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The Eyes of Asia, by Rudyard Kipling

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Title: The Eyes of Asia

Author: Rudyard Kipling

Release Date: October 24, 2007 [EBook #23163]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

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Books by Rudyard Kipling

The Eyes of Asia, by Rudyard Kipling

Actions and Reactions Light That Failed, The Brushwood Boy, The Many Inventions Captains Courageous

Naulahka, The (With Wolcott Collected Verse Balestier) Day's Work, The Plain Tales from the Hills

Departmental Ditties and Puck of Pook's Hill Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads Rewards and Fairies

Diversity of Creatures, A Sea Warfare Eyes of Asia, The Seven Seas, The Five Nations, The Soldier Stories

France at War Soldiers Three, The Story From Sea to Sea of the Gadsbys, and In History of England, A Black

and White Jungle Book, The Song of the English, A Jungle Book, Second Songs From Books Just So Song

Book Stalky & Co. Just So Stories They Kim Traffics and Discoveries Kipling Stories and Poems Under the

Deodars, The Every Child Should Know Phantom 'Rickshaw, and Kipling Birthday Book, The Wee Willie

Winkie Life's Handicap: Being Stories With the Night Mail of Mine Own People

THE EYES OF ASIA

RUDYARD KIPLING

GARDEN CITY NEW YORK DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 1918

CONTENTS

PAGE

A RETIRED GENTLEMAN 1

THE FUMES OF THE HEART 23

THE PRIVATE ACCOUNT 47

A TROOPER OF HORSE 75

A RETIRED GENTLEMAN

From Bishen Singh Saktawut, Subedar Major, 215th Indurgurh [Todd's] Rajputs, now at Lyndhurst,

Hampshire, England, this letter is sent to Madhu Singh, Sawant, Risaldar Major [retired] 146th [Dublana]

Horse, on his fief which he holds under the Thakore Sahib of Pech at Bukani by the River, near Chiturkaira,

Kotah, Rajputana, written in the fifth month of the year 1916, English count.

Having experienced five months of this war, I became infected with fever and a strong coldness of the

stomach [rupture]. The doctor ordered me out of it altogether. They have also cut me with knives for a wound

on my leg. It is now healed but the strength is gone, and it is very frightened of the ground. I have been in

many hospitals for a long time. At this present I am living in a hospital for Indian troops in a

forest-reservation called "New," which was established by a King's order in ages past. There is no order for

my return to India. I do not desire it. My Regiment has now gone out of France--to Egypt, or Africa. My

officer Sahibs are for the most part dead or in hospitals. During a railway journey when two people sit side by

side for two hours one feels the absence of the other when he alights. How great then was my anguish at being

severed from my Regiment after thirty-three years! Now, however, I am finished. If I return to India I cannot

drill the new men between my two crutches. I should subsist in my village on my wound-pension among old

and young who have never seen war. Here I have great consideration. Though I am useless they are patient

with me.

The Eyes of Asia, by Rudyard Kipling

Having knowledge of the English tongue, I am sometimes invited to interpret between those in the hospital for

the Indian troops and visitors of high position. I advance eminent visitors, such as relatives of Kings and

Princes into the presence of the Colonel Doctor Sahib. I enjoy a small room apart from the hospital wards. I

have a servant. The Colonel Doctor Sahib examines my body at certain times. I am forbidden to stoop even

for my crutches. They are instantly restored to me by orderlies and my friends among the English. I come and

go at my pleasure where I will, and my presence is solicited by the honourable.

You say I made a mistake to join the war at the end of my service? I have endured five months of it. Come

you out and endure two and a half. You are three years younger than I. Why do you sit at home and drill new

men? Remember:

The Brahman who steals, The widow who wears ornaments, The Rajput who avoids the battle, Are only fit for

crows' meat.

You write me that this is a war for young men? The old are not entirely useless. The Badshah [the King]

himself gave me the medal for fetching in my captain from out of the wires upon my back. That work caused

me the coldness in my stomach. Old men should not do coolie-work. Your cavalry were useless in France.

Infantry can fight in this war--not cavalry. It is as impossible for us to get out of our trenches and exterminate

the enemy as it is for the enemy to attack us. Doubtless the cavalry brigades will show what they are made of

in Egypt or Persia. This business in France is all Artillery work and mines. The blowing up of the Chitoree

Bastion when Arjoon went to Heaven waving his sword, as the song says, would not be noticed in the noise of

this war.

The nature of the enemy is to go to earth and flood us with artillery of large weight. When we were in the

trenches it was a burden. When we rested in the villages we found great ease. As to our food, it was like a

bunnia's marriage-feast. Everything given, nothing counted. Some of us--especially among your

cavalry--grew so fat that they were compelled to wrestle to keep thin. This is because there was no marching.

The nature of the enemy is to commit shame upon women and children, and to defile the shrines of his own

faith with his own dung. It is done by him as a drill. We believed till then they were some sort of caste apart

from the rest. We did not know they were outcaste. Now it is established by the evidence of our senses. They

attack on all fours running like apes. They are specially careful for their faces. When death is certain to them

they offer gifts and repeat the number of their children. They are very good single shots from cover.

It is the nature of the enemy to shower seductions from out of their air-machines on our troops in the lines.

They promised such as would desert that they would become Rajahs among them. Some of the men went over

to see if this were true. No report came back. In this way we cleaned out five bad characters from our

Company exactly as it used to be in the little wars on the Border. May the enemy be pleased with them! No

man of any caste disgraced our Regiment.

The nature of the enemy in this war is like the Nat [juggler] who is compelled to climb a pole for his belly's

sake. If he does not climb he starves. If he stops he falls down. This is my thought concerning the enemy.

Now that our troops have gone out of France, the war is entirely between the enemy and the English, etc., etc.

Both sides accordingly increased the number and the size of their guns. The new wounded officers in the

English hospital say that the battles of even yesterday are not to be compared with the battle of to-day. Tell

this to those who have returned and who boast. Only fools will desire more war when this war is ended. Their

reward will be an instant extinction on account of the innumerable quantity of arms, munitions, etc., etc.,

which will be left in the hands of the experts. Those who make war henceforward will be as small jackals

fighting beneath the feet of elephants. This Government has abundance of material, and fresh strength is

added every hour. Let there be no mistake. The foolish have been greatly deceived in these matters by the

nature of the English which is in the highest degree deceptive. Everything is done and spoken upside-down in

The Eyes of Asia, by Rudyard Kipling

this country of the English. He who has a thousand says: "It is but a scant hundred." The possessor of palaces

says: "It is a hut," and the rest in proportion. Their boast is not to boast. Their greatness is to make themselves

very small. They draw a curtain in front of all they do. It is as difficult to look upon the naked face of their

achievements as in our country upon the faces of women.

It is not true there is no caste in England. The mark of the high castes, such as Ul or Baharun [Earl or Baron]

is that they can perform any office, such as handling the dead, wounds, blood, etc., without loss of caste. The

Maharanee of the Nurses in the English Hospital which is near our Hospital is by caste Baharanee [Baroness].

I resort thither daily for society and enlightenment on the habits of this people. The high castes are forbidden

to show curiosity, appetite, or fear in public places. In this respect they resemble troops on parade. Their male

children are beaten from their ninth year to their seventeenth year, by men with sticks. Their women are

counted equal with their men. It is reckoned as disgraceful for a Baharanee to show fear when lights are

extinguished in the hospital on account of bomb-dropping air-ships, as for an Ul to avoid battle. They do not

blacken each other's faces by loud abuse, but by jests spoken in a small voice.

The nature of the young men of high caste is as the nature of us Rajputs. They do not use opium, but they

delight in horses, and sport and women, and are perpetually in debt to the moneylender. They shoot partridge

and they are forced to ride foxes because there are no wild pig here. They know nothing of hawking or

quail-fighting, but they gamble up to the hilt on all occasions and bear losses laughing. Their card-play is

called Baraich [Bridge?]. They belittle their own and the achievements of their friends, so long as that friend

faces them. In his absence they extol his deeds. They are of cheerful countenance. When they jest, they

respect honour. It is so also with their women. The Nurses in the Hospital of my Baharanee where I resort for

society jest with me as daughters with a father. They say that they will be stricken with grief if I return to

India. They call me Dada which is father also in their tongue. Though I am utterly useless they are unwearied

of me. They themselves hasten to restore me my crutches when I let them fall. None of these women lament

their dead openly. The eldest son of my Baharanee at the English Hospital where I am made welcome, was

slain in battle. The next morning after the news my Baharanee let loose the plate-pianos [turned on the

gramophones] for the delectation of the wounded. It comes into my mind to suggest to you that our women

are unable to stand by themselves.

When the Badshah commanded me to his Palace to receive the medal, I saw all the wonders and

entertainments of the city of London. There was neither trouble nor expense. My Baharanee gave orders I

should inhabit her own house in that city. It was in reality a palace filled with carpets, gilt furniture, marbles,

mirrors, silks, velvets, carvings, etc., etc. Hot water ran in silver pipes to my very bedside. The perfumed

baths were perpetually renewed. When it rained daily I walked in a glass pavilion filled with scented flowers.

I inhabited here ten days. Though I was utterly useless they were unwearied of me. A companion was found

me. He was a Risaldar of Dekkani Horse, a man of family, wounded in the arms. We two received our medals

together. We saw the King's Palace, and the custom of the Guard Mount in the mornings daily. Their drill is

like stone walls, but the nature of the English music is without any meaning. We two saw the great temple,

Seyn Pol [St. Paul's?], where their dead are. It is as a country enclosed in a house. My companion ascended to

the very roof-top and saw all the city. We are nothing beside these people. We two also saw the Bird Garden

[Zoological Gardens] where they studiously preserve all sorts of wild animals, even down to jackals and green

parrots. It is the nature of the English to consider all created beings as equal. The Badshah himself wears

khaki. His son the Shahzada is a young man who inhabits the trenches except when he is forbidden. He is a

keen son of the sword.

It is true that trains run underneath the city in all directions. We descended into the earth upon a falling

platform [lift] and travelled. The stopping-places are as close as beads on a thread. The doors of the carriages

are guarded with gates that strike out sideways like cobras. Each sitter is allowed a space upon a divan of

yellow canework. When the divans are full the surplus hang from the roof by leathers. Though our carriage

was full, place was made for us. At the end of our journey the train was halted beyond its lawful time that we

might come forth at ease. The trains were full of English soldiers. All castes of the English are now soldiers.

The Eyes of Asia, by Rudyard Kipling

They are become like us Rajputs--as many people so many soldiers.

We two saw houses, shops, carriages, and crowds till our souls were broken. The succeeding days were as the

first, without intermission. We begged at last to be excused from the sight of the multitudes and the height of

the houses.

We two agreed that understanding is most needful in this present age. We in India must get education before

all things. Hereafter we Rajputs must seriously consider our arrangements in all respects--in our houses as

well as in our fields, etc., etc. Otherwise we become nothing. We have been deceived by the nature of the

English. They have not at any time shown us anything of their possessions or their performances. We are not

even children beside them. They have dealt with us as though they were themselves children talking chotee

boli [little talk]. In this manner the ill-informed have been misled. Nothing is known in India of the great

strength of this people. Make that perfectly clear to all fools. Why should we who serve the Government have

the blood of the misinformed on our heads when they behave foolishly? This people have all the strength.

There is no reason except the nature of the English that anything in their dominions should stand up which has

been ordered to lie down. It is only their soft nature which saves evil from destruction. As the saying is, "We

thought it was only an armed horseman. Behold, it is an elephant bearing a tower!"

It is in my mind that the glory of us Rajputs has become diminished since the old days. In the old days, our

Princesses charged in battle beside their men, and the name of the clans was great. Then all Rajputs were

brothers and sisters. How has this come about? What man of us now relies upon the advice of his womenkind

in any matter outside? In this country and in France the women understand perfectly what is needful in the

day of trial. They say to their men: "Add to the renown of your race. We will attend to the rest through the

excellent education which this just Government has caused us to receive." Thus the men's hearts are lightened

when they go to the war. They confide securely in their well educated women. How is it with our horses?

Shape and size from the sire: temper and virtue from the dam. If the mare endures thirst, the colt can run

without water. Man's nature also draws from the spindle-side. Why have we allowed forgetfulness to impair

our memory? This was well known in the old days. In this country arrangements for washing clothes exist in

almost every house, such as tubs, boards, and irons, and there is a machine to squeeze water out of the washed

clothes. They do not conceal their astonishment at our methods. Our women should be taught. Only by

knowledge is anything achieved. Otherwise we are as children running about naked under the feet of grown

men and women.

See what our women have already accomplished by education! The Thakore Sahib of Philawat was refused

leave from the Government to go to the war, on account of his youth. Yet his sister, who wedded the Rana of

Haliana had prepared a contingent of infantry out of her own dower-villages. They were set down in the roll

of the Princes' contingents as stretcher-bearers: they being armed men out of the desert. She sent a telegram to

her brother, commissioning him to go with them as Captain of stretcher-bearers: he being a son of the Sword

for seventy generations. Thus cleverly he received permission from the Government to go. When they reached

France he stole them out of the camp, every one of his sister's men, and joined himself to the Rajah of

Kandesur's contingent. Those two boys together made their name bright in the trenches. The Philawat boy was

hit twice and came to hospital here. The Government sent him a sealed letter by messenger where he lay. He

had great fear of it, because what he and Kandesur had done was without orders. He expected a reprimand

from the Government and also from his uncle because of the succession. But the letter was an announcement

of decoration from the Shahzada himself, and when he had read it, the child hid his face beneath the sheets

and wept for joy. I saw and heard this from my very bed in the hospital. So his Military Cross and the rest was

due to the Maharanee of Haliana, his sister. Before her marriage she attended instruction in England at the

great school for maidens called Ghatun [Girton?]. She goes unveiled among Englishmen, laying hold upon her

husband's right arm in public assemblies in open daylight. And Haliana is sunborn.[1] Consider it! Consider

it!

[1] The royal clans of the Rajputs derive their descent from the Sun.

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