Even after a hundred years since its publication, Rudyard Kipling’s poem ‘The White Man’s Burden’ continues to be debated, discussed and reinterpreted in various ways. When we look at the context in which the poem was written and published (originally written for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations), it becomes clear that Kipling is promoting the…
Tag: White Man
White Man’s Burden: The social, religious and cultural excuses to justify imperialism and gunship diplomacy
European imperialism of the last few centuries were heavily centered on the perceived moral responsibility of its leaders toward other supposedly backward regions of the world. Also referred to (not without a sense of irony) as the White Man’s Burden, this notion of cultural, religious, scientific and administrative superiority over far-off civilizations had led to…