Down the decades, Jim Corbett in TOI

NEW DELHI: Jim Corbett , whose 150th birth anniversary is being celebrated, was a hero and a redeemer for the hill-folk of Kumaon and Garhwal in the 1920s and 1930s colonial India. But the hunter-turned-conservationist got written about nationally and became a global literary star only after his debut book, ‘ Man-Eaters of Kumaon ’ came out in 1944. He was 69 then.

“It is safe to say that no journalist could have written “a jungle thriller” of more absorbing interest than this classic by Jim Corbett, which is undoubtedly the best thing of its kind since ‘Man-Eaters of Tsavo,’ The Times of India review in Sept 1944 said.

‘Man-Eaters of Tsavo’ (1907), a tale of two terrorising lions in east Africa, was written by hunter John Patterson and was filmed decades later as ‘The Ghost and The Darkness’ (1996).

The review further said that “what Jim Corbett doesn’t know about tigerland and tiger habits isn’t worth knowing…” and pointed out that “the author is giving the whole of his royalties to St Dunstan’s hostel for blinded Indian soldiers (in World War II).”

“Man-Eaters of Kumaon’ was also a choice for the “Book of the Month” club in the USA. “Probably this is the first book published in India to be so honoured,” noted a TOI article in November 1945.

TOI described his second book, ‘The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag ’, as a “masterpiece of suspense.” But also said that the book was “greater” and “deeper”. “It is inspired throughout by deep human pity and an understanding of what this terrible enemy meant to thousands of poor folk,” the Nov 1945 review said.

Corbett stayed connected with India long after he migrated to Kenya. In 1955, he weighed in on Ramu, the controversial ‘wolf’ boy, which was published in TOI.

The engagement was reciprocated. Letters were written to the TOI editor, some decades after his death. In 1960, SA Bashir from Ahmedabad wrote that Corbett’s ‘My India’ should be prescribed as “a rapid reader for matriculation or intermediate students.”

In 1975, his birth centenary year, Dr AS Kothari wrote, “No other foreigner loved India so much as this great Englishman ... We should name Bombay’s national park after Jim Corbett and publish cheap books on the wildlife of India to commemorate him.”