Plain Tales from the Hills and Epistles: Kipling’s Public Health Concerns in Colonial India

Abstract

The article studies Kipling’s career early writings, including personal letters, newspaper articles and short stories to show the impact of the Indian climate, topography, inadequate medical facilities and diseases on the British and natives. Irrespective of age, race and ethnicity, Kipling remains sensitive toward the affliction of people. The article also reveals that cholera was orientalised and stigmatised in the West owing to ideological, cultural and racial biases against India. The country earns the reputation of the home of diseases and beasts extensively popularised through newspapers, magazines, fiction and discursive writings. With the spreading of Asiatic cholera and other diseases, a substantial number of adults and children lose their lives in Europe and India. The death toll is astronomically high in the remote areas of India in the absence of medical facilities and unmediated administrative and military policies.