Student Essay on A Passage to India and Orientalism

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A Passage to India and Orientalism

Summary:   A Passage to India by E. M. Forster and the relationship with the notion of orientalism is compared to when, in 1978, Edward W. Said published his book Orientalism. It presented a turning point in post-colonial criticism.

A Passage to India and Orientalism

When in 1978 Edward W. Said published his book Orientalism, it presented a turning point in post-colonial criticism. He introduced the term Orientalism, and talked about 2 of its aspects: the way the West sees the Orient and the way the West controls the Orient. Said gave three definitions of Orientalism, and it is through these definitions that I will try to demonstrate how A Passage to India by E. M. Forster is an Orientalist text. First, Said defined Orientalism as an academic discipline, which flourished in 18th and 19th century.

Anyone who teaches, writes about, or researches the Orient - and this applies

whether the person is an anthropologist, sociologist, historian, or philologist -

either in its specific or its general aspects, is an Orientalist, and what he or she does

is Orientalism. (2)

Second, in Said's own words "Orientalism is a style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction made between "the Orient" and (most of the time) "the Occident"" (2). And now we come to Said's third definition of Orientalism:

Here I come to the third meaning of Orientalism, which is something more

historically and materially defined than either of the other two. Taking the late

eighteenth century as a very roughly defined starting point Orientalism can be

discussed and analysed as the corporate institution for dealing with the Orient -

dealing with it by making statements about it, authorising views of it, describing

it, teaching it, settling it, ruling over it: in short, Orientalism as a Western style for

dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient. (3)

In the novel Forster himself uses the term Orientalist through his character Dr Aziz. The first time that Dr Aziz uses this term is when speaking to Mrs Moore, who came to India escorting Miss Adela. Dr Aziz recognized in Mrs Moore a person who has an ability to recognize whom she likes and dislikes and a person who does not categorize people and does not label them. By using the term Orientalist, Dr Aziz is complimenting Mrs Moore:

He was excited partly by his wrongs, but much more by the knowledge that

someone sympathised with them. It was this that led him to repeat, exaggerate,

contradict. She had proved her sympathy by criticizing her fellow countrywomen

to him, but even earlier he had known. The flame that not even beauty can nourish

was springing up, and though his words were querulous his heart began to glow

secretly. Presently it burst into speech.

'You understand me, you know what I feel. Oh, if others resembled you!'

Rather surprised, she replied: 'I don't think I understand people very well. I only

know whether I like or dislike them.'

'Then you are an Oriental.' (17)

In the wish to see the real India and to explore it, not merely like other tourist do but to discover the real essence of India, we can see elements of Said's first definition of Orientalism.

The third act of Cousin Kate was well advanced by the time Mrs Moore re-entered

the Club. Windows were barred, lest the servants should see their memsahibs

acting, and the heat was consequently immense. One electric fan revolved like

a wounded bird, another was out of order. Disinclined to return to the audience, she

went into the billiard-room, where she was greeted by 'I want to see the real India,'

and her appropriate life came back with a rush. This was Adela Quested, the queer,

cautious girl whom Ronny had commissioned her to bring from England, and

Ronny was her son, also cautious, whom Miss Quested would probably though not

certainly marry, and she herself was an elderly lady.

'I want to see it too, and I only wish we could. Apparently the Turtons will

arrange something for next Tuesday.'

'It'll end in an elephant ride, it always does. Look at this evening. Cousin Kate!

Imagine, Cousin Kate! But where have you been off to? Did you succeed in

catching the moon in the Ganges?' (18)

Mrs Moore and Miss Adela may not be scientists but have still come to India to learn about it and to research it in a way.

The elements of Said's second definition of Orientalism can be found throughout the novel. I decided to focus on one of the major themes in the novel, and that is the possibility of friendship between and Englishman and an Indian. We are introduced to this topic at the very beginning, and from a different angle then we might be used to.

Ralph Wright illustrated that in his review:

The opening of the book is admirably planned. We are shown a group of educated

Indians discussing quite calmly whether or not friendship with an Englishman is

possibility. We are used to this discussion the other way on; and the

dispassionateness of the shifted angle sets the tone of the book from the outset. The

conversation is desultory. It is not, one feels a set piece of propaganda. The

characters are not speaking to an audience and there are no points to score. And

almost at once one falls into Mr Forster's mood of refusing to score a point for

either side, of realizing that there is an interest in people for their own sake and not

as representatives of political idealisms or commercial forces. (222)

It is stated in the novel that a friendship between an Englishmen and an Indian is possible in England, but not in India, and that all English people become the same after a while living in India. At least that is how they are perceived in the novel by the Indians:

'I only contend that it is possible in England,' replied Hamidullah, who had been

to that county years ago, before the big rush, and had received a cordial welcome at

Cambridge.

'It is impossible here. Aziz! The red-nosed boy has again insulted me in court. I

do not blame him. He was told that he ought to insult me. Until lately he was quite

a nice boy, but the others have got hold of him.'

'Yes, they have no chance here, that is my point. They come out intending to be

gentlemen, and are told it will not do. Look at Lesley. look at Blakiston, now it is

your red-nosed boy, and Fielding will go next. Why, I remember when Turton

came out first. It was in another part of the Province. You fellows will not believe

me, but I have driven with Turton in his carriage - Turton! Oh, yes, we were once

quite intimate. He has shown me his stamp collection.'

'He would expect you to steal it now. Turton! But red-nosed boy will be far

worse than Turton!'

'I don't think so. They all become exactly the same - not worse, not better. I give

any Englishman two years, be he Turton or Burton. It is only difference of a letter.

And I give any Englishwoman six months. All are exactly alike. Do you not agree

with me?' (6)

And finally, the growing hatred between the English and the Indians is visible after Aziz's trial. We can see how a wrongful accusation can separate people and cause an unbridgeable gap between two people, and two nations. I. P. Fasset described it in the following passage:

So Miss Quested and Dr Aziz, two earnest workers for mutual understanding

between English and Indians, find themselves the chief figures in a more than

usually violent white men-versus-Indian disturbance. A temporary illusion of

imminent co-operation and good feeling is of course dispelled. There is a fantastic

trial, at the crisis of which Miss Quested states that she can make no accusation

against Aziz: the man who insulted her may have been an hallucination. After the

excitement caused by the trial has died down, the Public School Englishmen sink

back into complacency and condemn the Indians as-well-niggers, and the educated

Indians see the English more clearly than ever as double-faced tyrants, the

instigators of vile and complicated plots. Doctor Aziz and a certain Mr Fielding,

the best of the Englishmen, find that their personal friendship which they have

prized so highly, and for which they had worked so hard, is irrevocably destroyed.

Aziz retreats into unanglised India, where Brahmanism flourishes and the schools

are used as storehouses for grain. India is his country, and India shall one day be

united as one nation and throw off the English yoke. (274)

In Forster's A Passage to India we recognize certain elements that can be seen as Orientalist. According to Edward Said's definitions of Orientalism I tried to point out some of these Orientalist elements. However, there are many more examples in the novel which would also fit in the Orientalist frames set by Said.

WORKS CITED

Fasset, I. P. Rev. of A Passage to India, by E. M. Forster. Criterion October 9, 1924

Forster, Edward Morgan. A Passage to India. London: Penguin Books. 1979.

Hartley, Leslie Poles. Rev of A Passage to India, by E. M. Forster. Spectator June 28,

1924.

Said, Edward W. Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books Edition. 1979.