"Life as He Would Have It": The Invention of India in Kipling's "Kim"

Adaptations of Empire: Kipling's Kim, Novel and Game

“…It is this process that is at the heart of Kipling's novel, and which is the driving motivational force behind Kim's adventures. Wegner (1994) argues that Kipling's concern with maintaining British imperial power meant that it was necessary for him to construct a utopian version of India, one in which conflict and historical change were eliminated. This imaginative regulation of India was accomplished by "two linked strategies... mapping and cataloguing" (p.143).…”

“…Through the process of mapping and cataloguing, the colony itself is written into existence. Wegner (1994) argues that the map produced by colonial agents is an abstraction which situates the colony within the larger ideological structures of empire. This map can only be read by those who are located 'outside' the space that it represents, whether physically or conceptually -those who 'belong' to the center rather than the periphery.…”

“…The importance of play begins with the central conceit of the novel: The Great Game, in which the struggle between rival colonial powers is conducted through espionage. Phillip Wegner (1994) argues that this struggle ensures the novel is constructed within a doubled narrative frame, where the physical setting of India is transformed into a playing field. A playing field, of course, requires a player, which the book provides in the form of the protagonist of the novel, a young orphan boy named Kim who is Irish by birth, but who grows up in the streets of Lahore, India in the late 19th century.…”