Kipling, Railways, and The Great Game

The paper explores Rudyard Kipling’s perspective on the importance of railways in India which is the theme of some of his poetic and prose work. Coupled with this, an overview of the importance of railways and its military, economic and social aspects in Central Asia, in the backdrop of the Great Game of the 19th Century between Russia and Britain is also offered. This study attempts to correlate the significance of the Trans-Caspian Railway (TCR), founded in 1879 and the North Western State Railway in British India formed seven years later in 1886. It also takes into account the railways’ cultural importance for the people of Central Asia. The most important aspect of the subject under assessment is how the construction of railway lines worked as a device and a tool to strengthen the hold of both the colonizing powers. It is in this context that the poet and novelist Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) glorified the benefits of Indian railways as a stabilizing factor for the strength of the Raj. The paper attempts to establish that railways not only strengthened colonial rule in both Central Asia and India but brought significant social and economic changes in the lives of the people living on both sides of the border. The perspective here is a post-colonial one that offers insights on the effects of colonization, most importantly the modernizing agenda or the enlightenment package attached to the great design of imperialism and empire-building. But the picture that appears after the passing of colonization is hazy when looked at the hybridized and ambivalent view that Kipling held, and also taking into account the hegemony, control, and the politics of aesthetics.