1. India's current rulers, the mahouts to an elephantine state, seem at least to understand this.

2. It is always important to examine the rhetoric used to discuss elephants and mahouts and be careful of anthropomorphising elephants into human labourers, and Animalising human workers

3. Mahouts ride elephants along a flooded road near the Lopburi River towards the Royal Elephant Kraal elephant sanctuary in Ayutthaya, 80 km (50 miles) north of Bangkok October 20