save his throne?
Ans. The Maharaja had annoyed the visiting senior British officer over the issue of tiger-hunting and ‘stood in danger of losing his kingdom itself’. So, the Maharaja and the Dewan decided to placate and pacify the officer through bribe by sending gifts of expensive diamond rings to the ‘duraisani”, the wife of the British officer. Thus he managed to save his throne.

Q12 How did the ‘duraisani’ behave on receiving the gifts?
Ans. Some fifty samples of expensive diamond rings were sent to the duraisani and it was expected that she would select one or two and return the rest. But the lady proved to be greedy as she retained all of them and merely sent a letter of thanks.

Q13. What unforeseen hurdle brought the tiger hunt to a standstill?
Ans. Within ten years Maharaja’s tiger hunting had resulted in the killing of seventy tigers. However his tiger killing mission came to a sudden standstill because the tiger population became extinct in the forest of Pratibandapuram.

Q14 Why did the Maharaja suddenly decide to marry? Whom did he wish to marry?
Ans. The Maharaja suddenly decided to marry because firstly, he was of marriageable age and secondly, he wanted to kill thirty more tigers in his father-in-law’s state in order to complete the tally of hundred tigers .For this reason he wished to marry a girl in the royal   family of a state with a large tiger populatio
n.
Q15 Why did Maharaja order the dewan to double the tax?
Ans. The Maharaja called the dewan and ordered him to immediately double the tax of the villagers who had informed him of a tiger in the forest because despite his best efforts he was unable to locate the beast. This infuriated the Maharaja.

Q16.Why did the Dewan decide to give up his own tiger to be killed by the Maharaja?
Answer : The dewan had hidden in his house an old tiger which had been brought from the People’s Park in Madras . He feared that if the Maharaja did not get a tiger to hunt, the result would be catastrophic and he would lose his job.

Q17 What was Dewan’s tiger like? How did  he take it into the forest?
weak, senile
Dewan arranged the tiger from The People’s Park
at midnight dragged the tiger and shoved him into the car, went to the forest, hauled the beast out of the car, and pushed him to the ground near Maharaja’s camp

Q18 How the 100th tiger was finally found & killed?
Ans.  The Dewan took the 100th tiger which he had brought from people’s park in Madras. The tiger wondered into Maharaja’s presence. The king shot it but it was not killed; the hunters killed to escape from king’s anger.

Q19 Why was the Maharaja overcome with elation when he thought he had killed the hundredth tiger?
Answer : The Maharaja was overcome with elation on having killed the hundredth tiger because his vow had been fulfilled. By killing the hundredth tiger, he thought the prophecy about his death had been disproved. On his command , the dead body of the hundredth tiger was taken in grand a procession through the town and buried . A tomb was erected over it.

Q20 What did the Maharaja buy as a birthday gift for his son?
Ans. The Maharaja  wished to give his son a very special gift on his birthday and he bought a wooden toy tiger as a perfect birthday gift for his son.

Q21.Why does the author say the hundredth tiger took its final revenge?

LONG ANSWER QUESTIONS

1. How did the Tiger King meet his end? What is ironical about his death?
The wooden toy tiger the king had got as a birthday present for his son had been carved by an unskilled carpenter. It had a rough surface with tiny slivers of wood standing up like quills all over it. One of those slivers pierced the Maharaja’s right hand and although the king pulled it, his arm got infected. In four days, it developed into a suppurating sore and spread all over the arm. The king died while being operated upon.
The king’s death is ironical but not surprising for the reader who is, in fact, looking forward to it. Having ‘killed’ the 100th tiger, the king is jubilant for he has fulfilled his vow and disproved the prediction of the royal astrologer. He is now at ease for he thinks he cannot die of a tiger’s attack. No wonder, he orders the ‘dead’ tiger to be taken in a procession through the town and gets a tomb erected over it. All this while he does not know that the 100th victim was not killed by him but by other hunters. That is indeed quite ironical. Death is lurking around him and the king is unaware of it. Again, it is ironical that a king who has killed 99 tigers and is bold and fearless dies of a mere ‘sliver’ on the body of a wooden tiger. Thus, ironically death does come to him from a tiger.

Q2 “The operation is successful. The maharaja is dead.” comment on the irony of the situation.
The three famous surgeons were called from Madras to treat the Maharaja.
The whole incident is a satire on the life of rich and people in power.
Everything in their life should be grand be it a disease, purchases or treatment.
So when the Maharaja got hurt by a wooden splinter, specialist from Madras were called
The surgeons discussed and debated for some time and decided to operate
At the end of the operation they said the operation was successful but the Maharaja was dead.
As if the procedure was important to them but life had no meaning for them.
The job of doctors is to save people and not highlight the technicalities of the treatment.
But here it was just that, poor Maharaja was relegated to a nonentity whose life was not of much consequences to them.

Q3 . Discuss the title of the story ‘The Tiger King’.
Ans. The Tiger King is an appropriate title for the story for several reasons. First of all, the king
is very involved with tiger hunting so much so that he marries a princess whose father’s
kingdom has a sizable population. He kills hundred tigers just to fulfill his vows. Secondly,
the king with all his frenzy, anger and ruthlessness is as ferocious as a tiger. Thirdly, he
dies of a silver prick received from a wooden tiger toy. Finally the prediction that a tiger
would cause the king’s death also comes true. Since the story revolves round the king
and the hundred tigers he kills, the title could not be more apt

Q4. ‘The Tiger King’ can be seen as Kalki’s comment on the British influence on the
feudal lords and the reason for their alienation from their own culture and people.
Discuss.
Ans. The Tiger King comes across as a person who was given to understand that everything
belonging to the English was worth emulating and everything Indian was useless. So
much so that the milk given to the young prince was from an English cow. He was
brought up by an English nanny, tutored in English by an Englishman and if he ever saw
movies they were English films. This lifestyle was not peculiar to the king’s family alone
but it was the case of most of the feudal lords all over India. This resulted in the lopsided
development of these rulers and was the main cause of their alienation from their culture,
environmental needs of their kingdom. In their attempts to please the Britishers they had
different set of norms for their own subjects. Hence, where compassion was required
they showed ruthlessness and brutality.

Q5 Bring out satire in the chapter.
Satire on young princes and maharajas of native Indian states having long names and descriptive titles
satirizes the upbringing and education of crown princes of Indian States. Ridicules the attitude of Indian princes who emulate Britishers
Criticizes Indian who considered Britishers as Gods and Goddesses (durai ,duraisani)
Satirises the conceit  and whims of those in power

Q6*. “The king was capricious, arbitrary and whimsical” Do you agree? Give a reasoned answer
Q7.The story` Tiger King` reflects `the whims and fancies of people in power’ Elucidate
Q8.Describe the efforts made by the Tiger King to achieve his target of killing a hundred tigers? (2
Q.9. What prediction was made by the astrologers about the Tiger King? How did it come true?

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