Colonialism in "Passage To India" and Forster's Treatment of Colonialism

Colonialism is the domination of a powerful country over another defenseless nation and the strong one can exploit the other state or community in many ways. The powerful state tries to govern the weak state economically, politically, socially, psychologically, and in many other ways. Most of the countries in Asia, Africa, and Europe were colonized by the British Empire in world history. Since ancient times, powerful communities have expanded their territory through colonization and they have affected the language, culture, politics, economic, and social situation in the colonized community by showing their power over the powerless. Oppression is one of the main targets of colonialism and this oppression represents the political and social management movements of the state. The colonizer nation aims to invade the other nation with its own imperialist interests, take over, and expand its domination. As a result of the domination of a nation over a nation, racism, alienation, otherness, psychological and social pressure, and injustice emerge. 

A Passage to India is set in India and published in 1924 after Forster’s travel to India. He experienced what real India was when he went there for travel and management work. The novel is a kind of realistic documentary of the colonization in India and Forster describes how colonization affects a nation and what it leaves behind the history. The relationship between Western culture and Eastern culture is given through his authentic and original experience in India. Britain Jar which is known as a colonial empire in India started to colonize India in 1858. All the members of this community consisted of British officials and the British crown took control of India to impose British rule in many ways. British officials have seen the Indian nation as an undeveloped and uncivilized nation and that’s why British Jar tried to manage the Indian community. This political oppression came with many negative results, injustices, and psychological oppression in the Indian nation. All these oppressions have affected the elements of Indian culture. The education system of Western culture has been imposed and the modern educational system has also changed the language of education.

With modern British education, the English language has spread in Eastern communities and colonization brought both the Western educational system and the English language to Indian society as mentioned in A Passage to India. What’s more, the other effect of colonization is associated with religion. British colonizers got control of religion and introduced their religion by using the English language. Besides Muslims and Hindus; Christians have appeared in India with the help of the missionaries.

As a result of colonization, racism, identity crisis, and economic and social complications came out in Indian society. The complexities of modern culture made the colonial society feel disturbed and “other” inside the British colonies. All these political oppressions lasted till 1947 with the Independence of India and Pakistan thanks to Mahatma Gandhi, and British colonial authorities were out of the government. The novel is about British colonialism in the light of racism, identity crisis, religious oppression, and prejudices.

The characters, place events, personalities, and schemes in the novel play a mirror role, and in A Passage to India, Forster portrays the real India which is a colonized country. Even if he is British, he criticizes the supremacy of the British Empire in India and supports humanity and human relations in his work. He highlights that Western and Eastern nations have certain and stereotyped prejudices for each other and therefore human relations cannot be obtained in those nations. Forster reveals the reality of the incompatibility of Indian and British nations by touching on colonization.