Julius-Maximilians-University, Würzburg

Intercultural relationships and national identities in
E.M. Forster´s novel ′A Passage to India′

by

 Sarai Jung

I. Introduction

II. Historical background

III. Analysis of the novel:

1. Introduction to the novel:

(1) Structure of the novel
(2) First impression

2. The British

(1) The British as the Rulers
(2) The concept of the Sahib
(3) The concept of conformity
(4) The treatment of the Indians
(5) The practice of stereotyping
(6) The manipulation of language

3. The Indians

1. The Indian self-definition

(1) The truth of mood
(2) The concept of diversity
(3) The role of the subordinate race
(4) The social gatherings
(5) The concept of emotionality
(6) The problem of suspicion
(7) Stereotyping the ‘other’

IV. Conclusion

V. Bibliography

E.M. Forster´s novel A passage to India was published in 1924. The work is largely based on the personal experiences Forster made during his two visits to India and which are the source of the striking authenticity of the text. The first time, he went there in 1912 thanks to the enduring friendship he had developed with his former student, the young Indian, Syed Ross Masood, whom he had prepared for the entry to Oxford university. Masood also acquainted him with the Mahrajah of Dewas, who invited him to come back to India as his secretary after World War I, in 1921. During his voyages he travelled extensively throughout the whole country and got into close contact with the Indian population. The two visits to India provided him with the raw material for his novel: the intimate friendship with Masood and his emotional and spontaneous character can be seen as the basis for the differentiated and highly individualized portrayal of the young Indian Aziz and for the relationship between the two protagonists Fielding and Aziz. Forster also experienced the possibility of another view of life, that was opened up to him through his Indian friendships. On the other hand, he got to know the difficulties that spring up from so profoundly different approaches to life as the ones of the West and the East.

Due to his own attitude of liberal-humanism and his belief in the freedom of action and the individuality of each human being as the basis for any political action, he was upset by the racial oppression, the cultural misunderstandings and the hypocrisies he found in Anglo- India. He visited India in a period, when the dissolution of the British Empire could already be sensed. The novel reflects and alludes to some of the major steps towards the decline of the British Rule: the Indian non-co-operation movement led by Ghandi and the Amritsar massacre. The non-co-operation movement expressed the increasing self-awareness of the Indian people. It was a pacific protest against imperialism, racial oppression, and the idea of cultural superiority, abused as a justification for the British presence in India. They protested against the evils of the colonial society. In the novel, during the conversation between Aziz´ Indian friends and Fielding, the justification of the British Rule is also put into question.

‘And does not morality [among the British] also decline?’ ‘It depends what you call – yes, yes, I suppose morality does decline.’ ‘Excuse me the question but if this is the case, how is England justified in holding India?’ There they were! Politics again. ‘It´s a question I can´t get my mind onto,’ he replied. ‘I´m out here personally because I needed a job. I cannot tell you why England is here or whether she ought to be here. It´s beyond me.’

‘Well-qualified Indians also need jobs in the educational.’ 
‘I guess they do; I got in first,’ said Fielding, smiling. - ‘Then excuse me again – is it fair an Englishman should occupy one when Indians are available?” (Forster 1979, p. 96) 

The members of the movement, as well as Forster, wished the political system in India to be democratic and based on social equality between the colonized and the colonizers. They wanted Indians and British to live together peacefully and respectfully on terms of friendship. They criticized the imperialist practice for impeding and destroying such attempts of friendship due to discrimination and stereotyping. Nevertheless, Ghandi hoped to turn the British Empire into the British out, a hope that Mrs Moore shares: 

“One touch of regret – not the canny substitute but the true regret from the heart – would have made him a different man, and the British Empire a different institution.” (Forster 1979, S. 42) 

But Forster felt that the movement was only one step further on the way to its decline. And he was proved to be right in the end. Aziz´ declaration in the last chapter seems nearly prophetic if we think that what he pronounced actually came true to certain extent in the course of history: “Until England is in difficulties we keep silent, but in the next European war – aha, aha! Then is our time.’ […] ‘India shall be a nation!” (Forster 1979, p. 287). A much more tragic event in British Colonial history is the Amritsar massacre in 1919, during which unarmed Indian nationalist demonstrators were killed on orders of General Dyer. The demonstration had been put forth in order to protest against Britain´s hostile attitude towards the Islamic movement of the Khilafat and Turkey in general, culminating in open enmity during World War I. Indians interpreted the British attitude as anti-Islam. The brutal use of force to handle the manifestation shocked Forster deeply and he reworked the actual happenings surrounding the massacre into the basic conflict of his novel - although he avoids mentioning a clear connection. In the aftermath of the massacres, some people of the mob, that had turned aggressive in front of the brutality of the British rule, actually attacked an English woman called F. Marcella Sherwood¹. The ironic touch results from the fact that probably there has never been any assault at all in Chandrapore.

Against this background of immense cultural tensions and political unrest is set Forster´s novel A passage to India. But Forster is not so much interested in the political situation as in its consequences for successful interpersonal relationships. The whole structure of the novel is designed to embrace the problem of intercultural comprehension in a colonial system hostile to any authentic personal intercourse.The novel is divided into three main parts: (I) The Mosque (II) The Caves (III) The temple. This particular structure has been interpreted in many different ways,² one possible interpretation being a kind of Hegelian system of thesis, antithesis and synthesis.

[...]

1 Das, G.K. (1985): A passage to India: a Socio-historical Study. In: Beer, John (ed.): A Passage to India. Essays in interpretation. Tiptree, Essex.

2 Kazan, Francesca (1987) Confabulation in A Passage to India. In: Stape, J.H. (ed.): E.M. Forster. Critical Assessments. Vol. III. Mountfield, East Sussex. S. 373