How we cite our quotes: (Chapter. Paragraph)
Quote #7
'There is a good spirit in thee. Do not let it be blunted at St Xavier's. There are many boys there who despise the black men.'
'Their mothers were bazar-women,' said Kim. He knew well there is no hatred like that of the half-caste for his brother-in-law.
'True; but thou art a Sahib and the son of a Sahib. Therefore, do not at any time be led to contemn the black men. I have known boys newly entered into the service of the Government who feigned not to understand the talk or the customs of black men. Their pay was cut for ignorance. There is no sin so great as ignorance. Remember this.' (7.39-41)
("Half-caste" means a person of mixed race in this context.) There is a deep contradiction in the way that Creighton encourages Kim not to become a horrible racist at St. Xavier's. He basically tells Kim that, since Kim can be completely confident in his own position as a white man ("thou art a Sahib and the son of a Sahib"), he doesn't need to hate black men the way that the more insecure, sometimes mixed-race students of St. Xavier's may do.
In other words, Creighton is saying that Kim doesn't need to be a racist for completely racist reasons: Since Kim is white, he doesn't need to prove anything by hating black people. Obviously, this is a twisted way of showing Creighton's supposed open-mindedness. However, Kipling's portrayal of Creighton in this scene is also complicated: Creighton does genuinely encourage Kim to learn more about local cultures, because "there is no sin so great as ignorance."
Quote #8
Carried away by enthusiasm, [Kim] volunteered to show Lurgan Sahib one evening how the disciples of a certain caste of fakir, old Lahore acquaintances, begged doles by the roadside; and what sort of language he would use to an Englishman, to a Punjabi farmer going to a fair, and to a woman without a veil. Lurgan Sahib laughed immensely, and begged Kim to stay as he was, immobile for half an hour—cross-legged, ash-smeared, and wild-eyed, in the back room. At the end of that time entered a hulking, obese Babu whose stockinged legs shook with fat, and Kim opened on him with a shower of wayside chaff. Lurgan Sahib—this annoyed Kim—watched the Babu and not the play.
'I think,' said the Babu heavily, lighting a cigarette, 'I am of opeenion that it is most extraordinary and effeecient performance. Except that you had told me I should have opined that—that—that you were pulling my legs. How soon can he become approximately effeecient chain-man? Because then I shall indent for him.' (9.110-1)
Kim's talent for disguise is one of the traits that convinces Mahbub Ali, Creighton, and, here, Lurgan to groom him for the Secret Service once he gets out of school. But since Kim knows that his greatest asset is his ability to blend into the crowd, he can't figure out how the Babu ("a hulking, obese" man) can possibly be a good spy. How would he ever blend in the way Kim can?
But while Kim's abilities to change his social status totally outpace the Babu's (and for more on the racial undercurrent of this difference, check out our section on "Foils: Kim and the Babu" under "Character Tools"), the Babu has his own talent for underestimation. Everyone assumes that the Babu is both straightforward and incompetent, and so he pulls off some great schemes against overconfident opponents.
Quote #9
'Babuji,' said Kim, looking up at the broad, grinning face, 'I am a Sahib.'
'My dear Mister O'Hara—'
'And I hope to play the Great Game.'
'You are subordinate to me departmentally at present.'
'Then why talk like an ape in a tree? Men do not come after one from Simla and change their dress, for the sake of a few sweet words. I am not a child. Talk Hindi and let us get to the yolk of the egg. Thou art here—speaking not one word of truth in ten. Why art thou here? Give a straight answer.'
'That is so verree disconcerting of the Europeans, Mister O'Hara. You should know a heap better at your time of life.' (12.125-30)
Kim is only seventeen (much younger than the Babu) and also "subordinate to [the Babu] departmentally at present," as the Babu puts it so formally. Yet Kim basically tells the Babu to cut the crap and say outright what he is doing here seeking out Kim and the lama.
What gives Kim the authority to talk to the Babu this way? It comes from the first sentence in this passage: "I am a Sahib." Kim is actually pulling racial rank here, which he would never have done in the beginning of the novel. Kim's time at St. Xavier's appears to have taught him the advantages of being a Sahib in India, as opposed to his younger days.
We aren't the only ones who notice this change in Kim's racial identity over the course of the novel. The lama also points out that, at the start of their time together, he often couldn't tell—or didn't remember—Kim's ethnic identity as a white person. But near the end of their travels together, the lama reflects: "Now I look upon thee [Kim] often, and every time I remember that thou art a Sahib. It is strange" (15.13).
Do you notice a difference in the way that Kim behaves at the beginning of the book and at the end? Why does it matter that the lama no longer forgets that Kim is a Sahib?