Analysis by Keith Rankin.
Role: Economic historian.
Keith Rankin, 23 July 2026 – Most people with a knowledge of history, ceremony, and English language idiom know that ‘bending the knee’ is an expression of fealty, of formal submission to an immediate superior in a dominance hierarchy.
When I entered “‘bending the knee’ prince william king charles” into Google, I got the response:
“Prince William knelt before King Charles III to perform the Homage of Royal Blood during the coronation on May 6, 2023, at Westminster Abbey. He was the sole royal duke required to do this, making a personal pledge of allegiance to the new monarch.”
Yet Christopher Hipkins, who should be able to speak like an educated man, said this on the 11am news (RNZ) today:
“We had Shane Jones effectively insinuating that Christopher Luxon performed an oral sex act on a visiting dignitary” [in this case, Narendra Modi].
Now we know that Shane Jones is an educated man, and a man of metaphor. Jones’ metaphor was a clear reference to ‘bending the knee’ as an expression of fealty, as the Prince of Wales did to his father.
For Hipkins to display his ignorance in this way is a worry. It is also a worry when anyone in a position of influence who is unsure about the meaning of something – or is faced with genuine ambiguity – defaults to the most extremely negative of interpretations. (That’s how wars begin!)
Shane Jones was making a serious point, and I did find Luxon’s behaviour towards Modi to be somewhat obsequious.
Hipkins would be better served to address the point actually being made by Shane Jones. Was Luxon’s behaviour sufficiently deferential to convey vassalage towards India? Was it as deferential as Mark Rutte calling Donald Trump “Daddy”?
Should New Zealand be explicitly deferential towards India? It’s a real question, especially in the context of geo-economics where certain alpha-politicians demand submission. I would like to hear Mr Hipkins’ answer, and not his crude schoolboy interpretations.
About the writer:
Keith Rankin (keith at rankin dot nz), trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand.