Rudyard Kipling - his origins and his legacy

Joseph Rudyard Kipling (December 30, 1865 – January 18, 1936) was a British author and poet, born in India. He is best known for the children's story The Jungle Book (1894), the Indian spy novel Kim (1901), the poems "Gunga Din" (1892), "If— " (1895), and his many short stories.

His parents are said to have met at Rudyard Lake in Staffordshire, England, hence Kipling's name.
http://www.solarnavigator.net/history/rudyard_kipling.htm

Kipling has been accused of a sort of literary jingoism, of condoning the excesses of Britain's colonial past, particulalry in India.

Orwell, in an introduction to a volume of Kipling's poetry, stated that this was based upon a misreading of Kipling. That rather than glorify what was done under the auspices of the Empress of India, Kipling merely acted as a sort of witness to it, adding flavour to a dish that had already been served.

The Ballad of Boh da Thone illustrates this point. While it is true that his portrayal of Captain O'Neil of the Black Tyrone, and his men pursuing the Boh, was entirely complimentary and somewhat cavalier in style (..'they went to their deaths with a smile on their lips'), he uses coincidence and irony to underscore the men's success in their pursuit of the infamous blackguard.

Attacking a wagon carrying an unassuming official by the name of Mukerjee, the Boh falls foul of Mukerjee's great girth as he lands on top of the Boh in the fracas that ensues..

A reward is claimed, by sending the head of the Boh, wrapped up and posted in a teak box. This is surely Kipling at his adventuresome best, showing the indigenous population as normal folk going about their business in a country ostensibly policed, organised and run by the British, while in fact, life went on pretty much as it would have done had they not been there.

The function of the artist is not to mirror nature, but to embelish it and bring to the reader''s notice certain things he might otherwise miss. I should say that was the function of the artist. Kipling fulfilled that function at that point in Britain's history.
Robert Leslie Fielding