How we cite our quotes: (Chapter. Paragraph)
Quote #10
'I have been Fostum Sahib's shikarri, and I am Yankling Sahib's shikarri. I should have been with Yankling Sahib now but for this cursed beegar [the corvee]. Let two men watch below with the guns lest the Sahibs do more foolishness. I shall not leave this Holy One.' […]
'How he stood up against us!' said a Spiti man admiring. 'I remember an old ibex, out Ladakh-way, that Dupont Sahib missed on a shoulder-shot, seven seasons back, standing up just like him. Dupont Sahib was a good shikarri.'
'Not as good as Yankling Sahib.' The Ao-chung man took a pull at the whisky-bottle and passed it over. 'Now hear me—unless any other man thinks he knows more.' (13.109-12)
For those of you out there who might be working a job, let us ask you a couple of questions: Do you ever sit around a bonfire thinking back on your old bosses with your friends? Do you remember fondly what good bosses these guys may have been? Do you compete with your friends over who had the better boss? If you do all of these things, congratulations: it sounds like you have a really amazing workplace.
But while we love our employers here at Shmoop, we don't spend all of our time sitting around and thinking fondly of them. This level of sentimental loyalty that Kipling seems to imagine from these low-paid, seasonal workers seems pretty unlikely to us.
Quote #11
'Look, here is the letter from Hilas!' He intoned a line or two of Court Persian, which is the language of authorized and unauthorized diplomacy. 'Mister Rajah Sahib has just about put his foot in the holes. He will have to explain offeecially how the deuce-an'-all he is writing love-letters to the Czar. And they are very clever maps ... and there is three or four Prime Ministers of these parts implicated by the correspondence. By Gad, sar! The British Government will change the succession in Hilas and Bunar, and nominate new heirs to the throne. "Trea-son most base" ... but you do not understand? Eh?' (15.82)
The Babu is thrilled to get solid evidence that the two northern kings, Hilas and Bunar, who hadbeen working with the British government are actually writing so-called "love-letters to the Czar" of Russia. But we're interested in the way that the Babu describes this double-cross: as "trea-son." Treason means working for the overthrow of a rightful government. It never seems to occur to the Babu as a possibility that maybe Hilas and Bunar don't feel like they owe England their loyalty.
He interprets this change of allegiance as treasonrather than as the breaking of a contract or as simple deception because, for the Babu, the British Indian government appears both right and natural. Again, we can never ignore Kipling's imperialist politics.