Cultural Conflicts between East and West According to A Passage to India

“Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet...”

-Rudyard Kipling

The Ballad of East and West

E. M. Forster's (1879-1970) "A Passage to India" (1924) attempts to bring East and West-the colonizer and the colonized in one circle of life breaking the boundaries of geography, culture, religion, race and cast Dr. Aziz's attempts to be decent to the English, his subsequent arrest, trial and final anti-English sentiments prove that there is an unbridgeable gulf between East and West.

 The novel begins and ends with a question - can the English and Indian races be friends and, at the end of the novel, the answer appears to be no, "No, not yet".

"Why can't we be friends now?" said the other, holding him affectionately....

But ………. they said in their hundred voices, "No, not yet,"

and the sky said, "No. not there"

 As part of the ideology of colonialism, throughout the novel, the English 'demonstrate their belief that they are superior to the Indians. "Critical Survey of Long Fiction" writes:

"Forster draws an unforgettable picture of the tensions between colonial rulers and

the Indian professional class"

The comments and treatment that the Indians receive from the English characters in the novel show the common attitude toward the Indians during this time.

To justify their takeover of India, which they didn't get legally, the British created a negative image of the Indian people, partly based on their imagination or misunderstandings. The new British arrivals in India are influenced by these ideas from those who came before them. Mrs. Turton tries to convince Mrs. Moore by saying:

"Don't forget that. You're superior to everyone in India except one or two of the Ranis,

and they're on an equality."

Most of the English characters, especially females, always keep a neglecting distance from the Indians. For example, an English lady doesn't reply to Dr. Aziz's “You are most welcome, ladies." Rather she takes his carriage without asking him. As Aziz Ahmad says -

“She has just taken my longa without my permission,”

Even their activities were more crucial than this. As we find-

"Indians are not allowed into the Chandra pore Club even as guests"

 On the contrary, the Indians have a differing attitude towards the English. Eventually they want their association but the British don't. The action of the novel begins with the Indians discussion on-

"...as to whether or not it is possible to be friends with an Englishman"  

 But, the novel ends with the conclusion that it is not possible until the British leave India.

The novel's main action begins after two English women have come to visit India. They intend to know India through close observation. The Turtons arrange a "Bridge Party" in their honour in order "to bridge the gulf between East and West." But the irony is that the bridge attempt leads to misunderstanding and racial conflicts. As it is seen-

"The Bridge Party did not bridge anything."

Actually, cultural misunderstanding is an important reason behind the racial conflict. Differing cultural ideas and expectations regarding hospitality, social properties and the role of religion in daily life are responsible for misunderstandings between the English and the Indian Muslims, the English and the Indian Hindus, and between the Muslims and the Hindus. Forster illustrates this through various interactions between characters:

"Why can't we be friends now?" said the other, holding him affectionately.
"It's what I want.  It's what you want.”

 The racial conflict reaches its climax in A Passage to India when Adela Quested accuses Dr. Aziz in court of attempting to seduce her in Marabar Caves. It seems that Chandra pore is preparing for a war: it is divided into two groups. However, Fielding joins the Indians, for he believes and knows that the accusation is for he believes and not false. As we find -

"Chandrapore was divided into two camps, the English and the Indians,

and no intercourse except it was official." (Chapter 19)

Even their hostile attitude to each other becomes evident in the courtroom. McBryde while presenting Aziz's crime, makes a strict racial comment generalizing the common tendency of the Indians as "Oriental Pathology",

"...the darker races are physically attracted by the fairer, but not vice versa this,

not a matter for abuse, but just a fact which any scientific observer will confirm.

Actually, we find McBryde's predecessor in William Shakespeare's The Tempest where Prospero, a racist, treats Caliban in the same way accusing him of ravishing Miranda:

"...thou didst seek to violate, The honour of my child."

Despite Aziz and Fielding's genuine desire to bridge these gaps, Forster suggests that the weight of history and colonialism prevents genuine friendship. This is evident in the quote,

"They were not yet friends, they would never be friends."

 To draw a conclusion from our discussion, we can say that racial conflict is one of the dominant themes of “A Passage to India”. The final message of the novel is that though Aziz and Fielding want to be friends, historical circumstances prevent their friendship. In colonial India, cultural difference indicates a kind of superiority or inferiority, the center and the periphery, that cannot be reconciled. But in post-colonial world, this colonial mentality has been rooted out, and the central position of the West destructed by writers like Kiran Desai who with her novel The Inheritance of Loss (2006), challenges the dominance of the West and the "reality" of an orderly, civilized "center" told by the West.