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ISSN 2278-9529

Galaxy: International Multidisciplinary Research Journal

www.galaxyimrj.com

www.the-criterion.comThe Criterion: An International Journal in English

ISSN: 0976-8165

Orient, Kim, and the Occident: Problematizing the Process of

Acculturation in Rudyard Kiplings Kim
Sreemoyee Banerjee
Former Guest Lecturer,
University of Kalyani
Kiplings Kim is the documentation of the accounts of his young adult protagonist,
Kim OHara, a British-Irish orphan, his hyphenated existence in the discourse of the Colonial
India. The novel enriches in vivid details of the Indian people with their variant culture and
religion. Kim is initiated into adulthood in an environment which is essentially multicultural
and diverse. Kim lives a life of the bazaar and roads getting acquainted with a Muslim horse
dealer, and some time later forming an unusual bond with a Tibetan lama. His journey in life
is interspersed with simultaneous existence in and shift from one cultural discourse to another
as he deals with each one of them and develops his unique identity as a cultural hybrid. The
entire process of locating Kim in one particular cultural paradigm against various other
existing one and the multi layered problems associated with such an attempt will be
thoroughly analyzed in the dissertation. Kims embracement of his identity as a Sahib, his
rejection of the same, his othering himself at times through identification with the orient
and his critical judgment of it will be the course of study in this dissertation. Kims
characteristic behavior, his ability to master the vernacular, his intellectual liberty with
English and the native languages complicates the process of acculturation and therefore
presents different aspects of his hyphenated existence.
Kims involvement with culturally diverse people like the Tibetan lama (whose
chela he becomes in the course of the novel), the Pashtun horse trader Mahbub Ali ( by the
virtue of whom he becomes involved in the Great Game), the British officials of the
Maverick regiment, Lurgan sahib, the sycophant Benglish Babu Hurree Chunder
Mookherjee, the anglophiles of his school and nevertheless all the various culturally diverse
people he meets throughout his journey leaves a mark on him and therefore making the
process of acculturation a problematic especially in case of an young adult like him. The
problem of locating oneself in and belonging to a particular culture problematizes Kims
notion of life itself where his participation in the Great Game between England and Russia
becomes a metaphor for the struggle Kim faces through the process of acculturation. The
entire novel will be thoroughly analyzed emphasizing on the problems of acculturation and
what it finally resolute into.
Kim and the Sahib
Take up the White Mans burdenHave done with childish daysThe lightly proffered laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Come now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years,Cold-edged with dear-brought
wisdom,The judgment of your peers!
(Kipling 261)

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Rudyard Kiplingsreaders are introduced to Kim when he is barely thirteen years of

age and through the course of the novel he emerges into the thresholds of late adolescence.
Though Kim pretends to travel effortlessly in adult ways, and prove himself proficient at
activities that might be quite challenging to men much older than himself, he remains a boy,
and one whose rebirth at the end of the novel reminds us that he has not quite crossed the
threshold of adolescence and arrived at adulthood.(427). Therefore Kim remains a pre-adult,
still a colt rather than a fully grown pony that Mahbub Ali, his Pasthun horse-dealer and
Kims mentor, thinks he will grow into someday. This time period in which Kim undergoes a
transition from childhood through adolescence to be initiated into adulthood is important as it
also marks his initiation into diverse cultural discourses and paradigm. When on one hand he
learns to impersonate the identity of a native, adding the extra e after his English sentences
(like the Bengali BabuHurreeChunderMookherjee, giving an implication of an acquired
English accent and speech), his inherent instincts of a Sahib reminds the Woman of
Shamlegh (Lispeth of Kiplings short story of the same name) of her Sahib who had
deserted her after promising marriage. But at the same time she is not totally convinced that
he is a Sahib but only a wandering mendicant because of his hybrid identity, and his
effective impersonation of a native identity. Precisely such an impersonation would not have
been executed so successfully by an out and out British such as Colonel Creighton as
hisaccent and behavior would have betrayed him some way or the other. But Kims hybrid
existence provides him an edge over only natives or the only British. Therefore the almost
factor plays its cards perfectly in such situations. But it cannot be ruled out that after all Kim
is a Sahib and theinstinct of his blood has its role to play. This shall be observed in the next
sections.
Kim presents what can be called a new generation of colonial power, adept in the
ways of native Indian life, far from outrageous claims of racial hatred. Through Kim Kipling
presents a benevolent colonialist, one who is ready to bear the White Mans burden, one
who is not the malevolent master, exploiting natives and therefore being the target of their
resentment and hatred. This kind of a figure can only be represented through the likes of Kim,
who is a perfect synthesis of the British and Indian ways. Yet never for a moment can one
forget that after all, Kim is a Sahib as he inwardly contemplates on his British identity
believing in dictums such as Once a Sahib always a Sahib. Patrick Williams in his essay
Kim and Orientalism writes:
running through the text, as a sort of counterpoint is the statement
Once a Sahib always a Sahibwe are given a (restrained) amount
of information about what it means to be a Sahib: Sahibs tell the
truth; Sahibs cannot steal; Sahibs must act; Sahibs must obey; no Sahib
would follow a Bengalis advice; Sahibs are a strong-backed breed who
never grow old; Sahibs are the right ones to oversee justice because they
know the land. (Williams 422).

Kim doesnt tell the truth but he acts and obeys. He does listen and act according to
Hurree Chunder Babu; the English educated Bengali Babu while being involved in The Great
Game. He knows the land very well because it is his birth place (unlike most of his racial
counterparts). Kims excellent knowledge of the native life gives him an upper hand in
playing The Great Game and this knowledge, along with the other quintessential Sahib like
qualities, help him in his mission. He indeed serves as Kiplings perfect model of the new
colonizer, one who can be both culturally and naturally British and Indian at the same time.

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In Chapter one of the novel we find Kim sitting in defiance of municipal orders,
astride the gun Zam-Zammah on her brick platform opposite the old Ajaib-Gher---the wonder
House, as the natives call the Lahore Museum. (Kipling 3).Kipling says that there was
some justification for Kims posture and defiance. He had kicked Lala Dinannaths boy
off the trunnions----since the English held Punjab and Kim was English. (3). The ZamZamah is nothing short of a profound symbol of power and Kims position astride the gun
confirms his identity as a conqueror and as a colonizer and never for once does Kim forget
(or is given an option to forget) that he is after all an Englishman. Despite being as dark
skinned as any other native boy Kim was white. His preference of vernacular over his
mother tongue and consorted on terms of perfect equality with the small boys of the
bazaar (3) Kipling asserts, time and again that Kim is British. When Mahbub Ali suggests
that it would be improper for Teshoo Lama to visit Kim in his School in the company of other
young Sahibs, Kim promptly replies: Not all! ...Their eyes are blurred and their nails are
blackened with low-caste blood, many of them. Sons of mehteranees---brothers-in-law to the
bhungi [sweeper]. (122). Suvir Kaul points out that Kim represents a very precise model of
imperial belonging---one intimate with India but in no danger of being contaminated by its
racial difference. (Kaul 428). There is another thing that he learns duringhis school days at
St. Xaviers that one must never forget that one is a Sahib, and that some day, when
examinations are passed, one will command natives (Kipling 107). The narrator asserts that
Kim made a quick note of this as he knew where he would be lead to after the examinations
were over, not to rule over the natives but to command over them, bearing the White
Mans burden and executing his role as a Sahib proficiently. While travelling along the
Grand Trunk road with the old Rani from Kulu and the Lama, Kim addresses her with a
flattering familiarity and an an idiom so local that she asks him of his maternal
upbringing and on learning that a local Indian woman has brought him up sheexclaims with
much appreciation that his is a type fit to govern the country, sahibs who know the land
properly, as their own and not some Englishman with a thorough English background,
learning the vernacular from books who are nothing but pestilence in her eyes. Therefore
Kim the Sahib is never exclusive of hisIndian-ness which sometimes makes his identity as a
Sahib quite questionable.
Returning to the episode with the Woman of Shamlegh, Suvir Kaul observes that
there is enough of the Sahib in Kim the chela to let the Woman of Shamlegh intuit his
originthe British/Indian, colonial/native, man/child(Kaul 432). And despite this
constant suspicion from the woman, as Kim is about to leave, he is confident enough to
perform for her as she knows a Sahib would(432). He kisses her chastely on her cheeks,
(a practice totally uncommon to native culture) a ritual characteristic of the European culture.
But Kim is conscious enough to cover it up with his accented English: Thank you veree
much my dear convinced that the extra e (which he borrows from HurreeBabus accent)
would confirm his native origin. Kims consciousness of this difference of accent between
anEuropean and an English educated testifies his inherent English attitude of differentiation.
This sense of differentiation is important because no matter how much Kim might belong to
the eastern paraphernalia his inherent European attitude of differentiation can never be
extricated from him. Edward W. Said in his essay Kim as Imperialist Novel opines that Kims
consciousness regarding his difference with the Indians around him, Later develops
explicitly into his awareness of being a Sahib, a white man, and whenever he wavers there is
some to remind him be it Mahmud Ali or the saintly Teshoo Lama that he is indeed a sahib,
with all the rights and privileges of that quite special rank. (Said 345)

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Though Kipling has placed Kim outside Europe he has not taken Europe out of him
and Indian-ness can never rule out the European instincts out of him.
Kim and The Country Born and Bred Hero
My brother kneels (so saith Kabir)
to stone and brass in heathen wise,
but in my brothers voice I hear
My own unanswered agonies.
His God is as his Fates assigns---His prayers is all the Worlds---and mine
(Kabir 209)
John A. McClure distinguishes Kim from all other works of Kipling by entitling it to
the accolade of Kiplings richest dream. Kim depicts the great and beautiful India with a
Spirit of Celebration which undoubtedly fascinates the readers. Unlike Kiplings earlier
short stories, says McClure, where India is a grim realm of exile; in Kim, its the very heart
of life. (McClure 375). McClure in his essay Kiplings Richest Dreams quotes KinkeadWeekes who finds in Kim a welcome change of spirit: the eye is caught by a whole
Kaleidoscope of race, caste, custom, and creed, all seen with the warm affection that is
almost unique in Kipling. (375). Kim does not function as an alien imperialist who looks
at the native Indian culture from a distance but is intricately included in it. Kims upbringing,
similar to that of Kiplings Mowgli(a man cub growing amidst wild animals in a jungle) in
his The Jungle Book helps him to emerge from childhood as both the son and the father of
a vast Indian family. (377). Kim, like Mowgli or Adam (unlike many Anglo-Indian
children), is not entrusted with the authority of a hostile English world but is rather initiated
into a ready-made Indian Kingdom. Though Kim loses his parents at a very early stage of
life, Kipling saves the fate of his young adult protagonist from an English foster home or the
authority of a stern English relative (and the oppressions associated with it) to catapult him
into the very heart of his homeland, India. (377). Kim enters his exotic eastern world to live
as a privileged member since he is racially superior to the native Indians. But the Indianness which he continues to imbibe throughout his childhood and adolescence cannot be
dissociated from him, as it has become an integral part of his existence. He lives like a native,
speaks like one and even thinks in the vernacular. His skin is dark in color like any other
native boy and he had been brought up by a low caste woman from the hills. Therefore Kim,
from the very beginning, is a synthesis of a British and an Indian. Later in the novel when
Kim becomes trained enough to work as an elite English secret service agent in The Great
Game, he brings to it a set of skills and sympathies not heretofore available in a white
man. (377).
In a letter to his friend E.K. Robinson, dated 30th April 1886, Kipling writes that he is
deeply interested in the queer ways and works of the people of the land [India]. I hunt and
rummage amongem; knowing Lahore City---that wonderful, dirty, mysterious ant hill--blind fold and wandering through it like Haroun Al-Raschid in search of strange things
(Kipling 271). His effort to know and understand the aspects of his eastern enchantment
and his immense interest in the queer and strange things of the eastern exotica drives him
to create a character to which all this knowledge is pre disposed so that he can function with
the proficiency much required in a journalistic career which Kipling had chosen for himself.
Also Kims role in The Great Game needs him to be thorough with Indian cultural and the

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vernacular language. His English accent needs to like that of the English educated
BabuHurree Chunder Mookherje. Kims role in disguise as a wandering medicant, as a
Chela toTeshoo Lama can only be executed successfully if he is intricately acquainted with
the queer and strange things that India consists of.
The most important concept which emerges with Kims association with the Orient,
as has been suggested by McClure in his aforementioned essay on Kim, is the notion of the
country-born hero a question left unresolved in Kiplings short story, The Sons of His
Father. The notion of the country-born hero undergoes a gradual metamorphosis from the
earlier story to the novel Kim and what comes out is the idea of the country-born and bred
hero who grows up in India entirely. Kim has the ultimate in country breedings, but the
youths he meets at St. Xaviers School are also country bred (McClure 377) and hence he
approves of their ways: Kim watched, listened and approved. This was not insipid, singleword talk of [English] drummer-boys. It dealt with a life he knew and in part understood. The
atmosphere suited him (Kipling 106-107). The account Kim hears reveals that the countryborn are in possession of an intrepid familiarity with India. Kim wants the readers to approve
of these boys of his school(the ones who have encountered daring episodes in the Indian
terrain helping pilgrims or facing unfavorable circumstances amidst torrential rain
characteristic of some parts of the Indian sub-continent) and recognizing their natural
superiority to the English born and bred imperialists. Infact Kims young tormentor during
his brief stay with the Irish regiment is a typical example of the aforesaid English imperialist
who categorized all natives as niggers; yet, the narrator reveals that the servants and
sweepers called him abominable names to his face, and, mislead by their deferential attitude,
he never understood (Kipling 92). These English imperialists like that of the drummerboy informs Kim that the English soldiers, to whom India is nothing but foreign, find
themselves only a prisoner in this country because of their complete isolation from the
native life of the land. But the country born-and-bred Kim never feels the same. To him India
is his homeland, where he can travel at ease in third class train compartments with the
Punjabis, the Jats, the Baniyas, the Hindus and the Muslims alike, without any form of
prejudice and hesitation, feeling comfortable and at home.
Irvin Howe focuses on Kims Indian-ness in his essay, The Pleasures of Kim, and
points out:
When Kim is sent to the white mans school, to be trained as the
son of a Sahib that he isHe submits to the disadvantages of the
whites, though he is still persuaded in his heart that he is one of
the blacks, When the madrisah [school] is shut, then I must be
free and go among my people. (Howe 333)

Kim, though an orphan, has foster fathers in Mahbub Ali and Teshoo Lama and his
love and solidarity for them is far more prominent than his compassion for his other foster
fathers like Colonel Creighton or Lurgan Sahib. It is Mahbub Ali who introduces him
first(though unofficially) tothe Great Game and it is not a British official but the very
efficient Bengali Babu Hurree Chunder Mookherje who guides him through it. Edward
Said,in his essay, Kim as an Imperialist Novel has brought to the forefront Kiplings purpose
of including the motif of the Game. He writes:

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The ultimate analogy is between the Great Game and the novel itself. To
be able to see all India from the vantage of controlled observation: this is
one great satisfaction. Another is to have at ones fingertip a character
who can sportingly cross lines and invade territories, a little Friend of all
the World, Kim OHara himself. (Said 343)
Kiplings depiction of India in Kim is free of racial hatred and class conflicts. In Kim
India is not a world driven by hastening disasters, (this kind of view was common in the
depiction of the east by some of Kiplings predecessors and contemporaries) nor is it a land
inhabited cannibals and snake-charmers but rather what perfectly makes a homeland with
whose culture and language Kim is more than well acquainted and can travel anywhere,
anytime. Unlike the Europe born-and-bred Sahibs, Kim is free from the inhibitions of death
by cholera or snake bites and displays absolute dexterity in his travels whether it be along the
Grand Trunk Road or his journey along the hills. This is because he is a country-bred Sahib.
It is interesting to notice that Kim has to undergo the process of Sahibization to prepare
himself for the Great Game, Indian as he is not by birth or race but by customs and manners.
In his essayKiplings Richest Dreams John A. McClure opines that the last chapters of
the novel are filled with gestures of inclusion of Kim into the Indian paradigm and
discourse and also affirming his position as a privileged member of the Great Indian
family. His encounter and symbolic union with the Woman of Shamlegh is perhaps the
most dramatic presentation of this inclusion. After the struggle with the spies from Russia,
Kim and the Lama seek respite in the mountainous village of Shamlegh. They soon find that
the head of this village is an Indian Woman, impressive and wise. She develops a quick
fondness for Kim and tries first to charm and seduce him but when she realizes that her
advances will not produce the result in what she wants and that Kims preoccupation lies in
saving the ailing Lama, She provides Kim with her worthy assistance in doing so. The
episode however reveals its full significance when the readers identify this woman as Lispeth,
the heroine of one of Kiplings early short story of the same name. The history of this
woman, as she narrates it to Kim, reiterates the plot of the earlier short story as the readers
come to know that long ago a Sahib(a pure European Imperialist) had shown some interest
in her. She was once living with a European family, wearing European clothes an embracing
an European lifestyle. She further points out that previously she used to be a Ker-lis-ti-an
and spoke English like the Sahibs do. Lispeth reveals that the Sahib had promised to come
back and wed her. But he never returned. So she renounced her European lifestyle and
Christianity to come back to her old, native and heathen ways. After fourteen years of exile
Lispeth emerges from the pages of her short story, the one most critical towards Imperial
rule, to meet Kim..
Kipling introduces Lispeth at this junction of the novel, as observes McClure, in order
to impress upon the readers the superiority of the country born rulers. Lispeth pain, agony
and disaster, as Kipling denotes in the earlier story stem out of the sheer ignorance and utter
irresponsibility towards her on the part of the English Sahib. No matter how European
Lispeth became her racial identity was all that mattered to her guardians wife and the Sahib
whom she loved and out of the inherent antipathy towards natives Lispeths Sahib betrays
her. McClure deducts that the Sahibs careless betray of a marriage pledge suggests the
larger betrayal of the Indian people by their English rulers (McClure 379).
McClure further suggests that when Kim meets Lispeth,his situation parallels that of
the earlier European Sahib: he is aided and wooed by her in almost the same manner. But
whereas the earlier European Sahib repays all that Lispeth had done for him by unkindness,
false promises and betrayal, Kim treats the Woman of Shamlegh with much frankness and

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generosity. She desires Kim as her lover, and he apparently refuses her, but he does reveal
his true identity in an embrace and a kiss, for which she blesses him (379) and when she
offers money to him he makes it a point to restore it to her. The full significance of this
interlude emerges in the echoes that her last question, addressed to Kim, generates in the
novel: you will come back again? (Kipling 221). Her words,echoing the faithless betrayal
of her first lover brings into the forefront the difference between him and the country bred
protagonist of the novel. Lispeths first lover was a European, born and brought up there, and
returning to his country was all that he wanted. But for Kim Indian is his country, his
homeland and the Woman of Shamlegh a fellow citizen. Kim is deeply attached to India; all
he wants is to explore its diverse geographical and cultural dimensions. Though not Indian by
race, Kim becomes a part of it. Therefore he does not lure the Woman of Shamlegh with false
promises, but, as McClure suggests, seals his commitment towards her and her fellow
countrymen with a kiss and this symbolically includes himself and all his fellow country born
and bred Englishmen within the culture they are to command over (380). Kim will never be a
McIntosh Jellaludin of Kiplings short story To Be Filled For Reference, who dies past
redemption by changing his creed and marrying a native Muslim woman to be a part of
India because he doesnt have to be a part of it; he already is. Kim lets the country (India,
which he calls his Homeland) internalize him within its discourse and paradigm and therefore
becomes one with it.
Thisinternalization, his identity as a country-born-and-bred Sahib, comes into the
state of a crisis when the country in identity clashes with that of the Sahib in it and this
gives rise to a series of self-questioning and speculation, not only within Kim but also within
the readers of Kiplings novel. Problem begins when the two cultures meet through Kim and
each seeks to establish its rights over him.
Who Is Kim?: Negotiating Boundaries In Kim
So far Kims relationship with the Orient and the Occident has been analyzed and it
has been observed that Kim forms a part of both the cultures. But the clash of two opposing
cultures often evokes a conflict in him and he suffers from a crisis of identity. Who is Kim?
What is Kim? he asks himself. These questions not only haunt Kim recurrently at different
instances and situations of the novel but also indulge the readers in finding an answer to it.
After all who is Kim OHara? A Sahib? A Country-born-and-bred Sahib? Or both? Or
none?
Rudyard Kiplings Kim represents the search for a British protagonist Indian enough
to cause the most visible divide of colonial power to---almost---disappear. But that almost
is crucial, for at no time is his immersion into India must Kim forget that he is British.(Kaul
427). Kiplings Kim is Irish by birth and becomes English by virtue of his training and
affiliation. Therefore as Kim grows into his imperial responsibilities in Kiplings
bildungsroman, his identity as an individual is defined by this almost: British/almost
Indian/Indian/but still British; child/almost man/man/but still child (427). Therefore locating
Kim in any particular cultural paradigm or discourse becomes problematic due to his
hybridized existence in a world where almost repelling cultural identities try to find a
synthesis in and through him. But then again the question of the almost becomes important
in determining what Kim develops into as a socio-cultural being.
So far Kims relation with the Occident and Orient has been analyzed and it has been
observed that Kim belongs to each of these cultural paradigms and discourses. But the main

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conflict lies in the fact that these cultures are mutually exclusive of each other and more
importantly while the former belongs to the colonizer the latter is that of the colonized. As a
result of this cultural conflict Kim develops a kind of identity crisis, feeling detached and
restless, contemplating on issue of his belongingness exemplified by his internal monologues
during different section of the novel and there are times when he confronts his foster father.
Kims situation in the Great Game makes this issue profound. Infact the Great Game
becomes a metaphor for Kims crisis. He is indeed involved in the greatest game of locating
himself in a particular cultural paradigm and doing is is quiet impossible. Therefore his
identity borders on the almost where the only possible conclusion to this problem lies, a
hyphenated existence within the paradigm of a multicultural discourse where none but a
cultural hybrid can exist.
Ann Parry, in her essay Kim and Contemporary History, observes:
Every adventure of the Great Game in Kim turns on disguise: escape is
effected or information gathered by the agent assuming a caste or
religious disguise. Earlier in the novel, as a boy, Kim asked, What am I?
Mussalman, Hindu, Jain, or Buddhist? and was told by Mahbub Ali,
Each has merits in its own country. The boys objection that the Lama
had taught him an altogether different thing is met by the usual
dismissal of him as a dreamer of dreamers. (Parry 319)
The Great Game teaches Kim the significance of Mahbub Alis teachings, that what one is
often depends on where one is placed among Sahibsamong the folks of Hind and at different
moments both kinds of faces maybe necessary. (Kipling 121). To operate as a spy in India, as Parry
suggests, Kim has to be well acquainted with racial differences since this a Land of multiple cultures,
castes and creed and undoubtedly Kim has a thorough knowledge of them. His special virtue is being
able to temper his soul so that he can enter anothers (Parry 320) as in the particular episode when
Hurree Babu thinks Kim was pulling is leg Lurgan Sahib answers promptly : That is what he must
learn at Lucknow (Kipling 135).

The function of disguise is very important in this context. Kims position, culturally,
is complicated (as it has been pointed in the very beginning and will be discussed further)
since in him the Native and British cultures struggle to find a synthesis creating a new breed.
Therefore the assessment of Kims acquaintance and relation with the two cultures
individually becomes important to determine the point of fusion of the two.Therefore the
function of disguise is very important in this context. Kims position,
culturally,becomescomplicated (as it has been pointed in the very beginning) since in him the
Native and British cultures struggles to find a synthesis creating a new breed. Therefore the
assessment of Kims acquaintance and relation with the two cultures individually becomes
important to determine the point of fusion of the two. Therefore the disguise theme gains
importance as metaphorically and symbolically Kims disguise is an attempt on his part to
negotiate with the two opposing cultures, the East and the West.
Another point becomes significant in this context. When Kim asks Mahbub Ali
Whether he is a Muslim or a Buddhist it appears that the multiple cultures inside the Indian
paradigm complicates things for him. Hurree Babu even advises him not to use terms
generally used by Muslims while his role play as a Buddhist chela. But all these
multicultural aspects are part of the broader paradigm of the Orient and the conflict lies
between the Occidental and Oriental cultural discourse and paradigm.

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Kims conflict regarding his cultural identity surfaces in many ways, in various
instances in the novel. The most prominent of these is an occasion, as has been suggested by
Ian Baucom in his essay The Survey of India, when Kim, in chapter 10 of the novel, makes a
break from St.Xaviers (the place where his Sahibization takes place) and falls into the
hands of Hurree Babu, the Western educated Asiatic Bengali Babu. Hurree Babu, rather than
returning Kim to school, trains him for his destiny--- the Great Game. Hurree Babu trains him
with an array of passwords, undercover gimmicks and disguises and set him free to
ramble, closing his instructions with the following words: This half yearis to make you
de-Englishized, you see (Kipling 155). Baucom focuses on the paragraph that immediately
follows this pronouncement and observes that Kim instead of reveling in this unexpected
liberation, contemplates the implication of Hurree Babus words with something like horror:
Now I am alone---all alone, he thought. In all India is no-one so alone as I . . .I Kim.
(Baucom356). This profound sense of isolation gives rise to Kims ultimate dilemma and it is
then that he asks himself a million dollar question: Who is Kim?. Kims feeling of
bewildered shock, as Baucom says, is justified because He has, once again, been
abandoned--- not by another adoptive parent but by a narrative of belonging.(357). This is
significant in the context of Kims continuous displacement from one cultural paradigm and
discourse to another. Kim, though initially disliked St.Xaviers, had come to recognize the
benefits of his reinvention as a white and a sahib. To be de-Englishized is, before all else, to
be expelled from a history that he thought he had been invited to join. (357). This evokes a
sense of what Baucom perfectly describes as cultural loneliness. Baucom observes:
Even Kipling, regarding Kim in this critical moment cannot avoid identifying
him assomething of a monster: a putatively white but performatively Asiatic
hybrid . . .Kimtranslates this loneliness and freakishness back into the question
which we[readers]---and he, and Kipling--- had thought was already answered in
favour Who is Kim? he demandsof himself again, only to discover himself as a
. . . unnameable excess. That excess,consonants with what Kipling will later call
monstrous hybridism of East and West, notonly produces a profound sense of
cultural bewilderment and estrangement produced by the colonial state. . . Kim
meets himself in this late episode, he encounters aself . . .a multiple personality.
(Baucom 357).

Kims multiple personality gives him the identity of a cultural hybrid and the
monstrosity( this hybridity is regarded monstrous because of the crisis it generates in Kim)
it entails can be mitigated, to some extent, by following, the middle path. This religious
analogy is relevant in the context of the protagonist as he learns about this from his spiritual
guide, Teshoo Lama. The Lama in his long term acquaintance with Kim not only becomes
the boys benefactor but also becomes his moral and spiritual guide along his journey through
life. B.J. Moore-Gilbert, the fourth chapter of his book entitled Kipling And Orientalism
suggests that the Lama is crucial to Kims quest for his own identity. His continuous
emphasis on the middle way generates a practical sympathy with all degrees of humanity
which Kim, too, comes to embody on their travels (Moore-Gilbert 129). He further points
out that Kims act of obeisance in the dust outside the Jain temple is deeply significant in
this context: I was made wise by thee, Holy OneMy teaching I owe thee (129).The
Buddhist doctrine of the middle path the Lamas way of life if applied in the context of
acculturation, can perhaps redeem Kim from the conflict and crisis his multiple personality
impinges on him. The Lama not only enlightens him about the concept of the middle path
but also declares that to those who follow the way there is neither black nor white. If the
philosophic doctrine is applied tothe discourse of culture, black and white may be used as
symbols to represent the orient and the occident respectively. Hence, for Kim, to resolve his

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identity crisis, a direct result of the clash of conflicting cultures, he has to ignore the
difference and embrace a synthesis. The conflict of cultural hybridism can only be resolved if
only Kim does not look at the two cultures individually and separately, but identify his
hybridism as a new cultural paradigm where he can suit himself.
Kiplings motif in initiating a cultural conflict right at the peak of Kims adolescence
is interesting and bears a considerable amount of significance. It can be said thatbefore Kim
transcends into the threshold of adulthood, Kipling wanted his protagonist to experience and
resolve the problem of acculturation to bestow him with an identity unique in its hybridity.
As a reasonable inference one can deduce that Kipling wanted the two opposing culture to
synthesize in and through Kim, not to endow arrays of conflict within him, but to acquire
synthesis of the two dialectical cultures. The hybridity it ensues will not breed contradictory
traits within him. It will be a reconciliatory hybridism, a positive kind of compromise. The
Blakean philosophy of progress through synthesis of dialectical principles is applicable in this
context to justify the motives behind such an assimilation of contraries into a single self to
form a new breed. Zohreh T. Sullivan, in his essay on Kimwrites:
The major problems and contradiction in the novel are informed and
shaped by Kiplings divided sense of self, its multiple loyalties to the
power of empire during a time of intensified authority, and his love for a
lost India that blurred distinctions between the ruler and the ruled. The
inner quest, the search for an identity (who is Kim?), suggests the
possibility of self-discovery and integration of his many selves, the arrival
at an identity meditated by the lama Kim learns to love. (Sullivan 442)

This is evident from the transition of Kims own concept about his cultural identity towards
the end of the novel. Kim, whom the reader finds a few chapters ago, reprimanding Hurree
Babu for wordily obfuscate[ing] around the affair (Parry 319) (of the new situation of the
Great Game) by strongly asserting his superior racial position,I am a Sahib (Kipling 185)
forgets his cultural and racial superiority and wholeheartedly indulges in comforting the
ailing Lama by rubbing his feet. When the Lama expresses his surprise at Kims devotion
towards him despite being a Sahib he promptly answers I am not a Sahib, I am thy chela
(Kipling 25). This can be studied as an example of Kims embracement of the middle path to
emerge as a perfect synthesis of the two diametrically opposite cultures. This hybridity is
without threats of monstrosity and self-doubt as it is a peaceful reconcilement of the Eastern
and the Western culture. This does not signify that Kim forsakes the worldly life to embrace
the life of the Lama but rather suggests that Kim has found deliverance from the conflict of
culture through embracing his hybridity. In this way the hyphen is removed and the two
cultures becomes one in and through Kim. The Lama successfully wins salvation for
himself and his beloved [Kim] (Kipling 240).
Conclusion
Kim had never existed, wholly, either as a Sahib or as a Country born and bred
Englishman. His identity is rather a result of a synthesis of the two opposite cultures. This
synthesis is a result of Kims internalization of both the cultures and despite their conflicting
claims, a sort of resolution is found in and through Kim. Kims appeal lies in his ability to
forgo cultural differences and embrace a mixed identity. He is not devoid of stereo typifying
native Indians. But at the same time his sympathy lies with them. Kipling wanted to create
the figure of a benevolent colonizer, who, does not indulge in exploiting the native Indians,

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one who does not reflect an acquired sense of superiority in his disposal towards the native
Indians and one who does not relegate the natives into an object position. In a letter addressed
to Margaret Burne-Jones dated 28th November 1885, Kipling, writing about the European
men employed in India mentions that England spends her best men in India who in his
opinion, die like Martyrs, by virtues of overworking and succumbing to diseases only to
make India, a foreign country, better than what it is. Kiplings outlook can be analyzed and
scrutinized through the glasses of Post-Colonial criticism but what matters here is Kiplings
concern for the men of Europe who face innumerable adverse situations, be it uncongenial
weather or health conditions because, they are not, country born and bred. What makes Kim
victorious in the face of extreme heat and venereal diseases (to which many of Kiplings
European characters have succumbed) is his capability of getting adapted to the countrys
weather and its people. This adaptation would not have helped Kim in his life and in his
successful operation as a spy alone. Kim emerges victorious in his mission and comes to an
understanding of himself and his identity through a long drawn process of internalization of
both the Eastern and the Western culture and thereby arriving at a point of synthesis. It is true
that the Eastern and western culture had created a sense of ambivalence within Kim but it is
equally important to take into consideration that had it not been for the crisis created through
the cultural conflict and its ambivalence, Kim could have never been able to arrive at a
position of synthesis where he comes to a significant understanding of his identity and of
himself. He perhaps finds a reasonable answer to this Question of identity. The hybridism lets
go off its monstrosity and helps Kim to resolve the doubts about his identity and self.

Works Cited:
Aries, Philippe. Centuries of Childhood. Trans. Robert Baldick. New York: Random House.
1962. Print.
Baucom, Ian. The Survey of India in Kim: A Norton Critical Edition. Ed. Zohreh T.
Sullivan. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. , 2002. Print.
Howe, Irving. The Pleasures of Kim in Kim: A Norton Critical Edition. Ed. Zohreh T.
Sullivan. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. , 2002. Print
Kaul, Suvir. Kim, or How to Be Young, Male, and British in Kiplings India in Kim: A
Norton Critical Edition. Ed. Zohreh T. Sullivan. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. ,
2002. Print.
Kipling, Rudyard. Kim: A Norton Critical Edition. Ed. Zohreh T. Sullivan. New York: W.W.
Norton & Company. , 2002. Print.
McClure, John A. Kiplings Richest Dream in Kim: A Norton Critical Edition. Ed. Zohreh
T. Sullivan. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. , 2002. Print.
Millar, J.H. A New Kipling in Kim: A Norton Critical Edition. Ed. Zohreh T. Sullivan.
New York: W.W. Norton & Company. , 2002. Print.
Moore-Gilbert B.J. Kipling and Orientalism. London: Crom Helm Ltd., 1986.Print.
Parry, Ann. Recovering the Connection Between Kim and Contemporary History in Kim: A
Norton Critical Edition. Ed. Zohreh T. Sullivan. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. ,
2002. Print.
Said, Edward W. Kim as Imperialist Novel in Kim: A Norton Critical Edition. Ed. Zohreh
T. Sullivan. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. , 2002. Print.
Sale, Roger. Fairy Tales and After: from Snow White to E.B.White. New York: Harvard
University Press, 1978. Print.

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Sullivan, Zohren T. What Happens at the End of Kim? in Kim: A Norton Critical Edition.
Ed. Zohreh T. Sullivan. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. , 2002. Print.
Williams, Patrick. Kim and Orientalism in Kim: A Norton Critical Edition. Ed. Zohreh T.
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