Travelling through Kipling's India

Joseph Rudyard Kipling (30 Dec 1865 - 18 Jan 1936)

The youngest Nobel laureate in Literature found inspiration for his creativity in the wildlife and the aesthetics of the colonial geography of British Asia. Torn between his sense of belonging to both the “civilised” empire of upper class English values and the “natural” aura of the colonised jungles of the erstwhile Bombay Presidency, his fiction represents this dual presence. His characters, such as Mowgli and Kim, travel from the one location to the other and face journeys of discovery and loss much like he personally did. The idea of family and the sense of the ‘familiar’ that is lost as both Mowgli and Kim move away from the jungle or the streets of Lahore is perhaps his own life’s story enacted through his oeuvre in verse. To understand Kipling and to relive his life in Bombay or Pench or Shimla requires us to place his own life in the context of the time in which he lived and wrote. Kipling’s imagination, like that of many who shared his background, was constrained within the logic of colonialism in such a way that it articulated the need to stay together as a family under the head of the British Empire through different characters and plots. The colonies in South Asia were often referred to as the most prized possessions in the British Empire, the “jewel in the crown” as it were, and the recurring sense of family and the familiar within the relations of the English and all the different colonised people exhibits the same frame of thinking.

So what makes Kipling worth re-living and re-reading? What makes his journeys so attractive? Is it just his narrative style or is there more to it? It would be common sense to say that to love a writer’s work, one must also know the time that the writer lived in and wrote about. What made up the writer’s imaginative repertoire is what makes the trip from Bombay to Shimla via Pench the most spectacular one for any lover of Kipling’s writing. To know Kipling’s time and his inspiration, it would not suffice to simply read Charles Allen, Charles Carrington or Zohreh Sullivan. All these writers on Kipling present a vivid insight into his craft but there is great sensory nutrition to be imbibed when one simply steps out onto somewhat familiar journeys pretending to follow Kipling himself.

The Dean's Bungalow at the JJ School of Art

The lush green lawns provide a mellow contrast to the pale green that is the facade of Kipling’s home in Bombay. This is otherwise also the site of the reputed J.J. Institute of Applied Art and it is a lesser known fact that Rudyard’s father was in fact the Institute’s first dean. The house holds many great pieces of art that have emanated from the classrooms of the Institute and are a pleasure to go through. While I try and capture with my lens, the myriad ways in which the grounds of the Institute must have changed from the time when Kipling ran across the lawns, I am also filled with a curiosity for what he felt when he was forced to leave for England at the age of five and the pleasure of a unique rediscovery as he returned to Lahore and then came back to Bombay.

The idea of rediscovery is what I’m working with as well. And from Bombay, the road really leads to the very familiar Jungle, or the Pench National Park. Then situated conveniently on the rail line between Bombay and Nagpur, Pench was a more accessible retreat as opposed to the other forest areas of Kanha and Bandhavgarh. This meant that many a known colonial ethnographer, geographer, writer, official and explorer went to Pench. Names like Captain Forsyth and R.A Strendale were often reminiscing about the beauties of this deep forest reserve. Albeit with the colonising mission on their shoulders as they romanticised and typified the “exotic” component of the forests, it is difficult to deny that their descriptions and narratives helped foster a deeper discussion about the forest life and the lives of people dependent upon the forest in the colonial period. 

 

A tigress and her cubs at the Pench National Park

Pench, located at the edge of the Satpura range, is a veritable feast for wildlife lovers. Tiger sightings are somewhat rare but the lucky traveller might just get to capture the beauty of that feared Asian cat. On most days, any visitor would catch the Indian Bison, the Cheetal, and the auburn Wild Dog. Leopards are known to visit some of the shadier spots in the day and often compete with wolves for prey. A variety of smaller animals like the chinkara and the jackal are common sightings. It also happens to be one of the only spots in India today that is home to the endangered vulture species – the king vulture, white-rump vulture, long-billed vulture and the white scavenger vulture.

Sadly, forest lovers often complain that resorts have encroached into forest land more than they should have and this often deters animals from venturing into the open spaces in the forest. It is also true that Pench is less promoted by the state’s tourism department in comparison that done by the neighbouring states which are promoting Kanha and Bandhavgarh even though Pench is one important edge of the whole wildlife corridor in what Forsyth called the “Central Indian Highlands”. Pench offers any lay visitor like me, even today, the same sense of tranquillity that Kipling describes of the Jungle. The fear and the rush of the wild is almost palpable at dusk as the jeep safaris softly roll back.

The toy train in Shimla

But Pench can only satisfy one voice of the many in my head that seek to re live Kipling’s journey. One could go to Calcutta or to Ahmedabad or to Lahore and still not be satisfied. But perhaps, in order to capture a tiny glimpse into the Kipling of the 1880s when he wasn’t writing fiction but was simply narrating his gaze of the hills and the colonial summer retreat and truly living up to the classic English moorings, Shimla holds much promise. From Shimla, in the early part of his return to the Crown colony, he regularly wrote for newspapers which finally resulted in a collection of stories titled Plain Tales from the Hills and it is in this search of Kipling that Shimla becomes the last stop on my trip.

The busy capital town of the northern state of Himachal Pradesh, Shimla is quite a popular tourist location and hence sees its fair share of noise, environmental degradation and congestion. Nonetheless, for any inquisitive traveller, Shimla offers a lot. Its most peaceful treat is the evening and the hue of the sunset that accompanies long walks along its famous winding roads. To imagine Kipling’s descriptions of fireplaces and cold mornings away from the heat of the plains, Shimla lets its guests have ample time and ample space. Shimla is, at once, the soothing feel of mountain air rushing into your lungs as well as the satisfying pleasure of letting your love for Kipling go as wild as the swaying deodars in the night.

This journey is a treat to oneself that needs to be made, just so you know Kipling a tad bit better.