A Passage To India
Kathryn MacLellan
Mitchell
November 25th, 2013
Racism in A Passage To India
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster is a novel published in 1924, a time when India had not yet won its independence from the British. Forster had visited India during this time, so a lot of the setting comes from firsthand experience, although he does make up the setting of the caves as well as the town names. During the time that this book was published, racism was a major problem in India and it is a major problem in the novel. India at this time was occupied by the British, and the natives there were treated terribly by the British men and women. The British men tended to be more professional, as some of them had worked with the Indians and knew enough about them to be professional with them. However, the women were terrible to them, as their only experience with Indians were when they were ordering their Indian servants around. For the British, the gender differences were much more pronounced than they were for the Indians. In British society in India, women were seen as the weaker and more delicate sex. Englishmen in India felt as if the Englishwomen there needed to be protected from the “Orientals”. For India, the women were treated more equally there, which was a type of culture shock for the British. In this novel, the racism is revealed right from the beginning, and leads to a trial that should not have been necessary, threatens friendships, and is even shown from the narrator’s point of view.
In the nineteenth century, the British East India Company was one of the first huge businesses dealing with trades from country to country. This company slowly came into India, making relationships with the businesses and people there. They gave the Indians money to make tea, something that could be done best in India. They also built railroads to get the tea to the ports on the coast. This helped them have a lot of control over the economy there. They paid the Indians as
Mitchell
November 25th, 2013
Racism in A Passage To India
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster is a novel published in 1924, a time when India had not yet won its independence from the British. Forster had visited India during this time, so a lot of the setting comes from firsthand experience, although he does make up the setting of the caves as well as the town names. During the time that this book was published, racism was a major problem in India and it is a major problem in the novel. India at this time was occupied by the British, and the natives there were treated terribly by the British men and women. The British men tended to be more professional, as some of them had worked with the Indians and knew enough about them to be professional with them. However, the women were terrible to them, as their only experience with Indians were when they were ordering their Indian servants around. For the British, the gender differences were much more pronounced than they were for the Indians. In British society in India, women were seen as the weaker and more delicate sex. Englishmen in India felt as if the Englishwomen there needed to be protected from the “Orientals”. For India, the women were treated more equally there, which was a type of culture shock for the British. In this novel, the racism is revealed right from the beginning, and leads to a trial that should not have been necessary, threatens friendships, and is even shown from the narrator’s point of view.
In the nineteenth century, the British East India Company was one of the first huge businesses dealing with trades from country to country. This company slowly came into India, making relationships with the businesses and people there. They gave the Indians money to make tea, something that could be done best in India. They also built railroads to get the tea to the ports on the coast. This helped them have a lot of control over the economy there. They paid the Indians as
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