VOlUME 06 ISSUE 07 JULY 2023
Nur Selina
Lecturer, Department of English, Uttara University, Dhaka-1230, Bangladesh
DOI : https://doi.org/10.47191/ijsshr/v6-i7-03Google Scholar Download Pdf
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study is to analyze the dehumanizing attitude exhibited by the British colonizers towards the native Indians in E.M Forster’s A Passage to India. The very attitude is responsible for widening the gap between the two groups. This paper investigates how the colonial mindset of the British characters leads them to view the Indian characters as inferior, subjects of subjugation which creates an unmitigated gap between the Anglo Indians and the native Indians in a colonial setting. Moreover, the ambivalent nature from both parties disrupts the meaningful relationship between the native Indians and the Anglo Indians. The colonizers never wanted to bring the colonized to their same standing that made the attempt of bridging the gap futile. In this qualitative study, textual references from the novel, A Passage to India have been investigated to unveil the impact of dehumanization resulting from colonization. This study has successfully presented the predicament of the colonized and the inhumane treatment of the British bureaucrats through the portrayal of a Muslim Indian doctor, Dr. Aziz, a British bureaucrat, Ronny Heaslop and some other characters. The paper has tried to trace out the reasons of unbridgeable gulf between the colonizers and the colonized resulting from dehumanization of the British colonizers. It has explored how the ambivalent relationship, superiority complex, racial discrimination and the bureaucratic compulsion have led to the collapse of social relationships creating hatred and distrust between the colonizers and the colonized.
KEYWORDS:Dehumanization, ambivalence, colonialism, bureaucracy, Anglo-Indians, racism
REFERENCES
1) Ashcroft, Bill, Gareth Griffiths, Helen Tiffin. Post-Colonial Studies, The Key Concept, London and New York: Routledge,
2007.
2) Abu Baker, Ali.“The Master-Slave Relationship in E.M. Forster's A Passage to India”. International Journal of English and
Literature, vol. 7, no. 1, 2016, pp. 26-33.
3) Ashcroft, Bill, et al. The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures. Routledge, 2002.
4) Armstrong, Paul B. “The Burden of Englishness: Race, Class, and Imperialism in E.M. Forster’s ‘A Passage to India’.” In
A Companion to the British and Irish Novel 1945-2000, edited by Brian W. Shaffer, 63-77. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2005.
5) Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. Heinemann Educational Books Ltd,London, Reprint 1969.
6) Baker, Deborah “The Ambiguities of A Passage to India”. Journal of Modern Literature, vol. 19, no. 1,1995, p. 51.
7) Bhabha, H. K. The Location of Culture. London: Routledge, 1994.
8) Boehmer, Elleke. Colonial and Postcolonial Literature. Oxford University Press,2005
9) Césaire, Aimé, and Joan Pinkham. Discourse on Colonialism. NYU Press, JSTOR. 2000.
10) Conrad, Joseph, Heart of Darkness, Coyote Canyon Press, 1902.
11) Forster, E.M. A Passage to India. Penguin Books, 1989.Reprint.
12) Haslam, Nick. “Dehumanization: An Interrogative Review.” Personality and Social Psychology Review, vol. 10,No. 3,
2006, pp.252-264.
13) Kellman, Steven G. “The Political and Psychological Context of A Passage to India.” Modern Language Studies, vol. 16,
no. 1, 1986, pp. 53-61
14) Orwell, George. Shooting an Elephant. New Writing, UK, 1936.
15) Said, Edward, W. Culture and Imperialism, Vintage Books, London,1994.
16) Said, Edward W. Orientalism, New York: Vintage Books, London, 1979. Print.
17) Wright, Richard. Native Son, Perennial Classics, Herper & Brothers, New York, 1940.
18) White, Gertrude, M. A Passage to India: Analysis and Publication PMLA, 1953.
19) Young, R. J. C. Colonial Desire: Hybridity in Theory, Culture and Race, London: Routledge, 1995.