"The Jungle Book” as an example of the British Empire Colonies’ impact on Literature

British Empire had colonies all over the world for over four centuries. No wonder they have had an impact on British literature (and vice-versa). Enabled to travel to the places previously beyond European’s imagination and inspirated by their culture, many British writers have created works about these exotic places. One work is a novel "A Passage to India" written by E. M. Forster in 1924, which shows life in India under the British rule. Another example, probably the most famous is Rudyard Kipling’s "The Jungle Book".

J.R. Kipling (1865-1936) was an English journalist and a writer. He received the 1907 Nobel Prize in Literature. Kipling was born in Bombay.  Although ha was educated in England at the United Services College, he returned to India in 1882 for about six-and-a-half years . He worked for Anglo-Indian newspapers there. He became a writer of poems ("Mandalay", "Gunga Din") and short stories ("The Man Who Would Be King").  In early 1890s Kipling has published his most notorious work - "The Jungle Book".

"The Jungle Book” is a collection of moral stories featuring humanlike animals (tigers, snakes ect.). They were originally published in magazines between 1893 and 1894, when the author lived in Naulakha. Each tale was illustrated, in part by Kipling’s father.

One of the main characters of the novel, appearing in 3 stories (“Mowgli’s Brothers”, “Kaas Hunting”, and “Tiger Tiger!”), is a boy – Mowgli. He was probbably abandoned by his parents as a little child and brought up in the jungle by wolves. The boy has to survive in the animal world. One of the greatest of dangers is the tiger named Shere Khan. His best friends are Baloo the bear, Bagheera the black panther and Akela (an indian wolf). Some of the most significant characters of the remaining 4 novel’s stories are Rikki-Tikki, the mongoose who protected an indian family against the cobras and Kotick, a rare white-furred northern fur seal.

The book has been adapted many times for film (most recently in 2016). It is a set book in many schools, all over the world. It's not at all surprising– it shows a mysterious world of wild animals and exotic nature of India. What is interesting, the jungle shown in the book has an actual set of legal codes and every animal must respect them.

All in all, I believe "The Jungle Book” is one of the greatest novels related to India, showing the beauty of its nature and morals of its people. I strongly recommend this book to all of you. Believe me, you won’t regret it, J.

Bibliography

• http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudyard_Kipling

+ A picture from wikipedia with all areas of the world that were ever part of the British