Kipling's India

Abstract

The aim of the thesis is to examine the sources and the extent of Kipling's knowledge of India, and the way in which he pictures it in his writings. His undoubted talent as a story-teller,in particular his ability to make his stories convincing and believable, has succeeded in imposing his picture on the world. It will be shown, however,that what he wanted to see in India was often in opposition to what in fact he saw,and that at times he preferred to ignore aspects of the truth which did not suit his own or Anglo-Indian interests. The first chapter deals with the Indian scene. Kipling travelled widely as a reporter for his paper in northern India,and has described with confidence what he saw. The second chapter deals with his attitude to the Indians and the Anglo-Indians, and how it changed by the time he left India. The third chapter deals with omissions-the things he had seen and known about but had purposely ignored in his writings. The fourth chapter deals with the influence upon him of various Indian religions and superstitions end the sources of his knowledge of them. This influence can be traced in work which is not confined to India. The last chapter deals with the sources if his Indian stories and the way in which he collected material for them.Kipling emerges as well informed,and highly skilled in his craft as a writer,but with a bias in favour of the white rulers, first exemplified in the days of his own unimportance in the simple soldier,later in the unacknowledged field-work of lesser civil servants, and finally tending to an identification with the Government itself, especially in its less liberal forms.