Summary
When Kim is on holiday from school, he goes on various adventures with Mahbub Ali and Lurgan. He learns about the religions of India, practices mapmaking skills, and even receives a .45 revolver as a Christmas present. After some time passes, Mahbub Ali tells Creighton that Kim is finally ready to begin working with them. Creighton pushes back and urges Kim to complete his studies at St. Xavier’s. However, Mahbub Ali is concerned that if they wait for Kim to finish school, he’ll lose the valuable spy skills that make him such an asset to their team. Creighton concedes, and Kim leaves St. Xavier’s for good. Mahbub Ali decides to take Kim traveling for six months to prove he can work as a spy.
The first stop on Kim’s “trial journey” is at the home of a blind woman named Huneefa. Huneefa lights incense which causes Kim to lose consciousness. Huneefa then performs a series of rituals to ensure Kim’s protection on the road. When Kim awakes the next day, he finds that Mahbub Ali has left and that the Babu is his new guardian. The Babu gives Kim a costume to wear as a disguise, and he also wears a silver amulet around his neck which identifies him as a member of the British Secret Service. The disguise that the Babu gives Kim makes him, ironically, look like he is the lama’s disciple once again. Only this time, there’s a .45 revolver nestled in his robes.
While in disguise at the Benares train station, Kim begins to have existential ponderings. He confides in a traveling holy man, who tells Kim that he’s having a spiritual crisis. He reassures Kim that these are thoughts that preoccupy many different people, and that he is not alone. Kim is comforted by what the man has told him, and he continues on his merry way. Kim approaches the Jain temple where the lama is currently residing. Outside of the temple, he sees a farmer with his sick son. The farmer is desperate, as he has approached numerous priests without having any luck curing his child. He urges Kim to help facilitate a meeting with the lama, hoping that the lama can finally cure his son.
When Kim and the lama reunite and duly analyze the condition of the farmer’s sick child, Kim realizes that the main issue is malnutrition. Kim provides the farmer with various food items to feed his son, and he tells them to return for a “check up” the following day. The lama is impressed by Kim’s resourcefulness, though he is not surprised—he sees these survival skills as something that is an asset in his search for the River of the Arrow. The father and son return and reveal that Kim’s medical advice worked. They thank Kim by inviting him to eat. While dining together, Kim and the lama tell the farmer about their plans to continue searching for the River of the Arrow. The first step to reigniting their quest is to visit the Kullu woman from Chapter Four. The farmer explains that he is also traveling in the same direction. The three board a train together the next day.
While traveling, Kim sees a Maratha man wearing a silver amulet that resembles his own. Kim decides to display the amulet around his own neck, and the two confirm that they are both members of the British Secret Service. The Maratha man begins telling Kim that he is in danger. His enemies are chasing him, and he’s been unable to complete his current mission. Fearful that he will be killed at the next train stop, Kim offers to disguise the Maratha man as a Sadhu (a holy man). The Maratha man, referred to as agent E.23, is impressed with Kim’s spy skills and recognizes Lurgan’s training.
E.23 has a tussle with a white man on the train who is the District Superintendent of Police. He thinks that E.23, who is disguised, is a vagabond, and he threatens to hurt him. It turns out that the District Superintendent of Police is also a member of the Secret Service, and he is an essential player in E.23’s letter delivery mission. While E.23 and the District Superintendent of Police reconcile, the lama scolds Kim for aiding the Maratha in his disguise. He advises Kim to use his skills to help people for good, like he did when he diagnosed the farmer boy with a case of malnutrition.
When Kim and the lama arrive at the Kulu woman’s house, Kim learns that there’s a traveling hakim (a Muslim doctor) also staying there. Once the lama goes to bed, Kim and the hakim get into an argument. The hakim later reveals that he is not a Muslim doctor, but rather the Babu in disguise. The Babu was involved in E.23’s spy mission, and he tells Kim that he is succeeding in his new responsibilities. The Babu also provides Kim with an update on national and foreign affairs, which he cryptically refers to as “the pedigree of the white stallion.”
In his update, the Babu tells Kim that the Five Kings on the northern border were recently threatening to go to war. However, a deal was made with two of the five kings (named Hilas and Bunar) to secure the northern border from invaders coming from the north of India. In exchange for Hilas and Bunar’s help, Babu (as a government worker) has been overseeing infrastructural support for the northern region of the country. However, Babu’s role is being threatened—the Russians are attempting to convince Hilas and Bunar to join their side in order to capture the northern region. The Babu needs Kim’s help to stop Hilas and Bunar from being persuaded to align themselves with the enemy. He convinces Kim to travel north, and Kim, in turn, convinces the lama to accompany him on this leg of the journey.
Analysis
Kim is ecstatic to be freed from St. Xavier’s and fully delves into his nomadic tendencies. However, what happens at the first stop on the new leg of his journey is quite symbolic. While at Huneefa’s house, Kim is intentionally made to fall unconscious against his will. Although Mahbub Ali, the Babu, and Huneefa are all working towards Kim’s health and safety, the protagonist is brought to the home under false pretenses and ultimately awakes under different guardianship. In this way, Kim is a pawn in a greater political game. Although he has people in his life who are looking out for him, Kim is, to a certain extent, consistently taken advantage of.
It’s quite ironic that the costume that the Babu gives to Kim makes him look like he is the lama’s disciple. Instead of following a path of truth or enlightenment, Kim’s path is now forged in lies, deceit, and manipulation. The visual imagery of the .45 revolver hidden under the flaps of Kim’s robes seems to underscore Kim’s ability to camouflage himself. This particular costume also demonstrates the ulterior motives that surround him. While Kim’s friendship with the lama is one of the most honest relationships he has throughout the novel, it is clear that it is now being co-opted in order to support foreign policy.
At different moments in the story, Kim wears two distinct amulets around his neck. The first one is a bag assembled by the woman who looked after Kim following the death of his parents—it contains legal documents pertaining to Kim’s birth and place of origin. This amulet is recovered at the military campsite in Chapter Four. The next amulet is given to Kim by the Babu. Although it looks like a cheap silver signifier of an extinct Indian cult, it actually formalizes Kim’s indoctrination into the British secret service. The fact that the silver amulet replaces Kim’s original necklace signifies that the protagonist has shed his former life and is embarking on a new one.
Kim’s evolution is further exemplified in Chapter Eleven, when he begins to question the meaning of his existence and his life’s purpose. Up until this point, Kim has not shown a semblance of self-doubt—he has glided through periods of instability and chaos without second-guessing himself or those around him. However, leaving St. Xavier’s and committing to working for the Secret Service full-time is a rite of passage that generates a host of new questions. Kim’s life is marked by his loneliness (largely attributed to his issues of abandonment and his orphaned upbringing), and he first thinks that such questions are a sign of his isolation and weakness. When the holy man reassures Kim that his doubts are normal and part of the human experience, Kim (perhaps for one of the first times in his life) feels a sense of relief and connection to a greater community.
In this section, we see Kim’s long-awaited reunion with the lama come to fruition. However, the circumstances of their encounter are far different from what may have been expected. As we watch the lama navigate his novel place in Kim’s life, it is somewhat debatable how much the lama knows (or avoids knowing) about Kim’s affairs. The lama seems to acknowledge that something is fishy when Kim aids agent E.23 on the train, and perhaps he tries to give Kim his “two cents” when he mentions that Kim should instead use his talents for good. It is ultimately quite ironic that the lama, on his route to enlightenment, gets dragged right into the center of the Great Game.
