ABSTRACT
This chapter draws the reader’s attention to the significance of a popular work like The Naulahka, and explains the ways in which it stands in relation both to Kipling’s oeuvre and to the popular genre of the Anglo-Indian romance. It presents the discussion of The Naulahka by demonstrating the ways in which Kipling’s choice of the genre of the “Anglo-Indian romance” marks the beginning of a system of representation and dramatisation that he later adopted in Kim. The Naulahka belongs to the late Victorian popular genre of the Anglo-Indian romance, a genre with its own history that plays a significant role in structuring its narrative form. Kipling’s Naulahka shares many similarities in plot and theme with Morley Roberts’ Son of Empire. At the center of Robert’s novel is a headstrong and independent-minded young British girl, Madge, who falls in love with an imperial soldier based in India, Richard Blundell.
