Subverting Gender Roles in Kipling’s “On the City Wall”

Abstract

Rudyard Kipling is a man of strong opinion and words, his genius lies in his art of storytelling. He was the foremost writer in the last few decades of the 19 th century. He has drawn on many themes surrounding the Anglo Indian men and women. My present concern moves around his portrayal of native Indian Women, but with an exception. Kipling’s portrayal of Indian women has majorly included the victims of white men. The story On the City Wall is an exception, where the courtesan Lalun manipulates the British narrator in plotting an escape of a Sikh rebel of the revolt of 1857. The narrator falsely connects his desire to be the desire of the ‘Other’, hence, subverts the hierarchy of gender roles, turning the tables of colonial rule under the face of imperialism. Though the narrative seems to be rebellious it lacks the seriousness of the issue, but with a hint of how colonial ambivalence remains concealed in the narratives of Rudyard Kipling.