Only eight years after the second Anglo-Afghan war, Richard Kipling writes The Man Who Would be KIng, which is also located in Afghanistan. Kipling's story is not a retelling of the war, but rather what it represented. Early in the novella Carnehan remarkes that they have "deicided that India isn't big enough for such as us" (9). This attitude reflects the imperialistic attitudes of Victorian England. The British didn't need Afghanistan, but they wanted to keep Russian out and so they started a two year war over it. In their minds, and in Dan and Peachy's, the world belonged to them and nothing was "big enough" for them. The British came in with their 40,000 men and their rifles and the Afghans were run down. During the 1879 Battle of Kabul the "British and Indian casualities were 33 . . . [they] estimated that the Afghan casualties, almost all killed, were 3,000" ("Battle"). Similarly, in the book, Dan and Peachy also come with rifles to save an outnumbered tribe from another. The twist of irony comes from the fact that after Dan and Peachy are revealed to be only human, they lose the ability to get away after they run out of ammo. The critique is quite clear. Their "superiority" really means nothing. They are as fallible as any other man. 

Kipling, Richard. The Man Who Would be KIng. Minerva Publishing, 2018. eBook.

"Battle of Kabul." British Battles, 2018. https://www.britishbattles.com/second-afghan-war/battle-of-kabul-1879/