Dear Fred,
So often, these questions have been answered by direct mail before I can assemble my thoughts. so excuse me if I am repeating things here.
The 'evidence' for Kim's date of birth was discussed by Ann Parry in the June 1995 Kipling Journal (KJ 274), and she uses the analysis suggested by Norman Page.(Page, Norman; A Kipling Companion; Macmillan, 1984, p 151.)
"The specificity of the chronology in Kim is an important factor in
establishing this dimension. It has been suggested that "on the basis
of internal evidence . . . the dating of the action precedes by a
generation or so the date of composition, and that Kim was born in
1865 and joined the Lama in 1878."6
Norman Page's line of
reasoning here suggests that the novel is dealing with an India of the
past; and in doing so it supports all those readings that stress the
nostalgic aspects of the narrative, linking it to Kipling's own years
there as a child and in early manhood. But the internal evidence of the
book would suggest that the main action is specifically and
deliberately related to events in the 1890s, and real occurrences in
India during that period. Therefore it is likely that it is much more
closely related to the time of its writing than has previously been
acknowledged.
In the first few weeks of their wanderings, Kim and the Lama meet
a veteran soldier of the Indian Mutiny, who had been awarded the
Order of British India at the Queen's Golden Jubilee in 1887. The old
man speaks of this as being some years past, and his great age at the
time of the meeting is stressed.7
A further clue also indicates a
time-location for the text later than that suggested by Page. Kimball
O'Hara, "a young colour-sergeant of the Mavericks", fought in the
Second Afghan war, 1878-80, ("the big war"), married "a nurse-maid
in a Colonel's family", and stayed on in India to work on the
railway.8
It would be unlikely that Kim, his son, was born before the
end of the Afghan campaign."
There is also a delightfully certain letter from Regiie Harbord in KJ135 for September 1960:
The Date of Kim's Birth
May I reply to Mr. A. F. Minchin's letter in the June Journal and ask
him if there are any records of earthquakes in Srinagar other than the one of
1st May, 1885 for I do not think we can possibly imagine KIM was born on that
day.
Let us agree that he was 13 when the story opens and that he must have been
about 17, possibly 18 (see page 380) when he was saying good-bye to the woman
of Shamlegh. If he had been born in 1885, that would have been in 1902 or 1903,
but the story first appeared in December 1900.
But we can date the start of the story quite accurately. Turn to page 41, line
29 and we find that the engagement at Pirzai Kotal took place "not three months
gone ". The official name of that campaign was Jowaki and a bar was granted to
the Indian General Service Medal of 1854-1895. The expedition lasted from 9th
November, 1877 until 19th January 1878.
So we can say the meeting of the Lama and Kim must have taken place early
in 1878 and that means he was born in 1865 or perhaps 1866.
Was there another Srinagar earthquake in those years ?
R. E. HARBORD
Best regards, and all good wishes for 2019,
John
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24/12/18, 09:42:06
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