A Study Of Kipling's Indian Complex In Kim

As one of the most important English writers in the 19 th century,Rudyard Kipling(1865-1936)was like a meteor that flashed over the sky of the English literature.Many controversies and mysteries had surrounded him since he caught the critics' attention,but one thing seems to have been agreed by all,that is,the rising and falling of his reputation in English literature is closely connected with the fate of the British Empire.Kipling was born in Bombay,India.His pleasant childhood there plants a seed of his early attachment to India.For little Kipling,India has been trans-coded into a symbol of happy and comfortable life.It is the place that he was favored,cared,and respected once.When he come back to India at the age of 17,he feels that he is being welcomed by his “own people” and being re-accepted into his “home”.As the time goes by,Kipling's traumatic childhood in England along with his special working experiences in India transforms into a need and desire,so much,an Indian Complex,to control and dominate India.Though he works very hard in India in order to bridge up the gap between “his own people” and “the whites”,he doesn't want to let India slip away from the British Empire's administration because his love and attachment to India are interwoven with his faith in the British Empire.Through detailed textual analysis and cultural study,this thesis intends to analyze Kipling's Indian Complex from four aspects,that is,the meaning of Kipling's Indian Complex and its causes,his Indian Complex being reflected in Kim,the ideal Anglo-Indian relationship and Kim's role in Kim to reveal the existence of Kipling's Indian Complex in Kim and to provide a new angel to interpret it.The native vernacular and the Indian local landscapes are like Kipling's nutrients that nurtured him to finish Kim and deepens his feelings towards India and the Indians.The harmonious and prosperous side of the Indian life convinces Kipling that the British Empire has been indeed improving the living circumstances of the Indians,and it is in the benefits of the Indians if they can contribute to safeguard the Empire's stability and maintain the status quo.When there really appears a cracking in the ankle of the British Empire's ruling in India brings by the invasion of the Russians and the Indian Independence Waves,he calls upon those whites who were born in the British colonies and grow up there to shoulder up the responsibility of the Empire's ruling in the future and keep the continuous prosperity of the Empire.Because Kipling believes that those “Native-Borns” like Kim have some natural advantages compares to the first generation colonizers.On the one hand,they were born in India,India is their gifted property by God,and they know the land and the customs of it.On the other hand,the Indians have already accepted them,they take them as their “own people”.Kim is more than the boy who has his adventures in the vast and mysterious India and harvests his maturity.Instead,he is more like the prescription Kipling prescribes for the dangling Empire so as to cure his Indian Complex.He was Kipling's ideal successor of the Empire to safeguard the stability and honor of the British Empire.