Kim question

An allegory for what?

Did you find an allegory? I think Kim was a declaration of love to India on one hand and a way of explaining the true beauty, diversity and inner workings of India's people to his more colonial minded fellows, who saw nothing but barbarians and heathens. That is also why Kim has European parents, but lives as all sorts of people, to show how one is not born into a race, but that behaviour is learned and can in fact be learned by anyone, and maybe should be learned and understood by the colonialists of a country.

Author Bruce Wagner was quoted in The Week (Dec. 27, 2013) as saying that "In many ways, for me, this is the perfect novel" and describing it as being about "the student/guru relationship fused with the picaresque adventure story." That doesn't directly respond to the question of whether there's an allegory, but just thought I'd share this interpretation in case it is useful to anyone. (Personally I did not understand the book at all, so I can't be of further use.)