*quote: reference to Moses bringing Jews out of slavery in Egypt. _No tawdry rule of kings, īut toil of serf and sweeper. _And check the show of pride įill full the mouth of Famine Representing imperialist Britain, the narrator is speaking like an older, wiser brother to his new imperialist younger brother, America, explaining what difficulties lie ahead on this path. The phrase that forms the poem’s title and refrain, “White Man’s burden,” is a metaphor for the tremendous hardship and responsibility of carrying out effective and positive imperialism. (It is important to note here that Nazi German imperialism was ideologically driven by social Darwinism, part of the underpinnings of communism.) Kipling wrote “White Man’s Burden” as a response to the American takeover of the Philippines after the Spanish-American War in 1898.

Particularly, this was before World War II and the Holocaust, which was enabled by the rise of Nazi German imperialism. “The White Man’s Burden” was written in 1899, at a time when imperialism was still a perfectly normal and healthy way of ensuring the survival and prosperity of one’s nation or empire. Naoroji was a founding member of the Indian National Congress and the first Asian to serve as a Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom, 1892-1895. Introduce students to the complexities of the situation with Dadabhai Naoroji’s piece on the benefits and detriments of British rule. There were, of course, at least two sides to how people viewed the British Raj. The law and order brought by British rule, known as the British Raj, were no more. When India was given independence from the British Empire and partitioned in 1947, the devastation that the British had warned of came to fruition: around 1 million died when Muslims fought against Hindus and other groups. The British Empire is generally recognized as having been a force for good in India through the 19 th century and arguably beyond. He produced many works of fiction and prose set there, the most famous being the Jungle Book. The poet, Rudyard Kipling, was born in British India in 1865 and spent much of his life there.

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