RUDYARD KIPLING’S KIM:A NOVEL

              Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay on 30^th December,1865 and educated in Devonshire ,England.Kipling and his sister trixie were only two children of their Irish parents.Their father John Lockwood was professor of Architectural Sculpture at the school of Art in Bombay.Mother was Alice Macdonald Kipling.In their early childhood,they had been sent with the Hollow-way couple.They had bitter experiences of childhood in these people’s company.However,endurance of the fortune given by these strangers had enshaped kipling’s life well-disciplined,timid and hard.

            

               Kipling’s parents were Methodists and so there was much biblical influence on the children.As Kipling and his sister had earlier living of childhood in India,they had fluent Hindi language.

                The finest of his works,successful full-length novel is Kim that gave him much reputation in India as well as abroad was published in 1901.It proved to be a perfect masterpiece with theme set in Indian cultural,social,political and economical life.This was the book for which he had labored for several years,and as this longing was fulfilled,he came immediately along forefront literacy figures.Secular and religious ideology,real plausible characters,humane dealing and love,tripartite structure,real beautiful landscapes of mountains and crowded plains,dramatized narration,symbols,imagery and religious allusions all are profound basical features of this literary masterpiece of Rudyard Kipling.

Theme of the novel ‘KIM’

               In the background of the novel,imperialism can be seen as theme .The novel is ‘a master work of imperialism…….a rich and absolutely fascinating,but nevertheless profoundly embarrassing novel.’Kipling himself was an Imperialist,and Kim embodies attitudes towards British rule in India which these days are wholly unacceptable and unpalatable.Kipling believed it was right and proper for Britain to own India and rule its people,and the possibility that this position might be questionable never seems to have crossed his mind.At the time Kipling was writing there was a considerable ferment of revolt among Indians against British rule,and yet at points in Kim when he could have acknowledged this Kipling dismisses it.This is particularly apparent when he has an old soldier comment on the Great Mutiny of 1857,dismissing it as madness-‘A madness ate into all the army, and they turned against their officers.’ In this and  many other ways,Kipling’s imperialist attitudes dominate the novel.

                          

                 On the surface of the novel,we can see other themes as well-religious as well as secular.From secular point of view,Kipling’s Kim recounts the story of young person’s growth to maturity.Through a series of adventures in India,the young Irish orphan Kim develops an understanding of himself and his world.The book also depicts the full religious development of an old man,a Buddhist lama.The close relationship between Kim and the Lama shows how a young person’s growth can be influenced by the wisdom of an older person.Meanwhile,Kim is also an adventure story with an exciting plot involving spies and war,mystery and intrigue.

                       

                 For religious point of view,the ideal of equality and unity of men echoes across several motifs in ‘Kim’,the novel,most notably through the Buddhist teaching of Teshoo Lama.He tells Kim,”To those who follow the way there is neither black nor white,Hind not Bhotiyal.We be all souls seeking to escape.”This ideal of equality and unity of men transcends the stringest caste,on class,distinctions of the predominantly Hindu society that Kim has known.The Lama carries with him a diagram called ‘the wheel of life’,which is a symbolic representation of the Buddhist doctrine that all lives are equally bound in the cycle of life and that all souls seek release from this cycle by attaining Enlightenment.The numerous references to the wheel of life throughout the novel serve to reinforce the message of equality and unity.

                            

                  One more thematic idea can be attached here-self-identity and self-renunciation.After meeting of the two –Kim and the Lama at Lahore,the plot develops two strands which run in parallel,and to a large extent overlap.One strand concerns Kim’s discipleship to the lama in search of self-identity,and other concerns with the Lama ,who is an abbot in his own country,and now,in old age,on a Buddhist quest,following ‘The Way’ to free himself from the ‘Wheel of things’,and merge his soul with the great soul(of Lord Buddha).He is looking for the ‘River of the Arrow’,a river which legend has it,sprang from an arrow shot by Buddha.Anyone who bathes in this river shall be cleansed of ‘all taint and speckle of sin’.In short,the Lama is in search of self-renunciation.  

  Story of the novel KIM

             

                   Kim(Kimball O’Hara) is the orphaned son of an Irish soldier(Sahib).He earns his living by begging and running small errands on the streets of Lahore.He occasionally works for his friend,Mahubub Ali,a horse trader who is one of the native operatives of the British secret service.

                   

                     One day,he befriends a Tibetan Lama who is on a quest to free himself from the wheel of life.Kim becomes his chela,or deciple,and accompanies him on his journey.On the way,Kim accidentally learns about parts of the great game and is recruited by the British to carry a message to the British commander in Umballa.Kim’s trip with the Lama along the Grand Trunk Road is the first great adventure in the novel.by chance,Kim’s father regimental chaplain identifies him by his Masonic certificate,which he wears around his neck and Kim is sent to a top English school in Lucknow,but he keeps in touch with both the Lama and his secret service connections.He is trained in espionage(the game of looking at a tray full of mixed objects and nothing which have been added or taken away is still used for training spies and is still called “Kim’s Game”)

                      

                      After three years of schooling,Kim is given a government appointment so that he can begin his role in the Great Game.Before this appointment begins,however,he is granted time to take a much-deserved break.Kim rejoins the Lama and,at the behest of Kim’s superior the Babu,they make a trip to the Himalayas.Here the espionage and spiritual threads of the story collide,with the Lama unwittingly falling into conflict with Russian intelligence agents.Kim obtains maps,papers,and other important items from the Russians-who were working to undermine British control of the region.Babu befriends the Russians under cover,acting as a guide and thus ensuring that they do not recover the lost items.Kim,porters and villagers all come to the aid of the lama.

                           

                         The Lama realizes that he has gone astray.His search for the River of the Arrow should be taking place in the plains,not on the mountains,and he orders the porters to take them back.Here Kim and the Lama are nursed to health,Kim delivers the Russian intel documents to Babu,a concerned Mahbub Ali comes to check on Kim,and the Lama finds his river and achieves Enlightenment.The reader is left to decide whether Kim will henceforth follow the materialistic road of the Great Game,or the spiritual way of Tibetan Buddhism,or a combination thereof.Kim himself has to say:”I am not a Sahib.I am thy chela.”                          

Training of Kim for secret service  

                        Kim was often guided by Mahbub Ali for secret services.Kim was usually sent on mission to follow some people and collect informations about them.By chance Kim was acquainted with the regiment which sent him to St.Xavier’s school,Lucknow,for training of survey.In holidays,he liked to play game on the road.In his first holiday,he fleed from the school and disguised himself as a beggar.In his disguise,he travelled upto Delhi.He met Mahbub at Umballa in disguise of a beggar sitting at the footpath.Mahbub,then,sent him to Simla to live with Lurgan Sahib.Lurgan Sahib was also member of the Indian survey department.He learnt there all kinds of tricks,medicine’s uses,magics and religious books.He left the place and surveyed as a member of the survey helping other member in the train’s compartment.He had gone to Simla two times for the training.Then,Mahbub took him to Bikaner,to prepare a survey report of the desertland.He was introduced with Hurree Babu at Simla who took him under his service to play the Great Game.The boy who was playing minor games on the road came to play the Great Game.He was successful in his Game.He was admired everywhere.

Lama’s quest

                      The Lama was looking for annihilation of the self.For this same purpose he had visited India.Orphan boy Kim was in search of identity of the self.Kim’s search was completed after finding his father’s regiment at Umballa.The Lama’s quest was still not completed.Kim was going to play the Great Game.Kim and the Lama went to the Kulu woman’s house again.Hurree Babu was already there in disguise of a doctor.As the Lama was feeling unwell,the Bengali Babu advised him to go up the hills and mountains.He would get fresh air for his good health.Besides,the Lama had not found the Holy River yet.He believed that his quest would be fulfilled in the mountains.They climbed the mountains of Mossoorie.The Bengali Babu was in lead carrying an umbrella.This umbrella was a signal for Kim.The Bengali Babu made friendship with the Russian and the Frenchman who were supposed to have the secret letters of the king.These people were climbing down.There were many coolies with them.They were carrying the foreigners’ kiltas.On the way they encountered with kim and the Lama.The Lama had spread his paper on the ground.The lama began to explain the Foreigners about the Wheel of Life.

                      

                            The Russian desired to buy the paper.The Lama was not ready to sell it.The Russian seized the chart forcefully.There was a shot of revolver from the Frenchman.The scene was different.The Russian stroke the Lama on his face.The Lama fell by a stream.Kim also fired a shot.The foreigners ran for life.The coolies were frightened.They carried away the kiltas.Playing a trick of making a spell for their relief from a curse of the Lama,Kim got the red kilta.He took out  the letters.They came back to Kulu woman’s house.

                         

                              The Lama realized that all this happened because of his own fault.The temptation towards his selfish desires had gone all this disaster.He stayed starving for two days and two nights.He sat in meditation.He inquires into “the cause of things”.Upon the second night he felt that his soul went free.It drew near to the Great soul.He saw all places and all kinds of things in contemplation.He knew that the soul had passed beyond the illusion of time and space and of things.After a long time,his soul returned.A voice came and asked him to look  at the world.He looked upon the world,and found that the River of Arrow was at his feet.He was able to free himself from the Wheel of things through the meditation.He received the River by spiritual perception. 

Kim as a colonial novel

                     Kipling with his sister had earlier living of childhood in India.So they had fluent Hindi Language.English language and the Biblical instincts were parental gifts to them.Bombay was Kipling’s birthplace.By travelling and writing reports for the magazine,he experienced wide range of social,cultural and political Indian life.He had abundant knowledge and material for themes of his different books.He has written with remarkable experience of adventure and open-air life.His stories deal with India,the army,the navy,the jungle and its beasts.

                     

                                The total setting of the novel is of his beloved country India,among his own people and in great and beautiful land.This novel treats the biggest reality in India which is composite of different kinds of people and religions with fine setting of cold mountains and hot plains.Kipling deals with a vivid picture of the Indian culture and life as well as landscape.Gentle innocent country folks,vague and urchin town people and friendly fakirs,saddhus and jealous priests are Indian characters.In fresh holy air of Banaras,and splendid sights and horizon of Kedarnath and Badrinath one would gain much delight.In such lands there was fear of interruption of the Russian empiricism.Surveymen,or detective agents,of British empire worked hard,even with risk of their lives,to stop this interruption.The Great Game played by Kim and assisted by the surveymen is to stop the interruption.Besides,white police riding and travelling along the Grand Trunk Road,others helping the surveymen in their works are also effective to signify the domination of British empire.This novel was written in 1901 when India was still a colony.It is reason of true portrait of India in the novel.