Rudyard Kipling and His School

rudyard kipling has been a force in the history of .Anglo-Indian fiction. Much of what has been written since the publication of his Indian stories, and especially Kim (1901), has direcdy and indirecdy been influenced by Kipling. Before Kipling Anglo-Indian fiction was amorphous. It had no distinctive place in the history of English literature. Its recognition is due to Kipling. Kipling disclosed to the European world a vast field for the exercise of creative art. His genius, art, and popularity produced a host of admirers and imitators. Stories soon appeared in large numbers of Indian life and customs, of English life in India, of the clash of East and West, and of the mystery of an ancient country teeming with millions of inhabitants, full of variety, picturesqueness, and a curious blending of the highest traits of civilization with institutions and practices which can scarcely be called civilized. The mere fact of a handful of EngHshmen ruling over the destinies of millions was staggering. That Englishmen and Englishwomen who came out to India thought highly of themselves and of the natives with contempt, can be easily comprehended. They made money in India, enjoyed themselves mightily, and abused India heartily. At the same time they never ceased to regard themselves as exiles who had made enormous sacrifices for the good of the natives: That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.