A passage to India novel written E.M. Foster published in 1924 and considered one of the authors finest woke the novel examines racism and colonialism as a theme foster developed in mainly in earlier work both namely, the need to maintain both ties to the earth and a cerebral life of the imagination.
This article focuses on the relationship between the east and the west and the notion of the west on east. As a themes of the novel the gulf between the two races, the personal relationship, the achievement of harmony within man and the complex problems are highlighted in this article.
At the beginning India is portrayed as a holy nation known for its ageless history and famous for their own style and tradition.
The writer shows the mindset of the native through the character of Aziz who gives respect to English people and helps in different ways at the beginning who has the positive mindset towards the British then it goes to the discussion about the possibility of a friendship between the Indians and English but at last it seems impossible because both are different in the characters.
Foster discuss the interaction between the east and the west. The west is represented by Anglo-Indians in chandrapore. They form relatively small but close to kind community they live at the civil station, apart from the Indians their social life centers around the chandrapore club where they attempt to recreate the entertainment that would be found in England.
They have an attitude about the east that they are barbarians, uneducated, and ill iterated that’s why they should be ruled. So, natives are oppressed with their language and higher posts are divided among the British for an instance Ronny as magistrate and Fielding as a school headmaster on the other hand the natives are neglected to receive the posts. it shows the imbalanced power between them.
British did not show their mercy up on the natives for an instance in one incident Mrs. Callander said that ‘the kindest thing one can do to native let him die’. It shows their harsh manner and mindset abut natives. Then at the Fielding’s tea party everyone has a good time conversing about India that time Ronny Heaslop arrives and he finds Adela unaccompanied with Aziz then rudely he breaks up the party it also indicates that the inability to understand the native people. so, the natives who were enforced and ruled in brutal manner by British only they concentrated on the wealth.
Writer shows that friendship is the most things in this article. This novel explores the nature of friendship in its various forms and the word friend occurs frequently throughout the book. At the beginning Muhamed Ali and Hamidhuallah wonder ‘whether or not it is possible to be friends with an Englishman’ so we can conclude the natives attempt and try to maintain the friendship with British.
We see Mrs. Moore and Miss. Adela Quested arrive India to understand the real India then they have a chance to meet Aziz after that they discuss about the Marabar caves.
Then Aziz takes them to mysterious Caves which is represents the India is still in darkness without the light of freedom even their friendship shows the positive impact when we see the friendship between Aziz and Fielding are rare exception, not the rule and even such friendship are all but destroyed or thwarted by the problems and tensions of colonialism on the other hand the officialism also prevents and damages the friendship for an instance when Ronny arrives to chandrapore to take up his potion as the magistrate there he extends his invitation to the Indian lawyer Mohamoud Ali to have a smoke with him so at a later stage that the Englishmen start gathering around Ali thinking that the letter has some private interests with magistrate for this reason he breaks the meeting with Ali so this incidents indicates that the officialism prevents the establishing the friendship.
To sum up, British couldn’t understand the cultural values and tradition of the natives. On the other hand, both fail to establish the friendship because they have different characters.
Written By
Fayaz
Work cited
- Kumarasamy, MR.Priya Sathya, KA. A Passage to India – A Passage between East and west. IOSR journal of Humanities and Social Science. Volume number. 48-49
- Wani, Aasif Rashid (2016). Cultural conflict in the fictional plots of E.M. Foster international journal of Humanities and social Science Research.
- Foster, E.M 1936. A passage to India. Penguin Books; London.
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