A Sahib's War by Rudyard Kipling

A Sikh soldier Umr Singh, who was a servant of Kurban Sahib wants to go back to his mother country India.  Umr Singh served in the British Army for a long time and now he is old. Although Umr Singh held the position of trooper in the British army, he clung to his Kurban sahib and did all kinds of choruses for him like cooking and other tasks. Kurban Sahib died three months ago. The relationship between Kurbaan Sahib and Umr Singh was so intense and that they broke the ideological differences and became good friends. At one moment, Kurbaan Sahib decided to go back to England but after sometimes he rejoined the contingent of British army. Despite returning to England, Kurban Sahib always remembered his Indian soldiers and when he rejoined the British army he curiously searched for them. Umr Singh and Kurbaan Sahib knowingly got themselves transferred from India to Capetown to become eyewitness of the Boer war.

Kipling advocates that either a nation rules or being ruled; it cannot be ruler and ruled at the same time. It is provocative statement from Umr Singh underscores the glorious era of British rule in South Africa and prestige earned by Englishmen. 

Boer war accounts disseminates across continents via writing records and memoirs of Indian soldiers went into the battle. Mostly the people fighting in the Boer war adopted gorilla techniques pretending to be in peace with white flags on their houses but shooting the English soldiers at night. Farmers, women and children wear soldiers uniform. Untrained people were battling with the British soldiers.

Soldiers Three

Soldiers Three is a collection of stories written between 1882 and 1888 with three major characters – Mulvaney, Learoyd and Ortheris – sharing their personal experiences, adventures, romance, military exercises, mischievousness and pranks. These stories, as such, are not concerned with colonial wars, administrative control, masculinity, chivalry, death and sufferings instead cover the garrison army at rest. His writings evoke feelings and action of soldiers at parade ground or resting in their quarters. Kipling was embarrassed to make war the subject of his writing. He mainly confines to the phases of military life: parades, drills, guardhouses, discipline, alcohol, punishment, training, diseases and homesickness.

Kipling shifts from private life of underdog soldiers in Barracks to regiments battling on the Northwest frontier of India in “The Drum of Fore and Aft.”  It is a story of two young drummer boys Jakin and Lew who shame their army by going into the battlefield against powerful and fanatical Muslim fighters alone.  The regiment is inspired from the courage of two boys and retreat against the enemy. The battle is won but both Jakin and Lew died.     

The Name of the Rose Adapted

According to a report published on Hypable, Umberto Eco’s most famous novel “The Name of the Rose” is adapted into a series to be premiered on TBD 2019. The adaption would be telecasted into the eight episodes. As per the report, the adaptation “could be the most compelling adaptions of 2019.” The novel revolves around the series of murders committed in an Italian monastery which are solved by a monk – William of Baskerville who uses the detective techniques of Sherlock Holmes. In the report of Hypable, it is also said, “resembling a Holmesian feel, there is a labyrinth library complete with a mute librarian poisoned pages, scorpions, locusts and bodies piling up by the day. Grab a copy of the novel before you watch the series........    

“The Captive” from Traffic and Discoveries by Rudyard Kipling

The Captive is a story of a man Laughton Zigler whom the narrator met during his visit to the camp of prisoners caught in the Boer War. Mr. Zigler shares his experiences with the army officers of other nations. He also tells the narrator about his invention of a new gun for which he finds no buyer.  Mr. Zigler is a professional inventor of arms. He has a strong confidence on his inventions and skills. Fortunately, he finds Mr. Van Zyl, a Boer commander, who expresses his interest in Zigler’s invention of new light gun and explosives.

The story then shifts to the fighting between the British forces and South Africans over the rising influence of Britain in South Africa. Mr. Zigler underestimates the potentialities of the Royal British Artilleries and thinks that his invention of new light gun machine can be detrimental to the British forces. However, there are no casualties to the British forces as such from Zigler’s gun.

The British forces imprison Mr. Zigler and Mr. Van Zyl. British commanders question Mr. Zigler of his new invention of light gun and how does it help soldiers in the war. Captain Mankeltow questions Zigler about some specific parts of his gun to find out why it weighs so light. Captain  Mankeltow and the General of the British army disclose that they would like to have this war continued for next six months to train their soldiers and boys. In wake of less area to set up training camps, these small battles on the soil of natives serve the training exercise for soldiers.

“The Captive” is related to Britain’s tough opposition to the South African natives participating in the Boer war. It gives an insight into the unmatched strength of the Royal British Army gaining popularity for recruiting young soldiers and technology upgradation that modernizes arms and ammunitions proved impossibly advanced for opposition soldiers. These small wars turns out to be a training camp for soldiers.

The Prague Cemetery III

In Paris, Simonini begins the business of forging documents. The business operates from a small room located over a junk shop near place Maubert. Not only this, he succeeds in getting the work of forging documents from the French government. So the next thirty years, he proves a potential agent for the French Secret service as he keep checks on the revolutionaries planning to rebel against Napoleon III. He, in fact, gives intelligence to the secret agency when the Paris Commune happens. His engagement with the French secret service earns him a lot of money and wealth. He spends this money to pay the bills and to fulfill his passion for delicious food. However, he always plans to retire from his business of forging documents to a decent pension. While forging, he somehow hatches a plan in which he finds that the Jews are plotting for the domination of world. Simonini gets success in hatching the infamous Protocols of the Elders of Zion when he learns about the novel – Joseph Balsamo – written by AlexandreDumas. Most of the novels which he forged are written in the form of diary. On one morning, when Simonini wakes up he finds that he has lost his memory. When he looks around, he suspects everything and thinks that something terrible has happened…….. the remaining story is left for readers……..

The Prague Cemetery Part II

During his mission, Simonini finds out that the thousands of red shirts supporters of Garibaldi are students, craftsmen, artisans, professionals of different trades but none of them belong to the community of peasants. Simonini also discovers that though Garibaldi becomes the leaders of protestors and invaded Sicily, he does not believe in social revolution. Simonini meets two Italian patriots – Ippolito Nievo and Nini Bixio – who seems to have possessed some very important documents. Simonini receives an order that he has to destroys those documents in the possession of Nievo. Simonini heads to executes his plans for which he blows up the ship on which Nievo is sailing. In the explosions, hundreds of people died as they drown in the water. Simonini is punished for his deeds and exiled to Paris in France. He reaches the French capital in 1861 and starts his new life in isolation. This is the turning point of the book………continues

The Prague Cemetery Part I

Published in October 2010, The Prague Cemetery is the sixth novel of famous Italian author Umberto Eco who is known for his one of the best-selling novel – The Name of the Rose. The story revolves around Simone Simonini who was born in the city of Turin in 1830. Simonini loses his parents at a very young age; his father lost his life while fighting for the united Italy while his mother died when he was very young. His grandfather nourishes him and indoctrinates that the French Revolution was the outcome of plan made by the Bavarian Illuminati, Jacobins and most importantly Knights Tempers. But behind this revolution the Jews are the ultimate force.

After completing his education in law, Simonini begins to work for a corrupt lawyer who teaches him how to do forgery and embezzle the funds. These skills turn out to be the problem for him as the Piedmont Government engages him for the job of spy. Simonini received the task to send updates of Giuseppe Garibaldi activities from Palermo. Garibaldi invaded the city of Sicily in 1860 with the support of Thousands Red Shirts………continues..........

The Name of the Rose : Overlapping of History and Fiction

The Name of the Rose opens avenues for re-looking at the conflict between two disciplines – history and literature  – as the reader after reading the book finds himself on a fragile ground to understand if he has read a history book or a postmodernist detective fiction. When we study The Name of the Rose in context of postmodernist theory of history and fiction, we find that Eco prioritizes concerns to present the changing social, political and religious spheres with the help of fiction. It also leads us back into the domain of detective fiction wherein the world of Conan Doyle emerges. Fiction grounds on imagination that helps in the construction of narrative picture and history gives the picture of past. Fiction infiltrates into the territory of facts with the presentation of verified data in the form of names, factions, dates, and incidents. This crossing of the boundary blurs the demarcation of history and fiction as the reader finds himself incapable to treat the content fact or imaginatively constructed. Linda Hutcheon argues that the

writing of postmodernists is best represented by those works of historiographic metafiction which self consciously distort history. This distortion of history could be accomplished through various means such as blending of “history and fantasy.”  Postmodern historical novels incorporate historical documents, events and historical personages into the fictional worlds of their works, drawing attention at the same time to this process. Linda Hutcheon in her Poetics of Postmodernism labels postmodern historical novels as “historiographic metafictions” since they thematize the theory of contemporary historiography and problematize the distinction between history and fiction. She explains her reason for such a label thus: “[historiographic metafiction] puts into question, at the same time as it exploits, the grounding of historical knowledge in the real past. This is why I have been calling this historiographic metafiction.” [1]

---

[1] Linda Hutcheon, The Poetics of Postmodernism. London: Routledge. 1989 p. 92.

The Role of the Reader

Eco’s The Role of the Reader points to the construction of the reader in a closed text as well as the open text. This construction of the reader depends upon the intention of the author in the closed text while the role of the author is limited in an open text as it does not require a reader to read the text consciously. An open text has an open structure and invites the reader to examine it using multiple approaches for the production of a hosts of meanings. In contrast, the closed text impedes the reader from generating his own meanings since the text continuously reminds him that its relevance emerges from the time period in which it was produced. The reader finds himself stuck in the closed meanings deeply rooted in the life of author. Not only this, the text forces the reader to context it with the author’s politics. There is another dimension to it which Eco defines in the following words - ‘‘You cannot use the text as you want, but only as the text wants you to read it’’ (Eco, Role 9).  In order to construct a model reader with the help of text, the art of decoding the meaning from the structure of the novel has to be learned.