India to turn Rudyard Kipling house into museum but ignores author

The Telegraph ^ | 1/29/2010 | Richard Orange in Mumbai

[bruinbirdman]

The house where Rudyard Kipling was born in India is to be turned into a museum, but the author will be written out of history, failing to get a mention anywhere in the building because of “political sensitivities”.

The foundation restoring the Mumbai house has shelved plans to use it to house a Kipling museum, fearing that commemorating the author of The White Man’s Burden and chronicler of the British Raj, will lead to a political furore.

The house, instead, is likely to feature a collection of paintings by local artists.

The Dean's residence on the campus of Sir J.J Institute of Applied Art in Mumbai, India where Rudyard
Kipling was born

“If we tried to convert it into a Kipling museum simply because Kipling was born there, that would ruffle quite a few feathers. In the political storm, you may find that the conservation effort would be set aside,” said Mukund Gorashkar, who is in charge of the project for the JSW Foundation, which plans to start the renovation work next month. Kipling was born in 1865 in the Dean’s bungalow in the grounds of the JJ School of Art in the bustling Victorian heart of the then Bombay. His father, John Lockwood Kipling, was the school’s first dean.

Kipling described the location of the bungalow in his poem To the City of Bombay. His experiences there formed the template for the character he created in his novel Kim – a white boy who is indistinguishable from the Indian children around him.

Mr Gorashkar said the municipal government officials with whom he had dealt since the project began had reprimanded him whenever he referred to the building as the Kipling house, and insisted that it be called the Dean’s house.

Sharad Keskar, Chairman

[Oztrich Boy]

The house, instead, is likely to feature a collection of paintings by local artists.

A really worthy cause. What the world needs is more places to put a "collection of paintings by local artists"

[J Edgar]

Those who can not address history honestly are COWARDS unworthy of respect, and deserving of contempt. IMHO

[Cheap_Hessian]

This is disappointing to say the least.

[HiTech RedNeck]

If you don’t like Kipling, you’ve never really Kipled.

[bruinbirdman]

"Those who can not address history honestly are COWARDS unworthy of respect, and deserving of contempt. IMHO"

Yeah. In the United States of America we even have cities and states named after our former oppressors.

yitbos

[nathanbedford]

Mr Gorashkar said the municipal government officials with whom he had dealt since the project began had reprimanded him whenever he referred to the building as the Kipling house, and insisted that it be called the Dean’s house.

The lee mansion at Arlington National Cemetery is no longer referred to by the guides there by that name and when I inquired of them the reason for this declension they gave me some rigmarole. I pointed out to the that when I visited the Lee mansion as a boy it was accorded its proper appellation. More bureaucratic rigmarole.

Do you suppose the "Dean" house in "Bombay" will exhibit the Confederate flag among the artwork displayed there?

[J Edgar]

Yeah and this is good to remind us of our history, and thereby point to future progress.

[AAABEST]

AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.

We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.

With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.

When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

[devere]

If
by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
‘ Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And - which is more - you’ll be a Man, my son!

[karnage]

I love Kipling.

[James C. Bennett]

I guess New York shall return to being referred to by its original name - New Amsterdam?

:^)

[BenKenobi]

Kipling will be rehabilitated. He’s too good an author to be ignored.

[James C. Bennett]

From the article, it appears more like the local body in charge of the house is pandering to political correctness.

I doubt India has a problem with its British-era history, as their whole government and bureaucracy was voluntarily modelled after the British parliament, (although in conjunction with the American constitution), and ratified by the local population, two years after the British left - in 1950 or so. Not just that, the first Governor-General of India was a British official, for two years or so after independence.

[HiTech RedNeck]

The snappy song “New York, New York” would be incredibly clumsy if it had to use that old moniker.

[bruinbirdman]

"The lee mansion at Arlington National Cemetery is no longer referred to by the guides there by that name "

Perhaps as long as the heirs kept up their claims to the old homestead or compensation, the name was verboten? Have Lee's heirs discontinued their claims?

yitbos

[nathanbedford]

My recollection is that General Lee's son, in a suit commenced after the general' s death ultimately prevailed before the Supreme Court and was awarded compensation for the taking of the Lee mansion by the feds. This occurred in the 19th century.

I have a definite recollection of place being known as "Lee's mansion" in my youth. I was a bit put off by the insistence of the guide the term "Arlington House." She was evasive when I asked if they were instructed to use that name because of political correctness.

[algernonpj]

Thanks for posting, I had not seen this one before.

[Yo-Yo]

The lee mansion at Arlington National Cemetery is no longer referred to by the guides there by that name and when I inquired of them the reason for this declension they gave me some rigmarole.

It is now called "Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial"

http://www.nps.gov/arho/index.htm

However, when we visited D.C. in 2006, all of the guide signs along the paths within the National Cemetery still referred to the Lee Mansion.

[Mr. Thorne]

Truth!