[url="http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8521000/8521936.stm"]Kipling's Indian legacy[/url]
There was a similar sentiment expressed by the insurrectionist John Brown (Harper's Ferry). Paraphrasing.. On the way to the gallows, when asked what he thought of America, Brown replied, "its countryside is very beautiful." In this case, excessive focus on the natural is a way of avoiding confrontation with the native people (ie whites). Kipling is probably a similar case. Of course, John Brown was militantly anti-colonial and Kipling the exact opposite. But John Brown was situated in the successfully appropriated territory and Kipling in the contested colonies.
Quote:But Mr Adiga said that Kipling had a "deep love" of India's forests and that his jungle tales presented a picture of "a part of India that is now quickly vanishing".
There was a similar sentiment expressed by the insurrectionist John Brown (Harper's Ferry). Paraphrasing.. On the way to the gallows, when asked what he thought of America, Brown replied, "its countryside is very beautiful." In this case, excessive focus on the natural is a way of avoiding confrontation with the native people (ie whites). Kipling is probably a similar case. Of course, John Brown was militantly anti-colonial and Kipling the exact opposite. But John Brown was situated in the successfully appropriated territory and Kipling in the contested colonies.