‘Kings in Our Own Right’
Two former soldiers in India find British bureaucracy cramps their style, so they set off to become kings of their own land.
1888
Two former soldiers in India find British bureaucracy cramps their style, so they set off to become kings of their own land.
1888
It is the days of the British Raj, and the editor of a newspaper in Lahore has done a favour for fellow freemasons ‘Peachey’ Carnehan and his inseparable companion Daniel Dravot. Now the two ex-army men have crammed themselves into the paper’s tiny, stuffy office to share with him a resolution. “We have decided” said Carnehan “that India isn’t big enough for such as us.”
THEY certainly were too big for the office. Dravot’s beard seemed to fill half the room and Carnehan’s shoulders the other half, as they sat on the big table. Carnehan continued:— “The country isn’t half worked out because they that governs it won’t let you touch it. They spend all their blessed time in governing it, and you can’t lift a spade, nor chip a rock, nor look for oil, nor anything like that without all the Government saying — ‘Leave it alone and let us govern.’ Therefore, such as it is, we will let it alone, and go away to some other place where a man isn’t crowded and can come to his own. We are not little men, and there is nothing that we are afraid of except Drink, and we have signed a Contrack* on that. Therefore, we are going away to be Kings.”
“Kings in our own right,” muttered Dravot.
“Yes, of course,” I said. “You’ve been tramping in the sun, and it’s a very warm night, and hadn’t you better sleep over the notion? Come to-morrow.”
* Peachey mispronounces ‘contract’.
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
The British ruled India. Bureaucrats made private enterprise difficult. Peachey complained about it.
See if you can include one or more of these words in your answer.
IEntrepreneur. IIRegulate. IIIWho.