# XIII explained — Kim

> Chapter companion for Kim by Rudyard Kipling.

## 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.

## Character check-ins

### 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 lines

> 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._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/kim_se/chapters/xiii
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/kim_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/kim_se/chapters