Lyrics & Knowledge Personal Pages Record Shop Auction Links Radio & Media Kids Membership Help
The Mudcat Cafesj



User Name Thread Name Subject Posted
GUEST,matt milton Gunga Din. Racist or just of its time? (147* d) RE: Gunga Din. Racist or just of its time? 02 Feb 24


That Kipling poem is clearly written in the persona of a British soldier, so it is debatable whether the poem itself is racist. It undoubtedly contains racist slurs and assumptions. There's clearly some distance between the first-person I of the poem and Kipling himself. For me the distance isn't big enough. The fact that the overall tone is comic (albeit sourly comic) doesn't help either.

Should you sing it today? The question is rather academic: nobody under 70 would want to. To sing it you'd have to be someone who feels comfortable voicing racist language to comic effect (the idea of which repulses me); you'd also have to comfortable singing a song with a very patronising ventroliquism of a working-class soldier - that in itself would be quite cringe-inducing.

It's not even a very good poem - there are far better Kipling poems you could sing.




Back to the Main Forum Page

By clicking on the User Name, you will requery the forum for that user. You will see everything that he or she has posted with that Mudcat name.

By clicking on the Thread Name, you will be sent to the Forum on that thread as if you selected it from the main Mudcat Forum page.
   * Click on the linked number with * to view the thread split into pages (click "d" for chronologically descending).

By clicking on the Subject, you will also go to the thread as if you selected it from the original Forum page, but also go directly to that particular message.

By clicking on the Date (Posted), you will dig out every message posted that day.

Try it all, you will see.