The Corbett Project

On the drama in Corbett’s stories

Question: Corbett’s biographer Martin Booth has questioned  some of the movie-like incidents in Jim’s adventures, like for eg. Jim’s first kill of a leopard during his boyhood when it was air-borne over his head, Jim mimicking the mating call of tigers to attract a man-eating tiger nearer to him, the torch going off at the moment of him shooting the man-eating leopard of Rudraprayag and so on. The author seems to claim that those may be to make the buyers’ money worth.

You may share whether you have had similar feelings during your readings on Jim. One factor which may be missing in his writings is (i) any mention of the foul smell that associates with any killed human/animal over which he used to sit to shoot (ii) the fact that leopards are excellent climbers of tree and his preparedness on this aspect.

Answer: I have, in fact, wondered about the dramatic finale’s of many of Jims’ stories. A few other people who have read Corbetts book have raised this question with me. However, in the matter of him imitating calls of the wild, I do not doubt him. I have heard others, including some jungle trackers,  who are quite good at this.  Whether he injected some dramatic flair about the torch going off at the right moment, is possible, but not probable. He admits that he was not familiar with the device and that it had not been used much prior to the night the leopard was killed.

As for sitting in a tree to shoot a man-eating leopard, my response is that it is surely better than sitting on the ground. That way he probably has enough time to fire off the rifle if he knew a leopard was climbing up the tree. About smells, I have noticed that Jim tries with his writing to make the scene of a human kill appear as less graphic as possible to readers and maybe he believed that describing the smell or the mangled remains would offend some.

Having said that, I have had problems believing a few other things he has written, that to me seem unnatural, and where he seems out of his depth. Three issues I have had – the lights on top of the mountain he describes in the temple tiger book, and the weird events that take place in a forest bungalow which he mentions but does not describe, and the temple tiger itself. For me it is difficult to determine if he is a true believer in such things or just played along with the local beliefs. I have seen people believing really weird, unnatural things, and we do not question them that much, so it is probably unfair to question Jim. But these stand out in the case of Jim because he is mostly a naturalist, where the supernatural has no place or explanation. It is impossible to find out now, because nobody can attest to these things. Maybe some new facts will emerge which will enlighten these matters.

On Corbett’s Personal Life:

Q: Dear Sir, I had the pleasure of reading your excellent views on Jim Corbett on your webpage. I enjoyed it thoroughly. I am surprised that even he has been thought to be a racist. You have wonderfully quoted him as one of the best gifts by England to India.  From one of his books, I found that he remained a bachelor which evokes sadness. In a discovery channel program some time back, they showed as if there could have been an affair with Jane Ibbotson.

Answer: Yes, indeed there are people who have expressed to me the opinion that Corbett was no different than others Britishers of the time in his attitudes towards Indians. But in addition to his own writing, which makes his benevolent attitudes towards natives abundantly clear, other authors who have ventured to write about him all make one point very clear about him – he was a humanist, and did not favor the oppression of anybody. His only fault, perhaps, in this matter was his fervent allegiance to the Monarchy – which could be mistaken as his disregard for India and Indians. This is only understandable, because most ‘domiciled’ British (like Corbett’s family) were apparently treated as second class citizens by the ‘real’ British families/officers. It is no secret that many domiciled types tried extra hard to show and feel British pride, as it were.

Regarding your question about his affair with Jane Ibbotson – I have heard of the discovery program lamentably portraying their relationship as such. It may be based on the oddity that Corbett was not (geographically) close to the Ibbotsons after their move to Africa, the assumption being of some possible misunderstanding. As far as I understand there is no evidence of any affair between Corbett and Jane Ibbotson, in all the biographical material I have scanned.  In fact it is difficult to find much evidence of romance in his life with anyone. However, as the biography of D. C. Kala notes, and is there for anyone to see, Corbett does show some admiration for a village headwoman, whom he refers to as the ‘Queen of the Village’ in his book, My India.  A couple of other biographies indicate other love interests in his life, but they are unconfirmed, and I am still looking for a reliable source to settle the matter.