PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF ALGERIA

Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research

University of Tlemcen

Faculty of Letters and Foreign Languages

Department of English

A Postcolonial Study of E.M.Forster’s

A Passage to India (1924)

A Dissertation Submitted to the Department of English in Partial Fulfillment of

the Requirement for the Master’s Degree in Literature and Civilization

Presented by Supervised by

BEKKAL BRIKCI Nihel Dr.KHELADI Mohamed

Board of Examiners

Prof. Faiza SENOUCI Chairperson

Dr. Mohamed KHELADI Supervisor

Dr. Fatiha BELMERABET Examiner

2018-2019
Dedication

Every challenging work needs self-efforts as well as guidance of elders

especially those who are very close to our hearts.

To begin with, I thank my Allah who was always giving me the power, the

ability and self-confidence from writing this research.

I may dedicate to my dearest Father and Mother who were always beside me

and supported me, and whose affections and prayers day and night which made me

able to get such honor. Thank you for all you have done for me.

Special thanks to my Fiancé who was always encouraging me and motivating

me. Thank you for your understanding, your patience and dealing with my anxieties.

Without forgetting my sweetest best friend Houda who is like sister for me. I

want you to know how much I appreciate you and how grateful I am for you.
Acknowledgement

My deep gratitude to my model teacher and supervisor Dr.KHELADI, who

helped me to achieve this academic work. When I was wrong, he showed me the right

way. He did his best so that I could achieve such successful project. I thank him for his

efforts, for guiding me, for inspiring me.

Great thanks to the board examiners namely: Professor SENOUCI Faiza and

Dr.BELMERABET Fatiha, who accepted our request to evaluating, and who devoted

their precious time in reading and examining my work.

I would like too, to thank my teachers who provided me with pieces of

information.
Abstract

This dissertation examines the way in which the ‘colonizer’ treated the
‘colonized’. It basically seeks to spot the postcolonial aspects in E.M.Forster’s novel A
Passage to India (1924). Therefore, an endeavor is first made to introduce the field of
postcolonial studies and to cast light on its specificities with regard to the culture of
both the colonizer and the colonized. In a deeper sense, this study intends to apply the
postcolonial theory in the analysis of the novel to come up with a clear clarification of
the depicted postcolonial aspects. The analysis of the novel from the postcolonial
perspective shows that these aspects include mimicry, ambivalence, otherness ,racism
and prejudice. Forster focused on the racial tensions and the cultural
misunderstandings that divided the Natives and the Anglo-Indians. The novel therefore
represented the native Indians as inferior and backward and to British as superior and
advanced. In other words, the novel illustrates the gap existing between the British and
the Indians’, a gap which cannot be bridged.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DEDICATION………………………………………….………………………………… III

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT…………………………………………………………….… IV

ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………… V

GENERAL INTRODUCTION………………………………….………….…………… 09

CHAPTER ONE : THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1.1.Introduction……………………………………..…………………………..…………. 12

1.2.Postcolonial Studies:An Overview…………………………………..……..…………. 12

1.3.Postcolonial Literary Theory………………………………….…………….……..….. 13

1.4.Major Postcolonial Theorists………………………………………………………….. 14

1.4.1.Edward W.Said………………………………………….…………………..…… 15

1.4.1.1. Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978)…………………………………………... 15

1.4.2.Homi K.Bhabha…………………….………………………………....………. 19

1.4.2.1.The Notion of Hybridity………………………….......................………… 20

1.4.2.2.The Notion of Mimicry………………………………….……………..…. 22

1.4.2.3.The Notion of Ambivalence……….………………………………..……. 23

1.4.2.4.The Notion of Binarism……………………….…………………..……… 24

1.4.3.Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak…………………….……..……………….……. 24

1.4.4.Frantz Fanon………………………………………………………….……… 26

1.5.Conclusion…………………………………………………………………..…….. 29
CHAPTER TWO:POSTCOLONIAL ASPECTS IN:A PASSAGE TO INDIA

2.1.Introduction ………………………………………….……………………………….. 32

2.2.Background:The British Imperialism in India ………………………………….……. 32

2.3.Author’s Biography ……………………………………………………….………….. 34

2.4.Summary of the Novel ………………………………………………….…………….. 35

2.5.Postcolonial Aspects in the Novel ……………………………………….…………… 37

2.5.1.Otherness …………………………………………………………….….…..…… 37

2.5.2.Hybridity ………………………….…………………………….………….……. 47

2.5.3.Mimicry ………………………………………………………….………….…… 49

2.5.4.Racism and Prejudice ……………………………………..……….……….……. 50

2.5.5.Can theSubaltern Speak?………………………………………….……..………. 53

2.5.6.Ambivalence ……………………………………………………………..………. 54

2.6.Conclusion…………………………………………………….………..…….……….. 55

GENERAL CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………….. 57

BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………………….. 59
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
Chapter One Theoretical Background

Colonialism is a system of domination and subjugation of powerful nations like

Britain, France and North America over the developing ones. Colonialism was not just
dependent on the use of force and physical coercion, but, it also controlled the culture
of the colonized. The study of the ‘colonial legacy’ resulting from the contact between
the colonizer and the colonized constitutes the core of what is referred to as
‘Postcolonialism’ or else postcolonial studies.
Postcolonial writers used to include in their works the changes that the
colonized faced, and wondered what their societies will become. This can be identified
and reflected in Postcolonial Literature. This kind of literature is written by people in
formerly colonized countries. It serves a voice of the powerless and poor people.
However, it is also enlightening to add that some literary works that were produced by
the colonized can also be labelled and classified under the umbrella of postcolonial
literature since such literature deals in a way or another with the relationship between
the colonized and the colonizer.
Within this context, Forster, in his famous novel A Passage to India, tried to
highlight some of the relationships that existed between the colonizer and the
colonized. In other words, it showed how the British Officials in India had considered
and treated the Natives. On this basis, the research questions to be raised in this
dissertation are:
*What are the major postcolonial aspects that appeared in postcolonial literature?
*How does Forster address and reveal the postcolonial aspects between the
‘Westerners’ and the ‘Orientals’ in his novel A Passage to India?
This study is divided into two chapters. The first chapter is basically
theoretical. It deals with an overview concerning Postcolonial Studies. It also attempts
to shed light on the main tenets of postcolonial theory, and how the binary relationship
between the colonized and the colonizer is represented in literature.
The second chapter is practical. It tackles the historical background of the
British rule in India. Also, it involves Forster’s biography and a summary of the novel.
Finally, and most importantly, it deals with the analysis of the postcolonial aspects in
the novel.

9
CHAPTER ONE

Theoretical Background
CHAPTER ONE : THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1.1.Introduction………………………………………………………………. 12

1.2.Postcolonial Studies:An Overview………………………………………. 12

1.3.Postcolonial Literary Theory……………………………….………….. 13

1.4.Major Postcolonial Theorists…………………………………………….. 14

1.4.1.Edward W.Said……………………………………….…………… 15

1.4.1.1. Orientalism (1978)…………………………………….……….. 15

1.4.2.Homi K.Bhabha…………………………………………..………. 19

1.4.2.1.The Notion of Hybridity…………………………...………… 20

1.4.2.2.The Notion of Mimicry………………………………………. 22

1.4.2.3.The Notion of Ambivalence……….…………………………. 23

1.4.2.4.The Notion of Binarism…………………….……………… 24

1.4.3.Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak…………………….…..…………. 24

1.4.4.Frantz Fanon…………………………………………………… 26

1.5.Conclusion…………………………………………………………….. 29
Chapter One Theoretical Background

1.1. Introduction
This chapter will tackle the field of Postcolonial Studies broadly. Within it,
Postcolonial literary theory will be accentuated alongside its major figures,
particularly Edward W.Said, Homi Bhabha, Gayatri Spivak and Frantz Fanon. The
objective is to provide an account on the perception of colonialism by each theorist. It
will also bring into play the theoretical foundations put forward by theses theorists and
their relevance in analyzing literature produced by both the colonizer and the
colonized. This emphasis on the tenets of postcolonial theory will serve a lens to come
up with the analysis of the postcolonial aspects in the novel under study.

1.2. Postcolonial Studies: An Overview

The field of postcolonial studies has been gaining prominence since the 1970s.
Some would date its rise from the publication of Edward Said’s influential critique of
Western constructions of the Orient in his book Orientalism,1978 (Bahri,1996)
Postcolonialism emerges as a result of colonialism.There is Postcolonialism
(without hyphen) ,which means a theoretical concept, a theory, a philosophy and
Post-colonialism (with hyphen),that is an era coming after colonialism.The term
‘postcolonial’ appeared by 1990s to be used through some books such as Spivak’s In
Other Worlds (1987), Ashcroft’s The Empire Writes Back (1989), Bhabha’s Nation
and Narration (1990), and Said’s Culture and Imperialism (1993).By the mid 1990s,
the term established itself in academic and popular discourse. ‘Postcolonial’ does not
mean ‘post-independence’, or ‘after-colonialism’, however, it begins from the very
first moment of colonial contact (Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin,2003),and it is not just
a historical period, but also it covers all the culture affected by the imperial process
from the moment of colonization to the present day as Ashcroft, Griffiths &
Tiffin(2007) say: ’’Post-colonialism deals with the effects of colonization on cultures
and societies… from the late 1970s the term has been used by literary critics to discuss
the various cultural effects of colonization’’(p.168)
The field of postcolonial studies has two distinctive meanings. When the focus
is on the historical perspective, it is a decolonization process that marked after the
Second World War, and an attempt of the formerly colonized peoples by Britain and

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Chapter One Theoretical Background

other European powers to gain back and re-establish their native culture and identity,
‘’as originally used by historians after the Second World War in terms such as the
post-colonial state, ‘post-colonial’ had a clearly chronological meaning, designating
the post-independence period’’ (Ashcroft, Griffiths & Tiffin,2007).From the literary
perspective, postcolonial studies deal with two different writings; the body can be the
literature of the colonized that is produced by the colonized people; and it can be the
literature of the colonizer that is produced by the colonizing people, so that the
colonizer’s culture is seen as the higher and superior one, above the colonized’s
culture that is seen as the ‘Other’, because, since one country is under colonization and
was an oppressed one, it is an eastern one (the Other).
It was born out of people's frustrations, their direct, personal and cultural
clashes with conquering culture, and their fears, hope, and dreams about the future and
their own identities. Postcolonial’s subjects include: universality, differences,
nationalism, postmodernism, representation and resistance, ethnicity, feminism,
language, education, history, place, and production (Ashcroft, Griffiths & Tiffin, 2004)
It is an academic discipline that analyses, explains and responds to the cultural
legacy of colonialism and imperialism. It also describes a whole new experience of
political freedom, also provides a set of analytical tools with which to unpack colonial
writings and deliberate postcolonial literature.
1.3. Postcolonial Literary Theory
The idea of ‘postcolonial literary theory’ emerges from the inability of
European theory to deal adequately with the complexities and varied cultural
provenance of postcolonial writing (Ashcroft, Griffiths & Tiffin,2004)
The end of colonialism does not mean just independence, however, it will be
about its legacy as well. Postcolonial theory is the study of what happens when one
culture is dominated by another, it focuses on the reading and writing of literature
written in previously or currently colonized countries. The literature is composed of
colonizing countries that deals with colonization or colonized peoples. Postcolonial
theorists are interested in: ‘how the colonized came to accept the values of the more
powerful culture and to resist them too, it looks at canonical texts as well as
postcolonial ones’(Dobie,2012)

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Chapter One Theoretical Background

Postcolonial theory is a term that refers the theoretical and critical observations
of former colonies of the Western powers and how they relate to, and interact with, the
rest of the world. It seeks critically to investigate what happens when two cultures
clash and one of them ideologically fashions itself as superior and assumes dominance
and control over the other.
Some of the features of postcolonial theory include a focus on the literature that
is developed by new nations, for instance; Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and
Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie. They also focus on European responses to
colonialism such as; Forster’s A Passage to India and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of
Darkness. Another type of writing that can be considered as a part of postcolonial
theory, it would be writings from immigrant groups that moved to, or, emigrated to the
new nation.
Postcolonial literary theory is important in both; in a modern sense and while
looking at historical texts. The first sense is relevant for marginalized groups, they are
finally given a voice in the national canon. Also it is about cultural revitalization; in
Africa, black writers are attempting to revive their culture after the European powers
have fled their countries. Historically, it concerned with critiquing older texts ;many
texts contain elements of ‘oppressor’ vs ‘oppressed’ that have been ignored because
there was no group that cared to look at them (Wayne & Neylan,2018)
Postcolonial theory of criticism is the critical analysis of the literature on the
Third World countries in Africa, Asia, the Carribean Islands and South America from
the first contact of colonialism to the present. Postcolonial critics used to reinterpret
and examine the values of literary texts, by focusing on the contexts in which they
produced, and reveal the colonial ideologies that are concealed within, for instance,
Chinua Achebe’s rereading of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Edward Said’s rereading
of Austen’s Mansfield Park, and Homi Bhabha’s rereading of Forster’s A Passage to
India (Mambrol,2016)
According to Dobie (2012),postcolonial theory is related on an account of basic
assumptions that are the following:

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Chapter One Theoretical Background

1-Colonialism is not just the use of force and physical coercion and conquest,it also
replaced the cultural values of the native by the colonizer’s own beliefs and practices.
So the precolonial culture will be modified or lost.
2-The colonized mimics, imitates and copies the colonizer’s own culture in dress,
language and behavior, otherwise, they see themselves as inferior to the ‘superior’ one.
3-Universalism is a term believed by the European colonizers in their ideals and
experiences.
4-The colonizer see his culture as superior and the colonized’s one as inferior. The
‘West’ is seen as being essentially rational, developed and even virtuous, however, the
‘Orient’ is seen as being irrational, backward and even despotic. In this sense, the
colonizer’s culture is used as the standard for each culture of the working class, the
subalterns, this is called Eurocentrism.
5-Othering involves two concepts: the ‘Exotic Other’ and the ‘Demonic Other’. The
‘Exotic Other’ represents a fascination with the inherent dignity and beauty of the
primitive other; while the ‘Demonic Other’ is represented as inferior, negative, savage
and evil.
6-The colonized is not only who is affected and influenced by the colonizer, the latter
is affected too and becomes the colonized.
7-The European imperial powers are still economically and politically continuing
their dominance and exploitation on the Third World countries, that refers to another
type of colonization called neo-colonialism.
8-The combination of two cultures; the origin culture with the host one to produce a
new and distinctive one, a process called ‘hybridity’ or ‘syncretism’ that is
characterized by change and tensions.
All in all ,postcolonial literary theory, allows the researcher to look at both of
these areas with a new light, and celebrate the cultures that exist in the world and
recognize those that have been erased.
1.4. Major Postcolonial Theorists
The major figures of postcolonial theory are: Edward Said with his famous
book Orientalism, Homi Bhabha ,Gayatri Spivak and Frantz Fanon.

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Chapter One Theoretical Background

1.4.1. Edward W.Said

Edward Wadie Said has challenged the difference between East and West. He is
considered to be one of the most influential thinkers of the second half of the twentieth
century.
He was born in Jerusalem, Palestine in 1935.He was a professor of literature at
Columbia University, a preeminent scholar and an important figure in postcolonial
studies. Edward Said was one of the advocates in the United States who campaigned
for the political rights and independence of the Palestinians, he was called “the most
powerful voice” for them. A literary theorist and academician, he wrote many books
on literary criticism, musical criticism, and issues of post-colonialism.
In 1948,while Said was a grade school student, the state of Israel was created
and 80% of the Palestinian population was left without home. Said did not return to
Palestine until 1990.He was a privileged child and had little interest in the conflict
between Israel and Palestine. In 1975-1976,Said was a fellow at the Center for
Advanced Study and Stanford that he wrote his best known book Orientalism(1978)
which represents an opposition between different parts of the world, between the
Whites and the Blacks and between the Colonizer and the Colonized, and became one
of the foundational texts for Postcolonialism or Postcolonial studies(Dexheimer,2002).
1.4.1.1.Edward Said’s Orientalism(1978)
In Oxford English Dictionary, orientalism has been the term used for the subject
and the works of the orientalists, scholars versed in the cultures, histories, languages
and societies of the Orient(Murray,1971)
According to Ashcroft, Griffiths & Tiffin(2007) the significance of orientalism is:
That as a mode of knowing the other it was a supreme example of the
construction of the other, a form of authority. The Orient is not an
inert fact of nature, but a phenomenon constructed by generations of
intellectuals, artists, commentators, writers, politicians, and, more
importantly, constructed by the naturalizing of a wide range of
Orientalist assumptions and stereotypes (p.153)
The beginning of Orientalism was in the 19th century by scholars who
translated some writings of the East into English, in order to know more about the
Eastern cultures which will empower the west with knowledge of how to conquer and
defeat the Eastern countries. Edward Said examines the processes by which the

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Chapter One Theoretical Background

‘Orient’ was, and continues to be, constructed in European thinking. The word
‘Orientalism’ is a noun form of the adjective “Oriental” which means something
related to eastern countries, but in the context of Said’s Orientalism simply does not
mean something related to the eastern countries, it means the misrepresentation of the
people and the culture of the Eastern countries Like: Middle East, Asia and North
Africa. Said used the word Orientalism to refer to the West’s perception and depiction
of Middle Eastern, Asian and North African societies.
The book Orientalism (1978) was an important influence on what would
become known as Postcolonialism. Edward Said sees orientalism as a Western society
in general, and the colonial powers Britain and France in particular; developed over
the course of the nineteenth century a series of discourses-academic, literary,
political…etc on the Orient and the Arab World. The book begins with a quotation by
Karl Marx: “they can not represent themselves; they must be represented”, which
means that the Orientals are a Western career under Western powers that represent
them.
According to Edward Said(1978) Orientalism is: “the discipline by which the
Orient was (and is) approached systematically, as a topic of learning ,discovery and
practice”. For him the discourse of Orientalism was much more widespread and
endemic in European thought. As well, as a form of academic discourse, it was a style
of thought based on ‘’the ontological and epistemological distinction between the
‘Orient’ and the ‘Occident’’’ (p.2). But, most broadly, Said discusses Orientalism as
the corporate institution for dealing with the Orient ‘’dealing with it by making
statements about it, authorizing views of it, describing it, by teaching it, settling it,
ruling over it: in short, Orientalism as a Western style for dominating, restructuring,
and having authority over the Orient’’ (p.3),thus, orientalism is linked to colonialism.
Edward Said exposed the European universalism that takes for granted white
supremacy and authority. He describes the Orient as a Western cultural construct, and
as a projection of those aspects of the West; that the Westerners do not want to
acknowledge in themselves, for instance, cruelty, sensuality and so on. The East(the
Other) is understood as exotic, lazy, irrational, uncivilized, inferior, backward and
humane, while the West(the Self) is seen as being familiar, active, rational, civilized,

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Chapter One Theoretical Background

superior, developed and despotic. The Eastern nations are given all the negative
characteristics that the West does not want to see it in itself. Said talks about
Orientalism as an ideology, discourse and body of knowledge created by Westerners
that misinterprets and homogenizes the eastern world and its culture, and justifies
western superiority and domination over the East.
Said sees the Orient and the Oriental as constructions of various disciplines by
which they are known to Europeans. This narrows down an extremely complex
phenomenon to a simple question of power and imperial relations and it also provides
no room for self-representations of the Oriental(Machátová,2007).He also points out
that Orientalism started to impose limits upon thoughts about the Orient since:
‘’Orientalism was ultimately a political vision of reality whose structure promoted the
difference between the familiar(Europe, the West, ”we”) and the strange(Orient, the
East, ”them”)”(p.43).Said(1978) argues that the idea of the Orient exists in order to
define the European. He writes that:
One big division, as between West and Orient, leads to other smaller
ones’ and the experience of travelers, writers and statements become
the lenses through which the Orient is experienced, and they shape the
language, perception, and form of the encounter between East and
West(p.58)
The variety of these experiences is held together by the sense of sharing something
other, something different which is called the ‘Orient’.
Edward Said’s work Orientalism was influenced by certain theories, and the
most brilliant one is Michel Foucault’s Notion of Discourse which means the
knowledge that the Orientalist scholarship has about the Orient, that formed a power
used by the West to justify their control and colonization over the Orient, so that it
creates a hegemony (Maldonado,2016).Edward Said (1978) says:
My contention is that without examining Orientalism as a discourse one
cannot possibly understand the enormously systematic discipline by
which European Culture was able to manage-and even produce- the
Orient politically, sociologically, militarily, ideologically, scientifically
and imaginatively during the post-Enlightenment period (p.3).
By the 18th century, the understanding of Orient is discovered through the Western
authority of knowing the Orient, how the Orient has been reconstructed, how the
Orient has been ruled when it was a colony of Europe under Britain or France. He

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Chapter One Theoretical Background

thus, tried to emphasize upon how the interpretation of the Orient is made by the
dominant discourse of the West through Foucault’s Notion of Discourse. Without
examining Orientalism as a discourse it is difficult to understand that how Europe has
managed to organize and produce the ‘Other ‘.
Discourse is important, therefore, because it joins power and knowledge
together. Those who have power have control of what is known and the way it is
known, and those who have such knowledge have power over those who do not. This
link between ‘knowledge’ and ‘power’ is particularly important in the relationships
between colonizers and colonized (Ashcroft, Griffiths & Tiffin,2007),on how through
this knowledge which is gathered from different sources, Orientalists and European
administrators were able to reimpose colonial domination.
Orientalism brought the notion of the ‘Self’ and the ‘Other’. This notion was
used by the colonizers to justify colonialism. So, the relationship between the ‘East’
and the ‘West’ is the same as the relation between ‘orientalism’ and ‘colonialism’. The
Orient transforms to power structures and appears in forms of colonialism and
imperialism. At this moment the relationship of the Occident and Orient becomes the
relationship of “power, of domination, of varying degree of a complex
hegemony”(Said,1978) This discourse is a new study of colonialism and states that the
representation of the Orient in European literary canon has contributed to the creation
of a binary opposition between Europe and its other (Moosavinia, Niazi &
Ghaforian,2011)
The West treated the East as inferiors in order to have the right to colonize
them. Their justification was that the East has to be civilized by the hand of the West.
The relationship of the ‘Self’ and the ‘Other’ is at the heart of postcolonialism and
many define postcolonialism in terms of the relationship of the ‘Self’ and the ‘Other’.
The colonizers see themselves better than the colonized, they consider them as “not
fully human’’ and as savages, and the savage is evil as well as inferior, and themselves
as the embodiment of ‘’proper self’’. The Self and the Other can be translated to the
Occident / Orient, us /them, The West /the rest, center/margin, metropolitan/colonial
subjects, vocal/silent(Moosavinia, Niazi & Ghaforian,2011)The eastern identity is
represented as a set of decadent values, backwardness, barbarism, laziness,

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Chapter One Theoretical Background

irrationalism, superstitions, lack of logic…etc, which, inevitably, the West thwarted

and claimed was inferior to their own cultural identity. The knowledge of the Eastern
reality was, however, incomplete and wrong. It not only created prejudices, but it was
also used to justify colonial subjugation of the East by the West. It is imperialism that
gives the authority and power to Orientalists to estimate, homogenize, devalue and
narrate the Oriental reality to the Western world, in this way, Orientalism is nothing
but a construct of imperialism. So, Orientalism ,as scholarly outlook ,is a means of
justifying imperialism.
Said(1978) argues that Orientalism has helped European identity and culture to
be superior to all other cultures and peoples(p.7).Orientalism must create its own
other; because of this other it can strengthen its own identity and superiority, and at the
same time to be independent from the ‘Self’.
Edward Said concludes his book Orientalism by mentioning that he is not
saying that the orientalists should not make generalization, or they should include the
orient perspective too, but creating a boundary at the first place is something which
should not be done(Ranjan,2015)
1.4.2. Homi K.Bhabha
The next significant postcolonial theorist is Homi K.Bhabha. He was born in
1949 in Bombay, he is an Indian English scholar and critical theorist. Homi Bhabha
started his teaching career in the United Kingdom ,but ,then he moved on to America
.He is now the Chair Professor in humanities in the University of Harvard. Bhabha has
been a profoundly original voice in the study of colonial, postcolonial, and globalized
cultures. He is often regarded as part of the ‘Holy Trinity’ in the field of postcolonial
studies with the two other figures being E.Said and Gayatri Spivak.
He is the author of numerous works exploring postcolonial theory, cultural
change and power, including; Nation and Narration and The Location of Culture. He
has developed a number of postcolonial studies’ key concepts such as; ’hybridity,
mimicry, ambivalence and binarism’, that describe ways in which the colonized
peoples have resisted the power of the colonizer.

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Chapter One Theoretical Background

1.4.2.1. The Notion of Hybridity

One of the most terms that plays a central role in postcolonial theory and
Bhabha’s work is ‘Hybridity’; which broadly refers to an offspring of two different
ideas that have been mixed up such as plants or animals, urban or rural, mixed racial or
cultural origin and Western or Eastern; and more deeply, as the creation of new
transcultural forms within the contact zone produced by colonization, and the relations
of colonizer/colonized that stresses their interdependence and the mutual construction
of their subjectivities. Hybridity has frequently been used in postcolonial discourse to
mean simply cross-cultural ‘exchange’ (Ashcroft, Griffiths & Tiffin,2007)
Hybridity mostly associated with the analysis of the relationship between the
coloniser and the colonised. Bhabha argues that the coloniser and the colonised are
mutually dependent in constructing a shared culture. He says that ‘hybridity’ is the
appearance of new cultural forms of multiculturalism. Seeing colonialism as
something locked in the past, Bhabha shows how its histories and cultures constantly
intrude on the present, demanding that we transform our understanding of cross-
cultural relations(Ashcroft, Griffiths & Tiffin,2007)
In Bhabha’s book The Location of Culture ,Bhabha(1994) states that:
‘hybridity is the sign of the productivity of colonial power, its shifting forces and
fixities…the strategic reversal of the process of domination through disavowal’(p.159)
He reiterates the point by stating that: ’’colonial hybridity is not a problem of
genealogy or identity between two different cultures…[it] is that the difference of
cultures can no longer be identified or evaluated as objects of epistemological or moral
contemplation’’(p.114)
However, this concept of ‘hybrid’ is in itself a paradox; while Bhabha
maintains that ‘hybridity’ is dependent upon two fixed and pure cultural localities, he
also dismisses the material concept of a pure culture, as Edward Said(1994) says in his
book Culture and Imperialism: ’’no one today is purely one thing…’’(p.407)Against
this idea of a pure culture which can be distinguished and kept separated from another
foreign culture and which can be reverted back to, Bhabha proposes the idea of
‘cultural hybridiy’.

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Chapter One Theoretical Background

In order to understand Bhabha’s theory of ‘cultural hybridity’, the researcher

need to understand that for Bhabha culture is not a static entity; for him, it is not an
essence that can be fixed in time and space. On the contrary, culture for Bhabha is
something which is fluid, something which is perpetually in motion, and it is a melting
pot of several disparate elements which are regularly being added and transforming the
cultural identities. So for Bhabha, there is for instance, no pure Indianness or
Britishness that can be grasped, studied, or even returned to. All cultures are
characterized by a mixedness which Bhabha refers to it by the word ‘hybridity’.
Identity is the relationship between ‘you’ and the ‘other’, between the
‘colonizer’ and the ‘colonized’ identities to create ‘the new self’. Identity defined
as:“people’s concepts of who they are, of what sort of people they are, and how they
relate to others” (Hogg & Dominic,1988)
The process of imperialism caused a dilemma to postcolonial societies; to
which side they go for, the traditional identity which can not fit the new world order,
or the western ways which are alien to them. So naturally this society will find itself
divided between those who incarnate the western identity and those who resist to it,
and maintaining a pure identity is difficult; it is called ‘identity crisis’. That is why
‘hybridity’ is a very crucial element explored by postcolonial writers. The majority of
these writers admit in a way or another that the identity of postcolonial societies is
‘hybrid’; the fact that they are multicultural people is inevitable, and their struggle to
regain the purity of their identity is quasi impossible. Bhabha argues that ‘identity’ is
never pure and unchanging, but it is in a constanant process of formation.
The historian David huddart (2006) stresses that Bhabha’s concept of ‘cultural
hybridity’ should not be taken as a universal concept, considering that: ‘disparate
cultures are in no way pre-existing, but are an effect of historical change specifically
of colonialism and postcolonialism’ (p.84) Thus, it is important to understand that
Bhabha explores ‘hybridity’ within a space that embraces colonial conditions of
identity and cultural difference.
Homi Bhabha builds up the term of ‘otherness’, in which, according to Jacques
Lacan and Frantz Fanon ,this term refers to the binary opposition between white and
black, colonizer and colonized. Ashcroft, Griffiths & Tiffin(2007) noted that: ‘The

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Chapter One Theoretical Background

colonized subject is characterized as ‘other’ through discourses such as primitivism

and cannibalism, as a means of establishing the binary separation of the colonizer and
colonized and asserting the naturalness and primacy of the colonizing culture and
world view’(p.154-5)
His concept of “the Third Space of Enunciation” presents an abstract space
where the cultures of two opposing powers meet and mingle. Ashcroft, Griffiths &
Tiffin(2007) pointed out that: ‘’ this is the space of hybridity itself, the space in which
cultural meanings and identities always contain the traces of other meanings and
identities’’(p.53-4) His conception is marked as controversial because he rejects the
notion of cultural knowledge as an ‘integrated and expanding code’. A culture can not
become a closed system developing on its own, it needs to be put in comparison and
under the influences of other cultures even if their differences are immeasurable, it is
these immeasurable elements that create ‘cultural hybridity’(Said,1993).
1.4.2.2. The Notion of Mimicry
Hybridity is the result of ‘mimicry’; another important concept in postcolonial
theory, because it has come to describe the ‘ambivalent’ relationship between
colonizer and colonized. When colonial discourse encourages the colonized subject to
‘mimic’ the colonizer, by adopting the colonizer’s cultural habits, assumptions,
institutions and values, the result is never a simple reproduction of those traits. Rather,
the result is a ‘blurred copy’ of the colonizer that can be quite threatening.
‘Mimicry’ is never far from mockery, since it can appear to parody whatever it
mimics, as Bhabha(1994) said: ‘It is from this area between mimicry and mockery,
where the reforming, civilizing mission is threatened by the displacing gaze of its
disciplinary double, that my instances of colonial imitation come’’(p.86) ‘Mimicry’
therefore locates a crack in the certainty of colonial dominance, an uncertainty in its
control of the behavior of the colonized(Ashcroft, Griffiths & Tiffin,2007)
The term ‘mimicry’ has been crucial in Homi Bhabha’s view of the
ambivalence of colonial discourse. For him, mimicry is the process by which the
colonized subject is reproduced as ‘almost the same, but not quite’ (Bhabha, 1994).
The copying of the colonizing culture, behavior, manners and values by the colonized
contains both a mockery and a certain ‘menace’, ‘so that mimicry is at once

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Chapter One Theoretical Background

resemblance and menace’ (Bhabha,1994),and he added: ‘The menace of mimicry is its

double vision which in disclosing the ambivalence of colonial discourse also disrupts
its authority’(p.88)
The ‘mimicry’’ of the post-colonial subject is therefore always potentially
destabilizing to colonial discourse, and locates an area of considerable political and
cultural uncertainty in the structure of imperial dominance(Ashcroft, Griffiths &
Tiffin,2007)
1.4.2.3. The Notion of Ambivalence
Another Bhabha’s concept is ‘ambivalence’; it describes the complex mix of
attraction and repulsion that characterizes the relationship between colonizer and
colonized. The relationship is ‘ambivalent’ because the colonized subject is never
simply and completely opposed to the colonizer. The colonizer sees the colonized as
inferior, and the colonized sees the colonizer as corrupt.
Rather than assuming that some colonized subjects are ‘complicit’ and some
‘resistant’, ambivalence suggests that complicity and resistance exist in a fluctuating
relation within the colonial subject. ‘Ambivalence’ also characterizes the way in which
colonial discourse relates to the colonized subject, for it may be both exploitative and
nurturing, or represent itself as nurturing, at the same time(Ashcroft, Griffiths &
Tiffin,2007)
Bhabha’s argument is that colonial discourse is compelled to be ‘ambivalent’
because it never really wants colonial subjects to be exact replicas of the colonizers.
Bhabha suggests that this demonstrates the conflict within imperialism itself that will
inevitably cause its own downfall: it is compelled to create an ‘ambivalent’ situation
that will disrupt its assumption of monolithic power.
Bhabha shows that both colonizing and colonized subjects are implicated in the
ambivalence of colonial discourse. The concept is related to ‘hybridity’ because, just
as ambivalence ‘decentres’ authority from its position of power, so that authority may
also become hybridized when placed in a colonial context in which it finds itself
dealing with, and often inflected by, other cultures(Ashcroft, Griffiths & Tiffin,2007)

24
Chapter One Theoretical Background

1.4.2.4. The Notion of Binarism

The fourth and last concept of Homi Bhabha’s theory is ‘binarism’. It means the
combination of two things, a pair, ‘two’, duality, this is a widely used term with
distinctive meanings in several fields and one that has had particular sets of meanings
in postcolonial theory(Ashcroft, Griffiths & Tiffin,2007)
It is the oppositeness used by the colonizer and the colonized; centre/margin,
metropolis/empire, civilized/primitive, white/black, good/evil…etc Binary oppositions
are structurally related to one another, and in colonial discourse there may be a
variation of the binary ‘colonizer/colonized’, that becomes rearticulated in any
particular text in a number of ways, for instance, in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of
Darkness.
One of the most catastrophic binary systems perpetuated by imperialism is the
invention of the concept of ‘race’. Imperialism draws the concept of race into a simple
binary that reflects its own logic of power(Ashcroft, Griffiths & Tiffin,2007)
To sum up, this is all about Homi K.Bhabha and his famous concepts that are
interrelated; ’hybridity,mimicry,ambivalence and binarism’ in postcolonial theory.
1.4.3. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
Another figure of the important postcolonial theorists and critics is the Indian
woman Gayatri Spivak. She was born in Calcutta,1942,Indian literary theorist,
feminist critic and professor of comparative literature. S he received education in
the University of Cambridge and Cornell University. Spivak urged women to become
involved in, and to intervene in, the evolution of deconstructive theory. She also urged
her colleagues to focus on women’s historicity. Her critical writings include: Essays in
Cultural Politics (1987), The Post-Colonial Critic(1990)…etc
In addition to Spivak’s critical writings, she published a long complex essay
with the title Can the Subaltern Speak?(1988).The concept of the ‘subaltern’ is meant
to cut across several kinds of political and cultural binaries, such as colonialism vs.
nationalism, or imperialism vs. indigenous cultural expression, in favor of a more
general distinction between ‘subaltern’(the colonized) and ‘élite’(the colonizer),
because, Guha-the former of the Subaltern Studies group- suggests, this subaltern
group is invariably overlooked in studies of political and cultural change(Ashcroft,

25
Chapter One Theoretical Background

Griffiths & Tiffin,2007)One clear demonstration of the difference between ‘the élite’
and ‘the subaltern’ lies in the nature of political mobilization: ‘élite’ mobilization was
achieved vertically through adaptation of British parliamentary institutions, while the
‘subaltern’ relied on the traditional organization of kinship and territoriality or class
associations(Ashcroft, Griffiths & Tiffin,2007) The ‘people’ or the ‘subaltern’ is a
group defined by its difference from the élite; the former represents the ‘other’ or the
‘colonized’ ,and the latter is related to the ‘self’ or the ‘colonizer’. The ‘subaltern’ was
thus held up as a figure of radical difference, the ‘other’ who can not speak not
because they literally can not, but because they do not form part of the discourse.
The title refers to the least powerful in society ‘subaltern’; it is a term for those
of a lower economic and cultural status, the masses who exist outside of the power
structure of a given society. Spivak borrows the term from Antonio Gramsci(Marxist
thinker), who used it to refer to social groups under the ‘hegemonic’ control of the
ruling ‘elite’. She uses this term specifically to refer to the ‘colonized’ and peripheral
subject, especially with reference to those oppressed by British colonialism, such as
segments of the Indian population prior to national independence. Spivak particularly
focuses on ‘subaltern women’, she observes: “If in the context of colonial production,
the subaltern has no history, and cannot speak, the subaltern as female is even more
deeply in shadow” (Ashcroft, Griffiths & Tiffin,2003).She discusses ways that
colonialism and its patriarchy silences subaltern voices to the extent that they have no
conceptual space from which they can speak and be heard, unless, perhaps, they
assume the discourse of the oppressing colonizer(William & Timothy,2006)
For Spivak the term ‘speak’ means; ’Can the lowest members of society express
their concerns?’/’Can they enter into dialogue with those who have power?’ And also
If they speak or communicate their concerns ‘will they be heard?’.
Spivak concludes her essay by answering her question, she writes: ’no the
subaltern can not speak’. It has been argued by some scholars that rather than saying
‘no’, it is more opt to say that ‘the subaltern can not be heard by society, just like the
mad person can not be heard by the society because his/her speech is considered as
vacuous. Ashcroft, Griffiths & Tiffin (2007) says:‘’ …concludes with the declaration
that ‘the subaltern can not speak’. This has sometimes been interpreted to mean that

26
Chapter One Theoretical Background

there is no way in which oppressed or politically marginalized groups can voice their
resistance’’(p.201)
In addition to that, Spivak coined the term ‘othering’, Ashcroft, Griffiths &
Tiffin(2007) define it as:‘ the process by which imperial discourse creates its
‘others’…Othering describes the various ways in which colonial discourse produces its
subjects’’(p.156) . It often refers to the colonized.
1.4.4. Frantz Fanon
The last representative of postcolonial theory in this chapter is Frantz Fanon. He
was born in the French colony of Martinique in 1925.He learned France’s history until
his high school years when he first encountered the philosophy of ‘negritude’, taught
to him by Aimé Césaire, Martinique’s other renowned critic of European colonization.
Fanon left the colony in 1943,to fight with the Free French forces in the waning days
of the Second World War. He studies psychiatry and medicine at university in Lyons
(Tracey,2018)
Frantz Fanon was one of a few extraordinary thinkers supporting the
decolonization struggles. His brief life was notable both for his whole-hearted
engagement in the independence struggle for the Algerian people against France and
for his astute, passionate analyses of the human impulse towards freedom in the
colonial context. Fanon’s writings explored the effects of colonialism and oppression
such as; Black Skin, White Masks(1952) and Wretched of the Earth(1961).In each book
Fanon discusses the psychological aspects of oppression through concepts such as
racism, alienation, segregation, dehumanization, and psychopathology (Tracey,2018)
Fanon’s first work Black Skin, White Masks ,that was faced by black human
beings in a social world that is constituted for white human beings. Its content
is about, black people who represent the ‘colonized’, must wear ‘white masks’ in
order to get by in a white world who is the ‘colonizer’. This is the general idea of this
book ,that shows the notable ‘racism’ between the ‘colonizer’ and the ‘colonized’, and
there are other aspects that Frantz Fanon mentioned.
Frantz Fanon offers a more detailed investigation of how the ‘self’ encounters
the trauma of being categorized by ‘other’ as inferior due to an imposed ‘racial
identity’ and how that ‘self’ can recuperate a sense of identity and a cultural affiliation

27
Chapter One Theoretical Background

that is independent of the racist project of an imperializing dominant culture. He

examines how ‘race’ shapes the lives of both men and women in France and in
colonial conflicts in Africa. Ashcroft, Griffiths & Tiffin( 2007) writes:
The most important fact about race was, as Fanon was the first to notice, that however
lacking in objective reality racist ideas such as ‘blackness’ were, the psychological
force of their construction of self meant that they acquired an objective existence in
and through the behavior of people (p.186)
According to this quote, the researcher can understand that the ‘colonizer’ was ‘racist’
with the ‘colonized’. The ‘fact of blackness’ came to have an objective determination
not only in ‘racist’ behavior and institutional practices, but more insidiously in the
psychological behavior of people.
In Fanon’s opinion, the black man is viewed as a ‘penis symbol’, one whose
archetype is constructed by white fictitious notions such as ‘’they are sexual beasts’’
and ‘God only knows how they must make love! It must be
terrifying’(Fanon,1952).So, the black man is no longer viewed as a man, but solely as
a penis. He explains that this ‘racism’ is derived from the fear of the black’s sexual
potency and an unreal, perceived biological danger to the white man(Blake,2011)
Fanon analyzes language as which it carries and reveals ‘racism’ in culture,
using as an example the symbolism of whiteness and blackness in the French
language. He asserts that one can not learn and speak this language without
subconsciously accepting the cultural meanings embedded in equations of purity with
whiteness and malevolence with blackness: ‘to be white is to be good, and to be black
is to be bad’ (Tracey,2018)
Fanon’s work actually describes the psyche of ‘colonized’ people, in terms of
their thought process and psychological health. His approach, though primarily applied
to those ‘colonized’ by the European powers in North Africa, offers both a productive
method of explaining French colonialism in Algeria, as well as provides insight to the
psychology of colonialism as a whole(Blake,2011)
Fanon dissects in all of his major works the ‘racist’ and ‘colonizing’ project of
white European culture, that is, the totalizing, hierarchical worldview that needs to set

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Chapter One Theoretical Background

up the black human being as “negro” so it has an “other” against which to define itself.
So, Frantz Fanon’s most works are based on the term ‘racism’.
1.5. Conclusion
This chapter has dealt with Postcolonial studies; it has defined the field which
refers to the period after colonization and its legacies. The next section has discussed
what is postcolonial literary theory; it is a theory that seeks to enlighten the major
aspects of analyzing the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized in
literary works. In addition to this, the chapter has focused on the pioneering
postcolonial theorists including Edward Said, Homi Bhabha, Gayatri Spivak and
Frantz fanon, and how they combine the relationship between the ‘colonizer’ and the
‘colonized’. The next chapter will be devoted to the practical side of the present study
and within which the novel will be analyzed from a postcolonial perspective.

29
CHAPTERTWO
Postcolonial Aspects in: A Passage to India
CHAPTER TWO:POSTCOLONIAL ASPECTS IN:A PASSAGE TO
INDIA

2.1.Introduction ………………………………………………………………….. 32

2.2.Background:The British Imperialism in India ………………………….……. 32

2.3.Author’s Biography ………………………………………………………….. 34

2.4.Summary of the Novel ……………………………………………………….. 35

2.5.Postcolonial Aspects in the Novel …………………………………………… 37

2.5.1.Otherness ……………………………………………………….…..…… 37

2.5.2.Hybridity ………………………….…………………………….………. 47

2.5.3.Mimicry …………………………………………………………….…… 49

2.5.4.Racism and Prejudice ……………………………………..……………. 50

2.5.5.Can theSubaltern Speak?………………………………………..………. 53

2.5.6.Ambivalence ……………………………………………………………. 54

2.6.Conclusion………………………………………………………….……….. 55
Chapter Two Postcolonial Aspects in: A Passage to India

2.1. Introduction
This chapter is in essence devoted to the analysis of the novel A Passage to
India by E.M Forster .First of all, it will deal with the background of the British
imperialism of India. Secondly,the researcher will mention the biography of the writer
E.M.Forster. The third point will tackle the summary of the novel. Finally, an attempt
is made to implement and apply the postcolonial theory in spotting the postcolonial
aspects reflected in the novel. Such aspects will include: otherness, mimicry,
hybridity, racism, ambivalence and prejudice. This task ,as stated earlier, will be
achieved with reference to the novel by giving instances and examples.
2.2. Background : The British Imperialism in India
India was one of the most brilliant and valuable colony of Britain, it is called
the ‘jewel of the crown’ .As, once, someone said: ‘The sun never sets on the British
Empire’’.
The British came to India in hopes to use their land and products as a profit. The
question that may be asked is: ‘’how a small company like ‘Britain’ could take control
over a huge nation with a large population like ‘India’?’’.The British imperialism in
India had started with the decline of the Mughal Empire.
The Mughal Empire ,which was ruled by Muslims and Afghans, used to work
in close connection with local Hindu rulers. India has not a cultural and political
unifications that led the Mughal Emperor ‘Akbar’ to marry Hindu princesses in order
to keep his sovereignty. Till 1700s,the Mughal enjoyed its peak until the Hindu rulers
went against the Mughal leadership, and Britain had traded in India . Mughals became
uninterested in trade as well as they got revenue from agricultural taxes, however,
Europeans were more interested in trade. So, the Indian coast was no longer guarded
by the Mughals, hence, it gave a footstep to the British rule in India.
India was wealthy in terms of trade and markets, this gave an opportunity to
Britain to gain more economical dominance in India. With this interest, the East India
Company set up three trading posts at Bombay, Calcutta and Madras. In the beginning,
Britain was under the Mughal’s control, by 1707,with the decline of the Mughal
Empire, it made a way for the British to win Indian territories.In1757,Robert Clive
won the Battle of Plassey, that was the first victory of the British East India Company.

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Chapter Two Postcolonial Aspects in: A Passage to India

As the Mughal Empire weakened, the East India Company took advantage and
worked local disputes in order to gain more power.At this point, the East India
Company was granted considerable rights in the name of the British government. It
could make treaties, engage in war, and establish commercial relations.
Initially,the British were interested in India’s land, trade and market.But,with
the Industrial Revolution in Britain,it became interested in India’s raw materials and
its large population, that had changed to be the market for British-made
goods.However,this marked a negative point to the development of
India.Because,Indians were forced to buy the British goods,at the same time,Indian
goods were not allowed to compete the British ones.So that,the local producers were
put out of business.
Britain held a powerful economic over India.It used to transport India’s raw
materials to other broad countries.India was a great source of cotton,coffee,tea and
opium,so,the British people used to sell opium to China in which they sold it in
England.There was a great famine in the late 1880s,because of the production of crop
for food was reduced.
By 1850,Britain power spread all over India, and it could take almost the full
control over it.Indians were dissatisfied from this,because Britain was racist and it
tried that Indians convert to Christianity.Indian people wanted to be independent from
Britain.So,the first war for independence was, the outbreak of the Sepoy Mutiny in
1857.It was a wide outbreak,so that,the East India Company took almost a year to
regain the full control over India.Muslims and Hindus were separated,and the non-
unification of the Indian people made them weak in front of the British people.
In 1858,after the Indian Mutiny,the British Crown could take the full control of
India,and India becomes under the British rule.The British colonization lasted almost
one century(1858-1947),and during this period of suffering,there were many struggles
for independence,and the Indian people get unified to fight against the oppressor
British government and to gain the full independence (Cited in Kaur,2013)

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Chapter Two Postcolonial Aspects in: A Passage to India

2.3. Author’s Biography

Edward Morgan Forster,known as E.M Forster,was born in 1879 in London,a
British novelist,essayist,and social and literary critic.He is the only child of Edward
Morgan Llewellyn Forster,an architect,and his wife Alice Clara Whichelo.Forster’s
partly Irish paternal grandfather,Charles Forster,who was a clergyman,and his
maternal grandfather,Henry Whichelo,who was an artist.His father died and left his
small family(mother and her son) with an income that would make them always
comfortable.
As an adult Forster accused his mother of smothering him; however, she
undeniably gave him great self-confidence;it was only later, when human relations
became complicated and painful, that he started to become gawky, his clothes ill-
fitting, and his beautiful musician's hands held awkwardly. When the mother and her
son moved to Rooksnest near Stevenage, Hertfordshire, to a modestly beautiful
house,there, it was the start of a decade which was, in retrospect, a paradise: he
enjoyed his closeness to his mother and played in the fields with local boys.
Forster was sent to board at Kent House, an Eastbourne preparatory school with
a liberal reputation.Then, he moved to Tonbridge school,so that he could be a day boy
at school. In later years he claimed that he was unhappy at Tonbridge. Nevertheless,
public schools came to represent what he most hated in English life: philistinism,
snobbery and the assumption of racial and class superiority.Yet,he began to develop
his great love of classics at Tonbridge, and he had friends. When Forster left, he had
won both the Latin verse and the English essay prizes.Later,Forster went up to King's
College, Cambridge, it had a radical reputation. He gained a second in the classics
tripos.
Forster applied to be taken on by the Cambridge University local lectures
board,he gave eleven courses entitled 'The republic of Florence'. A piece about
‘Greece’ appeared in print, and a short story; the quiet success of these gave him the
impetus to return to the early draft of A Room with a View .Then,he started the novel
Where Angels Fear to Tread. Forster travelled twice to India in 1912 and 1921; the
trips helped him to begin and complete A Passage to India that was published in 1924,
which has been read as an important early document of post-colonialism.He was

34
Chapter Two Postcolonial Aspects in: A Passage to India

awarded the ‘James Tait Black Memorial Prize’that followed this successful novel
(Cited in Nicola Beauman,2006)
Forster declares that his life as a whole has not been dramatic and he is
unfailingly modest about his achievements.Interviewed by the BBC on his eightieth
birthday he said: ‘’I have not written as much as I’d like to[…]I write for two
reasons:partly to make money and partly to win the respect of people whom I
respect[…]I had better add that I am quite sure I am not a great novelist’’ In addition
to his five famous novels and collection of short stories available as
Penguins,E.M.Forster had published about fourteen other works,they include two
biographies,and two books about Alexandria.(Kaul & Kaul,1924)
Forster was a member of the literary and a perceptive critic. ‘Virginia Woolf’
wrote in her diary that: ‘’he says the simple things that clever people don't say; I find
him the best of critics for that reason’’(Woolf,1919) Edward Morgan Forster died in
1970.
2.4. Summary of the Novel
The novel begins in the town of Chandrapore.The main character is Dr.Aziz,an
Indian Muslim, surgeon and widower.He meets with a few friends and they discuss the
probability of Indians to form friendships with the British Anglo-Indians,but the group
decides that it is impossible. During their discussion, Dr. Aziz is summoned to the
home of the Major Callendar at the hospital.But when he arrives at his home,he finds
that he has already left,this made him angry.His anger took him to the mosque,there,he
met an elderly British woman,Mrs.Moore,who was visiting her son,Mr. Heaslop,the
City Magistrate.They talked and they could even formed a friendship.
Dr.Aziz accompanied Mrs.Moore to the club;a place that the locals are not
allowed.She meets her companion,Adela Quested,the fiancé of her son Ronny.Miss
Adela complains that they have seen nothing of India. Mr. Turton, the Collector,
proposes having a Bridge Party. When Mrs.Moore tells her son Ronny about
Dr.Aziz,he got mad and angry about his mother’s association with a Native.
For Adela and Mrs. Moore, the Bridge Party is a failure, for only a select few of
the English guests behave well toward the Indians. Among these is Mr. Fielding, the
schoolmaster at the Government College, who suggests that Adela meets Aziz. Mrs.

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Chapter Two Postcolonial Aspects in: A Passage to India

Moore scolds her son for being impolite to the Indians, but Ronny feels that he is not in
India to be kind, for there are more important things to do. Aziz accepts Fielding's

invitation to tea with Adela, Mrs. Moore, and Professor Narayan Godbole. During tea,

they discussed the Marabar Caves, Dr.Aziz invited all of them to visit the Caves.
Dr. Aziz, Mrs. Moore, and Adela are the only ones who went on the trip to
Marabar Caves because the others missed the train. During their exploration of the
Caves, Mrs. Moore heard some terrifying echoes, so that she left Dr.Aziz and Adela
alone. The both continue their road. Suddenly, something happened, a confused
conversation happened between Adela and Aziz. So, Aziz left Adela alone and went
into a cave to recover his balance, and Adela did the same thing. When he came back,
he found that their guide was alone. Aziz searches for Adela, but only finds her broken
field glasses. He finds Fielding, who arrived at the cave in Miss Derek's car-an
Englishwoman-, but he does not know where Adela is. When the group returns to
Chandrapore, Aziz is arrested for assaulting Adela.
Fielding speaks to the Collector about the charge, and claims that Adela is mad
and Aziz must be innocent. Fielding acts as Aziz's advocate, explaining such things as
why he would have the field glasses. Mrs. Moore also believes that Dr. Aziz is
innocent, so her son Ronny sends her back to England,so that she would not defend
him.During the trial,when McBryde-the District Superintendent of Police in
Chandrapore-,asks Adela whether Aziz followed her, she admits that she made a
mistake,it is just a hysteria from the echos of the Caves.So,Dr.Aziz was innocent.After
the trial,Adela leaves the courtroom alone. Fielding accompanied her to the college
where she will be safe.After few days,Adela left India and did not marry Ronny.
Aziz hears rumors that Fielding had an affair with Adela. He believes these
rumors.Because of this suspicion, the friendship between Aziz and Fielding begins to
be normal and cool. Fielding leaves Chandrapore to travel, while Aziz remains
convinced that Fielding will marry Adela Quested.
Two years later,Dr.Aziz moved to Mau ,for a ceremony.He heard that Fielding
and his wife are in the town,so he tried to avoid them ,by thinking that he had married
Adela.Later on,Aziz knew that Fielding married Mrs.Moore’s daughter Stella.His
anger at Fielding cools.
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Chapter Two Postcolonial Aspects in: A Passage to India

The novel ends with the talk between Fielding and Dr.Aziz,by realizing that the
English people would never be friends with Indians.So,the both of them had separated
in a good way.
2.5. Postcolonial Aspects in the Novel
E.M Forster’s A Passage to India,is about the relations between English people
and the Natives of India during the British colonization in India.The novel shows
certain postcolonial features,the major ones are: ‘otherness,hybridity,mimicry,racism
and prejudice,can the subaltern speak? and ambivalence’.
2.5.1. Otherness
In the novel ‘otherness’ is demonstrated in many ways .From the first chapter
of the novel,Forster revealed that India and Indians are inferior to Europeans. He
makes himself clear that he belongs to the colonialists, with his inappropriate select of
words in describing the city of Chandrapore.He says:
…by the river Ganges,it trails for a couple of miles along the
bank,scarcely distinguishable from the rubbish it deposits so freely
[…] The streets are mean,the temples ineffective,and though a few
fine exists they are hidden away in gardens whose filth deters all […]
Chandrapore was never large or beautiful…(A.P.T.I,p.9)

He added that the city is devoid of any work of art. India is considered as an ‘evil’
and‘barbarous’ land.Forster ,also,had described the Indian people in bad manner:
‘’people are drowned and left rotting’’.Everything Indian is ‘abased’ and
‘monotonous’ .Then ,he compared the Anglo-Indian city station which is so different
than the Native one ‘’Houses belonging to Eurasians stand on the high
ground…Chandrapore appears to be a totally different place […] it is no city but a
forest…’’ ,so, his comparison between the Eastern and Western landscape,it shows the
superiority of the British colonizer, and the inferiority of the Indian colonized.
In the second chapter,Forster moved from places to characters.E.M.Forster
represented the Indian women as the spirit of sacrificing for their
families.Hamidullah’s wife can not take her dinner before it is taken by men(her
husband).She believed that the woman can not have a full life without marriage and
men.The Indian women are considered as passive to men.

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Chapter Two Postcolonial Aspects in: A Passage to India

It was difficult to get away,because until they had had their dinner she
would not begin hers […] What is to become of all our daughters if
men refuse to marry?They will marry beneath them
[…]Wedlock,motherhood,power in the house-for what else is she
born…(A.P.T.I,p.15-6)
Moreover, the author portrayed the Indians as lazy. An example of that
is,Mohammed Latif,Hamidullah’s relative.Forster described him as a person who had
never worked and lived under the mercy and generosity of Hamidullah.
…who lived in Hamidullah’s bounty […]all his life he had never done
a stroke of work.So long as some one of his relatives had a house he
was sure of a home,and it was unlikely that so large a family would all
go bankrupt.His wife led a similar existence some hundreds of miles
away…(A.P.T.I,p.16)
The Westerners showed no respect towards the Orientals.The Major Callendar
called Aziz to his house.Aziz says: ‘’Old Callendar wants to see me at his bungalow
[…]He might have the politeness to say why […]He has found out our dinner hour,and
chooses to interrupt us every time,in order to show his power’’(A.P.T.I,p.17) ,but Aziz
found neither the Major nor a message. It is a kind of power and authority of the
Colonizer over the Colonized.
Adela says that she wants to see the real India and real Indians.However,Ronny
laughed about her interest about seeing the Natives.In other words,how the British
woman who has lived in England,is curious about seeing India and meeting the
Indians.How an English person whose country had colonized India,is impatient from
visiting it.As if Indians are not humans and lesser. Ronny and the other Anglo-Indians
thought themselves better than the ‘Other’.The British colonizer treated the colonized
as ‘stereotypes’.Forster claimed:
…and Miss Quested announced anew that she was desirous of seeing
the real India.Ronny was in high spirits.The request struck him as
comic’’Another one said: ‘’Wanting to see Indians!How new that
sounds!Another Natives!why,fancy!Let me explain Natives do not
respect one any the more after meeting one,you see (A.P.T.I,p.27)
Ronny was upset when he knew his mother’s talk with a Native,as he called him
‘Mohammedan’.While he thought that she is speaking and describing an English
doctor,he found that the English doctor is one of the Indian Natives.He said: ‘Oh,good
gracious!Not a Mohammedan?Why ever did not you tell me you had been talking to a
native?’ (A.P.T.I,p.31)

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Chapter Two Postcolonial Aspects in: A Passage to India

The Bridge Party that was suggested by Mr.Turton,it is ‘’…was not the
game,but a party to bridge the gulf between the East and the West’’(A.P.T.I,p.28) It
shows the high-rank of the English people.Forster had described the Indians as
uncivilized and anxious people,when he says: ‘’…most of the Indian guests had
arrived even earlier,and stood massed at the farther side of the tennis lawns,doing
nothing’’(A.P.T.I,p.39) Ronny and Mrs.Turton spoke about the attendance of the
Natives at the club in stereotype manner: ‘’It is the first time we have ever given a
party like this at the club.Mr.Heaslop,when I am dead and gone,will you give parties
like this?...The great point to remember is that no one who is here matters;those who
matter do not come…’’(A.P.T.I,p.39) It is a mockery from Indians.Because ,the
British people treated them not as humans, and considered them as objects and lesser
than them.Likewise,Ronny judged the Indian guests who attended the party as
‘seditious at heart’.
Mrs.Turton had continued her anger from Indians: ‘’Why they come at all I do
not know […] You are superior to them,any way.Do not forget that.You are superior
to everyone in India…’’(A.P.T.I,p.41-2)It showed the Britishers’ power.She used to
speak with them the Urdu;for her,it is a language of lesser people.Forster says: ‘’…and
said a few words of welcome in Urdu.She had learnt the lingo,but only to speak to her
servants…’’(A.P.T.I,p.42) So,Mrs.Turton could not consider them as individuals.
Some Indian ladies had been described just as ‘taller’ and ‘shorter’ ladies. ‘’All
the ladies were uncertain,cowering,recovering,giggling,making tiny gestures of
atonement or despair’’(A.P.T.I,p.43) The Westerners look at Eastern women as
voiceless,submissive and promiscuous.
Mrs.Battacharya,the Indian woman that Mrs.Moore and Adela met, is presented
as ‘child’,who does not know what she is talking about; ‘’…seemed not to know
either.Her gesture implied that she had known’’(A.P.T.I,p.43)
Mr.Turton,the Collector,see the Indians or as he called them ‘guests’ as
reductives,he states: ‘’when they had not cheated,it was bhang,women,or worse,and
the desirables wanted to get some thing out of him’’(A.P.T.I,p.44) It is a kind of
Western construction of the East as Edward Said(1978) had described,and the
Orientals as constructions of various disciplines by which they are known to

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Chapter Two Postcolonial Aspects in: A Passage to India

Europeans,such a construct serves to reinforce the colonizer subjugation over the

colonized.
Fielding,the schoolmaster of Government College,when he met the two
ladies,Mrs.Moore and Miss Adela,they talked about Dr.Aziz.Fielding claims: ‘’I know
all about him.I do not know him’’(A.P.T.I,p.46) This statement marked what the
‘West’ has already perceived about the ‘Orient’.It represents the concept of ‘otherness’
in the minds of Westerners.E.Said said :‘’The Orient is […] its[Europe’s] cultural
contestant,and one of its deepest and most recurring images of the Other’’(p.1)
Ronny told his mother Mrs.Moore that: ‘’We are not out here for the purpose of
behaving pleasantly […] we are here to do justice and keep the peace’’ and ‘’We are
not pleasant in India,and we do not intend to be pleasant.We have something very
important to do’’(A.P.T.I,p.50) He adds:‘’…we are out here to do justice and keep
peace […]India likes gods.And Englishmen like posing as gods’’(A.P.T.I,p.49) It is a
symbol of domination and hegemony.The colonizer has the full control over the
colonized. Ronny claimed that India degrades for its incapacity for self-government,
an incapacity often associated with infertility and immaturity. Seen as a “baby”
country, India thus needs a mature adult to take care of her, to make decisions for her,
and above all, to claim sovereignty over her.He described India as a ‘wreteched
country by force’(A.P.T.I,p.50)
In the beginning of the chapter six,the writer had noted that Major Callendar
denied Dr.Aziz proficiency,when he says:‘’What can you expect from the fellow? No
grit,no guts’’and he blamed him for not doing his duty ‘’Now do some work for
change’’(A.P.T.I,p.53)The English people ascribed all the negative characteristics to
the Orients,even if they are not true.They always see them as inferior and backward to
them.
Forster portrayed Dr.Panna Lal, Aziz’s friend, as an Oriental man who is
excited to be with the British people. Dr.Lal said to Dr.Aziz: ‘’Yet you promise me,
and then fabricate this tale of a telegram’’(A.P.T.I,p.59) Also he described Dr.Aziz as
cringing towards the British and living with fear. Forster notes: ‘Once on his feet, he
had creeping fears. Had he offended the Collector by absenting himself?’ and ‘’Can I
get on with people? Are they stronger than I?’’(A.P.T.I,p.59) The Indians are

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Chapter Two Postcolonial Aspects in: A Passage to India

represented as extremely excited to meet the British people at the party, and how they
wish to please the English superior ruler, so that, the Indians gave them the chance to
treat them as inferiors.
Forster claimed another stereotype that is related to Indians. He represented
them as careless people. Mrs. Moore and Miss Adela were invited by Bhattacharyas. It
was supposed that they will send a carriage to take the two English ladies, but nothing
like that was happened. Miss Quested says to Aziz:
I want you to explain a disappointment we had this morning; it must
be some point of Indian etiquette…We are by nature a most informal
people…An Indian lady and a gentleman were to send their carriage
for us this morning at nine. It has never come. We waited and waited
and waited; we can not think what happened (A.P.T.I,p.67)
The British people see India as muddle. For that, Aziz invited all of Fielding, Mrs.
Moore and Miss Adela to his house ,to make proof that they are wrong. He adds:
‘There will be no muddle when you come to see me […] Mrs. Moore and everyone I
invited you all-oh, please’(A.P.T.I,p.68) At the same time, Aziz is thinking about his
bungalow which is full of black flies. Forster notes: ‘Aziz thought of his bungalow
with horror. It was a detestable shanty near a low bazaar. There was practically only
one room in it, and that infested with small black flie’(A.P.T.I,p.69) So, after a long
complex discussion, Aziz invited them to the Marabar Caves instead of visiting him in
his house, because he is ashamed of his shabby house. Forster says: ‘’He thought again
of his bungalow with horror […] I invite you all to see me in the Marabar
Caves’’(A.P.T.I,p.73) The writer used to tell the reader that Indians are ashamed from
themselves and from their own culture;another stereotype.
Forster had continued in describing Indians badly.He portrayed Aziz as
‘provocative’, ‘’he (Ronny) said nothing,and ignored the provocation that Aziz
continued to offer’’ Ronny ignored the Indians(Aziz & Godbole)as they did not exist:
‘’As private individuals he forgot them’’(A.P.T.I,p.75)Ronny saw them as inferior.He
considers themselves as better than ‘Others’.
Ronny was always criticizing and mocking the Natives.He says:
…he(Aziz) had forgotten his back collar-stud,and there you have the
Indian all over:inattention to detail;the fundamental slackness that
reveals the race […] I won’t have you (Mrs.Moore & Adela) messing

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Chapter Two Postcolonial Aspects in: A Passage to India

about with Indians any more!If you want to go to the Marabar

Caves,you will go under British auspices(A.P.T.I,p.80)
When in fact it was Fielding who was missing the stud and Aziz who kindly lent him
his own. Mr.Heaslop treated Indians as they are not humans and as they did not
deserve respect.He misinterpreted the Indians’ actions,he always expected the worst.
Forster says: ‘’But nothing in India is identifiable…’’(A.P.T.I,p.83-4) He means
that Indians have no identity.They are living in their country with an unknown
identity.
For the writer,in the time of crisis,the Indians used to behave like
children.Forster notes: ‘’He (the Nawab Bahadur) cried out in Arabic,and violently
tugged hid beard […] his terror was disproportionate and ridiculous’’(A.P.T.I,p.86)
,also, ‘’…the Nawab lose his head […] no white man would have done
it’’(A.P.T.I,p.93) However,the English people used to be calm and rational,he adds:
‘’The English people walked a few steps back into the darkness united and happy […]
they were not upset by the accident’’(A.P.T.I,p.87) E.Said (1978) refers to this,when
he says: ‘’The Oriental is irrational, depraved, childlike, different; thus the European is
rational, virtuous, mature, normal’’(A.P.T.I,p.40)
Forster compared between the Natives and Anglo-Indians people. The former
are superstitious and irrational: ‘’…superstition is terrible, terrible! oh, it is the great
defect in our Indian character’’ He shows the Indians as indifferent to morals and
individual responsibility. Whereas the latter are reasonable: ‘’…I can not imagine that
they have been as successful as British India, where we see reason and orderliness
spreading in every direction…’’(A.P.T.I,p.90) This comparison between the ‘West’
and the ‘East’ gives the power of domination of the ‘Occident’ against the ‘Orient’,
and it also shows the Westerners’ superiority over the Orientals.
Forster described Aziz’s home in disgusting way. He portrayed Indians as dirty
people. He says: ‘’…flies […] the horrible mass that hung from the ceiling […] and a
colony of eye-flies had come instead and blackened the coils with their
bodies’’(A.P.T.I,p.99) ‘’…the squalid bedroom…’’(A.P.T.I,p.102) Aziz’s house is a
place of gossiping and ugly talk. Forster mentions: ‘’the silly intrigues, the gossip, the
shallow, discontent were stilled, while words accepted as immortal filled the
indifferent air’’(A.P.T.I,p.102) The minds of the Indians are said to be ‘inferior and

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Chapter Two Postcolonial Aspects in: A Passage to India

rough’(A.P.T.I,p.103) Forster portrayed Indians as backwardly people ‘third-rate

people’. He adds: ‘’…the floor strewn with fragments of cane and nuts, and spotted
with ink, the pictures crooked upon the dirty walls’’(A.P.T.I,p.106) Forster shows that
even educated Indians like doctor Aziz have dirty houses.
The chapter ten reminds the reader that India is different than Britain. The
writer pointed that everything related to India is bad and ugly. He says: ‘April, herald
of horrors ,is at hand. The sun was returning to his kingdom with power but without
beauty-that was the sinister feature’’(A.P.T.I,p.111-2) It means that April is a month of
horrors. Indian sun, instead of having beauty and glory, is sinister.
When Aziz described his wife, he said: ‘she was not a highly educated woman
nor even beautiful’(A.P.T.I,p.113)Here, Aziz had influenced by the colonial ideology.
He adopts the western notion of beauty and does not regard his wife as beautiful.
Forster shows that Aziz is sexually condescending, disliking Adela for her small
breasts and unattractive appearance. He adds: ‘’She had practically no breasts, if you
come to think of it’’(A.P.T.I,p.117) However, the Englishman’ Fielding’, dislikes
Adela because of her intellect. He says: ‘’…the girl is a prig […] she struck me as one
of the more pathetic products of Western education. She depresses
me’’(A.P.T.I,p.116)Here, the writer wanted to say that Indians are erotic compared to
the British people. The Indians are always considered as inferior and lesser.
Forster compared Indians to monkeys. He points out: ‘’The train had come in
and a crowd of dependents were swarming over the seats of the carriage like
monkeys’’(A.P.T.I,p.128) He, again, represents Indians as dirty, ugly people, who are
associated with tobacco smell and the sound of spitting, by saying: ‘’…the smell of
tobacco and the sound of spitting arose from third-class passengers in dark corners;
heads were unshrouded, teeth cleaned on the twigs of a tree […] a melon wearing a
fez, a towel containing guavas…’’(A.P.T.I,p.128) The Natives are portrayed with a
frightful etiquette.
Forster describes Indians with no responsibility. One of the officials says: ‘’the
Indians are incapable of responsibility’’(A.P.T.I,p.131)This can be seen through
Fielding and Godbole’s missing the train. ‘…Appalling catastrophe! The gates had
been closed earlier than usual. They leapt from their Tonga […]He jumped, he failed,

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Chapter Two Postcolonial Aspects in: A Passage to India

missed his friend’s hand, and fell back on to the line. The train rumbled
past’’(A.P.T.I,p.130-1) Also, the picnic arrangement was described as ‘odd’, Forster
claims: ‘’She was not the least unhappy or depressed, and the various odd objects that
surrounded her’’, and the purdah carriage is made fun of as ‘comic’. He adds: ‘’…the
comic ‘purdah’ carriage, the piles of rugs and bolsters, the rolling melons, the scent of
sweet oils, the ladder…’’(A.P.T.I,p.132) Indians are portrayed as disorganized people.
The Indian women were described with no sense of care and responsibility
towards their husbands; they left them alone. Forster says: ‘’…women here who leave
their husbands grilling in the plains. Mrs.McBryde has not stopped down once since
she married, she leaves her quite intelligent husband alone half the
year…’’(A.P.T.I,p.133)
Forster sees India as ‘an appeal’. It is the country which represents the malaise
of men, who can not find their way home. He says: ‘’The important towns they build
are only retreats, their quarrels the malaise of men who can not find their way home.
India knows of their trouble. She knows of the whole world’s trouble […]she has
never defined. She is not a promise, only an appeal’’(A.P.T.I,p.135)
India and the Indians are confused. They are able of inventing and fabricating
stories, which do not exist. He adds:
…there was a confusion about a snake which was never cleared up.
Miss Quested saw a thin, dark object reared […]and Aziz explained:
yes, a black cobra, very venomous, who had reared himself up to
watch the passing of the elephant. But when she looked through
Ronny’s field-glasses, she found it was not a snake, but the withered
and twisted stump of a toddy-palm […]Aziz admitted that it looked
like a tree through the glasses, but insisted that it was a black cobra
really […]Nothing was explained,[…] increased the confusion
(A.P.T.I,p.139)
The Natives do not bother to verify the fact and they can invent a snake instead of
stick in order to create a sensation. They are sensitive people. This led to another
construction of the Orientalists.
According to Mrs. Moore, India was described as ‘horrid, stuffy place’. Forster
states: ‘They did not feel that it was an attractive place or quite worth visiting […]A
ruined tank held a little water which would do for the animals, and close above the

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Chapter Two Postcolonial Aspects in: A Passage to India

mud was punched a black hole…’(A.P.T.I,p.140)The English people were not satisfied
of India’s landscape and Indians. They always referred to them with inferiority.
The ‘Other’ Aziz, can not make the difference between hospitality and
intimacy. Forster says: ‘’Like most Orientals, Aziz overrated hospitality, mistaking it
for intimacy, and not seeing that it is tainted with the sense of
possession’’(A.P.T.I,p.141)So, for Anglo-Indians, the Indians were known by foolery.
Mrs. Moore, as she said before, found the caves as ‘horrid’. Here, she played
the imperial model for the British empire against Indians. She got mad in the cave:
…the circular chamber began to smell. She lost Aziz in the dark, did
not know who touched her, could not breathe, and some vile naked
thing struck her face and settled on her mouth like a pad. She tried to
regain the entrance tunnel, but an influx of villagers swept her back.
She hit her head. For an instant she went mad, hitting and gasping like
a fanatic (A.P.T.I,p.145)
She experienced the crush and the stench, because of the presence of so many
Indians in the cave. Also, the terrifying echo, which is entirely ‘devoid of distinction’.
Whatever said or done in India; hope, politeness, or anything else, the echo is the
same monotonous noise. Forster mentions: ‘’Whatever is said, the same monotonous
noise replies […]Hope, politeness, the blowing of a nose, the squeak of a boot, all
produce ‘boom’ ’’(A.P.T.I,p.145)The echo signifies that, India is full of chaos. So,
Mrs. Moore’s romance with India is over. Forster says: ‘’…since her faintness in the
cave she was sunk in apathy and cynicism. The wonderful India of her opening weeks,
with its cool nights and acceptable hints of infinity, had vanished’’(A.P.T.I,p.156)
Forster has characterized Aziz as an ‘Oriental’, who behaved like a child in the
face of the Inspector of Police, who intend to arrest him on charge of an attempted
crime. He says: ‘’The young sobbed-his first sound-and tried to escape out of the
opposite door on to the line […]and shook him like a baby’’ However, Fielding, the
Englishman, is portrayed as a superior human being who took control of everything.
Forster adds: ‘’A second later, and he would have been out […]we are coming to
McBryde together, and inquire what is going wrong […]Put your hat straight and take
my arm. I will see you through’’(A.P.T.I,p.159) The Indians, in such case of
misfortunes, wail and weep. While, the Anglo-Indians keep calm.

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Chapter Two Postcolonial Aspects in: A Passage to India

Aziz has been accused of ‘insulting’ Miss Quested in the caves. Mr.Turton, the
Collector, says: ‘’Miss Quested has been insulted in one of the Marabar
Caves’’(A.P.T.I,p.160) and ‘’Miss Quested herself definitely accuses him of –
‘’(A.P.T.I,p.161)The ‘West’ assumes that Indians are ‘rapists’ even if they had done
nothing like that, another harsh stereotype.
Miss Adela invented a story about Aziz. McBryde narrates what Miss Quested
told him, he says: ‘he followed her into the cave and made insulting advances. She hit
at him with her field-glasses ;he pulled at them and the strap broke, and that is how she
got away’(A.P.T.I,p.164) She charged Aziz with something that did not happened at
all.
The Indians are called as ‘niggers’, Forster says: ‘…she dared not return to her
bungalow in case the ‘niggers attacked’ ’(A.P.T.I,p.178) The ‘colonizer’ treated the
‘colonized’ with bad manner as it is dangerous for it. They referred to the Indians with
the word ‘subaltern’, Gayatri Spivak’s term, which means the lower rank of society,
who are the ‘Orientals’.
The English whipped up stories about how Aziz had paid others to suffocate
Mrs. Moore in the cave, so that, he could be alone with Miss Adela. Forster reports:
‘Heaslop also found out something from his mother. Aziz paid a herd of natives to
suffocate her in a cave […]Nicely planned, wasn’t it? Then he could go on with the
girl…’(A.P.T.I,p.183) They carried on in accusing Indians with something they had
not done it. The English officials assumed that he is ‘guilty’. They showed the
domination over the ‘Orient’. It is the Britishers’ assumption that is based on the
notion that the ‘West’ is civilized and the ‘East’ as barbaric and uncivilized.
During Aziz’s trial, Mahmoud Ali, the pleader, is portrayed as an immature and
childish person who behaves in an extremely irrational way. Forster notes: ‘Mahmoud
Ali had been enraged, his nerves snapped; he shrieked like a maniac […]He was
almost out of his mind…’’(A.P.T.I,p.218) McBryde describes him as ‘the natural
gesture of an inferior race’(A.P.T.I,p.216).The Indians, are described a community of
people, who seek a grievance, if not available, they could invent one, like they do in
the case of Mrs. Moore’s departure. He adds: ‘’He blazes up over a minor point

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Chapter Two Postcolonial Aspects in: A Passage to India

[…]What he seeks is a grievance, and this he had found in the supposed abduction of
an old lady’’(A.P.T.I,p.221)
Every Indian is a spy. Forster says: ‘’…I was surrounded by enemies. You
observe I speak in a low voice. It is because I see your sais is new. How do I know he
is not a spy? He lowered his voice: Every third servant is a spy’’(A.P.T.I,p.266-
7)Also, every Indian is blessed with the licentious imagination, it is another European
construction of the East. He adds: ‘The licentious Oriental imagination was at
work’(A.P.T.I,p.267)
All in all, the Indians are portrayed as ashamed of themselves, of their culture
and of their identity. Moreover, they are presented as lesser and inferior to the British
people.
2.5.2. Hybridity
The notion of ‘hybridity’ inherents in the nature of postcolonial relations and
identities. It is the binary relationship between the ‘colonizer’ and the ‘colonized’,
between the ‘West’ and its subjugated ‘Other’.
After the formal unsuccessful ‘Bridge Party’, Fielding arranged a tea party in
order to introduce Mrs. Moore and Miss Quested to the ‘real India’. Here, the Indians
and the British can become intimate socially and exist on equal terms. Aziz says: ‘the
fact is I have long wanted to meet you […]I used to wish you to fall ill so that we
could meet that way’(A.P.T.I,p.63) and they laughed. Forster adds: ‘…Aziz found the
English ladies easy to talk’(A.P.T.I,p.67) The narrator makes a remark: ‘…she (Mrs.
Moore) still thought the young doctor excessively nice […]She (Miss Quested) also
liked Aziz, and believed that when she knew him better he would unlock his country
for her. His invitation gratified her, and she asked him for his address’(A.P.T.I,p.68) It
is obvious that, the Natives can make a friendship with the Anglo-Indians.
Also, when Aziz arrives at Fielding’s house, he encouraged him to feel, as if, it
was his home. Fielding shouted: ‘please make yourself at home’(A.P.T.I,p.63) Forster
says: ‘he began to look round, as he would have with any old friend’(A.P.T.I,p.64)
Even though the ‘tea party’ brought the two different cultures closer together, it
ended up with revealing their differences. Aziz includes: ‘…That England conquered
India from them-from them ,mind, and not from the Moguls’(A.P.T.I,p.67) The Hindu

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Chapter Two Postcolonial Aspects in: A Passage to India

Brahman Godbole, was the only one who seemed that he has managed to unite both
sides. Forster notes: ‘…and his whole appearance suggested harmony-as if he had
reconciled the products of East and West, mental as well as physical, and could never
be discomposed’(A.P.T.I,p.71)
The individual and ‘God’ are united, so that, he will be capable of
understanding the eternal. As Godbole explained to Fielding that: ‘…absence implies
presence, absence is not non-existence’(A.P.T.I,p.175) Godbole’s song at the tea party,
when he sang to invoke Krishna to come, he says: ‘I say to him, Come, come, come,
come, come, come. He neglects to come’(A.P.T.I,p.78)This can be understood only by
the Hindus. However, the Westerners could not comprehend it. Mrs. Moore asked
Godbole: ‘But he comes in some other song, I hope?’(A.P.T.I,p.78)
Aziz showed Fielding his dead wife’s picture, it is an honor because Indian
women are not allowed to be seen by other men than their husbands. This means that
Aziz treated Fielding as a brother. Aziz says: ‘’she was my wife. You are the first
Englishman she has never come before […]I do not know why you pay me this great
compliment, Aziz, but I do appreciate it’(A.P.T.I,p.113)
In the beginning of the novel, Mrs. Moore saw the Indian moon as a sign of
universal sense of being, ‘of unity, of kinship with the heavenly bodies’(A.P.T.I,p.30)
However, her visit to the Marabar Caves had changed her mind over India, she
discovered the other side of it. She suffered from a mental breakdown. Forster
indicates: ‘…the universe, never comprehensible to her intellect, offered no repose to
her soul […]she lost all interest’(A.P.T.I,p.148) The collapse of her values, it would
mean the collapse of Western values. They tried to understand each other, but they can
not reach that point. It is the confrontation between the ‘East’ and the ‘West’. Thus, it
seems that the ‘Self’ failed to deal with its ‘Other’. As a result of this, the friendship
between them can not be established, because the ‘Orientals’ tried, but the
‘Westerners’ always found excuses, as Mrs. Moore did.
The third and last part of the novel, the ‘temple’, is an attempt to bridge the gap
between the Britishers and the Indians. During the Hindu ceremony where Hindus
celebrated the birth of Krishna, the image of Mrs. Moore appeared in Godbole’s mind.
Forster states: ‘’Thus Godbole, though she was not important to him, remembered an

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Chapter Two Postcolonial Aspects in: A Passage to India

old woman he had met in Chandrapore days. Chance brought her in his
mind’(A.P.T.I,p.281) He adds:
He had, again seen Mrs. Moore. He was Brahman, she Christian, but it
made no difference, it made no difference whether she was a trick of
his memory or a telepathic appeal. It was his duty, as it was his dire,to
place himself in the position of God to love her, and to place himself
in her position and to say to God, ’Come, come, come, come’ This
was all he could do. How inadequate! But each according to him own
capacities (A.P.T.I,p.285-6)
That was a sign that gave hope to better relationship between the two sides.It is
also the representation of the impact of imperial culture.
The scene of the boat, Aziz and Fielding refresh and rebirth their relationship.
Forster says: ‘The boats had collided with each other’(A.P.T.I,p.310)It means that, the
‘West’ and the ‘East’ was in confrontation. He adds: ‘They plunged into the warm,
shallow water’(A.P.T.I,p.310)Hence, the water is a symbol of purification and birth-
death-resurrection (Guerin, Wilfred & al,1979)Forster states: ‘Friends again […]after
the funny shipwreck there had been no more nonsense or bitterness, and they went
back laughingly to their old relationship as if nothing had
happened’(A.P.T.I,p.312)Even though Aziz and Fielding could understand each other,
but the friendship between the ‘colonizer’ and the ‘colonized’ can not be acquired till
the British India became an independent ‘India’. Forster concludes: ‘’…they did not
want it, they said in their hundred voices, ‘No, not yet’, and the sky said, ‘No, not
there’ ‘’(A.P.T.I,p.317)
The point that could be reached through analyzing the novel is that, the ‘Self’
and the ‘Other’ can not be unified, because the world is based on difference. So, it
depends on the individual who could create the unity.
2.5.3. Mimicry
The concept mimicry is the imitation, adaptation and copying of the colonizer’s
cultural values and habits. This can be illustrated by Forster’s hero ‘Dr.Aziz’ who
always attempted to become a British.
When Aziz met Mrs. Moore in the mosque, he used to mimic westerners. He showed
her that he intimately knows the ‘city Magistrate’, Mr.Heaslop. Forster mentions: ‘Oh,
no, excuse me, that is quite impossible. Our City Magistrate’s name is Mr.Heaslop. I

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Chapter Two Postcolonial Aspects in: A Passage to India

know him intimately’(A.P.T.I,p.22) Aziz was like a Western Orientalists invention, he

is a ‘mimic man’. He believes that the social link with a white person could make him
a complete man.
Ronny spoke about Indians that they ‘mimicked’ the European fashion,
manners and the life style. He said: ‘But these people-do not imagine they are Indian
[…]it flashed a pince-nez or shuffled a shoe […]European costume had lighted like a
leprosy’(A.P.T.I,p.40)This the effect of British imperialism towards the Indian
Natives. Inspite of the mimicry and imitation of the Indians, they are still not accepted
to dine at an English man’s table. Forster points out: ‘…it still declared that few
Mohammedans and no Hindus would eat at an Englishman’s table’(A.P.T.I,p.65)
Aziz ‘mimicked’ even the Britishers’ feelings. His dead wife disliked her when
he saw her in the first time, the same as the ‘Westerners’ do. Forster says: ‘Touched by
Western feeling, he disliked union with a woman he had never seen’(A.P.T.I,p.55)
Aziz attempted to be more ‘English’. His inability of conforming Miss
Quested’s expectations about wonderful India, he tried to ‘mimic’ .He says: ‘Good-
bye, Miss Quested[…]you will jolly jolly well not forget those caves, won’t you? I
will fix the whole show up in a jiffy’(A.P.T.I,p.77) ,and ‘he pumped her hand up and
down to show that he felt at ease’(A.P.T.I,p.77)He used ‘mimicry’ to please the
Britishers.
Godbole also wanted ‘to imitate’ the ‘Westerners’. He is influenced by the
imperial culture too. He says: ‘I want to start a High School there[Central India]on
sound English lines, that shall be as like Government College as
possible’(A.P.T.I,p.173)
Mimicking and imitating the colonizer’s culture, would make the colonizer in the
centre and the colonized in the margin. Hence, the colonizer too mimic the colonized’s
habits in some contexts.
2.5.4. Racism and Prejudice
Racism is the belief that a particular race is superior or inferior to another. A
Passage to India is, a study of racial issues in India, and the conflicts between the
Indians and the British, the religious conflict between the Hindus and the Muslims,
and between two Britishers.

50
Chapter Two Postcolonial Aspects in: A Passage to India

When Aziz met Mrs. Moore in the mosque, she invited him to the club, but, he
says: ‘Indians are not allowed into the Chandrapore Club even as
guests’(A.P.T.I,p.24)The Indians are not allowed into Chandrapore Club, even the
educated ones. Mrs.Callendar says: ‘He(the native) can go where he likes as long as he
does not come near me. They give me the creeps’(A.P.T.I,p.28) She refused any
admixture with them. This shows that, the English are racist against the Indians. It is a
racism of the ‘colonizer’ over the ‘colonized’. Ronny declares: ‘but there is the native,
and there is one of the reasons why we do not admit him(Dr.Aziz) to our clubs, and
how a descent girl like Miss Derek can take service under natives puzzles
me…’(A.P.T.I,p.94)Britishers consider themselves dominant over the Indians.
Another type of racism; between Muslims and Hindus. Aziz once rapped a
Brahmany bull(which is sacred to Hindus)with a polo stick. Forster says: ‘A Brahminy
bull walked towards them, and Aziz, though disinclined to pray himself [...]He gave it
a tap with his polo mallet’(A.P.T.I,p.58) This racist behavior and lack of respect for
other religions caused the deepest hole between Moslems and Hindus. Each one of
them thinks of the other in terms of their religious identity, and not as individual
people.
However, not only with the Indians, a group of English people also developed a
negative attitude about the English people of their own community. Forster reports
what Mrs.Turton says: ‘Mrs.Turton closed her eyes at this name(Fielding) and
remarked that Mr. Fielding was not pukka, and had better marry Miss Quested, for she
was not pukka’’(A.P.T.I,p.29)
Aziz described Hindus as slack people, and who did not have the notion of
sanitary. Moslems consider themselves superior to Hindus. He used various racist
adjectives to describe them. Aziz criticized Mrs. Bhattacharya’s false invitation to the
Englishwomen on the grounds that they are Hindus. Aziz says:
Slack Hindus-they have no idea of society; I know them very well
because of a doctor at the hospital. Such a slack, unpunctual fellow! It
is as well you did not go to their house, for it would give you a wrong
idea of India. Nothing sanitary. I think for my own part they grew
ashamed of their house and that is why they did not send
(A.P.T.I,p.68)

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Chapter Two Postcolonial Aspects in: A Passage to India

Ronny who is always cruel towards the Indians, refused that Miss Adela stayed
alone with the two men(Aziz and Godbole),he says: ‘I say, old man, do excuse me, but
I think perhaps you ought not to have left Miss Quested alone […] still, I do not like to
see an English girl left smoking with two Indians’(A.P.T.I,p.76) He called Aziz as a
‘bounder’. Ronny does not trust Indians. He was also rude to his native English ‘Mr.
Fielding’.
When Aziz was charged for assaulting Miss Adela and was sent to prison, every
Indian Hindu was blaming him and no one believed him. He was insulted by many
Indians and Britishers. McBryde says: ‘…when an Indian goes bad, he goes not only
very bad, but very queer […]They can be charming as boys. But I know them as they
really are, after they have developed into men’(A.P.T.I,p.166)He meant that, Indians
are all different when they are young boys, but they go bad when they become men.
He adds: ‘They are not edifying. Here is a letter from a friend who apparently keeps a
brothel’(A.P.T.I,p.166) Even though Fielding and McBryde did the same thing when
they were young, but, it was considered as bad character when it refers to an
‘Oriental’. He is totally against Aziz. He has an ‘Orientalist’ doctrine about the
Indians. It is the lack of trust between the two communities. The racial tension was
build up and it spread like a poison till the day Aziz set free.
Aziz’s trial was a racist event. It was treated by injustice, and almost everyone
witnessed against him except Mr. Fielding. Mr.Das, who was working under Ronny,
acted against Aziz. Lesley, Mrs.Callendar’s friend, says: ‘you mean he is more
frightened of acquitting than convicting, because if he acquits he’ll lose his
job’(A.P.T.I,p.210) Also, Mr.McBryde introduced the trial by saying: ‘everyone
knows the man’s guilty, and I am obliged to say so in public before he goes to the
Andamans’(A.P.T.I,p.213)He mentioned that Aziz can not be forgiven.
Aziz dislikes Hindus. He still made flippant comments about them but less
harsh. He says: ‘’…he hoped that they would enjoy carrying their idol about, for at all
events it did not pry into other people’s lives’(A.P.T.I,p.301)
There was also a racial prejudice that appeared when Aziz cries: ‘clear out, all you
Turtons and Burtons […]Clear out, clear out, I say […]Until England is in difficulties

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Chapter Two Postcolonial Aspects in: A Passage to India

we keep silent, but in the next European war-aha, aha! Then is our
time’(A.P.T.I,p.316)
Mrs.Callendar claims: ‘’…the kindest thing one can do to a native is to let him
die’’(A.P.T.I,p.28) It means that, the Indians deserve only death. How cruel she is!
Forster shows up the English’s bigotry as a prejudice of pre-judgement.
The racial prejudice of the English against Natives would follow them even at
sport field. The Indian, the soldier polo player was actually Aziz himself. Forster says:
Hamidullah had gone to the party, but his pony had not, so Aziz
borrowed it, also his friend’s riding breeches and polo mallet
[…]Round they ran, weedy and knock-kneed-the local physique was
wretched […]Riding into the middle, he began to knock the ball
about. He could not play, but his pony could […]The ball shot away
towards a stray subaltern who was also practicing […]Concentrated
on the ball, they become somehow became fond of one another
[…]Aziz liked soldiers […]and the subaltern liked anyone who could
ride (A.P.T.I,p.56-7)
Forster used an irony that showed the English’s hypocrisy towards the Indians. It is a
subtle dehumanizing that re-emphasizes the aspect of the ‘Master and Slave’.
Another prejudice that is marked in the novel; Godbole who behaved in a
strange atmosphere. He appeared as callous and indifferent to the fate of Aziz. Since
he knew that nothing can be done for his friend, he shows no rage at the injustice.
Forster narrated the dialogue between Fielding and Godbole:
The news has not reached you yet, I can see. Oh, yes. No, there has
been a terrible catastrophe about Aziz. Oh, yes. That is all round the
College […]Is Aziz innocent or guilty? […]Would he or would he not
do such a thing? […]I am informed that an evil action was performed in
the Marabar Hills[…]that action was performed by Aziz […]When evil
occurs, it expresses the whole of the universe. Similarly when good
occurs…(A.P.T.I,p.174-5)
The tension among the communities is due to the intolerance. The British put
the Indians in distance and do not tolerate them. This intolerance creates a series of
hatred, revenge, harshness, misunderstanding and fanaticism. Friendship is the only
solution of these racial prejudice problems.
2.5.5. Can the Subaltern Speak?
This colonial issue is addressed to the subordinate colonized voices, whether
they will express themselves or not, whether they will defend their rights or not.

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Chapter Two Postcolonial Aspects in: A Passage to India

The Civil Surgeon, Major Callendar, called Dr.Aziz to his house. He was summoned
by the Major but the latter was absent, ’the Civil Surgeon was out’(A.P.T.I,p.18)
,‘Major Callendar had driven away half an hour before’(A.P.T.I,p.19)So, Aziz wrote a
letter saying: ‘Dear Sir, - At your express command I have hastened as a subordinate
should’(A.P.T.I,p.19) but he retreated it, by thinking that it is not such an important
matter. He argued: ‘’I can do nothing and he[Major Callendar] knows it. I am just a
subordinate, my time is of no value’(A.P.T.I,p.24)What can be noticed is that, Aziz
can not speak and defend himself towards his master. He could not ask for his duties.
By doing that, he shows that he is lower, weak and powerless.
Also what did happen to Aziz is that, Mrs.Callendar and her friend Mrs. Lesley,
took his Tonga with no permission as if Aziz was not there. Forster adds:‘…and both
jumped in. ‘O Tonga wallah, club, club. Why does not the fool go?’, ‘So it had come,
the usual thing ,his bow ignored, his carriage taken’(A.P.T.I,p.18) Although this, Aziz
keeps polite with them. Another observation is that, Aziz remained silent. The
‘subaltern’ can not speak and be heard by society.
2.5.6. Ambivalence
It is a term that is used in the sense how the ‘colonizer’ or the ‘colonized’ are
‘ambivalent’ in their attitudes. In other words, how the colonizer saw the colonized
from two contradictory arguments, and it is the same for the ‘colonized’ thinking.
In the novel, the colonized is ‘ambivalent’ towards the colonizer in his
treatment. Aziz, for example, liked some Britishers and disliked others. From one side,
he likes Mrs. Moore. He says: ‘…your mother was my best friend in all the
world’(A.P.T.I,p.307)From another side, he criticized other ‘Westerners’. Aziz argues:
‘I wish no Englishman or Englishwoman to be my friend’(A.P.T.I,p.298) He also
disliked Callendars, and he discussed this issue with Mrs. Moore. He comments:
She[Mrs.Callendar] has just taken my Tonga without my permission-
do you call that charming? and Major Callendar interrupts me night
after night from where I am dining with my friends and I go at once,
breaking up a most pleasant entertainment, and he is not there and not
even a message. Is this charming, pray?(A.P.T.I,p.24)
On the other hand, the colonizer too was ambivalent. Miss Adela came to India
to see the ‘real India’, ‘I want to see the real India’(A.P.T.I,p.25) which was
impossible without meeting the Indians who she denied. Miss Quested states: ‘I’ve

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Chapter Two Postcolonial Aspects in: A Passage to India

avoided, excepting my own servant, I’ve scarcely spoken to an Indian since

landing’(A.P.T.I,p.27)
2.6. Conclusion
This chapter has given an overview about the British colonial in India. Britain
had established colonies all around the world, and India was one of its most important
colonies .Edward Morgan Forster wrote his famous novel A Passage to India which
discussed the ‘Self’ and the ‘Other’, and whether they can form a friendship between
them or not. Forster ended his novel by ‘negation’ ;the Britishers can be friends with
the Indians only if the British rule in India retreated. The novel portrayed India as a
savage and disorganized land .The Natives could not express themselves; they can not
be heard by the British society. So the novel is full of postcolonial aspects, that are
mentioned above.

55
GENERAL CONCLUSION
General Conclusion

The present study was in its very essence an endeavor to highlight the
postcolonial aspects in E.M. Foster’s novel A Passage to India (1924).In so doing it
was quite significant and methodological to deal with an overview on the field of
postcolonial studies and therefore discussing its specificities particularly what relates
to the colonizer and the colonized relationship.
In a deeper sense and in order to get insight into the reflection and depiction of
these postcolonial aspects namely otherness, ambvilalence, mimicry,hybridity and
racism and prejudice; it was necessary to bring into play postcolonial theory that
provides a clear understanding of how the relaltionship between the powerful and the
powerless is manifested in literature.
Therefore, based on the assumptions and principles of the Postcolonial critical
theory. E.M. Forster shows the ‘colonialist’ ideology with superiority, and the
‘Orientals’ always with marginalization and stereotypes which the ‘Westerners’ had
constructed about Indians to contain them.
It is a postcolonial novel because it transmits the idea of otherness,
subordination, prejudice and racism between the master and the slave, in which the
latter demonstrated the Indians and the former, obviously, referred to the British Raj.
The novel, also examines the relationship between imperialism and culture, so
that it conducted to hybridity and mimicry among the indigenous’ culture and identity.
Generally speaking, Orientalism gives the ‘Westerners’ the opportunity to
devalue the ‘Orientals’. It has reinforced the stereotype image of India and the Indians,
and it used the ‘Orient’ and imperialism as a symbol of its strength and superiority.
The Britishers’ scene about Miss Quested’s assault is created under their assumption
of a dominant, superior ‘West’ ruling over a weak, submissive East. The racial pre-
judgments about the Indians damaged the possibility of establishing friendship
between the Indians and the British. Moreover, the inability of comprehending the
echo in the caves, it prevented from crossing the bridge between the ‘West’ and the
‘East’. Since the novel A Passage to India was from the point of view of the colonizer,
it presented the Indians as lesser people who can not manage their affairs like
responsible individuals. The British characters occupied the center stage, while all
Indians kept in the margin.

57
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61
The Summary

This dissertation examines the way in which the ‘colonizer’ treated the ‘colonized’.
It basically seeks to spot the postcolonial aspects in E.M.Forster’s novel A Passage to
India (1924).The novel revolves around four characters namely: Dr.Aziz, Mr. Cyril
Fielding, Mrs. Moore and Miss Adela Quested. During a trip to the Marabar Caves,
Miss Adela accused Dr.Aziz of assaulting her. Aziz’s trial brings to a boil the racial
tensions and prejudices between the indigenous Indians and the Britishers. Although
the charge against Dr.Aziz was dropped, the gulf between the British and the Native
Indians grows wider than ever. The novel therefore represented the native Indians as
inferior and backward and to British as superior and advanced. In other words, the
novel illustrates the gap existing between the British and the Indians’, a gap which
cannot be bridged.

Le Résumé

Cette thèse examine la manière dont le "colonisateur" a traité le "colonisé". Il s'agit

essentiellement de repérer les aspects postcoloniaux du roman d' E.M. Forster, A
Passage to India (1924). Le roman s'articule autour de quatre personnages, à savoir:
Dr. Aziz, Mr. Cyril Fielding, Mrs. Moore et Miss Adela Quested. Au cours d'un
voyage à la Marabar Caves, Miss Adela a accusé Dr Aziz de l'avoir agressée. Le
procès d'Aziz a provoqué une ébullition des tensions et des préjugés raciaux entre les
Indiens s et les Britanniques. Bien que l'accusation ait été abandonnée, le fossé entre
les Britanniques et les Indiens s'élargissent plus que jamais. Le roman représentait
donc les Indiens comme inférieurs et arriérés et aux Britanniques comme supérieurs et
avancés. En d’autres termes, le roman illustre le fossé qui existe entre les Britanniques
et les Indiens, un fossé qui ne peut être comblé.

‫اﻟﻤﻠﺨﺺ‬

‫ ﺗﺴﻌﻰ ﺑﺸﻜﻞ أﺳﺎﺳﻲ إﻟﻰ اﻛﺘﺸﺎف اﻟﺠﻮاﻧﺐ‬.‫ﺗﺒﺤﺚ ھﺬه اﻟﻤﺬﻛﺮة ﻋﻦ اﻟﻄﺮﯾﻘﺔ اﻟﺘﻲ ﺗﻌﺎﻣﻞ ﺑﮭﺎ أﻟﻤﺴﺘﻌﻤﺮ ﻣﻊ أﻟﻤﺴﺘﻌﻤﺮ‬
‫ﺗﺪور اﻟﺮواﯾﺔ ﺣﻮل ارﺑﻊ ﺷﺨﺼﯿﺎت ﻣﻦ ﺑﯿﻨﮭﺎ‬. (1924) ‫ﻣﺎ ﺑﻌﺪ اﻻﺳﺘﻌﻤﺎر ﻓﻲ رواﯾﺔ' ﻓﻮر ﺳﺘﺮ' ﻣﺮور اﻟﻰ اﻟﮭﻨﺪ‬
‫ ﺗﺠﻠﺐ ﻣﺤﺎﻛﻤﺔ ﻋﺰﯾﺰ‬.‫ ﻓﻲ ﻛﮭﻮف 'ﻣﺎراﺑﺎر' اﺗﮭﻤﺖ اﻻﻧﺴﺔ 'ﻋﺎدﻟﺔ' اﻟﺪﻛﺘﻮر ﻋﺰﯾﺰ ﺑﺎﻻﻋﺘﺪاء ﻋﻠﯿﮭﺎ‬. '‫اﻟﺪﻛﺘﻮر 'ﻋﺰﯾﺰ‬
‫اﻟﺮواﯾﺔ ﺗﻤﺜﻞ اﻟﮭﻨﻮد اﻷﺻﻠﯿﯿﻦ أﻗﻞ ﺷﺄﻧﺎ‬.‫اﻟﺘﻮﺗﺮات واﻟﺘﺤﯿﺰات اﻟﻌﻨﺼﺮﯾﺔ ﺑﯿﻦ اﻟﮭﻨﻮد اﻷﺻﻠﯿﯿﻦ واﻟﺒﺮﯾﻄﺎﻧﯿﯿﻦ‬
.‫ وھﻲ ﻓﺠﻮة ﻻ ﯾﻤﻜﻦ ﺳﺪھﺎ‬، ‫ اﻟﻔﺠﻮة اﻟﻘﺎﺋﻤﺔ ﺑﯿﻦ اﻟﺒﺮﯾﻄﺎﻧﯿﯿﻦ واﻟﮭﻨﻮد‬.‫وﻣﺘﺨﻠﻔﯿﻦ واﻟﺒﺮﯾﻄﺎﻧﯿﯿﻦ ﻣﺘﻔﻮﻗﻮن وﻣﺘﻘﺪﻣﻮن‬