The identity quest in Kipling's Kim

BY

Graham PARRY #

Kipling’s most elaborate exploration of the Anglo-Indian identity crisis is his novel Kim (1901) where, in his (finest and most spacious piece of fiction, he dramatises the conflicting claims exerted by India and England on an engaging young product of the two cultures, and depicts the strange relationship between the young boy and an ancient Buddhist priest. It is altogether a curious story, mixing the delights of the active life with the austerities of the spiritual life, and presented as a combination of schoolboy tale and moral alle¬ gory; what hold it together are the marvellous panoramic descrip¬ tions of India in all its colourful diversity, in which the figures of Kim and the Lama appear completely credible. The thematic centres of the book would seem to be Kim’s confusion about his own identity, and Kipling’s attempt to comprehend the discipline of Eastern mysti¬ cism. The shape of the book reflects these preoccupations : the first two thirds take place on the plains, and concern themselves primar¬ ily with Kim’s career, during which the Lama appears as a venerable but somewhat pathetic figure; the last third takes place in the moun¬ tains, where the Lama grows in stature and becomes at last the centre of serious attention.

Kim is born in India of poor Irish parents who soon die of cha¬ racteristic Indian afflictions, fever and opium, leaving him to be brought up in native fashion by a half-caste woman, so that he looks, speaks and thinks like a Hindustani. As a child, he is like a chame¬ leon, fitting into any background; fond of dressing up, he appears