Who are the Bandar-log?

[JellySaurus]

I'm reading The Jungle Book. When I came across this passage I thought the description of the Bandar-log so familiar:

...when the Bandar-log began, twenty at a time, to tell him how great and wise and strong and gentle they were, and how foolish he was to wish to leave them. "We are great. We are free. We are wonderful. We are the most wonderful people in all the jungle! We all say so, and so it must be true," they shouted. "Now as you are a new listener and can carry our words back to the Jungle-People so that they may notice us in future, we will tell you all about our most excellent selves." Mowgli made no objection, and the [Bandar-log] gathered by hundreds and hundreds on the terrace to listen to their own speakers singing the praises of the Bandar-log, and whenever a speaker stopped for want of breath they would all shout together: "This is true; we all say so."

Apes- they’re king Louis subjects although I can’t remember if he’s actually featured in the book or is just a Disney construct.
There’s another short story by Kipling that’s usually added in with the jungle book, as a kind of postscript, called rikki tikki tavi- definitely worth checking out, it’s one of my childhood favourites.

‘bandar log’ translates to ‘monkey people’ in Hindi

Not really what I'm getting at. Who do the Bandar-log remind you of?

I get you, @JellySaurus

However I think the BandarLog could be any number of groups, these days. All sorts of political groups adopt this clan mentality. Party conferences, particularly come to mind.

I would say, if it weren’t going to get me lynched, that there’s a very American style of ‘recognition/celebration’ that I’m uncomfortable with. DH worked for an American company and they’d have annual events where they gathered and celebrated what an awesome company they were. It felt rather synthetic and not at all like the usual British self deprecation!

And I mean, the quote could be Trump if it were more I I I and less We, We, We!

In context, I believe Kipling intended the Bandar-log as a metaphor for some of the subjects of the Raj.

Those who were eager to take the place of the Imperial overlords (ie Mowgli) & interested in the technology, but fundamentally unserious, & basically mimicking something they don’t understand.

If you look at his stories for adults, he talks about what he called the “babu-class” (ie Indian administrators & office workers, who he thought of as those most likely to want independence) in rather similar terms - as an imitation - whereas he romanticises the more “wild” peoples of the Raj who, perhaps not coincidentally, he saw as less of a threat to British rule.

The bandar log were meant to be Indians
Possibly the babu class.

Kipling was a great writer but an unashamed imperialist.

I thought he was simply being racist (in the commonplace, imperialist way of that era), drawing parallels between the Bandar-log and the villagers, especially the hunter and the priest.

But I wasn't implying that the Jungle Books were allegories for transgenderism. Just that the thought-terminating cliches of the Bandar-log paralleled those of the trans ideologues. As they do, to be fair, those of most incoherent ideologies like MAGA.

Oh bad luck JellySaurus, I know you were drawing a fairly light-hearted comparison but that clearly wasn't the mood on the thread at that time😒

But the serious replies were very informative about Kipling and India so thank you

FWIW I think the Jungle in the Jungle Book represents the entire Raj & Mowgli is Kipling (who spoke Urdu before he spoke English & whose ayah had to remind him to speak English to his parents), with the wolves, Bagheera etc as those of the imperial subjects RK respected… and the Banda-log those he did not.