Take up the White Man's burden-
Send forth the best ye breed-
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild-
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child.
Take up the White Man's burdenIn patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain
To seek another's profit,
And work another's gain.
Take up the White Man's burden-
The savage wars of peace-
Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to nought.
Take up the White Man's burden-
No tawdry rule of kings,
But toil of serf and sweeper-
The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread,
Go mark them with your living,
And mark them with your dead.
Take up the White Man's burdenAnd reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better,
The hate of those ye guard-
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah, slowly!) toward the light:-
"Why brought he us from bondage,
Our loved Egyptian night?"
Take up the White Man's burden-
Ye dare not stoop to less-
Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloke your weariness;
By all ye cry or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
The silent, sullen peoples
Shall weigh your gods and you.
Take up the White Man's burden-
Have done with childish days-
The lightly preferred laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years,
Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers!
From Rudyard Kipling, Verse, Inclusive Edition (New York: Doubleday
and Page, 1920), pp. 371-72.
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
1. Why did Gandhi believe that ". . . the hope of India lies in the British people, rather than in the British government . . ."?
2. How did Gandhi characterize Indian nationalism at the turn of the
century? Cornpare this reading with the ideas expressed in Rudyard Kipling's
poem.
More and more, as years go by, a feeling of unrest is growing in India.
More and more ... is a spirit of discontent pervading its three hundred
millions.... And more and more, as they realize that amid the differences
of creed and caste is one basic nationality, does agitation spread and
take the fon-n of definite demands for the fulfillment of the solemn assurance
of the British Government that they should be given the ordinary rights
of British subjects. It is impossible that national aspirations can be
forever repressed, and equally impossible for India to remain a "dependency"
in an Empire to which it contributes more than half the population. How
often have South Africans kicked against the pricks from the Home [colonial
government in London] authorities, and felt with indignation that local
affairs were not properly understood.... It is then surprising that the
teeming millions of India should be dissatisfied with being ruled by a
number of too-often self-sufficient and unsympathetic aliens ignorant of
the genius of the people? Not even the "mild" Hindu can bear this forever.
Is it possible for the patriotic spirits of a people with the glorious
traditions of India to be content with serfdom? ...
The root of the trouble seems to be that, although there is a very great sentimental interest taken in India by the people [in Great Britain], there is, unfortunately, an equally small practical interest taken. Insofar as Indians are "heathens" they are interesting, insofar as they are fellow-subjects-well, the Government can look after them. But the members of the Government are too busy seeking their bubble reputation to trouble much with what will not bring place and position....
It seems, then, that the hope of India lies in the British people, rather than in the British Government ...
[No] people exists that would not think itself happier even under its own bad government than it might really be under the good governance of an alien power.
The spirit of political and international liberty is universal and, it may even be said, instinctive. No race appreciates a condition of servitude or subjection to a conquering or an alien race. If we turn our minds to the conditions which anteceded the American War of Independence, it is not difficult to understand how even the suspicion of an assumed superiority will antagonize its prospective victim to the degree of rendering cooperation almost an impossibility.
Yet it is curious how unimaginative so many Britishers are. What they
recognize as a virtue in themselves is an appalling vice in others, else
should we never hear of alleged sedition in Ireland, Egypt, or India. It
is normal for a man to desire to be free, even if, actually, he does not
merit freedom. But it is the desire itself that, in ... time, will bring
the now impossible aspiration to realization.
The first excerpt from Indian Opinion, September 2, 1905. In Louis
Fischer, ed., The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology (New York: Random House,
1962), pp. 115-17, passim; the second, ibid., June 9, 1906. Reproduced
by permission of the Navajivan Trust.
This material drawn from Philip Riley, et. al. The Global Experience: Readings in World History, Vol. II, Prentice Hall, 1997.