This world belongs to us all

lsquoA heartbroken elegyrsquoAn excerpt from the Introduction by Maneka GandhiThere is a soullogic in the animal world Lions mourn Elephants stand vigil over their dead Crows remember human faces for years Bonobos share food with strangers Ants care for their injured Science is only now catching up with the wisdom indigenous traditions had accessed millennia ago animals feel think remember love In a world where utility often overshadows being animals offer us a compass A way back to relational living mdash where worth is not measured in productivity but in presenceYoursquove goat to be kidding A desi nuskha for teething problems giving a baby a splash of fresh goatrsquos milk directly from the udder believed to relieve pain Jaipur 1992 Picscopyright Raghu Rai courtesyRaghu Rai ArchiveWhat of artrsquos power to soften the soul It could be futile to speak of cruelty towards animals via data sets Numbers numb But a photograph of an emaciated dog can melt defences faster than dataA photograph of a blind horse led gently by a goat can humble pride The right brushstroke can cause a catch in the throat The right texture can conjure the longforgotten feeling of warmth from a sleeping cat on a rainy afternoon in onersquos childhood Art doesnrsquot preach It reminds From the luminous miniatures of Mughal manuscripts to the haunting precision of Albrecht Duumlrerrsquos Young Hare artists have time and again turned to animals not just for aesthetic but for connection Chinese ink paintings render birds and beasts through minimalistic lines that seem to breathe on their own Aboriginal dot paintings from Australia encode Dreamtime animal stories in constellations of colourRaghu Rairsquos firstever photo A baby donkey Kurukshetra 1965In Japanrsquos Edo period artists like Ito Jakuchu captured roosters and butterflies with an almost reverent luminosity mdash beings that move between heaven and soil Why this persistent return to animal forms in art It is because animals carry a liminality They are of this world yet apart from it They reflect human emotion while remaining mysteriously the Other And so they invite us to cross the veil mdash into empathy into reverence Art gives us the courage to see animals differently Not as objects but as codwellersAlone amid devastation Trees were cut down in Periyar National Park wild elephants stood isolated 1991When a child sketches a rabbit she is not learning anatomy She is practising tenderness An emotion that her parents and her school will condition her to unlearn When an artist etches the eyes of a tiger she is not merely studying form mdash she is asking lsquoDo you see me toorsquo This book like all true acts of art leans into that question It doesnrsquot present animals as perfect or picturesque It offers them as they are layered mysterious dignified wounded alive It gives them space to be not only as aesthetic subjects but as moral ones mdash beings whose existence demands something more from us than just admiration It demands recognition There is a saying from the Baouleacute people of West Africa lsquoThe animal knows more than you dorsquo It is not a joke It is a warning against arrogance against the illusion that only humans have intelligence or are cerebralA look back at the 1982 Asian Games In 1982 34 elephants were transported to New Delhi from Kerala for the opening ceremony of the Asian Games The mascot for the games lsquoAppursquo was a baby elephantAnimals know things we have forgotten mdash how to wait how to be present how to trust instinct how to belong without explanation This knowledge is not any lesser It is in fact much older more grounded Through this book this timeless power becomes visible again Not through sentimental pleas but through imagery symbolism and stories immersed in soulfulness This is a gallery of witnesses for witnessing Each work is a heartbroken elegy a love letter a quiet roar You may find yourself weeping at a donkeyrsquos downturned eyes Or smiling at a pig snuffling in the mud unabashed You may find something of your own wild self in the curled paw of a lazing leopard And you may begin to reminisce mdash what it felt like to kneel beside a dog and forget your sorrows What it meant when a butterfly landed on your arm mdash as if to remind you that stillness has valueLet this book be that reminder By no account though is this a gentle book It shouts It makes you feel guilty It will speak like the animals it honours mdash steadily with grace and gravity Let it do what art is meant to do not change your mind but awaken your heart And in that awakening may you begin to see the world as it always was mdash alive interconnected trembling with presenceAbout Raghu RaiRaghu Rai was one of Indiarsquos most influential and legendary photojournalists Rai was awarded the Padma Shri in 1972 for documenting the Bangladesh war and refugees Among other honours he was also recognised for wildlife photography with the lsquoPhotographer of the Yearrsquo title in the US in 1992 for the story lsquoHuman Management of Wildlife in Indiarsquo published in National GeographicA bull Jaipur 2012In 2019 Rai became the first laureate photographer of Acadeacutemie Des Beaux Art in Paris mdash one of the highest awards in photography ever given to a living photographer He passed away on April 26 20261972Year in which Raghu Rai was awarded the Padma Shri