(Un) Earthing the colonial Identity in a Passage to India by E. M. Forster
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A Passage to India, a post-colonial novel which was written in 1913
and then revised and completed in Forster’s second visit to India in 1921,
was published in 1924, nearly after eleven years since it was first penned
by E. M. Forster. The title of A Passage to India, taken from Walt
Whitman’s poem of the same name, suggests that Forster seeks some path
to understand India, which is ironic, as no passage seems to be possible
neither epistemologically nor socio-culturally between the colonized and
colonizer. The time Forster had been to India (from March 1921 until
January 1922) was predominantly significant in the history of British India
since the nationalist agitation (revived immediately after the war and
precipitated by repression and massacre in the Punjab) reached a climax
point in the year 1920. At that time, not only Gandi’s non-cooperation
movement, protesting against the Punjab massacre but also the British
injustice to the Moslem sentiment in India over the Khilafat issue had a
deep effect on the country. The success of these two movements was at its
highest point during the months Forster was in India (Ganguly, 1990: 42).
As a philanthropic, Forster himself was in favour of Civil Disobedience.
During the last two weeks before Forster’s departure, the policy of civil
disobedience was implemented in many parts of Andhra, in the vicinity of
Hyderabad where Forster was staying after leaving Dewas.
