In a key example of situational irony in the story, the people of Kafiristan overpower Dravot and Carnehan, killing Dravot and effectively exiling Carnehan from their country. This is ironic because, to this point, Dravot and Carnehan have been convinced that they are smarter, better armed, and more powerful than the Kafirs could ever be. The irony comes across effectively in the moment that the Kafir people isolate Dravot on a rope bridge and then kill him:
Out he goes, looking neither right nor left, and when he was plumb in the middle of those dizzy dancing ropes, ‘Cut, you beggars,’ he shouts; and they cut, and old Dan fell, turning round and round and round, twenty thousand miles, for he took half an hour to fall till he struck the water, and I could see his body caught on a rock with the gold crown close beside.
There are a few different layers of irony in this scene. First is the fact that the Kafirs were able to overpower Dravot and march him out to the bridge when he had recently convinced them he was as powerful as a god. Also, Dravot refers to the Kafirs as “beggars” here when, in fact, he is the one who should be begging for his life. A final layer of irony is that Dravot and Carnehan are the ones who introduced rope bridges to the Kafir people, so Dravot is killed using the very technology that he brought to Kafiristan.
In having the Kafir people easily overpower these two men who they once saw as divine beings, Kipling is communicating that Dravot and Carnehan were never fit to be rulers of Kafiristan—or of anyone. They were too unprepared and Dravot, in particular, was too greedy and power hungry. It is important to note that Kipling is not criticizing colonization as a practice here, but merely colonization done without clear adherence to a moral compass.
