ABSTRACT
Madhya Pradesh Tourism touts the state as Kipling country, based upon the common belief that Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book was based on the jungles of Kanha and Pench. Empire forestry had obviously grabbed the creative imagination of Rudyard Kipling, and he saw the British government as the protector of the forests. Thus, Mowgli in The Jungle Book is rejected by the Hindu men of the village, who are portrayed as mean-spirited, cowardly braggarts. In contrast, stray references are made to the beneficence of the whites, who have made laws for the betterment of all. In reality, however, the policy of state intervention in the protection of forests gave rise to the practice of eviction of indigenous people from these forests. Their increasing loss of the forests, the English hostility toward the practice of shifting cultivation and interference in their indigenous cultural practices made them adopt violent means of struggle for their independence.
