Kipling’s Pilgrimage to India

Kim

Abstract

Kipling’s pilgrimage to India: Kim

Rudyard Kipling’s Kim is one of world’s classics. It has a varied and rich material not only for a reader, but also for students of literature, history, sociology, religion, ethnography, and imperial politics. Written in an engrossing, live style the book is now a hundred and thirty years old. It was a time when neither political compulsions nor pressure of political correctness could weigh upon the author. Therefore, the whole presentation of various groups of people, individuals, events, creeds, and ideas are as what Kipling found to be precise through his own observations and perception.  This article, presents the book as an ideational pilgrimage of the writer-observer. Through the 12 years old hero of the novel, nicknamed ‘Little friend of all the World’, who is an unforgettable character. British by birth, soon orphaned in India, living on errands and begging, but sharp, witty, confident, fearless, fluent in native Urdu-Hindi interspersed with tasty abuses in response to situations, knowing enough English too, moving around local inns and bazar of Lahore, Kim dresses like a low-caste Hindu, and speaks like a Muslim. His love for the guru and desire to help him in his poor physical condition is extraordinary. Kipling compares him to Ananda, the great disciple of Lord Buddha. Another interesting material in the book is about the treatment of natives by the natives. It is recorded through the feeling of various characters. Thus, through Kim and his Tibetan guru, the author has also mapped a pilgrims’ progress with empathy. The article has presented the book as a new appreciation from this perspective.