The Great Game and Its Players

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Rudyard Kipling wrote Kim during a very important historical period in India, while it was under British rule. In Kim, Kipling writes about the colonialism, the racism, and prejudices that were common place during that time period. Kipling incorporated cultural influences into each of his characters. This helped to establish the characters behaviors in particular and discernible ways. The four main players of the Great Game were: Colonel Creighton, Lurgan Sahib, Mahbub Ali, and Hurree Babu. They each are distinct characters who used their different personalities throughout the Great Game. Kipling not only explores the cultural and ethnical attributes that each player has in the Great Game, but he also exemplifies the societal and personal influence that could not be solely identified by the color of their skin.
Kipling conveyed a strong imperialist point of view in Colonel Creighton. Colonel Creighton displayed this characteristic in his old-fashioned approach to playing the Great Game. He was patient and had long term vision for Kim and the Great Game. Creighton is settled and confident in the established society of India. He interacted with others in the Great Game that showed that same confidence and a directive that displayed his imperialist point of view. Though he was not domineering, he distanced himself from others in the game and assumed his role accordingly. Creighton was decisively English in character.
Creighton conveyed himself as an elusive member of the boring Ethnological Survey. Kipling wrote that he would be content among the old order in London as much as he was in India. He displayed a calm structured demeanor that came from the very structured English way of life. He patiently approached Kim and saw valu...

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...play. Babu also mentioned on page 227 that “… [he] had been taught by the Sahibs, who do not consider expense, in the lordly halls of Calcutta…” He said this to emphasize a great distinction between his religion and those practiced by the Sahibs.
The different characters were important to represent some of the different layers that made up India during British colonial rule. Kipling was able to explicitly differentiate these characters in not only their culture biases but also in their approach to imperialist rule. Though each character approached the Great Game with different cultural biases, societal structures had a greater influence on the way they played the game. Kipling incorporated not only cultural and ethnical attributes from each player, but he also emphasized the difference that each man had that was not easily identifiable by the color of their skin.

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