The Influence of the Sepoy Mutiny on British Literature & The White Man’s Burden

Abstract

The paper explores how the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny that marked the beginning of the Indian Independence Movement shifted the British psyche, as demonstrated by marked trends in post-Mutiny literature. Given how the Sepoys still were able to strike fear into the heart of the Empire, despite being unsuccessful in their immediate goals, authors such as Wilkie Collins and Henry Kingsley produced new works that questioned Britain’s colonial rule over India. Yet, their cohort’s seemingly progressive gestures in favor of the Indian people were anything but post-colonial, still operating within colonial mindsets. By analyzing the Collins’ The Moonstone and Kingsley’s Stretton, I argue that post-Mutiny literature reinforced paternalist attitudes towards India, specifically the “White Man’s Burden”.