Kipling's "The White Man's Burden"

Rudyard Kipling’s “The White Man’s Burden,” claims that the Caucasian people were the guardians of the earth under God, and that it was their obligation to guide others towards the ideals of democracy. The poem consists of seven stanza’s all of which begin with “Take up the white man’s burden-“ and essentially claims that white men are the “best breed” whom must carry the labor in this world to rule with right, and successful mandate. The white men must lead their peers with wisdom toward the light.

Kipling shares a bias and somewhat racist outlook of the world, in which non-European cultures are viewed as childlike and demonic. Therefore, this view suggests that white men subsequently have duties to rule over, and encourage the cultural advancement of people from other races and ethnic backgrounds, to adopt Western culture so they may too get on with and live a “normal” acceptable lifestyle. Kipling communicates that it is the white people’s responsibility to help to poor people with contrasting ethnic backgrounds to help “better” themselves and lifestyle whether they want to or not. My questions for Kipling would simply be, why change the other cultures? If they have been getting along just fine and not interfering with the advancing culture of the Western world, why medal with other perfectly functional societies?