Aryan Brown

For the Christian riles, and the Aryan smiles

This verse is popularly known as ‘Asian Brown’, which better fits its meaning, but the name given to it by Kipling is ‘Aryan Brown’.

Once when working in Sri Lanka, I met an American banker who was serving as an advisor for the restructuring of a major bank. Knowing my interest in Kipling, one day he came to me beaming: “I found the answer to reorganization of the bank – in a poem of Kipling!”

This is the short poem he had in mind. Anyone who has ever tried to get things done in a hurry in any Asian country would probably agree.

Now it is not good for the Christian health 
To hustle the Aryan brown,
For the Christian riles, and the Aryan smiles
And he weareth the Christian down; 
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white 
With the name of the late deceased, 
And the epitaph drear: "A Fool lies here
Who tried to hustle the East."