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Transitions in the Raj: From Kipling to Orwell Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay, India, on December 30, 1865, and made an enormous contribution to English Literature in various genres including poetry, short story and the novel. He was born to wealthy family, with his father holding the post of Professor of Architectural Sculpture at the Bombay School of Art and his mother coming from a family of accomplished women. Kipling spent his early childhood in India where an ayah took care of him. His Ayah?s influence extended to teaching him Hindustani as his first language, and from this Kipling established a valuable connection to Indian culture and traditions which was to last throughout his lifetime, and to influence his thought throughout it. Kipling was moved to England at the age of five and lived with Madam Rosa, the landlady of the lodge he lived in. For the next six years he lived a life of misery due to the mistreatment - beatings and general victimization - he faced there. The sudden change in environment and the evil treatment he received, caused him to suffer from insomnia, a condition that would last for the rest of his life. At the age of twelve his parents removed him from the rigidly Calvinistic foster home and placed him in a private school. United Services College was presided over by Cormell Price, an old family friend of the Kipling?s. Uncle Corm was a skilled teacher, and Kipling?s experiences there would later make him claim that United Services College was a school before its time. The English schoolboy code of honour and duty deeply affected Kipling?s views in later life, especially when it involved loyalty to a group or a team, and this respect for honour and loyalty was certainly helped a lot by his own experiences as a school boy. On returning to India in 1882 Kipling worked as a newspaper reporter for the Civil and Military Gazette and sold articles and stories as a part-time writer for extra cash. His experiences in India with the strong connections that he had through his family were to gain him a diverse experience of colonial life. This experience he then presented in his stories and poems. In 1886 he published his first volume of poetry, ?Departmental Ditties? which was a scandalous and immensely popular series of satirical verses. Between 1887 and 1889 he published six volumes of short stories set in and concerned with the India he had discovered as a journalist and through his parental connections to the highest powers in the Raj. Kipling had won widespread acclaim in Simla. When he returned to England he found himself already recognized and acclaimed as a brilliant writer. Over the immediately following years he published some of his best works including his most acclaimed poem ?Recessional? and most famous novel ?Kim?. In 1907 Kipling won the Nobel Prize in literature in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration which characterized his writings. The death of two of his children Josephine and John, deeply affected his life. Both these incidents left a profound impression on his life, which his works published in the subsequent years after their deaths displays. Between 1919 and 1932 he travelled intermittently, and continued to publish stories, poems, sketches and historical works though his output dwindled. As he grew older his works display his preoccupation with physical and psychological strain, breakdown, and recovery. In 1936, plagued by illness, he passed away into the world beyond, leaving behind a legacy that will live for centuries. When he arrived in 1882 to begin a cadetship as a journalist his knowledge of Hindustani, and his familial connexions were to give him unparalleled access to the workings and daily operation of the Raj. There he started work for The Civil and Military Gazette a position he received due to being a protégé of the proprietors. Wheeler who headed the paper, felt that Kipling was ?too literary a chap? and proceeded to knock it out of him. Kipling?s task was to read telegrams from the news agencies and make them into stories for printing in time for the midnight printing run. Owing to the harsh demands of his job, and to an unpopular editorial stance taken on the Ilbert Bill Kipling was initially isolated from the Brittish community in Lahore. The requirements of Newspaper writing started a life-ling habit of working at night, work which he would complete with wandering around in the hours of early morning. He would walk through areas where few Europeans went watching for the dawn. Kipling was adventurous, in part because he fluently spoke the local language, and had a basic grasp of local customs (from his early years in India). But what really made it possible for Kipling to excel, was not his striving and his effort, nor his talent, at least not at first. Kipling?s family were incredibly well connected, and extremely well respected. In 1884 Lord Dufferin arrived in India and became Viceroy in 1885. The Kiplings established several connexions with the Vice-Regal family. Lockwood Kipling took a sketching class, in which Lady Helen, the daughter of Dufferin participated enthusiastically. Presently Lord Dufferin would stop by to talk of art and Letters with Lockwood and stay to enjoy Mrs. Kipling?s conversation. The Viceroy commented of Kipling?s mother ?dullness and Mrs. Kipling cannot exist in the same room.? There was even for a brief period when an amour between ?Trix Kipling and Lord Clandeboyne (Dufferin?s son), which ended with Clandeboyne being sent back to England. Nonetheless the two families remained firm friends. Having this connection proved invaluable to Kipling because it gave him access to the pinnacle of Raj society. Several stories have their origin here, including A Germ Destroyer, and many other works from Plain Tales From the Hills. Kipling also used the political connections he derived from being a Mason. He was admitted to the Lodge with due ceremony in 1885. Kipling noted that in caste ridden India that Freemasonry was one of the rare places where people met on equal social grounds. Lord Dufferin remarked that Kipling picked up local colour seemingly without effort. He knew more about the low-life of Lahore than the police and more about the tone of regimental life in Mian Mir than the chaplain. Kipling?s confidants as a journalist and writer were vast, and amazed many, not just Lord Dufferin. Part of the answer could be found in being the son of Lockwood Kipling, who was well known and whose name opened many doors. The same could also be said for his familial connection to Lord Dufferin, and also to his journalistic connections. All of these served to make Kipling the very person that many people wanted to talk to. The national congress movement is a creation of the clerk class, the English educated and literary types (Bengali types) who are used as petty functionaries in the Raj. They have never dared to eminence before, yet the democratic principals that we have taught them make them feel not merely equal but superior to their English Rulers. ?There are no politics in India, only work? is a phrase expressed in The Enlightenments of Padgett MP. The clear meaning is that although there are certain differences of opinion, the key focus of the government in India is in serving its legislative, executive and judicial powers in as equitable and meaningful a pattern as possible. Certainly there are differences of opinion in individuals about how money could be better spent, but ultimately when looking at the big picture the government of India is intended to serve the Indian people as a whole not any individual group. Kipling, as mentioned earlier, was one of two Europeans who with a staff of hundreds of Indians created the Civil and Military Gazette.
Approximate Word count = 5224
Approximate Pages = 20.9
(250 words per page double spaced)
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