‘Kim’ is recognised as the greatest work of famous author Rudyard Kipling. This is a cult novel especially in espionage circles. It is fiction but documents the widely popular Great Game between the British Empire and Tsarist Russia, a clandestine cat and mouse conflict between the two powers fought out on in British India and the border territories which separated the two great powers. Indeed one of the twentieth century’s most famous and notorious spies, the treacherous Kim Philby, who rose to power in British Mi6 whilst in reality working directly for the Soviet Union’s KGB. Philby takes his nickname Kim from Kipling’s protagonist. Kim is a young lad. His parents who are both Irish have left him in an orphan like state and he grows up, streetwise in the slums of Lahore, known to all as ‘Little Friend of the World. Despite his Caucasian European heritage, Kim felt half native and he spoke his English with a sing song native accent and dreamed in Hindi. The 19th century period of the book’s setting was Imperial India at the very apogee of Queen Victoria’s dominance of the sub-continent. The book highlights some of the conflicts of Empire, politically from both sides, native Indian and British overlords. It is clear that the author, Rudyard Kipling, has a deep connection to India and his prose is written in a high style, invoking beautiful descriptions of geographical features and the characters have emotional exotic traits, rarely denoting negative feelings towards the Indian people. Some of the descriptions and flow of the prose are so beautiful and poetic the reader must often stop and wonder at this great master in full flow. Often new native terms, unfamiliar to the lay reader are thrown into the mix, giving us a rich glossary of terms, deepening our understanding of this alien culture. The crux of the book revolves around young Kim’s relationship to the elderly Buddhist lama who is master to Kim, taking him under his wing. As chela, Kim traverses India from cities to alluvial plains to across the great mountain ranges of the Himalayas. The quest is for fulfilment of ‘The Wheel of Life’ and the lama seeks out his mysterious river that will give him enlightenment. The religious other of India, a simple renouncement of materialism, monastic begging and the virtues of Buddhism are explored and influential, although other major subcontinent religions get coverage such as Hindu ideas and Kim is often disguising himself as a Musselman invoking the ideas of Islam. The former regiment of Kim’s dead Irish father chance upon the wandering young boy and forcibly take him in and make him attend school. The lama contributes financially to ensure that Kim gets the best available education and treatment. He could aim to become a powerful Sahib in the service of the British Raj government. Kim has contacts a plenty and often through various merchants or influential friends such as a famous horsetrader, Kim’s adventurous spirit leads him into the adult world setting off on inquisitive and often potentially dangerous missions and adventures. He is inadvertently being sucked into the Great Game and his work as a spy reaches his climax when some foreign indeed Russians who are travelling with the lama and him across the mountains, fall out and, completely taboo in the eyes of natives, actually physically assault the old sage, it is Kim who defends with violence the outrageous attack and the travelling foreigners lose all their possessions including critical maps and documents that will prove useful to the British government of India. We weave through an increasingly more native world deep in the heart of India and the special relationship of old man and boy, the romance of the whole journey, culminates in the lama finding his river and way up deep in the mountains we see a fully-matured adult Kim contemplating future, his world view and philosophy so touchingly formed with spiritual non-material values by his master. It’s a wonderful tale and a unique book that surely must be one of the best cultural products of the British Empire in India.
Espionage is all so topsy turvy and confusing! If Kim Philby had never been caught there would never have been a postage stamp made after him or even a monument of him in Moscow and most of us would never have heard of him even though he was a cousin of Field Marshal Montgomery. If only he had read the epic spy novel Beyond Enkription in The Burlington Files series! It’s about Pemberton’s People in MI6 and is a must read for espionage cognoscenti. Have a look at a recent intriguing news article in TheBurlingtonFiles website dated 31 October 2022 about Colonel Pemberton’s People in MI6, John le Carré and Kim Philby. You may be gobsmacked.