E. M. Forster visited India on two separate occasions, in 1912 and 1922, beo fore the full onset of Indian nationalism that eventually led to the country's independence from England in 1947. In a novel widely regarded as his masterpiece, the author looks at the conflict between East and West, examining how politics and spirituality affected men and women in India. Forster's A Passage to India does not deal with the beginning of the expulsion of the English from India until the novel's close. Nonetheless the novel in its entirety offers many insights into the British-Indian clash.
History of the British in India. While the novel opens at a point of high tension between the British and their Indian subjects, such social and political strife was not always so apparent. India's resentment toward its British rulers developed over a long history of oppression. It would prove nearly impossible to understand Forster's plot and characters without some knowledge concerning the history of the British in India.
England's original interest in India dates to 1600. At this time, the South Asian subcontinent offered a variety of spices and silks popular with affluent Europeans.
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