How we cite our quotes: (Chapter. Paragraph)
Quote #7
'I am sorry you cannot beat my boy this morning. He says he will kill you with a knife or poison. He is jealous, so I have put him in the corner and I shall not speak to him today. He has just tried to kill me. You must help me with the breakfast. He is almost too jealous to trust, just now.'
Now a genuine imported Sahib from England would have made a great to-do over this tale. Lurgan Sahib stated it as simply as Mahbub Ali was used to record his little affairs in the North. (9.33-4)
One of the things that makes Kim and Lurgan unusual in this novel is the relaxed attitude they maintain toward all of the weird stuff that happens to them. Here, Lurgan reports that his adopted Hindu boy might try to poison Kim and/or Lurgan out of jealousy, so they should be on guard. But Lurgan gives Kim this information "simply," without the "great to-do over this tale" that a white person from England might have used. What do you think Kipling is trying to suggest about the cultural attitudes of British people raised in India as opposed to those raised in England? How is their behavior foreign compared to the behavior of "a genuine imported Sahib from England?"
Quote #8
After a huge meal at Kalka, [the Babu] spoke uninterruptedly. Was Kim going to school? Then he, an M A of Calcutta University, would explain the advantages of education. There were marks to be gained by due attention to Latin and Wordsworth's Excursion (all this was Greek to Kim). French, too was vital, and the best was to be picked up in Chandernagore a few miles from Calcutta. Also a man might go far, as he himself had done, by strict attention to plays called Lear and Julius Caesar, both much in demand by examiners. Lear was not so full of historical allusions as Julius Caesar; the book cost four annas, but could be bought second-hand in Bow Bazar for two. Still more important than Wordsworth, or the eminent authors, Burke and Hare, was the art and science of mensuration. A boy who had passed his examination in these branches—for which, by the way, there were no cram-books—could, by merely marching over a country with a compass and a level and a straight eye, carry away a picture of that country which might be sold for large sums in coined silver. But as it was occasionally inexpedient to carry about measuring-chains a boy would do well to know the precise length of his own foot-pace, so that when he was deprived of what Hurree Chunder called adventitious aids' he might still tread his distances. (9.135)
A lot of what the Babu says here about education clearly indicates that he is missing the point of his English studies—the Babu is struggling to absorb information that is culturally foreign to him, and Kim mercilessly makes fun of him for his difficulties. We get into this topic more in our "Character Analysis" of the Babu.
We do want to point out that the Babu isn't actually all wrong here. He is correct about the importance of the science of "mensuration" to Kim, which is the geometry of measuring out space. And since part of Kim's special spy training involves learning to draw maps and measure distances, this kind of study is, in fact, very important for his future. The Babu may not be too familiar with his Shakespeare, but it doesn't matter so much since he knows what's really important for his profession: how to make the maps that "might be sold for large sums in coined silver."