Rikki Tikki Tavi

Content Warning: This section references colonialism and ethnic stereotypes.

“Rikki-tikki-tavi” takes place entirely in and around a single bungalow and, with its (predominantly) animal cast of characters, might seem divorced from any broader sociohistorical context. However, “Segowlee cantonment,” the location of the family’s bungalow, refers to a military base in India, and the story itself was published in 1894. This was the height of British rule over the Indian subcontinent: nearly four decades after the Indian Rebellion of 1857, which saw control of India pass from the East India Company directly to the British crown, and a half-century before the subcontinent would gain its independence and be portioned into India and Pakistan (the 1947 Partition of India). Kipling himself was a vocal supporter of British imperialism, and in the decades following their publication, his works gained a reputation for racism (though scholars argue over the depth of his prejudice and the complexities of his attitudes towards empire). While “Rikki-tikki-tavi” can be read “simply” as a children’s story, this political and biographical backdrop necessarily informs any comprehensive reading of the text.

During the time period in which the story takes place, many British people lived in India; cantonments were meant specifically for military personnel and their families. While the story never specifies whether Teddy’s father is in the British military, Rikki-tikki-tavi remembers that his mother used to live in a general’s house, tying the story explicitly to this context. In fact, the story depicts mongooses as aspiring to become pets and, to that end, preferring the homes of white colonists: “Rikki-tikki’s mother […] had carefully told Rikki what to do if ever he came across white men” (3). The passage associates whiteness with greater cultural refinement or advancement, such that animals are (and can only truly be) tame in its presence.

Digging deeper, scholars such as Alexandre Veloso de Abreu have argued that the story’s animals are not merely anthropomorphic but allegorical, representing different responses to British imperialism. Teddy and his family—tellingly, the only human characters other than an unnamed sweeper who takes Nag’s body to the rubbish-heap—are the colonizers, who have moved to India to spread “civilization.” Rikki-tikki-tavi is the “ideal” colonial subject, grateful for his proximity to Western culture and willing to defend the colonizers against those who would rebel: the antagonists, the cobras. Nag and Nagaina, who reference the Hindu god Brahm (i.e., Brahma) as their patron or creator, represent those who resist subjugation culturally or militarily, while characters such as Chuchundra symbolize ambivalence toward British rule (Veloso de Abreu, Alexandre. “Allegory of Dominance: British Power in Rudyard Kipling’s Rikki-tikki-tavi.” Journal of Literature and Art Studies, vol. 3, no. 11, 2013, pp. 687-691).