A Critical Analysis of the Novel A Passage to India by E.M. Forster

Abstract

Forster's masterpiece work, 'A Passage to India' gives the description of the scene of society in India under the British rule. Clashes between East and West cultures and the prejudiced misunderstandings in this novel are worth mentioning. There is criticism for anti-British in inaccurate bias but praised for a good character study of Indians by the writer. Forster is certainly influenced by English social and cultural circumstances but he depicts, sympathy and judgement, the complicated oriental reaction to British rule in India and reveals the conflict of temperament and tradition involved in the relationship. Several novels were portrayed during the British rule in India. A Passage to India is most prominent among them. It was written by E.M.Forster on his first-hand experience of India. It depicts the colonizer-colonized relationship during colonial rule. Forster pictured cultural and religious differences between Indians and English people who were ruling in India through several incidences in the novel. He also showed, the ambivalence in the colonizer-colonized relationship in the novel.