Rudyard Kiplings Kim
Rudyard Kiplings KimBy: Tara
I must say that Rudyard Kipling's Kim can be interpreted as a project that articulates the "hegemonic" relations between the colonizer and the colonized during British imperial rule in India. Kipling's novel explores how Kim embodies the absolute divisions between white and non white that existed in India and elsewhere at a time when the dominantly white Christian countries of Europe controlled approximately 85 percent of the world's surface. For Kipling, who believed it was India's destiny to be ruled by England, it was necessary to stress the superiority of the white man whose mission was to rule the dark and inferior races. Kipling effectively conveys this message about the "white man's burden" and the mindset of colonial India through Kim�s positioning in the Hindu caste system. Kim, who grows up as an orphan in India and is in no way different from an Indian except for his racial heritage. For Kipling's imperialist ideology, it is a narrative strategy to represent Kim's authority over the native inhabitants of the colony. Kim�s malleable social status is important because it has powerful ramifications about the colonial power-dynamics within a particular historical milieu. The Hindu caste system and various stereotypes also play an important role in Kipling�s story. For example, every person Kim encounters is immediately identified as either a member of a certain caste, religion, or race. Kipling depicts these stereotypes as they emerged out of colonial racial attitudes about Indian society. The descriptions of the Indian people Kim encounters depict each Indian as a very distinctive member of a certain caste. This is what makes Kim so unique as Kipling�s British protagonist. Kim has the ability to identify and associate with virtually every inhabitant of India. For this reason, Kim is very special, and I believe will serve some �greater� purpose as the novel ensues. Kim is so unique because during the era of Indian colonialism, the British immigrants� belief was that only two societies inhabited India: white and non white. Kim however, had an intimate bicultural knowledge to communicate on both sides of the divide--the British colonial officials on one side and the Indians who had no direct dealing with their colonial rulers, on the other. Thus, Kim has the potential to serve as a vital link between two very different cultural worlds. Kipling wrote Kim at a time of rising Indian nationalism, a...
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