What the hell is the point of this one? As I expected, Kim is better at being Indian--at being Hindu or Muslim, and so on--than any non-white, just because he is genetically white, and better at being European because he is English rather than French or Russian. Teshoo lama is the only likeable character in the book, but even he is not immune from Kipling's condescension.
This essay is entitled "Kipling's Burden." As Jofe Fiennes says, "Good title." "Shakespeare in Love" Oh, right, Kipling coined the phrase "white man's burden" anyway. I hope Kipling was grateful to die before that hideous occurrence, Indian independence.
"White man's burden" and the phrase I'm thinking of from Dune don't have quite the same cadence but "burden" is mostly "burd'n" and "right" is fairly long for one syllable so I am going to say I am not totally a loon for equating "white man's burden" as a response--what do you call the thing that Catholics say in response to the priest, when he's preaching and they say "Lord, hear our prayer"?--with "leader's right." I can just picture any discussion of Kim disintegrating into one person talking and the others agreeing, noddingly solemnly and intoning "white man's burden" all the time as a justification for taking another person's property--without the reason of owner being dead, as in Dune. Okay, this is officially the silliest train of thought ever.