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Why does colonial discourse, including Kipling's in "The White Man's Burden," construct indigenous people as wild and half-devil, half-child?
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Colonial discourse, as seen in Kipling's "The White Man's Burden," portrays indigenous peoples as "wild" and "half-devil, half-child" to justify colonization. This depiction supports the imperialist belief in the moral and intellectual superiority of colonizers, presenting their rule as necessary for "civilizing" and managing supposedly incapable populations. Such rhetoric rationalizes exploitation and harsh control, gaining support from powerful nations for imperialist agendas by portraying colonized people as needing guidance and discipline.
The racist, paternalistic portrayal of the indigenous people of the nations subject to colonial rule, described as "Your new-caught, sullen peoples, / Half-devil, half-child" in the Kipling poem, "The White Man's Burden," expressed what was then the predominant view in Europe and the United States. The industrialized world regarded itself as intellectually, morally, and technologically superior to colonies and client states usually populated by non-whites.
The assumed superiority of Kipling's rhetoric, which adopts the zealous moral tone of the Victorian era's Christian missionaries, is intended to justify the authority of the colonial power, in its exploitation of the rich resources and cheap or slave labor of the colonized people as conferring a benefit on those exploited. As Kipling puts it, the white colonizers are there only "To seek another's profit / And work another's gain."
When Marxists speak of "false consciousness," an attempt to conceal the fundamentally...
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exploitative nature of a social relationship, this poem is an example of what they mean.
In his poem, “The White Man’s Burden” Rudyard Kipling says that the white people have to send their best people out to work hard for the sake of people who are not nearly as good as they, the white people, are. In the first stanza, he calls them “fluttered folk and wild” and, a little later, “half devil and half child.” He and other defenders of colonialism portray indigenous people in this way because it helps to justify their colonization of those people’s lands.
It is important for defenders of colonialism to portray indigenous people in these ways. When the imperialists do this, they help to justify ruling over other people. When they say that the colonized people are like children, it shows that those people are not ready to take care of themselves. Because they are not ready to take care of themselves, it is proper for and “adult” country to care for them. When the imperialists say that the indigenous people are “wild” and “half devil,” they are “proving” that it is important for them to be harsh with the people. If the people are wild devils, they need a firm hand to keep them in line.
If the imperialists succeed in convincing people of these things, it makes their lives easier. People in their home country and in other rich and powerful countries will support the idea of imperialism. They will think that it is appropriate to take colonies and to act relatively harshly towards the colonies’ populations. For these reasons, it is important for Kipling and others to create a discourse that portrays indigenous people in these ways.