Kim is also a fascinating depiction of a clash between religions and cultures. Without seeming to make a big deal out of it, Kim is a story of Hindus, Buddhists, Jainists, Sikhs, Muslims, and Christians rubbing shoulders with varying degrees of respect and tolerance. Characters frequently switch languages in mid-conversation, either to facilitate comprehension, underscore particular social or religious meanings, or exclude certain people.

Credit here must be given to Kipling for doing a fantastic job at transliterating different accents and dialects. That 's usually difficult for an author to pull off convincingly, but here it is flawlessly done. Particularly effective is when Kim and other characters switch from translated Hindi, fluent and full of thees and thous, to transliterated English that comes out like "Oah, I am verr-ee sorr-ee, Sahib," and can 't help but be read with the author 's intended diction and cadence.

The picture which Kipling paints of India under British rule in the late 19th century is evident. Kipling deals with India in all of its bewildering diversity; the various religious communities, the cities and the rural areas, the plains and the mountains, the influence of the British on India and of India on the British. The other aspect of Kim which will remain is Kipling 's treatment of the theme of identity. Kim has to find where he belongs in a land where social standing is determined by family, by caste and by religion.