The White Man’s Burden: As Kipling sardonically claimed, it was the self avowed burden of the White man to civilize the brown and the black races. The average British officer and administrator lived by the theory of Social Darwinism. Indians were little better than wild beasts and the only way to rule them was to abandon the paternal methods of the company and rule them henceforward with a rod of iron. (Chand, 479) With this mission in mind, the British gave many gifts of western civilization to India. They brought to their colony in India the Railways, Telegraphs, Roads, Western system of medicine, western system of education, and western system of rule of law.
He eventually acquires the opportunity to return to his family and he begins to pursue his dream and nurture his passion for writing. He begins to develop as a writer from his first occupation as a journalist. His work instantly becomes widespread for the comedic effect he incorporates into his work. Kipling also gains many supporters through the patriotism that never fails to shine through his work. His writing career occurs during the period of British Imperialism and he undoubtedly manipulates that to his advantage.
Kim is also an example of how the British Empire comes into play and eventually helps improving his life. The British characters are portrayed as the good influences in India that will eventually lead the country to the greater condition. The characters that disrespect the natives and view India as inferior simply are the bad influences also used as another instrument to prove that the Imperial power or the British Empire in India is a positive and beneficial to the country. Kipling viewed both of them as the dichotomy of good and bad. He also viewed India as positively good but still very much flawed which can be seen in stereotypes of Indians as barbaric, rude, liars, worthless, etc.
Rudyard Kipling was able to experience both India and Britain growing up. Kipling was born in Bombay, India and was later taken to Britain to be educated (“Rudyard Kipling - Biographical” nobelprize.org). His
Kipling remarks, “But the Empires and the Kings continue to divert themselves as selfishly as before.” His word choice of “selfishly” discloses his feelings toward the British Empire as he believes it is self- indulgent and only has interest in benefiting itself. Kipling does not believe the Empire is colonizing other countries to help those people, but forcing their culture and beliefs onto other areas for more power and control. Additionally,
This was because, the British ruined their lands, by stripping their forests and forcing them to grow cash crops. However, the Indians were positively impacted socially. This was because the British brought them universities, and museums that helped revolutionize Indian society, and the British also ended many negative social concepts, like highway robbery, widow suicide, and female infanticide. All around, British Imperialism had a huge effect on the India we have today. It's easy to wonder, and try to imagine what India would be like today, without British
For example, the way Kipling describes the White Man’s Burden is quite similar to Orwell due to the fact he was a police officer in an imperialistic nation, making Orwell participate in a similar situation to Kipling’s idea. Kipling felt like imperialism is wrong because it’s an advantage for the White Man to have power over the lower-class citizens. Orwell’s experience in Burma fit with Rhodes idea of imperialism because Rhodes believes that have that imperialistic power is right and that Orwell should just obey that
Rudyard Kipling’s The Man Who Would Be King was written in 1888 and is an allegory of the British Imperialism in India during the 1800’s. Kipling lived during this time and there are parallels between his story and elements British imperialism in India such as conquering with advanced technology, making alliances with previous rulers, and exploiting the land for resources. Granted that the British didn’t leave India until the 1950’s, Kipling didn’t see the movement end, yet he had an opinion that he expressed in his work. Kipling’s opinion of British imperialism, that is inefficient and immoral, is seen in his novella through satire; for example, he portrays the British as two foolish men who face misfortune after they form their kingdom, which they are only able to rule after the people see them as gods. Compared to other allegorical satires, this is an extremity that wouldn’t be present unless the author had a strong criticism against it.
With the "White Man's Burden , Kipling draws out the need for the white people of western society to help the heathens of Africa and Asia. In this many argued that Europeans had a moral duty to enlighten the ignorant peoples of the East. Most imperialists believed that the advanced west civilizations should help lessen the burden to the indigenous people. They did this by introducing Christianity to them and spreading democracy and capitalism to the societies of these "heathen masses. Although the new imperialists thought that their motives were to help the people of Africa and Asia, they did do this also for other reasons.
Political Paragraph British imperialism had a negative effect on the politics of India because of the corrupt justice system, and the utter lack of respect that killed masses of innocent people. In the article Lalvani states that, the British “established the framework for India’s justice system, civil service, loyal army and efficient police force”. The British may have set up a government but the framework, however, did not include Indians. “ Of 960 civil offices...900 are occupied by Englishmen and only 60 by natives” (Doc 2). In no way are 60 voices of a race considered ‘savage’ going to overpower 900 white men, who could easily kill them for taking a stand, or trying to change the unjust laws that are