August 17 – Happy Birthday, Wilfred Scawen Blunt

nPostednon August 17, 2015

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nToday’snfamous birthday is an English writer. He is most famous for hisnpoetry, but I noticed him mostly for being ahead of his time in his views aboutnpeople and politics.

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Bluntnwas born in England in 1840, and he died in 1922. Another Britishnwriter, far more famous than Blunt, was Rudyard Kipling, who was bornnin British India in 1865 and died in 1935. Kipling (who wrote ThenJungle Book) apparently had a racist attitude towards people ofncolor; at the very least he was condescending toward people of Indianan other non-Europeans. That means that he looked down on them asnlesser peoples, less civilized, less mature, maybe even lessnintelligent.

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nOnenway we know about Kipling’s racism is his poem “The White Man’snBurden.” This poem is seen by most readers and critics to be a command to white people toncolonize other nations around the world – not for glory or riches,nbut for the benefit of the non-white people who live in thosennations.

nIn other words, Kipling thought that non-white peoples were more “primitive,” less “civilized,” and needed white people’s help to become better at being human.

nMajor yick, huh?

Here’s an example of Kipling’s racism: in the poem he referred to thenPhilippines, which was colonized by Spain and then transferred to thenUnited States as the spoils of war, saying that the Filipinos weren“sullen peoples, Half-devil and half-child.”

Horrible,nracist stuff! Of course, we can say that Kipling was a product of hisntime, and we cannot judge him by today’s standards…

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n…Andnthat is partly true, but I am happy to report that Kipling’s poemn“The White Man’s Burden” was controversial even in his time. Whennthe poem was first published in 1899, many people argued against it.nOne of the most famous writers who disliked Kipling’s message wasnMark Twain, who wrote that if the U.S. took over the Philippinesnrather than allowing the nation to have self-rule, the American flagnshould be changed to black and white stripes, with the field of starsnbeing replaced by a skull and crossbones.

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nWilfridnBlunt also argued against Kipling’s idea. Blunt was a bit older than Kipling, and like Kipling was British, butnhe had more enlightened views about people of color and wasnagainst imperialism. He wrote in a poem, in response to Kipling’snpoem, that “The white man’s burden, Lord, is the burden of hisncash.”

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nInnthe 1880s Blunt worked with a movement called “Egypt for thenEgyptians,” meeting with and understanding the viewpoints of thenEgyptians, and relaying the information to authorities of the Britishnempire. (Unfortunately, his efforts were ignored.)

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nItnwas during his time in Egypt that some British army officers decidednto have a foxhunt. A pack of fox hounds were shipped to Cairo, Egypt,nand the British officers (NOT in uniform) started to hunt an Egyptiannfox. The fox was chased into the garden of Blunt’s house, where therenwas a stud farm with valuable Arabian horses. n

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nNow,nBlunt himself was away. His servants had general orders to preventntrespassing or, of course, theft, and when the officers followed thenfox onto Blunt’s land, Blunt’s staff challenged them as trespassers and turned them away with violence.

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nThree members of Blunt’s staff were arrested for assaulting British officers.

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nOfncourse, Blunt’s servants were Egyptians. But Blunt himself was British, and rich, and annanti-imperialist. So he vigorously went to bat for his staff members, writing letters to Britishnauthorities, the press, and even Parliament.

An entire book was
written on the Blunt – fox
hunt incident!

nBlunt also wrote, not just about his specific incident, but about the wrongs done to native property owners because the lack of respect that British officers had for their property rights or even their lives. He made his complaints much wider than just his own problem.

nAnd apparently he caused quite a bit of embarrassment.

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nInread that, as a result of this incident, British officers in thenvarious colonies were warned to take “all possible care” to avoidntrespassing on “inclosed or cultivated property.”

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nIndon’t know how well this new policy was followed or enforced, but Inimagine that more good might have come out of this single incidentnthan most of us are able to achieve in a lifetime! Good on you,nBlunt!

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