Dear Bryan,
‘The Rupaiyat of Omar Kal’vin’ (never, to my knowledge, as ‘Oamar’)
was first published, as we would guess, in the ‘Civil and Military
Gazette’ for 30th January 1886, signed ‘R.K.’. When reproduced in the
‘Pioneer’ on February 5th and the ‘Pioneer Mail’ on February 15th of
the same year, it was, interestingly, under the column-heading ‘Wisdom
from the East’.
Regarding the subject matter, Auckland Colvin’s activities are
described in an article by Anand Chanavarkar on Sir Jeremy Raisman
(‘the ideal last Viceroy India never had’). I found an incomplete
extract at:
http://www.jstor.org/pss/4410856 The full text is in ‘Economic and
Political Weekly’ Vol 36 no 28, if you have access to Athens.
Last year (later than October 2008, I assume) I remember a column
decrying Gordon Brown’s fiscal activities, which labeled him ‘Omar
Brown’, along with an explanation of the Rupaiyat. I am sure that
piece must be out there on the Internet, somewhere, and there is a
cutting in the Kipling Library, forty five miles away....
To keep this fascinating discussion going, may I point out that in the
Kipling Journal for December 1973, Roger Lancelyn Green singles out
this verse as the only example of a ‘single political issue’ piece, of
the twenty six in the first edition. Incidentally, with your precious
first to ninth editions by you, this is a truly scholarly article.
http://www.johnradcliffe.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/textfiles/KJ188.txt
With best regards,
John
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