The People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria

Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research

Mentouri University, Constantine
Faculty of Letters and Languages
Department of English

The Impacts of Imperialism on Human-Relations in

Edward Morgan Forster’s “A Passage to India”

A Dissertation Submitted to the Department of English in Candidacy for

the Degree of MASTER in
Language, Civilization and Literature

Submitted by: Supervisor:

Mermoune Amina Mrs.Belkermi Sameh

Dedication

My sincere love to my sister Nabila who is my best friend ever…

To my sweet heart Bibich…..
My friend: Sameh, Radia, Yousra, Zyneb and Rym…..
To all of them, then, and to all my entire family I dedecate this work with love and thanks….

i
Acknowledgement:

Praise to Allah, who guided me and gave me the strength to complete my work.
I would like to express my profound admiration to my supervisor Mrs. Belkermi Sameh for
having been so patient and so helpful to me.
My heartfelt thanks to all my teachers who have been my guides through the path of
knowledge: Mr. Boughanout, Mr. Yachir, Dr. Magherbi, Prof. Harouni, Mr. Azil, and Miss.
Hamadouch.
Special thanks to Mimicha and Kamel…
I owe an entirely different kind of debt to my parents. Though my father left us since four
years, he is still playing an important role in my life… thanks to God, I have fulfilled my
promise to him…and I am fortunate to have such a mother as the most influential person in
my life.

ii
Abstract:

This paper aims to investigate the real motives that led Britain to change her strategy
in India and create a bureaucratic colonial system, shifting from trade to colonization.
Besides, the paper is devoted to show the reflection of these motives on the English and the
Indian relationship within the colonial context, best examined in Edward Morgan Forster's
novel A Passage to India. The chief argument of this study is that history has great impacts on
the people's psyche, creating status that changes the course of the human relations.
By means of a close study of E M. Forster's novel A passage to India the dissertation
highlights the difficulties that come to face any attempt of friendship between an Indian and
an English.

iii
Résumé:

Ce document vise à enquêter sur les véritables motifs qui ont conduit la Grande-
Bretagne de changer sa stratégie en Inde et de créer un système colonial bureaucratique, le
déplacement du commerce à la colonisation. En outre, le document est consacré à montrer le
reflet de ces motifs sur les Anglais et les Indiens relation dans le contexte colonial, le meilleur
examen dans le roman de Edward Morgan Forster A Passage to India. Le principal argument
de cette étude est que l'histoire a des grands impacts sur le psychisme de la population, la
création de l'état qui change le cours des relations humaines. Par le biais d'une étude attentive
du roman de E. M. Forster A passage to India la thése met en évidence les difficultés qui
viennent pour faire face à toute tentative d'amitié entre un Indien et un Anglais.

iv
 ‫ﻣﻠﺨﺺ‬

‫ﺗﮭﺪف ھﺬه اﻷﻃﺮوﺣﺔ إﻟﻰ دراﺳﺔ اﻷﺳﺒﺎب اﻟﺤﻘﯿﻘﯿﺔ اﻟﺘﻲ دﻓﻌﺖ ﺑﺮﯾﻄﺎﻧﯿﺎ إﻟﻰ ﺗﻐﯿﯿﺮ ﻣﺴﺎر ﻋﻼﻗﺘﮭﺎ ﻣﻊ اﻟﮭﻨﺪ و‬
‫اﻻﻧﺘﻘﺎل ﻣﻦ اﻟﺘﺠﺎرة إﻟﻰ اﻻﺣﺘﻼل‪،‬إﻟﻰ ﺟﺎﻧﺐ ذﻟﻚ‪ ،‬ﺧﺼﺺ ھﺬا اﻟﻌﻤﻞ ﻹﻇﮭﺎر ﻣﺪى اﻧﻌﻜﺎس ھﺬه اﻷﺳﺒﺎب ﻋﻠﻰ اﻟﻌﻼﻗﺎت ﺑﯿﻦ‬
‫اﻻﻧﺠﻠﯿﺰ و اﻟﮭﻨﻮد ﻓﻲ اﻹﻃﺎر اﻻﺳﺘﻌﻤﺎري‪ ،‬ﻛﺘﻠﻚ اﻟﺘﻲ ﺻﻮرھﺎ ادوارد ﻣﻮرﻏﺎن ﻓﻮرﺳﺘﺮ ﻓﻲ رواﯾﺘﮫ ״ﻃﺮﯾﻖ إﻟﻰ اﻟﮭﻨﺪ״‪.‬‬
‫اﻟﺒﺮھﺎن اﻟﺮﺋﯿﺴﻲ ﻟﮭﺬه اﻟﺪراﺳﺔ ھﻮ أن ﻟﻠﺘﺎرﯾﺦ ﺗﺄﺛﯿﺮات ﻛﺒﯿﺮة ﻋﻠﻰ اﻟﺠﺎﻧﺐ اﻟﻨﻔﺴﻲ ﻟﻠﺒﺸﺮ ﺑﺨﻠﻘﮫ ﻟﻮﺿﻌﯿﺔ أدت إﻟﻰ ﺗﻐﯿﯿﺮ ﻣﺴﺎر‬
‫اﻟﻌﻼﻗﺎت اﻟﺒﺸﺮﯾﺔ‪ .‬ﺗﺴﻠﻂ ھﺬه اﻟﺮﺳﺎﻟﺔ اﻟﻀﻮء ﻋﻠﻰ اﻟﺼﻌﻮﺑﺎت اﻟﺘﻲ ﺗﻘﻒ ﻓﻲ وﺟﮫ أي ﻣﺤﺎوﻟﺔ ﻟﺒﻨﺎء ﺻﺪاﻗﺔ ﺑﯿﻦ ھﻨﺪي و‬
‫اﻧﺠﻠﯿﺰي ﻣﻦ ﺧﻼل دراﺳﺔ ﻣﻌﻤﻘﺔ ﻟﺮواﯾﺔ ﻓﻮرﺳﺘﺮ‪.‬‬

‫‪v‬‬
Table of Content:

Dedication……………………………………………………………………………………I

Acknowledgement…………………………………………………………………………...II

Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………..…III

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………....1

Chapter one

Historical background: the British Presence in India.

1) The foreign presence………………………………………………………………….….3

2) The British Interest in India……………………………………………………………...4

3) The East India Company: From Trade To Colonization………………………………...5

3-1) Trade………………………………………………………………………….……..5

3-2) Colonization………………………………………………………………………...7

3-3) India of Dalhousie………………………………………………………..…………8

4) The Mutiny of India: The secured Control Over India………………………………….11

5) British rule: The Other Side of the Coin………………………………………………...14

Chapter two

The Barriers against cross-Cultural Friendship in Colonial India

1) Forster's Personal Experience with India…………………………………………….….22

2) Critical reception………………………………………………………………………...27

3) The Effect of Colonization on the British Psyche……………………………………….28

3-1) Forster's Critique of Imperialism…………………………………………………….28

3-2) The Colonizer/Colonized Status……………………………………………………..31

3-3) Racism within the Boundaries of British India………………………………………37

vi
4) The Indian Landscape and its Impact……………………………………………………40

4-1) India's Unfriendly Welcome of the British…………………………………………..41

4-2) The Marabar Expedition and its Aftermath………………………………………….42

4-2-1) Mrs Moore Obsession…………………………………………………………...43

4-2-2) Adela Quested's Confusion……………………………………………………...45

4-3) The Effect of India on the Indian Side: Dr Aziz……………………………………..46

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………...49

Works cited…………………………………………………………………………………..50

vii
Introduction

The British rule in India had developed throughout History. It started during the 17thc

as an economic dealing when the British East India Company had been given a monopoly to

trade spices by the Mughal Empire. Then, during the 18thc, the British began to penetrate in

the Indian affairs under the slogan of a ‘civilizing mission’. After the dissolution of the East

India Company –which is supposed to take place as a result of the Indian Mutiny of 1857 –

there was a transformation towards direct rule.

As a result of these economic interests and political administration comes the social

settlements. When the British started to build their own society in India, which is best

described in E. M. Forster’s novel A Passage to India.

This dissertation attempts to analyse A Passage to India, in relation to the Indian history

‘from trade to colonization’. The novel had been selected because, on one hand, it was based

on Forster’s personal experience with India. Thus, Forster’s portrait of Anglo-Indians is a

well observed one, comming from the pen of someone who was closely familiar with the

realities of the Raja. On the other hand, it is not a political novel that criticizes imperialism

but, it is a sociological novel that discusses the obstacles which prevent friendship between an

Indian and an Englishman.

Interest in the novel is motivated by a wonder if the British attitudes in India can be the

reflection of the real motives behind which the bureaucratic colonial system had been

established in India.

1
 The purpose of this research is to show Forster’s special treatment of the British

presence in India and his interest in the social side more than on the political one.

The dissertation begins with a brief history of the British occupation of India. This

historical review starts with the creation of the East India Company in 1600 to its dissolution

in 1857 showing its shift from trade to colonization. It includes a reference to the reasons

which led to the Indian Mutiny of 1857. besides, this first chapter, contains ‘the other side of

the rule’ or the real motives behind putting India directly in the hand of the British crown.

The second chapter provides information about Forster’s personal experience with India

and its reflection on the novel. Then, it moves to discuss the barriers against friendship, with a

critical reception which shows that the novel is not about politics, Forster’s critique of

imperialism that results in a colonizer/colonized status and racism within the boundaries of

British India, and the effect of India itself on such friendship on both sides; the British and

the Indian.

The novel had been approached through a historical approach with the emphasis on the

events that inspired Forster and motivated him to write such a work. Coupled with a

psychoanalytical approach to show both the effect of both colonialism and India on the

people’s psyche.

2
 Chapter one

Historical Background: The British Presence in India

1) The foreign presence:

The shiny area, known as the East Indies, stood before eyes of the fifteenth and the

sixteenth centuries, European merchants and adventurers as the land of riches and rarities; of

spices and silk, and mainly of good hopes. As prof. Francis X. Clooney mentioned in his

lecture on “Indian Culture in the Modern World”.

“People have often said that India is an amazingly free

country; where every person can act out personal dreams
and hopes without others wishing or being able to stop
them from doing so”.¹

In other words, every person could make his own choices, in India, Where people competed

for pleasure (being adventurers), wealth and riches (being merchants or traders), and power

(being government envoys).

The first to come were the Portuguese in 1498, and before them no single power

had attempted to monopolize the sea routes to the Indian sub-continent. No rivals no

competitions, but only peaceful trade that had dominated the Indian ocean.

By 1505, spice trade from Asia to Europe was declared as a royal monopoly by the

Portuguese, which had been a real success within its appropriate context- for their ships were

extremely well armed, moreover, they were fortunate to arrive there at a time when many of

the ports were outside the political control of any powerful local ruler who could lead any

effective resistance against them.

1) Clooney, Francis X. IK Foundation lectures Series: “Indian Culture in the Modern World”. Oxford
Center for Vaishnava and Hindu studies: 2007.

3
The fact that the great Asian economies, of the time, were essentially land based, and that the

external trade did not comprise a significant portion of economy, was also very helpful.

For a century, the Portuguese managed, with a magic hand, most of the regional trades

which were active in the Indian Ocean. Unfortunately, this success had no chance to last

forever. Very impressed by such a success, the Dutch and the British attempted to replace the

monopoly of the Portuguese with ones of their own. Ultimately, it was Britain who won the

largest part of direct colonial rule over tow- thirds of mainland India, and indirect rule of the

rest reaching higher profits than what the Portuguese and the Dutch attained before them.

2) The British interest in India:

Economic competition among the European nations and quest for wealth and power, led

to the foundation of economic companies in England. Each company had been given the right

to a monopoly of trade or colonization in a certain region, and customarily, exercised law

making, military and treaty making functions- subject to the approval of the home

government- besides other privileges. The most important of them all, was the East India

Company founded in 1600, when queen Elizabeth I-the then monarch of the of the United

kingdom- was given a monopoly to trade for spices

and other goods by the Mughal Empire 2; marking the British presence in India.

2) The mughal Empire had been established in India in the early 1500’s, when a chieftain named Babur inraded
India from Afghanistan. The Mughals had conquered most of northern India, and by the
time the British invaded, the Mughal Empire had been immensely powerful. The Mughals
took great pride in being patrons of arts; since painting, literature and architecture
flourished under their rule.

4
 There was, and there is, nothing like the rule of the British in India to be found in

history. It had been compared to the dominion which Rome hold over so large portions of the

world, yet, it was greater as Charles Creighton stated in his “British India”:

“ The population of the Rome Empire, in the age of

Antonines, had been estimated at 120.000.000
including that of Italy… the population of India
is not less than 150.000.000 without counting any
portion of the conquering race” 3.

In addition he wrote:

“while Rome’s dominions lay around the Mediterranean,

which Italy pierced looking to the East and to the West,
Britain and India are separated by the Ocean, by the seas,
by the deserts, and by some of the most powerful nations”4.

3) The East India Company:

“From trade to colonization” the title of the process under which the rule of the East

India Company had developed from its creation in 1600 to its dissolution in 1858, facing

a series of changes- concerning its authority- and each change took the cover off on many

realities about the British ambitions there.

3-1) Trade:

When the company begun its activities in the early years of the seventeenth century,

trade had been the main objective without any attempt to interfere in the Indian politics. The

British traders came to India with the hope of selling their items. Though they faced

competition both from European and local traders- in addition to the long route that they had

to take in reaching England- they where able to prosper. This was due to the privileges that

overwhelmed these disadvantages.

3) Creighton, Charles. “The British India”. The Atlantic monthly Nov 1857. Vol I. P 85.
4) Ibid P 93.

5
First, because of their legally sanctioned monopoly status in England, they had substantial

control on the British market, as well as, over the Indian Ocean enjoying better economies

since their ships were among the largest in the area.

Second, because by the middle of the seventeenth century the East India Company

was able to re-export Indian goods to Europe, North Africa, and even Turkey,

affecting the Ottomans, Persians, and Afghans; since the largest part of their revenues came

from Indian trade.

Third, because by the start of the eighteenth century, the British dominated the Atlantic slave

trade transporting more slaves- from Africa to North America- than all the other European

powers combined. Thus, this trades vitally, contributed in enriching the east India trading

companies.

It is worth to mention that, during this period, the British Empire was still a mercantile

one 5, managed by a system which encouraged many of the European

wars of the period; as the European powers fought over available markets. “The year 1757

was one of the gloomiest ever known to England, at home as well as in its empire”.6

At home- for the seven years war had already broke out in Europe in 1756- the country

was at war with France. France and its Austria put hand in hand in order to crush

FredericII of Prussia; Britain’s ally.

The British left Prussia to do most of the fighting in Europe and directed their effort at

destroying French trade. The fact that what affected the mother country would by logic affect

the Empire had driven India to take part in this struggle.

5) Mercantilism: the economic doctrine of competition between nations for a finite amount of Wealth which had
characterized the first period of the European colonial expansion. It begun to fade in England,
during the eighteenth century because of the laissez-faire economic liberalism of Adam Smith.
6) Mc Dowell, David. An Illustrated History of Britain. England: Longman, 1989. P 109.

6
The British were engaged in a quarrel with viceroy of Bengal, Siraj-ud-daula, who was

supported by the French. Ultimately, the British Robert Clive7 gained an upper hand over the

French and their Indian allies in the so-called battle of Plassey in 1757. Clive thought of this

victory as the climax of his career by becoming the first British governor of Bengal, yet, it

raised the curtain on the true British character as V.P Menon wrote:

“in our fundamental respect the battle of plassey

signified the state of things to come: few British
victories were achieved without the use of bribes,
and few promises made by the British were ever
kept… no doubt it was these traits of honour and
fair play”.8

As a matter of fact, it was a shameful victory since the battle lasted no more than a few hours,

and its result was decided long before the soldiers came to the battle field by means of bribes.

The battle of plassey, thus, was a turning point in the history of the Anglo-Indian relation.

India became a crown colony, to be governed directly by parliament. Consequently, the

responsibility for Indian affairs would fall upon a member of the British cabinet- the secretary

of the state for India- while in India itself there would be a governor-general or viceroy of

India. From that date onward, the term ‘British India’ was introduced declaring India to be

“the jewel in the crown” of Britain’s foreign possessions.

3-2) Colonization:

For a century since then, the East India Company- as an official representative of the

British India- had been struggling to cross a long road, in which the first step was

the victory of plassey (1757), and the last one was marked by the Indian Mutiny of 1858,

which ended its authority.

7) Robert Clive: known to his admirers as the “conqueror of India”. He arrived in India in 1743 as a civil servant
of the East India Company. Then in 1756 as a military commander, making the artificial victory
of Plassey in 1757.
8) Menon, V.P. the transfer of power in India. Bombay: orient Longman, 1957. p 120.

7
 Few years after dominating the Indian politics, the company acquired the right

to collect revenues on behalf of the Mughal Emperor, and despite the increase in trade, the

company found itself burdened with high military expenditures; therefore, its destruction

seemed evident. Fortunately, as a quick solution, Lord North9 had passed the regulation act of

1773- known also as the India Bill. This act helped to put the ill- company back on its feet, as

well as, to lay the ground for greater parliamentary control over its affairs. Besides, as

mentioned earlier, placing India under the rule of a governor general.

According to J. Cannon:

“in 1773, the British government took over some responsibility

for ruling British India. The regulation act setup a governor-general
and a council nominatedpartly by the East India Company, for
Lord North himself saw that it was an act for establishing certain
regulations for the better management of the affairs of the East
India Company, as well in India as in Europe”10.

The first governor- general of India was Warren Hastings, who did much of his best to

dispense the fiction- for it was artificial- that the mughal emperor was still the sovereign

authority. In addition, he persuaded the British to master indigenous systems of knowledge11.

He remained in India till 1784. Then, he was succeeded by Lord Cornwallis,

who initiated the permanent settlement. Under both Cornwallis and the later-coming Lord

Wellesley, the British slowly expended their holdings, as they engaged also in attempts to

eliminate Indian rivals.

3-3) India of Dalhousie:

It was until the late 1840s- particularly after the Anglo-sickh wars-that India was

entering an unusual cycle of modernization, with the coming of the new governor-general,

9) Lord North: Frederick North, the British prime minister from 1770-1782. North had passed the regulation act
for India in 1773, it was during his ministry that the American war of independence was fought
and the colonies were lost to British.
10) Cannon, J. Lord North: the Noble lord in the Blue Reblon. London 1970, 14 Apr 2010.
< http://Trove.nla.gov.au/work/>.
11) Warren Hastings set out to make the British more acquainted with Indian history, culture and social customs.

8
Lord Dalhousie12. He took it upon himself to lead India through the path of development,

something which had never been attempted before; neither by his predecessors nor by his

successors.“ Dalhousie believed that it was the moment that the west had most to offer the

East”.13

In other words, Dalhousie felt that it was his duty to bring the advantages of the modern way

of life to India.

He saw India as a primitive ‘body’ which should be subjected to a careful process of

development, both physical and moral, in order to reach the notion of civilization.

Since 1848, he was on a mission to unify India and control it.

He started to alter the face of India by creating a system of communication that united all the

country. In his attempt to do this, he followed several steps:

First, the building of great road from Calcutta to Peshawar, with a branch to connect

Bombay with the south of Delhi, opened- for the first time in Indian history- the possibility of

uniting Northern India.

Second, the equipment of India, during the 1850’s, with modern technology-such as the

introduction of electric telegraph wires for carrying messages- was sort of revolution.

During the Late eighteenth century, several countries including Britain and the Mughal

Empire had postal services, yet, all of them were too expensive and they were more

appropriate for government use than for ordinary citizens. By 1840, the British postal system

succeeded in overcoming this difficulty by allowing a letter

to be delivered anywhere in the country for uniform rate of a penny (worth 1/240 of a

pound). Following such an example, Dalhousie worked to set up a British-like system for

India. As the wages in India were lower than in Britain, he decided that the cost of writing

also from Bombay to Calcutta is reduced to about three percent of what it was before.

12) James Andrew Broun Ranrsay, Later, Marquee of Dalhousie (1812-1860) had been appointed as governor-
general by the company in 1848.
13) Lloyd, T.O- the British Empire 1558-1983. New York: Oxford University Press.1984. P 192.

9
Consequently, there was a large increase in the postal activity, and the people of India became

nearer despite the long distances that separated them.

Third, Dalhousie had been closely connected with railways building in Britain since he

was the minister who supervised plans submitted to the government in the "railways boom" of

1840’s. This accentuated his eagerness to see railways laid on the vast British-India land. The

only thing that had been disturbing his dream was the fears that ticket-cost, and the caste

differences, as well as, the timidity of using the new, would keep Indians away from using

trains. However, none of these factors had prevented Indian trains from being overcrowded

now and for the years to come. “As Marx had said: all the boundaries of family and traditions

are swept away by cheap tickets.”14.

In India, thus, as well as, in the rest of the world, and by making the far nearer, the railways

helped a lot-as did the postal system before- in relating people together, and creating an

atmosphere of understanding as a real advance in human relations.

After creating a unified India, geographically speaking, Dalhousie saw that education

should be the next step to unify the nation morally.

His education policy was a kind of nineteenth century British values transfusion into India.

Despite his willingness to grant help for schools that taught Indians in their mother-tongues,

his real concern was for creating a class that acquired knowledge of English in order to rule;

in other words, his aim was to give the English language

the possibility to serve as the language of the rulers’ assistants throughout India in the way

that Latin and Greek served in the roman Empire.

Dalhousie’s ambitions were without limits, for they went beyond the social

improvement to reach for the political arena. He strongly believed that the British rule

14) Ibid. P173.

10
most to offer the Indians than their traditional princes, for this reason, he introduced special

reforms to undermine the caste system’s power and influence.

For religious reasons, Indians believed that they needed a male heir, so a ruler without a

son was very likely to adopt a boy who would succeed him. This practice was recognized for

all property including the throne, and childless princes were often succeeded by adopted sons.

Dalhousie saw that this was not a proper-principle; instead, he imposed his doctrine of

"Lapse". While adopted sons could inherit other property, a state whose ruler had no son of

his own would Lapse into the hand of the East India Company, and be placed under the

governor-general. This new doctrine was not the only means to disturb the princely position.

Dalhousie saw that Wajid Ali, the king of Oudh, was a sort of old-fashioned monarch and

thus he was not fit to rule. In February 1856, king Wajid Ali, handing up his kingdom without

any armed resistance, was disposed and Oudh was placed under direct British rule. By the

1850s, Dalhousie- believing that the more of India annexed by the British the better it was for

the Indians- had started a process of expansion and annexation. Covered by the decisive

slogan of modernization, he started with annexing an area from Burma in 1852, till he could

assume that he had taken India.

4) The Mutiny of India: The Secured Control over India:

What was unacceptable for Indians was the sacrilege. This was when the British

arranged to re-equip the Indian army with a new Enfield rifle which would go beyond the

Indian cultural limits, and which offended both Hindus and Muslims.

The East India Company was organized with less concern about the differences between

Hindus and Muslims; its members were respected as men doing their duties under the new

rules, and its officers- even during the period of expansion- had won the affection and loyalty

11
of their men. However, there were suggestions that the officers of the mid-nineteenth century

were not as good as their predecessors. The nineteenth century officers, unlike those of the

eighteenth century, felt that it was their duty to preach Christianity to the soldiers who had

been satisfied about their position in the army. But they began to be afraid that there was a

plan to undermine their religious position by turning them into Christians. When the new rifle

turned out to have cartridge of which the paper has to be "bitten off"; it appeared that the

cartridge paper was waxed with a mixture of pig and cow fat. Since cows were considered as

sacred for the Hindus and the handling of pigs was irreligious for Muslims, both were united

in a common outrage. Such a sensitive matter was, simply, faced with ignorance from the part

of the British. In addition, soldiers who refused to load the rifles with cartridge tainted with

animal fat, were dismissed and made to walk home without pay or pension.

Even when Dalhousie had left office in 1856, his successor, Lord Charles James

Canning followed the same tactic by enacting unpopular measures.

The most unwelcome one was the so-called the General Service Act (1856), that forced the

sepoys to be deployed away from their homeland, particularly to Burma. This act had

produced dissatisfaction among the soldiers. Another law allowing Hindu widows to remarry

was passed by canning and changed this dissatisfaction into fury. Additional rumours about

dead pigs in the water supply and ground cow bones in sugar, added more fuel to the anger of

sepoys who decided to react.

Consequently, in May 1857, Indian soldiers, at Meerut near Delhi, mutined and killed their

officers, and all the British they could find.

Then, marched to Delhi, brought the former Emperor Bahadur shah out of retirement and

proclaimed him as a ruler with an overall majority of the Indian soldiers in the Hindu-

speaking region. By June, they controlled an area about the size of Britain. However, the

12
larger part of India remained unaffected, and the British were able to move soldiers, easily,

from other regions to attack mutineers, and to take part in the siege of Delhi, which was the

military key to the campaign. The most painful events of this struggle; which the British in

India remembered for generations were the defence of the residency at Luck now and the

death of the captives at Cawnpore, which left the British thirsting for revenge. For that they

declared- as they advanced against mutineers- that any person who helped the mutineers or

even was thought to have helped them should be executed.

A large number of people had thrown off the British rule, the matter could be seen as a

sort of Hindu-nationalism, but the lack of unity in the resistance and the readiness of the

rebels’ leaders to disagree with one another, revealed how weak their position was. Although

the resistance might have been more successful, for the British

were out numbered in most of the battles, the lack of military command and experience led to

the defeat of the sepoys by May 1858. By the summer of 1859, the rebellion was over leaving

time and place for things to come.

Between 1858 and 1861, there were serious changes, particularly concerning the army, such

as increasing the proportion of the British to Indian troops and making sure that the branch of

the army that used heavy weapons, was consisted only of British troops. Apparently, these

change were regarded not enough to guarantee that nothing like this would happen again.

Consequently, and in order to be secure enough, India became a territory directly ruled by the

Crown and parliament, and thus, the East India Company’s involvement in government

and civil service appointments was brought to an end.

13
 For the British, the mutiny seemed to reveal that the old Indian ruling classes were a

serious danger, but a danger that could be overcome.

The viceroy- as the governor-general became to be known- tried to bring men from the old

ruling classes into the British administration; as Professor Peter Marshall stated in his "The

British Presence in India":

“undoubtedly, the British could not rule India by themselves;

the mutineers had shown they understood how the system
worked because they turned on the English-speaking Indian
assistants to the administration as fiercely as on the British
themselves, but in 1860s the British while worried about all
Indians were particularly, concerned about those who had not
been pacified and westernized. Indians with western Education
were not seen at this stage as-threat.”15

5) British Rule: the Other Side of the Coin

The sepoys mutiny seems to be the only reason behind putting India directly in the hand

of the crown, and creating a bureaucratic colonial system, however, this was just a pretext.

It was absolutely inevitable that, the legitimacy of the British rule in India needed to be

justified, so that to conceal the fact that this shift towards direct rule was primarily conducted

by certain goals in relation to Britain’s imperial lust.

In other words, the British rule in India needed a justification-as a means of manipulation-

used to cover certain goals which were inspired by external circumstances( such as reforms at

home), and also it needed a pretext to apply. This shift, therefore, was not a sudden, or a

natural result of the mutiny, but it was an expected end of a slow moving process.

15) Marshall, Peter. British history in depth:" the British presence in India". BBC History.
2009. 15 Mai 2010.< http://www.bbc.co.UK/history/British/Empire/east-india-01-shtml/>

14
 It is also necessary to throw a glimpse on the reforms at home which had direct

consequences on the Empire. As it was mentioned previously, the British Empire had been a

mercantile one, but now things, at the economical level, were undergoing change. After the

industrial revolution of the seventeenth century, Britain became the great productive force in

the world, producing more than any other country.

With this huge growth in industry and commerce, it became clear that old regulations and

restrictions were ineffective, and thus, some kind of reform was necessary. By 1820, the

London merchants took the first step by presenting to parliament their proposed principles

which could serve as the basis of a new, more appropriate system. Two of the most important

of these principles, according to David Thomson were:

“that freedom from restraint is calculated to give the

utmost extension to foreign trade, and the best direction
to the capital and industry of the country… that the
maxim of buying in the cheapest market and selling in
the dearest, which regulates every merchant in his individual
dealing, is strictly applicable as the best rule for the trade
of the whole nation”16.

Which meant, to separate the economic policy from the political side, and to reshape the

economic policy in terms of promoting national wealth by means of free private enterprise,

and to leave considerations of national defence and of taxation to the direct action of

government.

These principles were the fruits of grains planted forty years before by Adam Smith in

his "the wealth of nations"; that lead down the founding ground of the free-trade movement

‘Laissez faire-Laissez passer’. The British were committed to free-trade, and what the British

business community really wanted was ‘The open door’, or simply, the opportunity to trade

16) Thomson, David. England in nineteenth century. Penguin books. England: 1978. P 110.

15
every where without being limited by any sovereign power. Since they were aware that this

was almost impossible in a world dominated by other powers which would not accept this

new policy, as Adam Smith had written: “it seems very proper for a nation of shopkeepers to

find a great empire with the sole purpose of creating more customers”17.

So, the expansion of the Empire was essential for the economic equilibrium of Britain,

with the condition that the proclaimed land should not be only exploited, but essentially ruled;

which marked the beginning of a new era of imperialism. Because what imperialism really

meant was the expansion of the British Empire without limits, and in every portion of the

world where her interests required protection. Simply, it was the British aim to relate the

different parts of the Empire with their different governments, and unite them as one state

under the authority of crown.

The concern of this research is to stress the justification of the process of direct rule in

relation to the British real goal. The British rule in India was justified in part by the claim that

Indians needed to be civilized, so that, the presence of such ‘highly civilized people’- the

British- became not a right but a duty; in order to establish a system of justice and the rule of

law. On the light of E.M.Forster’s "A Passage to India", the following chapter is going to

highlight to what extent were these concepts decisive.

The British-with the purpose of manipulating the public opinion at home and within the

Empire- had developed on one hand a theory of oriental despotism18, or 'unfair rule'; India had

been portrayed as stagnant and unchanging, because of the same customs, manners, unfair

rulers, and savage people, who deserve to be ruled with an iron hand and that remained for

ages.

17) Morris, James. Pax Britannica: the climax of an Empire. Penguin books. England: 1968. P 110
18) Despotism: is a term used to describe a despotic form of government which is ruled by a single entity with
absolute authority and which opposes the Western traditions of democracy

16
On the other hand, they had built a related theory of the civilizing mission, or what Kipling

would refer to as ‘The White Man’s Burden’. It was an idea of superiority that came from an

ethnic and religious point of view. It might be considered as the origin of ‘racism’ around the

world. For Europeans, being a white Christian man was a sign of intelligence which gave him

the right to rule others because others were unable to rule themselves in a good way. In

addition, they believed that Christianity should spread outside Europe, because it was the

perfect religion chosen by god for humanity.

This is exactly what happened in India, according to Hegel: “the British or rather the East

India Company are the Lords of the land, for it is the necessary fate for Asiatic Empires to be

subjected to Europeans”.19 The British, then, could provide a picture of India and Indians that

went with the goals of their missions. They found no logic in the Indian thought which was

dominated by myths that symbolized ignorance, thus, should be replaced by western

knowledge. Professor Peter Marshall had expressed an opinion on such a claim in his "The

British presence in India":

“As European have always tended to do, they created Hinduism

in their own image. Their study of Hinduism confirmed their
beliefs, and Hindus emerged from their works as adhering to
something akin… Later generations of Europeans, interested
themselves in mysticism portrayed Hindus as mystics20”.

As the logic of justification always reveals, the latter can be used as a means to

convince, as well as, to hide some goals in the bottom.

The mid-Victorian statesmen headed by Lord Palmerston, had decided that"Pax Britannica"

had now to replace the old "Pax Romana" as a great move towards universal peace.

19) Hietzman, James and Robert L. worden. Eds. India: A Country Study. GPO for the library of Congress.
Washington: 1995. P
20) Marshall, Peter. British history in depth:" the British presence in India". BBC History. 2009. 15 Mai 2010.
< http://www.bbc.co.UK/history/British/Empire/east-india-01-shtml/>

17
Since the goal should be always related-even decisively- to the justification, the British

claimed that it was unfortunate that the first step in this movement- as teaching the savage

nation how to live- should be the conquest.

As historians stated the Roman Empire in the two and a half centuries of its domination,

had lived what was known as the golden age resting under the shade of universal peace. The

Roman had a strong belief in their own superiority, and that Rome had a civilizing mission

which guaranteed her right of an Empire without boundaries, very strongly, the British

embraced this view. Like the Romans who saw themselves as a nation protected by the gods,

and their destiny was to rule the world and to civilize it, the British inherited these views and

adopted them while they expended

their Empire:

“the British defined the Anglo-Saxon race in opposition

to non-Europeans and even to other European. With the
us Vs them'. With the latter, the uniqueness and superiority
of the British culture was emphasised.”21

Highly concerned with stretching their imperial territories, the British were aware that

Roman’s ‘Pax’ which means ‘peace’ had not been a total elimination of war, but rather was

achieved through wars and conquests; and for many reasons the British Pax Britannica was

seen as the equivalent of Pax Romana.

First, since the coming of the first waves of adventurers into India, their interests were

highly inspired by a strong belief that war and trade were inseparable as sir Thomas Roe

declared to the Mughals in 1616:

21) Parchami, Ali. Hegemonic peace and Empire: the Pax Romana, Britannica and Americana. Routledge Taylor
and Francis Group, England UK: 2009.P 80.

18
 “Trade in India must be conducted under the power of
our weapons, and the weapons must be supplied from
the profits enjoyed by the trade, so that trade can not
be maintained without war or war without trade.”22

As a historical evidence, the opium trade of the 18th c eventually led to the opium wars of

1840 and 1858 with China, and this could serve as a good example for such a link between

war and trade.

Second, what the British wanted was to impose the British authority on all the

states of the Indian sub-continent, so here they should confront tow powers one internal and

the second was external.

First of all, they should ensure that they were the only giant power, and thus, they

strongly needed the submission of the most powerful Indian groups, such as, the Sikhs. Since

the seventeenth century, the Sikh fighters -the khalsa- had been feared throughout India and

widely known by their ability to protect their kingdom – with extraordinary courage, as they

were described by Richard Hoover in his article entitled ‘The mughals: The Sikhs’: “the Sikh

community is militant, warrior community, willing to fight, sacrifice, or assassinate, to protect

or further the community.”23the British were willing to destroy this group, and consequently,

they engaged in a series of wars during the 1840s. The first and the second Anglo Sikh wars

were the final battles that secured the British domination of the sub-continent

though they once had been unchallenged, now the Sikh leaders not only hand control of India

to Great Britain, but the defeated Sikh armies became the most loyal soldiers

of the British Empire which could be used even against India itself.

22) Creighton, Charles. “the british India”.Opcit. P 85.

23) Hoover, Richard. "The Mughals: the Sikh"- World Civilization and Internet Anthology. Washington State
University: 1996.

19
 Third, in its way to achieve the ‘Pax’ and after eliminating the nearest danger, the

British had engaged against Russia in the so called ‘great game’ by the rise of the 19thc. The

Great Game was an Anglo-Russian competition in Egypt, Turkey, Persia, Afghanistan, central

Asia, and North West India; but the real prize was India.

These wars in Asia cannot be separated from the aim of creating a European ‘balance of

power’. This balance is the equilibrium established by the combination of several countries-

forming a league defence- against an equally powerful rival in order to protect the

independence of this or that nation. Russia and Britain have been combined against

Napoleonic France, but Britain and France were combined against Russia and supported

Turkey during the Crimean war (1854-1856). What can be noticed here is that, the European

powers were neither friends nor enemies, in fact they sought only to preserve their interests,

and for Britain these interests included the expansion and essentially the safety of the Empire.

In Asia, the British felt that Russia had become too strong and needed to be weakened.

Consequently, their fingers were pointed towards Afghanistan. They thought that taking

Afghanistan in hand would not only control the Russian expansion, but it would also

strengthen the British position in central Asia. Unfortunately, this was not to be accomplished,

since they failed to occupy Afghanistan (1855-57). Learning from such a lesson both civilians

and military leaders in India had avoided policies which could lead to involvement in the

politics of Kabul; and they preferred to withdraw such an aim. They finally understood that

they could not ensure their security by having new frontiers, since the current one was not

totally in hand and was secured enough. As a result, the strategy in India had to be

subjected to improvement.

20
 Finally, the British needed a pretext; or simply the right moment to act. It was the

mutiny of 1857 which came as a backing for the justification, as a cover for the real motive

which, of course, handed India to the crown giving the queen Victoria a new title as an

‘Empress of India’.

As an event which would be neither forgotten no forgiven, the mutiny had been a turning

point in the history of the British India because of its big effects on both sides Psyche; it

became a landstone in the Anglo-Indian relations for the next generation; as will be shown

through. Through analysis of E.M Forster’s characters in the following chapter.

21
 Chapter two

The Barriers Against Cross-Cultural Friendship

in Colonial India

1) Forster’s Personal Experience with India:

Forster’s ‘A passage to India’ was not totally fiction or imaginative. It was, indeed,

based on a real experience. In 1906, Forster was employed- by Theodore Morison-1 as a tutor

on Latin for Sayd Roos Masood; a young Indian Muslim who was destined for Oxford. It was

their relationship that paced the way for a great story to take place. On the emotional level,

Masood was forster’s greatest love, though he did not share forester’s homosexuality. Forster

himself had noted in his diary: “I wish very much he had felt, if only once what I feel for

him...”2. In reality, Masood’s feelings towards Forster were warm and deep. In addition,

because of his strong belief in friendship, he gracefully accepted the role of an unattainable

object of desire in forster’s life. In later years, he confided to forster about his troubled

marriage; and he was sympathetic to Forster’s own confidence about his homosexual

encounters.

At this moment, when Forster had achieved the reputation of an author of four novels3, his

career experienced an unexpected block. Many critics believed that “Forster’s melancholic

realism and his effort to write truthfully about his ambivalent feelings led to his rejection of

fiction.”4

1) Theodore Morison: had been the principle of the Anglo-Oriental college at Aligarh, and was living at
Weybridge where he became a friend with forster’s mother.
2) Galens, David. Ed. E.M. Forster’s A Passage to India. Gale group Inc: Gale. 2002. 24 Mai 2010.
< http://www.gale.com/>.
3) when Angles Fear to Tread (1905), the Longest Journy (1907), A Room with a view (1908) and
Howards End (1910).
4) Hai, Ambreen. “Forster and the Fantastic: the covert politics of the Celestial Omnibus”. Twentieth
Century Literature: 2008. Vol 54 Issue 2. P 219.

22
Forster himself had argued that:

“Each human mind had two personalities, one on the surface, one
deeper down. The upper personality has a name… It is conscious
and alert, it does things like dining out answering letters etc… The
lower personality is a very queer affair. In many it is a perfect fool,
but without it there is no Literature, because unless a man dips a
bucket down into it occasionally he can not produce first class work.”5.

In other words, Forster’s real problem was not with his sexual frustration, rather it was his

inability to wrote publishable fiction about the form of sexuality that preoccupied him, that

produced his crisis.

It was Masood who convinced Forster to release his enchained passions in a novel about

India. The novel that was dedicated to him:

“My own debt to him is incalculable. He wake me up out of

my suburban and academic life, showed me new horizons
about, new civilization, and helped me towards the understanding
of a continent. Until I met him, India was a vague jumble of
rajahs, sahibs, babus and elephants. And I was not interested
in such a jumble; who could be? He made every thing real and
exciting, as soon as he began to talk, and seventeen years later
when I wrote A Passage to India I dedicated it to him out of
gratitude as well as out of love, for it would never have been written
without him.”6.

In 1912, Forster was in India for the first time. He, of course, had visited Masood who

returned to India and became a barrister in Bankipore- which served as the model of

chandrapore in the novel-. It was during this trip that Forster had begun gathering material for

‘A Passage to India’ in a specific Indian diary. His destiny had led him to have an other

Indian friend.

5)Ibid. P 217.
6) Masani, Zareer. “The Secret World of E.M. Forster: The Novelist’s Letters Reveal his Private
Passion.”. The Independent, UK:2007. 29 Mai 2010. P55

23
This was when he met the Mahraja of Dewas, thanks to the British friend Malcolm Darling7.

this meeting had resulted in a lifelong friendship between Forster and the Mahraja. He

described Masood and the Mahraja as: “the two Pillars upon which [he] rest[s].”8.

‘A Passage to India’, in fact, was the product of two trips to India (the first in 1912 and

the second in (1921), separated by a time for Egypt9.

It was clear that the Mahraja of Dewas had been very impressed by his English visitor. He did

not give up sending letters inviting Forster to return to India as his secretary. By the spring of

1912, indeed, Forster was installed at Dewas.

His seven-month stay there led to a deeper connection with India. He seemed to have

enjoyed going native: dressing in Indian cloths, eating spicy foods with his hands, and setting

cross-legged on the floor.

The novel, however, was not completed until January 1924. Before his first visit- in a

letter to his Editor Edward Arnold (August 1912) - Forster wrote:

“I’m just off to India, which will either kill or cure it…
I expect to have an interesting time and penetrate into
queerish places… I don’t suppose you want a book
about India nor do I know to write one yet…”10.

Then, while sailing home after his second visit, he noted on his diary (1912): “India not yet a

success, dare not look at my unfinished novel, can neither assimilate, remember or arrange.”11

For he had brought the opening chapters of his novel with him hoping to continue them, yet ,

once he had reached India he found that he could do nothing with them.

7) Malcom Darling: one of Forster’s Cambridge friends who, in 1907, was appointed Tutor to the
young Raja of the princely state of Dewas.
8) Masani, Zareer. ‘The secret world of E.M. Forster: The Novelist’s Letters Reveal his Private Passions.’Opcit.
9) The out break of WWI was disturbing factor. Towards the end of 1975, it took Forster to
Alexandria as a volunteer to work with the Red Cross for three years.
10) Mitra, Reena, ed.E.M. Forster’s A Passage to India. Atlantic, India: 2008. P 30.
11) stallybrass, Oliver. The Editor. Introduction to A Passage to India. Penguin Books, England: 1987. P 13.

24
Finally, and after the novel was completed Forster declared that:

“the novel is done at last and I feel- or shall feel when

the typing is over- great relief. I’m so weary, not of
working but of not working: of thinking the book bad
and not working, and of not working and so thinking
it bad: that vicious circle. Now it is done and think it
good.”12

Dr. Aziz, the most dominant Indian character was partly based on Masood. Though Aziz is a

doctor and Masood was a lawyer, both were interested in poetry, and more importantly, both

were approached by an Englishman.

Then, Forster had modelled Fielding on himself. Like Forster, Fielding is a British teacher

who tried to relate to the people of India when he was there. Fielding was presented as a

liberal- who had a strong belief in education-: “He did not mind whom he taught: Public-

school boys, mental defectives and police men had all come his way, and he had no objection

to adding Indians.”13. Thus, it might be true that the name Fielding was a combination of

elements from ‘"F"orster and Darl"ing"’14, since both were friendly to Indians. As an other

common characteristic, both Forster and Fielding had preferred the exclusion from the

English Club.

Fielding, as he was described in the novel: “though he came to the club it was only to get his

tennis or billiards and go.”15. Similarly, Forster “had spent almost as much time among

Anglo-Indians as with Indians but almost always felt miserable in a club and almost always

felt happy among Indians.”16.

It is worthy to say that, ‘A Passage to India’ was not about homosexual love, but, it was

about a quest for bridging The East and West. Many critics had confused Forster’s ‘A Passage

to India’ with his ‘Maurice’ (completed in 1914 but published in 1970) which discussed

12) Ibid. P 17.

13) Forster, Edward. M. A Passage to India. Penguin Books. England: 1979. P 73.
14) Stallybrass, Oliver. The Editor’s introduction to A Passage to India. Opcit,P 22.
15) Forster, Edward. M. A Passage to India. Opcit, P 74.
16) Ibid. Opcit,P 10.

25
homosexuality reflecting Forster’s love to his Egyptian Friend Mohammed El Adl.

Forster’s experience at Dewas also had its own reflection on the novel. In Dewas- which

served as the model of Mau in the novel- Forster attended the nine-day festival celeberating

the birth of Krishna, which made a profound impression on him.

“The strangest and the strongest Indian experience ever granted me”17, he declared.

It was this festival which suggested to him the final section of the novel.

In addition to his personal experience which had been, almost perfectly, mirrored in the

novel, Forster had made referential hints to some events that took place during the decade in

which he was building up his novel. These hints concerned:

First, an incident which occurred during his first visit to India, in the spring of 1913. this

was when Miss Wildman, an English nurse, had claimed that she was dragged and robbed

while travelling on an Indian train. However, “the documents in the case made their way to

the British viceroy, by which time she had withdrawn the charge.”18. Forster had employed a

similar event, but for more serious reasons, to fuel his plot concerning the charge of Adela

against Aziz for an attempted rape.

Second, there are references to the well-known Amritsar massacre of 1919 in the

Bunjab. This massacre took place when Miss Sherwood, a Church of England missionary and

a nurse in the women’s hospital, was attacked by a crowd of Indians. “She was struck on the

head with shoes and sticks… and left on the street.”19.

Consequently, General Dawyer, ordered his troops to fire on an unarmed crowed, killing

nearly four hundred.

17) stallybrass, Oliver.‘ The Editor introduction to A Passage to India. Opcit, P 21.
18) Yarrow, Alexandra. ‘Sympathy In The Novel of E.M. Forster’.Aspects of E.M. Forster.
Ed. Heiko Zimmerman. 21 Apr 2010 <http://emforster.de/pdf/Yarrow.pdf>.
19) Hawkins, Hunt. “Forster’s Critique of Imperialism in A Passage to India”. South Atlantic Review.1983.

26
Later, he issued his famous ‘crawling order’ requiring the Indians to ‘go down on all fours’20

and to crawl through the street where the English nurse had been attacked.

Though the Amritsar massacre had occurred during a year when Forster was in Egypt, it

shocked him profoundly. In the novel, the massacre had a place when Mrs Turton, after the

supposed attack on Adela recalled that: “they [Indians] ought to crawl from here to the caves

on their hands and knees wherever an Englishwoman’s in sight.”21.

In addition, and after Amritsar, General Campbell issued another order obliging Indians

to approach the houses of Europeans on foot. Because of this, when Aziz went to visit Major

Callendar he has “to get out of his tonga before he reached the verandah”22.

2) Critical Reception:

Many critics saw that ‘A Passage to India’ is a political novel, since it deals with the

British imperial system in India. However, Forster himself explained that:

“The book is not about politics, though, it is the political

aspect of it that caught the general public and made it sell.
It is about something wider than politics, about the search
of the human race for a more lasting home about the universe
as embodied in Indian earth and the Indian sky.”23.

The novel discussed the difficulty of living, and thus, the possibility of successful –

especially cross-cultural – relationships within the boundaries and context of British India.

This means that, though the political occupation of India is important as background for the

novel, Forster’s chief motive behind his writing of ‘A Passage to India’ is to provide an

argument against imperialism as an obstacle that prevented personal relationships.

20) Idem.
21) Forster. E. M. A Passage to India. Opcit,P 200.
22) Ibid, P 36.
23) Mitra, Reena, ed. E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India. Opcit, P 29.

27
As a result, ‘A Passage to India’ is not a political novel, but a sociological one with a

reference to politics.

At the core of the novel, there is a wonder if the good will of the people could carry

their personal relationships beyond severe circumstances?

In other words, can a friendship between an Englishman and an Indian be possible within a

colonial context?

Forster saw that the possibility of this friendship was not a one sided issue. Such a

relation was prevented, on the one hand, by the British through their oppressive imperial

expansion, and on the other hand, by the mystery of India itself as it is embodied in the

Marabar caves and the Indian ‘cosmos’.

3) The Effect of Colonialism on the British Psyche:

3-1) Forster’s critique of imperialism:

As it was mentioned in the previous chapter, the legitimacy of the British rule in India

had been covered by their ‘civilizing mission’. This concept necessitates to mention Kipling.

As the unofficial spokesman of imperialism, Kipling had developed this civilizing mission

into ‘The White Men’s Burden’24. Celebrating the Empire as a noble enterprise, and a

“training ground for the qualities of manliness”25, ‘the White Men’s Burden’ was a

justification for the write people to colonize and rule people of other nations for these nations

own benefit. It emphasised that the European nations – in addition to the USA – had ‘moral’

duties on all the levels.

24) The White Men’s Burden (1899) was originally written for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee but Kipling
changed the text in order to fit for the American colonization of the Philippines.
25) Jeffer M. Lilburn. ‘Possible Interpretations of Forster’s novel’. University of western Ohio: Novels for
students. 2006. Vol 22. P 210

28
On the economic level, ‘the rich’ had an obligation to help ‘the poor’ whether the poor

wanted and demanded this help or not. On the political level, the white man should rule ‘the

savage’ nations of the third world in order to ensure justice and the role of law. On the

cultural level, Kipling had regarded non-European cultures as ‘childlike’26, consequently, the

white man had a moral duty to encourage the cultural development of these nations until they

could take their place in the world, fully westernized.

Rudyard Kipling voiced his administration for the colonial officers – whether viceroys,

missionaries, civil, or military agents – whom he recognized as ‘brave’ men fulfilling their

duties. ‘Brave’ because they might die while helping other less fortunate races better

themselves.

Forster’s ‘A Passage to India’ advocates a totally contradictory view, however. It

standed against all the voices glorifying the ‘Empire’ and that is best exemplified by the

borrowed title. ‘A Passage to India’ a famous poem by the great American poet Walt

Whitman was written in 1871. The poem hailed the building of the Suez canal (1869), for it

opened the possibility of a new route to India. In this poem, Whitman proclaimed:

“I see in one the Suez canal initiated, open’d (Line 46)

………………………………………………………...
Trying the Eastern to the western sea (Line 83)
…………………………………………………………
Nature and man shall be disjoin’d and diffused no more (Line 143)
………………………………………………………….
Year of marriage of continent, climates and oceans! (Line 147)”27.

Whitman saw the cannel as a symbol of unity between people which became possible,

he believed, in the modern world. This possibility came as a result of the development

26) Thomson, David. England in the Nineteenth Century. England: Penguin, 1978. P 204.
27) Whitman, Walt. A Passage to India. Leaves of Grass. 2005.№ 15. 6 jun 2010.
<http://WWW.american poems.com/ poets/ Whitman 13320/ >

29
in science and technology that would make the world as a single state. In other words he

strongly thought that, in the modern time, the unification of all the nations of the earth –

regardless of their differences – into a single global family was no more impossible.

Whitman used poetry to comment upon his passage to India which was philosophical,

romantic and highly symbolic. Though, Forster had chosen the same title to color his novel

with a kind of intertextuality, with the aim of bridging the gap between the West and the East,

the novel was in one way an ironic comment on the poem itself. Forster’s novel implied

that the unification of mankind is a utopia that will never be realized.

Forster raised the issues of race and Empire in a different way. Forster with his liberal

emphasis on education and individualist psychology approached the critique of Anglo-Indian

imperialism in terms of “public school ideology”. The latter resulted in the priggishness,

snobbery, complacency, censoriousness lack of imagination and narrow mindedness. These

attitudes which the novel delineated in the Anglo-Indians with “well developed bodies, fairly

developed minds and undeveloped heart”28 for Forster were something deficient within the

English national character. Forster outlined in his notes on ‘The English Character’ that:

“For it is not that the Englishman cannot feel – it is that

he is afraid to feel. He had been thought at his public
school that feeling is a bad form”29.

Forster believed in the need of individuals to ‘connect’ and link their rational and

emotional sides. His open-minded and humanistic view of life is seen in his focus on human

relations and the need for tolerance sympathy and love between individuals from different

parts of society and different cultures: “tolerance, good temper, and sympathy are what matter

28) Ashcroft, bill, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin. ‘Post-Colonial Studies: the key Concept’. London and New
York: Routledge, 1998.
29) Idem.

30
really, and if the human race is not to collapse they must come to the front before long”30.

Colonialism, which is the most effective tool of imperial expansion together with the

feeling of superiority created by ‘the civilizing mission’, led to the development of the

colonizer/colonized status and racism instead of the qualities of gentlemanliness which were

supposed to be at the heart of their mission.

3-1) The Colonizer/Colonized Status:

Forster highlighted the relationship between Anglo-Indians and Indians through what

can be called a colonizer/colonized or ruler/ruled status. This idea was more apparent in the

behaviour of the British who went to India ‘twenty years’ ago. To this respect, and in order to

prove that when the ‘civilizing mission’ was put into practice, it lead to the reverse of its core,

it is necessary to compare the new comers with the older civil servants.

The colonizers arrived ‘Fresh’ from England intending to be gentlemen, but, “they are told it

would not do”31.

Ronny Heashop and Cyril Fielding were two ‘fresh Englishmen’ who responded to ‘it

will not do’ in different ways:

Ronny had, directly, submitted to his destiny as a ‘sahib’. He had transformed himself

according to his predecessors’ will; “one’s always facing footlight… they notice everything

until they’re perfectly sure you’re their sort.”32.

30) Analysis of A Passage to India. By E. M. forster, 123 Helpm.com. 26 may 2010

http://www.123HelpM.com/view.asp?=123334
31) Forster. E. M. A Passage to India.Opcit, 1979. P 30.
32) Ibid, P 62.

31
Like McBride who believed in subordinating the self to the ‘Anglo-Indian’ community

pointing out:

“But at a time like this there is no room for-well-

personal views. The man who doesn’t toe the line
is lost… he not only loses himself, he weakened
his friends. If you leave the line, you leave a gap
in the line.”33.

Ronny had adopted the colonizer model of “a dutiful English gentleman who never lets his

side down”34.He accepted his role as a ruler enjoying the privileges that accompanied it.

This status made him ready to confront any person who would disapprove his position even if

it was his mother; he asked:

“what do you and Adela want me to do? Going against

my class against all the people whom I respect and
admire out here? Lose such power as I have for doing
good in this country because my behaviour is not pleasant.”35.

The refusal of being ‘pleasant’ was not the only indication of Ronny’s colonial mind.

There was also a direct reference to inequality between the colonizer and the colonized, when

Ronny got upset because Dr Aziz had called on Mrs Moore over her shoes in the Mosque. He

said: “It was impudence. It was an old trick. I wish you had them on.”36. When Adela

objected to his remark saying: “would not you expect a Mohammedan to answer if you ask

him to take off his hat in church?”37, he replied that: “It’s different, it’s different you would

not understand.”38 meaning that Adela could not understand that what was applicable in

England – such as the ideal of equal standing – could not be the same in the colony.

33) Ibid, P 190.

34) Gopinath, Praceeda. “An orphaned Manliness: The Pukka Sahib and the End of Empire in A Passage to India
and Burmese Days”. Student in the Novel: Summer 2009, Vol 41.issue 2. p 206.
35) Forster. E. Morgan. A Passage to India. Opcit, P 63.
36) Ibid, P 47.
37) Idem
38) Idem.

32
Since, as Forster claimed: “He [Englishman] possesses to a very high degree the power of

confusing his own mind.”39, Ronny tried to convince both himself and his mother of the

British important presence in India by explaining that: “we are out here to do justice and keep

the peace them my sentiments.”40 “we are not pleasant in India and don’t intend to be pleasant

– we have something more important to do.”41. Ronny evoked ‘the white men’s burden’ and

those colonizers to whom India was a career.

Adela noticed that Ronny had been changed: “India had developed sides of his character that

she had never admired “ his self – complacency, his lack of subtlety all grew vivid beneath a

tropic sky…”42.The colonial service had changed the personality of the ‘colonizer’ in almost

every aspect even his personal preferences, for

“when Adela and Ronny watched the play ‘Cousin Gate’

in London together in the past he had scorned it, now, he
pretended that it was a good play in order to hurt no body’s
feelings.”43.

Similarly, Mrs Lesley considered “an unkind notice about the play in the local paper a sort of

things no white man could have written.”44.

This last remark opens the way to speak about the concept of individualism in the colony.

Anyone, who acted or thought individually, had been considered as ‘an exception’ because in

a colony all the colonizers should have a ‘collective mind’ holding the same opinions.

The individualism of both Adela and Mrs Moore in addition to that of Fielding who attempted

to be intimate with Indians, had been criticized by all the members of the Anglo-Indians

community.

39) Ashcroft, bill, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin. ‘Post colonial studies: the key concept’. Opcit
40) Forster. E. Morgan. A Passage to India. Opcit, P 62
41) Ibid, P 63.
42) Ibid, P 88.
43) Ibid, P 55.
44) Idem.

33
Because this individualism

“will disturb the racist hierarchy of the colony…

it will disturb also the colonizers who will realize
how inhuman they have became when they compare
themselves with the new comers.”45.

For this reason any attempt to associate with the colonized was considered as a betrayal to the

whole society as when Anglo-Indians suspected Fielding of being a ‘Japanese spy’46.

Frantz fanon in his Black Skin-White Masks implied that:

“sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong.

When they are presented with evidence work against belief,
the new evidence cannot be accepted it would create a feeling
that is extremely uncomfortable called cognitive dissonance.
And because it is so important to protect the core belief, they
will rationalize, ignore and even deny anything that does not
fit in with the core belief.”47.

This is exactly Ronny’s case when Mrs Moore contested his discourse using religion. She

explained that:

“India in part of the earth and God has put us on the earth
in order to love our neighbours and to show it, and he
is omnipresent even in India, to see how we are succeeding.”48

but Ronny’s religion was only suitable to the needs of the Empire: “He approved of relegion

as long as it endorsed the national anthem, but he objected when it attempted to influence his

life.”49. Consequently, Mrs Moore’s call on Ronny to love his Indian neighbours could not be

heard within the boundaries of British India which was governed by the colonizer/colonized

status.

45) Gopinath, Praceeda. “An orphaned Manliness: The Pukka Sahib and the End of Empire in A Passage to India
and Burmese Days”. Opcit, p 206.
46) Forster. E. Morgan. A Passage to India. Opcit, P 213.
47) Fanon, Frantz. Black Skin White Masks Tran. Rechard Philox. New York: Atlantic Inc. 2008
48) Forster. E. Morgan. A Passage to India. Opcit, P 65.
49) Ibid, P 66.

34
 Unlike Ronny who complained that: “people are so odd out here, end it is not like

home.”50, Fielding declared hid love for Indians: “I have never felt more happy and secured

out here… I really do get on with Indians and they do trust me.”51 Fielding did not adopt the

colonizer model as Ronny did. He was not the sort of fellow that the Anglo-Indians

appreciated. He tried to associate with Indians aiming – like Forster himself – to bridge the

East and the West through cross-cultural friendship. “The world he believed is a globe of men

who are trying to reach one another and can best do so by the help of good will plus culture

and intelligence.”52. In opposition to the racist Anglo-Indians, who had limited the qualities of

‘gentlemanliness’ to ‘Englishness’ Fielding believed that these qualities were universally

applicable and were not limited to a certain race. His ‘gentlemanliness’ which gave priority to

friendship and justice over nation and race had prevented him from being a ‘Pukka Sahib’ in

the Empire.

He prioritized his friendship with Dr. Aziz over the submission to his countrymen’s will.

Fielding “had no racial feeling… because he had matured in a different atmosphere. When the

herd-instinct does not flowrish.”53. He believed that Aziz was innocent and he was the only

one who was ready to help him. He was also the only Anglo-Indian who standed by Adela’s

side and gave her a refuge, after she had been denounced by her own people because of her

honesty. For that reason the collector warned him that: “[He] cannot run with the hare and

hunt with the hounds, at least not in this country.”54. Which meant that he should choose on

which side he stands; either with his countrymen or with the Indians.

However, Fielding was unconsciously manipulated by a kind of “racial superiority

50) Ibid, P 62.

51) Ibid, P 261.
52) Ibid, P 74.
53) Idem.
54) Ibid, P 178.

35
complex”55. He had always felt the presence of ‘fundamental differences’ For instance, he

felt the presence of a barrier between him and his Indian friends when he sent them picture-

postcards from Venice: “all of them will miss the joys he experienced now. The joys of form

and that constituted a serious barrier.”56. Furthermore, Fielding “at moment when he was

throwing in his lot with Indians, he realized the profundity of the gulf that divided him from

them.”57.

This sense of fundamental difference floated on the surface once again, when Aziz had

expressed his worry that ‘Fielding’s name will entirely die out’58 because he had no children.

Fielding felt indifferent. This indifference constituted another cultural barrier between the two

men because it was “what the oriental never understand”59.

Despite his efforts to associate with Indians and to be different from the ‘Pukka Sahib’,

Fielding had deployed a discourse similar to those adopted by the colonial powers. A

discourse that aimed at making the colonized nation lose any hope for independence. He tried

to convince Aziz that Indians were inferior to the British and that India without the British

rule was worthless claiming that:

“Away from us, Indians go to seed at once. Look at

the king-European high school! Look at you, forgetting
your medicine and going back to your charms. Look at
your poems… what do they say? Free our women and
India will be free. Try it my Lad.”60.

In ‘try it’, Fielding had employed the imperative tone to remind Aziz that he was inferior to

him. Besides, he had once tried to persuade Aziz that India was not an Indian property noting

55) AbuBaker, Ahmed M. S. “Rethinking Identity: the Colonizer in E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India”. Nebula
E. Periodical. 2006. P 145.
56) Forster. E. Morgan. A Passage to India. Opcit, P 253.
57) Ibid, P 165.
58) Ibid, P 119.
59) Idem.
60) Ibid, P 288.

36
that Aziz could not “have patriotic poetry of the ‘India my India’ type when it’s nobody’s

India”61. Fielding had asked Aziz: “who do you want instead of the English? The

Japanese?”62

which implied that the British were the best rulers since they understood the Indians better.

The question, thus, also implied the intention to make any hope for independence from the

part of Aziz impossible.

Consequently, the different ways through which Ronny and Fielding responded to the

colonial system, ended similar. This appeared clearly in the letter that Ronny had written to

Fielding welcoming him to their camp: “I’m relieved you feel able to come into line with the

oppressors of India to some extent, we need all the support we can get”63.

Forster himself always felt the presence of such barriers: “the sense of racial tension,

incompatibility never left me.”64 this reveals that the colonizer either consciously or

unconsciously could not be intimate with the colonized since no native could have identity

outside nativity and no white man could escape his colonial superiority.

3-2) Racism within the Boundaries of British India:

As a historical fact, during the eighteenth century, Englishmen had enjoyed close and

widely accept relationships with Indians. During the nineteenth century, however, the Suez

canal had been opened and the British women became able to come to India in large numbers

“they were more concerned with keeping proper distances between Indians and themselves

than men had ever been”65. This was exactly, revealed by Mr Turton’s consideration that: “it

is our women who make everything more difficult out here”66.

61) Ibid, P 249.

62) Ibid, P 288.
63) Ibid, P 277.
64) Phillips, Gene. D.Beyond The Epic: the Life and Films of David Lean.USA: The University Press of
Kentucky, 2009. P 404.
65) The influence of British imperialism <http://www.elustudento.org/article. php?articla/>
66) Forster. E. Morgan. A Passage to India. Opcit, P 198.

37
Further, when Aziz, Hamidullah, and Mehmoud Ali discussed the possibilities of friendship

with the English people, Hamidullah had distinguished between Englishmen and

Englishwomen:

“they all became exactly the same, not worse, not

better, I give any Englishman two years, be he a
Turton or Burton- It’s only the difference of letter.
And I give any Englishwoman six months- all are
exactly alike”67.

‘The bridge’ party which was held in honour of Mrs Moore and Miss Adela had not

been a success for two main reasons:

First, it did not satisfy Adela’s desire to see the ‘real India’. “She reduced the essence of

India to an object that would present itself to her senses as a self-apparent truth”68of India.

When she was not able to get what she wanted through the Indian people who were invited,

she considered the party as a failure.

Second, because this party was ironically arranged; while the name ‘Bridge’ revealed

something to link or to bring people together, the party took the cover off on the racist

behaviour of the British people mainly presented by the women’s character. Because she

could not accept any link with the natives, Mrs Turton, for instance, refused the name ‘Bridge

Party’ and preferred to call it ‘Purdah-Party’69. Then, when Mrs moore asked her to present,

gently, the native women, she declared: “you’re superior to them, anyway, don’t forget that.

You’re superior to every one in India.”70. In the courtroom – waiting for Aziz’s trial to begin,

Mrs Turton, believing in Aziz guilt, blamed the men for their carelessness:

67) Ibid. P 32.

68) Christensen, Timothy. Bearing the White Man’s Burden: Misrecognition and Cultural Differences in E. M.
Forster’s .A Passage to India. Novel: A Forum of Fiction; Spring 2006.Vol. 39 Issue p 161.
69) Forster. E. Morgan. A Passage to India. Opcit, P 56.
70) Ibid, P 56.

38
 “And remember it afterwards. You men. You are weak,
weak, weak. Why they ought to crawl from here to the
caves on their hands and knees wherever an Englishwomen’s
in sight, they oughtn’t to be spoken to, they ought to be
spat at, they ought to be ground into the dust, we have been
far too kind with our bridge parties and the rest.”71.

Her reference to the amritsar massacre implied a call for Englishmen to return to the English

‘chivalric’72manliness. Thus, it implied also a need to consider the women as ‘sacred’ and to

defend them on that basis. Mrs Callendar, on her side, believed that “the kindest thing one can

do to a native is to let him die”73.

Stressing the British women’s snobbish character, Fielding realized that: “it is possible to

keep in with Indians and Englishmen. But that he who would also keep with Englishwomen

must drop the Indians. The two would not combine.”74.

Another racist view can be seen through Mac Bryde’s grotesque theory concerning

‘Oriental Pathology’ or the theory about climatic zones: “all unfortunate natives are criminals

at heart for the simple reason that they live south of latitude 30. They are not to be blamed,

they have not a dog’s chance – we should be like them if we settled here.”75. further, the

darker races were physically attracted by the fairer, as a result, it was quite natural – while

applying his theory- that Aziz had attempted to rape Adela.

Notwithstanding, Adela had never been attractive to Aziz. Which was clear from his first

impression of her at Fielding’s tea party, noting that she lacked the physical glamour and

stating that she is not beautiful.”76.

71) Ibid, P 200.

72) Chiverly’s code: Is a title was granted to the king Edward III and his son the black prince for their courage
on the battle field. According to this code the perfect knight fought for his name if insulted,
serve God and the king and defend any lady in need.
73) Ibid, P 74
74) Idem.
75) Ibid, P 160.
76) Ibid, P 119.

39
Then, during the expedition, Aziz was only concerned with honouring his guests “in the

tradition of the Mughal’s hospitality”77.

In fact, It was Adela’s admiration of Aziz is physical charm that was obvious: “what a

handsome little oriental he was.”78regretting that neither she nor Ronny had any such

charm. But still, Aziz – according to Adela – “might attract women of his own race.”79.

4) The Indian Landscape and Its Impact:

In his novel, Forster presented ‘two India’s’ through a special historical description.

The first, ‘the immemorial’ was India that could be traced historically to the time of its

formation; when the continents had been divided, and the face of the earth had been changed.

“Geology looking further than religion, knows of time

when neither the river nor the Himalayas that nourished
it existed and an ocean flowed over the holy places of
Hindustan, the mountains rose, their debris silted up the
ocean, the gods took their seats on them and contrived
the river, and the India, we call immemorial come into
being.”80.

The second was the primal India which was “really far older… older than anything in the

world.”81.

This primal India – as embodied in the Marabar caves – was beyond the reach of

history. The physical description of the Marabar Hills revealed something mysterious. “The

sun born-rocks… stand knee-deep, throat deep in the advancing soil.”82. These rocks which

were the same “fists and fingers thrust up through the soil.”83 as “extraordinary” in the

opening chapter of the first section. The knees, throat, fists and fingers were parts of the body.

77) Ibid, P 142.

78) Ibid, P 148.
79) Idem.
80) Forster. E. Morgan. A Passage to India. Opcit, P 125.
81) Idem
82) Ibid, P 124.
83) Ibid, P 30.

40
Then, ‘deep’ and ‘thrust up through the soil’ hinted that this primal India was deeply rooted in

the immemorial India symbolizing Its “incomprehensible” essence.

Further, the description of the caves themselves clarified the image. “The circular

chamber is reached via a tunnel”84 they were as “wombs”85. They were also sensual for inside

the cave “at last is a skin… finer than any covering acquired by the animals… more

voluptuous than love”86. The womb, and the skin which more ‘voluptuous than love’

symbolized a ‘female body’.

This Indian female body played its part in the difficulty of friendship between Aziz and

Fielding. It had also a profound effect on both, the British and the Indian sides.

4-1) India’s unfriendly welcome of the British:

India – combining both the immemorial and the primal – was hostile to foreigners.

Despite all the British attempts to control it, India remained a ‘strange’ country.

“how can the mind take hold of such a country? Generations

of invaders have tried but they remain in exile. The important
towns they built are only retreats, their quarrels the malaise
of men who cannot find their way home – India knows of their
trouble, she knows of the whole world’s trouble. To its uttermost
depth – she calls ‘come’ through her hundred mothers, through
objects ridiculous and august… but come to what? She had never
defined. She is not a promise, only an appeal.”87.

This means that, India refused to give a sense of home to its colonizers.

Hence, they remained in ‘exile’, and the houses they built on its land were only ‘retreats’ in

which they hide from its unfriendly embrace.

84) Ibid, P 126.

85) Sinsburry, Alison. “Not yet…Not there”: Breaking the bonds of Marriage in E. M. Forster’s A Passage to
India. Critical Survey; 2009, Vol 21 Issue 1. p 64.
86) Forster. E. Morgan. A Passage to India. Opcit, P 126.
87) Ibid, P 136.

41
This attractiveness which promised nothing was best symbolized by the Marabar hills.

Fielding saw the Marabar hills from the club as “leap into beauty”88. As well, Adela saw

the hills as “romantic in certain light and at suitable distance.”89 seeing them close up,

however, “nothing was to be seen on either sides but the granite very dead and quite. The

sky… seemed unhealthily near.”90. The beauty that was reflected by the Indian nature from

far distances, vanished, wherever the colonizer approached it.

This implied India’s expulsion of the colonizer. Whenever, he tries to get nearer.

Furthermore, India refused even to identify its creatures to foreigners which added more

to the disturbance of the colonizer. “Nothing in India is identifiable; the mere asking of

question causes it to disappear or to merge in something else.”91. For instance the bird that

Adela and Ronny saw at the club, had escaped any description. “They would have liked to

identify it, it would somehow have solaced their hearts.”92.

India, however, refused to give them such a satisfaction; not even a shight moment of relief.

Similarly, the attempt to identify the animal which hit the Nawab Bahadur’s car proved to be

a failure because “the road had been used by too many objects for any one track to be legible,

and the torch created such high lights and black shadows that they could not interpret what It

revealed”93.

It was as if India had mixed itself up with the earth and light to obscure these tracks.

In addition, the book is full of references to the ‘soil’ and the ‘sky’ of India which

implied the strong influence of the ‘cosmos’ on the difficulty of friendship.

88) Ibid, P 179.

89) Ibid, P 128.
90) Ibid, P 139.
91) Ibid, P 92.
92) Idem.
93) Ibid, P 95.

42
“The sky settles everything- not only the climates and seasons but when the earth shall be

beautiful.”94. The sky controlled everything on earth even the human relationships, and

though the English and the Indians created communities which were separate, they were

united under one sky.

India could not accept any intimacy between the colonizer and the native. One example is

when the coming of Ronny at Fielding’s tea party “was as if irritation exuded from the very

soil”95 and ruined the friendly mood. The sky also “turned angry orange”96 when Adela

expressed her joy by the sun rise “I would not have missed this for anything”97. this indicated

that India objected the presence of the colonizer and turned angry at his shightest moment of

pleasure.

4-2) The Marabar Expedition and its Aftermath:

In bringing his character to the caves “Forster confronted them at a symbolic level with

a part of India which eludes western religion and philosophy of life.”98. Both, Adela and Mrs

Moore had experienced ‘something unspeakable’ in the Marabar caves which became a

turning point in their relationships with others.

4-2-1) Mrs Moorse’s obsession:

In the first cave “whatever is said, the same monotonous noise replies and quivers up

and down the walls until it is absorbed into the roof. ‘Boum’ is the sound as far as the human

alphabet can express it.”99. After such an experience, Mrs Moore emerged from the cave in

horror decided not to visit another one. Still, the echo continued to manipulate her mind.

94) Ibid, P 30.

95) Ibid, P 86.
96) Ibid, P 136.
97) Idem.
98) Mitra, Reena. Ed. E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India. Opcit, P 47
99) Forster, E. Morgan. A Passage to India. Opcit, P 144.

43
“Pathos, piety, courage – they exist, but are identical, and so is filth, everything exist, nothing

has value.”100. The caves were dark and empty echoing back that nothing has a meaning not

even Idealism, gentility, and Christian virtues. “she realized that she did not want to write to

her children, did not want to communicate with anyone even with God… she lost all interest,

even in Aziz.”101 after being the one who brought Adela and Ronny together, the mother that

kept thinking about her other children, and was a good friend to Aziz had changed and

became indifferent to the world of personal relationship.

The echo has the effect of undermining Mrs Moore’s hold on life. It was “a nightmare

vision”102 of evil and negation that challenged Christianity and the western humanism that:

“though the people are important, the relations between them are not.”103.

Mrs Moore withdrew to herself, left India without any further interaction with anyone, and

finally died. For her echo made friendship impossible. Whatever her effect on the other, she

seems isolated by her echo. Though she believed that Aziz was innocent, she was indifferent

to his crisis and does nothing to help him. She decided that all people, including Aziz, do not

exist. Consequently, Mrs Moore’s friendship to Aziz came to an end.

Mrs Moore was imagined as a “benefactress of India”. She became the Hindu

demi-deity ‘Esmiss Esmoore’: professor Godbole made her part of his religious devotion, and

AZiz, told Ralph, “your mother was my best friend in the world”104. However, there was no

objective basis for these considerations and “we can hardly accept this about – face in Mrs

Moore’s role and its symbolic values.”105.

100) Ibid, P 146

101) Idem.
102) Forster. E. Morgan. A Passage to India. Opcit, P 135.
103) Idem.
104) Ibid, P 28.
105) Analysis of A Passage to India. By E. M. Forster. 123HelpM.com. 26 may 2010.
<http://www.123HelpM.com/view.asp?=123334>

44
4-2-2) Adela Quested’s confusion:

Adela’s echo was a different matter. Her experience in the Marabar caves was a descent

into the subconscious side of herself. A girl ‘fresh from England’ went to India in order to

marry. her desire to see ‘the real India’ – which had not been fulfilled during the Bridge and

Fielding tea party – took her to the Marabar caves.

Unlike Mrs Moore, Adela enjoyed her experience in the first cave for both Adela and

Aziz had “emerged smiling”106. However, the disaster that Mrs Moore had encountered was

coming later. Her relation with Roony was not characterized by a sexual desire but by their

shared belief in the “sanctity of personal relations”107. She was not sufficiently convinced that

love was necessary for a successful union. In the Marabar hills, she tried to convince herself

that in order to keep up with Ronny; she should change something in herself and associate

herself more with Anglo-Indians. Suddenly, however, “as she toiled over a rock that

resembled an inverted saucer, thought ‘what about love?’ the rock was nicked by a double

row of footholds, and somehow the question was suggested by them.”108. As if, this double

row symbolized the connection between love and marriage, that when removing one side the

other standed meaningless. So that her recurrent awareness that she did not love Ronny made

her indecisive as regard her marriage.

Adela’s experience in the cave could be related to the visitor’s experience as it was

described by the narrator:

“Return to Chandrapore uncertain whether he has an

interesting experience or a dull one or any experience
at all. He finds it difficult to discuss the caves, or to
keep them apart from his mind, for the pattern never

106) Forster, E. Morgan. A Passage to India. Opcit, P144

107) Ibid, P 90.
108) Ibid, P 148.

45
 varies. And no covering… nothing, nothing attached
to them and their reputation – for they have one – does
not depend upon human speech.”109.

The caves were described in terms of negation; what they lacked and what was absent for

“nothing is inside them” and “nothing attached to them”. Relating her desire to see the real

India, and her marriage with Ronny to this “nothingness”, Adela realized that no one was a

success and that her presence in India as a whole was a failure. Something had happened to

her mind, apparently, connected with Goodbole’s song. She explained to Fielding:

“I enjoy the singing… but just about then a sort of

sadness began that I couldn’t detect at the time …
no, nothing as solid as sadness: living at half pressure
expresses it best. Half-Maiden – various other things
happened – it doesn’t matter what, but I was under part
of all them. I was certainly in that state when I saw the
caves.”110

What had really happened in the caves remained elusive. This was India’s message to

the colonizer. India wanted Adela to realize that she did not love Ronny because it refused

any happy celebration for the colonizer on its land. In addition, it revealed once again that the

real India was beyond the capacities of the western mind and could not be understood as part

of a lecture. However, the Anglo-Indian community preferred to interpret the illusion into a

rape although Adela herself never advanced this charge.

4-3) The Effect of India on the Indian Side: Dr. Aziz

Like Mrs Moore and Adela, Dr Aziz was affected by the Marabar expedition. Yet, the

effect that India had on him was not in the form of an echo, it was something more

aggressive.

109) Ibid, P 126.

110) Ibid, P 219.

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The effect of ‘the female body’ on Aziz, could be approached as the effect of the ‘mother’ on

the ‘son’; or the effect of the colonized country on the native who mixed himself

up with the colonizer.

The novel discussed, in part, the development of Aziz is nationalism throughout the

three sections ‘Mosque’, ‘Caves’ and ‘Temple’. “the novel’s formal structure followed a kind

of Aristotelian plot progression with exposition (beginning), complication (middle) and

denouement (end).”111.

During the 1 st section of the novel, Aziz was presented as an innocent native who looked

for intimacy. Indeed, he became friend with Mrs Moore and Fielding. “all men are [his]

brothers”112. Having no hatred to those who came to colonize their homeland, Aziz was

concerned with pleasing his English friends. The second section, ‘caves’ which was the heart

of the novel, contained the experience which enlightened Aziz is ‘National mind’113. Aziz was

not affected by the echo like Mrs Moore and Miss Quested, rather by its results. What

happened to Adela in the cave ‘remained unresolved’, and as it was mentioned previously –

was interpreted as an alleged rape charged against Aziz on the basis that “the darker races are

physically attracted by the fairer”114. After her echo was silenced in the courtroom Adela

realized that she had made a mistake. The echo was silenced before it was too late.

This, could be seen as India’s lesson to Aziz. Besides, because Fielding had convinced him to

‘let Miss Quested off paying’115 Aziz thought that ‘Fielding had saved the girl a fine of twenty

thousand Rupees and now followed her to England”116.

111) Simla, Sunita. Quest for human harmony in Forster’s ‘A Passage to india’. India: Oriental
Atlantic. 2008. P147
112) Forster. E. Morgan. A Passage to India. Opcit. P 118.
113) Simla, Sunita. Quest for human harmony in Forster’s ‘A Passage to india’. Opcit.
114) Forster. E. Morgan. A Passage to India. Opcit. P220
115) Ibid, P 236.
116) Ibid, P 257.

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Which implied a feeling of distrust which started to replace his love towards Fielding.

Finally, the release came in the third section ‘temple’ when Aziz emerged as a nationalist,

shouting: “India shall be a nation! No foreigner of army sort…Hurrah, Hurrah for India”117. It

was an indirect reference to Mahatma Ghandi’s non- Cooperative movement.

Aziz’s shift towards nationalism could be explained by the words of Ghandi who wrote

explaining the purpose of his non-cooperation movement:

“We desired to life on terms of friendship with Englishmen,

but that friendship must be friendship of equal, both in
theory and practice, and we must continue to non cooperate
till, the goal is achieved.”118.

Aziz told Fielding “we wanted to know you ten years back now it’s too late”119 reaffirming

that the nationalist feeling that motivated him could not be solaced.

By 1920s the Raj was hoping to give educated Indians a shave in government but ‘Forster was

convinced that it was too late to turn the nationalist tide”120 which was reflected through

Aziz’s words.

By the end Aziz declared that: “we must drive every blasted Englishman into the sea and

then… you and I shall be friends”121 he stressed ‘independence’ which means equality as the

basis of friendship.

In fact, the British Raj and the influence of imperialism on the British psyche were not

only barriers that prevented the friendship between Aziz and Fielding.

There was, also, the ongoing Indian nationalism that necessitated independence and equality

for a successful cross-cultural friendship.

117) Ibid, P 289.

118) Donn, Byrne. Mahatma Ghandi. The man and his message. Oxford: Modern English publication.
1988. P 60.
119) Forster. E. Morgan. A Passage to India. Opcit. P 288.
120) Howkin, Hunt. Forster’s Critique of Imperialism in A Passage to India. Opcit.
121) Forster. E. Morgan. A Passage to India. Opcit. P 289.

48
Conclusion

Forster had successfully related the Indian history to his main theme. The colonial

bureaucratic system had been motivated in India on the basis of a ‘civilizing mission’ to teach

the ‘savage nation’ hwo to live. However, this mission turned up to be only a cover under

which the aim of creating a ‘balance of power’ and ‘Pax Britannica’ had been hidden.

Anglo-Indians of A Passage to India are best reflecting this binary relation of aim/

cover.

They come intending to be gentle with the duty to keep the justice and the role of law. But,

they refused to associate them selves with Indians and escaped any link with them.

In fact, India for them was only a ‘career’ or a ‘frontier’ where they sought a better life.

The belief in their superiority over Indians created a colonizer/colonized status and a racism

which prevented any attempt of friendship between an Indian and an Englishman.

Forster’s novel implied that this impossibility of friendship was a double sided issue for

India also had played it part.

Finally, it can be deduced that the British behaviour in India could not escape the fact

that it was a reflection of history.

49
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