City of Dreadful Night

Profoundly suspicious of Calcutta's openness to new ideas and values, Kipling turns his attentions to liberalism and policies of native self-government, ridiculing the contribution of the Bengal Legislative Council to the running of the city. The 'ferocious stench' of refuse, bad water, and sewage is taken by Kipling as a metaphor of the corruption of the Council and the city.