Rudyard Kipling and kiddie lit

Few authors have as tumultuous a relationship with modern India as Rudyard Kipling. His political views, expressed in poems such as The White Man's Burden led many to deride him as racist. Yet Kipling's lush depictions of 19th-century India in works such as The Jungle Book also made him one of the best-selling authors in the country.
That's proved one thing: despite his politics, there is always a market for new editions of Kipling.The latest offerings come from Ladybird, a division of Penguin books in India, which recently released four new adaptations of Kipling's Just-So-Stories, and may consider publishing more in the future, said Heather Adams, an editor with the imprint.
Adams, who wrote How the Elephant Got His Trunk and How the Camel Got His Hump, said that when she moved to India, she re-read Just-So-Stories, which, at the time, were not available in easy-to-read format. She felt adaptations would make Kipling's works more accessible to young audiences, who otherwise might not understand the stories.
"Authors do sort of come and go in popularity, but certainly when I was a child he was widely read,'' said Adams. "The language is just beautiful.'' One of the rewritten stories, originally entitled The Elephant's Child, tells the tale of a naive young elephant who makes the mistake of trusting a crocodile. The hungry crocodile grabs the elephant's nose. The end result is, to use Kipling's original words: "And the Elephant's Child's nose kept on stretching; and the Elephant's Child spread all his little four legs and pulled, and pulled, and pulled, and his nose kept on stretching; and the Crocodile threshed his tail like an oar, and he pulled, and pulled, and pulled, and at each pull the Elephant's Child's nose grew longer and longer-and it hurt him hijjus!''
Ladybird has also published translations in other languages. Meanwhile, sales of Kipling's works remain strong in Mumbai. Various editions of Just-So Stories sold 223 copies at Crossword bookstore over the last year. His works for children sell steadily; perhaps not as many as fads like the Twilight series. But those books often have strong initial sales, and then drop drastically. Absayk Shilsada, manager of the store, said that the books remain quite popular with customers, because "they are well aware of the influence of Kipling.''
However, for many years, Kipling's works had declined in influence, particularly in academic circles. Charles Allen, a British historian and author of a book on Kipling, said that this occurred for several reasons. When Kipling died in 1936, no major literary figures came to his funeral. A staunch defender of British imperialism, he was already out of fashion.
"For about thirty years Kipling was very politically incorrect; now I think we can see him as a man,'' said Allen. "The man is a paradox. He said, `I've got two sides to my head'...A racist in many respects, but a profound supporter of the underdog.''
But there's another more practical reason why Kipling's influence on children's literature waned. "We can say that this is a colonialist author. But a more compelling reason is that there is now so much children's literature available and it's much better,'' said Allen.
The language of the original texts presents some difficulties for the modern reader. While the Just-So-Stories have a strong rhythm and style, children may find it hard to understand the works, written in 19th-century English. Adams hopes that by publishing the books in an easy format, young children will benefit from the strengths of the original text.
"As you're reading them, the imagery you can create in your own mind is great,'' said Adams. "I think Kipling comes to children at their own level so they can explore things in their own imagination.''
Kipling has his ayah to thank for that. She was the one who taught him the art of storytelling, as he grew up in colonial Bombay. Indian culture pervaded Kipling's works. If, an oft-cited work, echoes ideas found in yoga philosophy, said Rajesh David, a singer and yoga teacher, who studied the poem in school. Later, he set it to music. "The poem was so positive in those days of growing up, when life was so uncertain,'' said David, who was born in Bombay. "Now those same ideas are coming back again and it really helps to look at life in a different way altogether.''
If, a poetic catalogue of situations that lead to wisdom, remains Kipling's most famous poem, taught in many schools throughout the world. Yet, for the last three generations of children, the words The Jungle Book are the most evocative, even though they conjure up images of dancing bears and singing monkeys. "The problem, as you know, is that Hollywood took The Jungle Book-Walt Disney took it-and totally destroyed it. Kipling would have been outraged at the treatment of it,'' said Allen. "In that sense Kipling is still with us.''
Disney also made a sequel in 2003, but is hardly the only company to cash in on the book. Countless adaptations have been made, including a Japanese serial cartoon dubbed in Hindi. In a cultural mishmash, American pop star Ashlee Simpson even named her child Bronx Mowgli, after the main character. Perhaps it's that lingering influence in popular culture that publishers are counting on. "There's no reason why Kipling can't be a big seller nowadays,'' said Adams.