91
Rikki-tikki-tavi had never met a cobra before, but when the first thrill of fear had passed he knew what he must do.
Little mongoose Rikki-tikki-tavi has been swept by a flood into the garden of an English couple living in a bungalow in Sugauli (near the border with Nepal) during the Raj. He is immediately adopted as a pet by Teddy, the couple’s young boy, but Rikki-tikki soon finds that not all is well in the garden. Indeed, Darzee the tailorbird is desolate.
Posted December 17 2020
92
Abdul Karim’s rapid rise in Victoria’s household made him enemies.
When Queen Victoria (r. 1837-1901) acquired a motherly affection for a lowly Indian clerk, her servants and her ministers were united in their resentment. But for a lonely widow weary of the flattery of courtiers and fascinated by the ‘jewel’ in Britain’s crown, Abdul Karim was a godsend.
Posted June 12 2016
93
The animals in the jungle agree that amidst the drought, the sport of hunter and hunted has to be suspended.
In Rudyard Kipling’s story The Jungle Book, a prolonged drought has left Mowgli and the animals with no food and little water. The waterhole has sunk so low that the Peace Rock is showing, and Hathi, the elephant, has called the Water Truce so hunter and hunted alike can drink. As dusk falls, the truce is holding — though Bagheera, the blank panther, isn’t much help.
Posted November 7
94
In the time of King George III, Parliament forgot that its job was not to regulate the people, but to represent them.
… Ever since the days of King James Ii, the East India Company had enjoyed a very cosy relationship with the Crown … The prevailing opinion in Westminster was that the nation’s wealth lay in maximising commercial tax revenue, and to achieve this Parliament insisted that the colonies trade through the Government’s exclusive trading partner, the East India Company … By the 1770s, some 86% of American tea was smuggled, and the East India Company’s warehouses in London were full of unsaleable tea …
Ever since the days of King James II, the East India Company had enjoyed a very cosy relationship with the Crown. When King George III came to the throne in 1760, many high-ranking Government officials now owed their salaries to it, and the Exchequer’s entire fiscal policy rested on it. Naturally, Parliament would do anything to protect it.
Posted March 13 2015
95
Britain’s fear of Russia led her to attempt regime change in Afghanistan, but it cost many lives and damaged the army’s reputation.
… The British East India Company, then ruling most of India … They were afraid that Russia might attack India … As early as 1839 the British in India made an entirely unprovoked attack on Afghanistan … At that time the Afghan frontier was far from British India … Nearly forty years later, in 1878, the British in India were again unnerved by the Amir …
Jawaharlal Nehru has been telling his daughter about the rise of the Punjab State under Ranjit Singh, who died in 1839. From there he passes on to the stirring events unfolding to the north-west. The British East India Company, then ruling most of India, had been struck by a sudden fear that Nicholas I’s Russia might invade Afghanistan and threaten their Indian monopoly.
Posted June 20 2023
96
An English sailor became the target of the first worldwide manhunt following an audacious act of piracy.
… Louis took the dispute to England’s colonies in North America, the Caribbean, and even India … Aurangzeb held four East India Company factories to ransom until he was reimbursed …
From 1688 to 1697, William III’s England and Louis XIV’s France were locked in the Nine Years’ War. Louis took the dispute to England’s colonies in North America, the Caribbean, and even India, but the French fleet was not the only peril upon the high seas.
Posted February 19 2018