In order to unveil Kipling's complex stance towards English imperialism in his novel Kim, one can begin with an investigation into the role of the occult in the novel. Some critics have read Kipling's use of the occult as fantasy, a tool to bridge the gap between his limited experience as an Anglo-Indian and the multiplicity of voices, religions and traditions in India. It is therefore problematic that the world of magic (like youth) must be guarded and secured through weapons or imperialist authorship. Kim, as a spy for the British Raj, is the protector of the magical, orientalized Orient. But to what extent is this magic just an illusion? As the Lama's chela or guide, he is both a spiritual subordinate and a protector, necessary for the physical survival of the Tibetan Buddhist. Kim is superior to the Lama in the ways of the world: obtaining food, managing money, and, later, after receiving a Western education, in mathematics and writing. It is Kim, not the Lama, who is the hero of Kipling's novel. book ; and it is through his perspective that we, as readers, are allowed to experience India. From an Orientalist perspective, the most effective colonial rulers were those who, like Kim, knew India and were therefore able to appropriate mystical knowledge to achieve it. to support the machinations of the Empire.Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essay Building on this idea, how do Kim's encounters with magic help determine his ultimate position as a spy British? It is by probing the connection between magic, colonialism, and modernity that we can interpret Kim's many important magical or occult experiences in the text2E. The first is his meeting with Lurgan Sahib and the incident of mentioning the broken pot. A terrified Kim discovers that he can resist Lurgan Sahib's magic by controlling his thoughts and meditating on the English multiplication table. Lurgan Sahib asks him: And then what did you do? I mean, what did you think? Kim's response is: Wow! I knew it was broken, and so, I think, that's what I thought and it was broken. (207) Multiplication tables are a symbol of Western rationalism; following Descartes, Kim knows that he saw the pot break and that it must therefore be broken. Or, it is only when we allow ourselves to believe in magic that we can let ourselves be carried away by it. Another moment where Kim encounters the occult is when Mahbub Ali brings him to the spiritualist Huneefa, whose task is to cast a protective spell on him. him. Once again, the West is opposed to the East, as Mahbub Ali says (about Kim), Allah! How he fought! We should never have done it without the drugs. It was his white blood, I suppose (239). In other words, according to Mahbub Ali, there is something in the Westerner that makes him naturally, biologically impervious to the occult. Phrases like white blood, a paradox, are typical of 19th-century scientific racism, classifications of characters based on what is called race. Following this logic, Huneefa and Mahbub Ali must drug the Irishman Kim in order to make him vulnerable to the occult ritual and even then the question of how vulnerable he actually is remains in play. As many critics have noted, Kim makes comedy out of the often tragic consequences of colonial rule in India. In this sense, we can see the way in which Salman Rushdie perhaps takes Kim as a starting point in Midnight's Children, another.