A Passage to India is a realistic documentation of the attitudes of British colonial society in India during the days of the British Empire. The novel characterizes the attitudes the English had towards the Indians. For example, Mrs. Turton, the wife of the collector, the man who governs Chandrapore is overwhelmingly self-righteous, rude, and racist. She and the other Anglo-Indian women ignore the natives who have been invited to the Bridge Party in Chapter Five. When Mrs. Moore asks Mrs. Turton who they are, she replies: "You're superior to them, anyway. Don't forget that. You're superior to everyone in India except one or two of the Ranis, and they're on an equality" (42). Later in the novel, Mrs. Turton is horrible to Adela when Adela proclaims Aziz's innocence. Mrs. Turton is enraged by Aziz's release and screams insults at Adela. Like the other English, Mrs. Turton wants vengenance.
The novel also explores the rights and wrongs of British India emphasizing the way the native Indian population is oppressed by the British colonials. Insensitivity of the English generates unease, mistrust, and a sense of inferiority in the Indians. According to Forster, the Anglo-Indian relationships failed because the colonial rejects everything and everyone Indian. The colonizer refuses to interact with the colonized in order to retain their superiority. Even when they try to interact with the natives like at the Bridge Party, it does not work and the event is considered to be a failure.
Forster also focuses on the typical British perspective of the right to rule India when he focuses on relationships. He challenges the idea that the coloniser is privileged over that of the colonised. The British colonial, such as Turton, believes that it is his duty to control colonised people by having them conform in a specific way. It is the expectation of conformity that contributes to the struggle that Fielding and Aziz have over forming a cross-cultural relationship. By the end of the novel, Fielding conforms to being a typical Anglo-Indian and Aziz like many others in India detest everything British.
It is Aziz who realizes that this type of relationship will only happen when India becomes an independent nation. The traditions of British colonial control prevent equality. Aziz states this towards the end of the novel when he says: "we shall drive every blasted Englishman into the sea, and then...you and I will be friends" (361-62). Ultimately, Forster gives the reader the impression that maybe someday in the future when India is free of colonial rule, the British and the Indians might develop an understanding of each other's cultures. A day will come when they can become friends.
I think your post is interesting. You effectively convey your point about the oppressive nature of relations between Anglo-Indians and Indians. You also picked up on a aspect of Orientalism that I cannot seem to recall. From Dr. Narain's class, do you remember the name of the term describing how the colonizers depict the culture of the colonized as inferior, thus depicting the colonizers' culture as superior? This term makes the colonizers seem almost as if their colonializing is helping the inferior culture. I can't remember the word, but I think you have done a good job showing this aspect of English/India relations.
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