A PASSAGE TO INDIA: THE COLONIAL DISCOURSE AND THE REPRESENTATION OF INDIA AND INDIANS AS STEREOTYPES

Abstract

The representation of the colonized cultures and societies by the colonialists has been a subject of immense importance, both to colonialist and postcolonial critics and writers. The colonialist discourses and writings tend to project the Europeans and the European cultures as normative standards. The colonized alterity is presented as a lack or an abnormality. The British writers and critics, fed upon the Orientalist discourses, have been projecting their own race and culture as superior, and portraying the Indians as lesser Other. E.M. Forster has portrayed the colonialist ideology of the superiority of white race and its culture and the constructed inferiority of India and the Indians in A Passage to India. The present study aimed to examine the operations of the colonialist ideology in A Passage to India, to show that Forster meant to reinforce the colonialist ideology of superiority, along with the representation of India and Indians as stereotypes and marginalized people and culture in his novel. The study also wanted to examine the link between imperialism and culture and the resultant mimicry and hybridity among the Indians and the development of the identity of the Indians. The study was based upon the analysis of the text of the novel in the light of Postcolonial theories. The study found that A Passage to India like any imperial discourse privileged the Europe and the European codes, and ideologies while the Indians and their culture were presented as lesser and inferior stereotypes.