Kim · Chapter
XIII explained
Hurree Babu, posing as a guide for two foreign spies (a Frenchman and a Russian), feigns drunkenness and disloyalty to extract information while secretly planning to steal their documents.
What happens
Hurree Babu, posing as a guide for two foreign spies (a Frenchman and a Russian), feigns drunkenness and disloyalty to extract information while secretly planning to steal their documents. Kim and the lama encounter the aftermath of the foreigners' failed expedition, and Kim secures the spies' kilta of maps and instruments, outwitting the hillmen who fear its power. The chapter highlights the cunning of the Great Game and the collapse of the foreign plot.
Themes in this chapter
The Great Game and Espionage
Hurree Babu's elaborate deception and theft of the spies' documents exemplify the covert operations of the Great Game.
Deception and Disguise
Hurree feigns drunkenness and disloyalty to manipulate the foreign spies, while Kim uses craft to secure the kilta.
Cultural Diversity and Syncretism
The Babu is described as a 'monstrous hybridism of East and West,' embodying the cultural fusion and conflict of colonial India.
Characters to notice
- Hurree Chunder Mookerjee
Feigns drunkenness and treason to gain the trust of two foreign spies, then steals their kilta of documents.
- Kim
Takes possession of the spies' kilta, using his wits to prevent the hillmen from mishandling it.
- Teshoo Lama
Sleeps peacefully while Kim and the hillmen deal with the kilta.
- The Russians
The two foreign spies (one French, one Russian) are left stranded and helpless after their plot collapses.
- Lurgan Sahib
Mentioned as having been told the tale of Hurree's deception.
Key passages
“He became thickly treasonous, and spoke in terms of sweeping indecency of a Government which had forced upon him a white man’s education and neglected to supply him with a white man’s salary.”
Hurree pretended to be disloyal, bitterly criticizing the British for giving him a Western education but not a Western salary.
Shows Hurree's calculated performance to gain the spies' trust.
“He represents in petto India in transition—the monstrous hybridism of East and West.”
The Russian says the Babu symbolizes India's awkward blend of Eastern and Western cultures.
Reflects the theme of cultural syncretism and colonial attitudes.
“They are there—with nothing; and, by Jove, it is cold! I am here with all their things. Oh, they will be angry! I am sorry for Hurree Babu.”
Kim gloats that the spies are stranded without supplies while he has their possessions, and he feels a bit sorry for Hurree's suffering.
Highlights Kim's triumph and the reversal of fortunes in the Great Game.