Though Forster is sympathetic to India and Indians in
the novel, his overwhelming depiction of India as a muddle matches
the manner in which many Western writers of his day treated the
East in their works. As the noted critic Edward Said has pointed
out, these authors’ “orientalizing” of the East made Western logic
and capability appear self-evident, and, by extension, portrayed
the West’s domination of the East as reasonable or even necessary.
The Negligence of British Colonial Government
Though A Passage to India is in many
ways a highly symbolic, or even mystical, text, it also aims to
be a realistic documentation of the attitudes of British colonial
officials in India. Forster spends large sections of the novel characterizing
different typical attitudes the English hold toward the Indians
whom they control. Forster’s satire is most harsh toward Englishwomen,
whom the author depicts as overwhelmingly racist, self-righteous,
and viciously condescending to the native population. Some of the
Englishmen in the novel are as nasty as the women, but Forster more
often identifies Englishmen as men who, though condescending and
unable to relate to Indians on an individual level, are largely
well-meaning and invested in their jobs. For all Forster’s criticism
of the British manner of governing India, however, he does not appear
to question the right of the British Empire to rule India. He suggests
that the British would be well served by becoming kinder and more
sympathetic to the Indians with whom they live, but he does not
suggest that the British should abandon India outright. Even this
lesser critique is never overtly stated in the novel, but implied
through biting satire.
