Erica  Shillings

1  May  2008

Can a Colonizer Adapt to a Colonized Environment?

Many people are reluctant to change.  When people are presented with the opportunity to be educated about another culture they can choose to acknowledge its existence in addition to their own values or they can remain uninformed.  Both sides of this state of mind are displayed in E.M. Forster’s A Passage to India.  In the novel, Mrs. Moore and Ronny Heaslop reflect how one person can choose to be open to a different culture and the other can refuse to be apart of his/her surroundings.  When arriving in India, Mrs. Moore looks forward to see the real India.  Ronny, on the other hand, does not care to recognize or participate in the Indian culture.  In response to A Passage to India, I ask a question presented in Forster’s novel: can a colonizer adapt to a colonized environment?   

Forster’s novel, A Passage to India, depicts colonization as frustrating any chance of friendship between the English and the Indians under the colonizer/colonized status quo (Baker  68–69).  Mrs. Moore is to be seen as an apologist for a more enlightened, more civil Empire (Fincham  74).  Her character is defined by the scene where she and Aziz meet for the first time in the mosque.  Aziz says, “‘Madam, this is a mosque, you have no right here at all; you should have taken off your shoes; this is a holy place for Moslems’” (Forster  17–18).  Mrs. Moore has already taken off her shoes acknowledging and respecting Aziz’s culture.  Mrs. Moore’s conceptual and ideological focalization of Aziz following the meeting in the Mosque diverges from the typical stereotypes of Anglo-India (Fincham  85).  Certainly, the inadequacies of friendship as a strategy for overturning imperialism in A Passage to India make clear that individual commitments to otherness are unlikely to deliver just political conditions (Goodlad  328).  Coping with India involves learning to see anew, in processes of celebratory focalization like those practiced by Mrs. Moore (Fincham  84).  

During her visit to India, Mrs. Moore is willing to learn about the culture and her new environment.  Her openness is seen when she relates India to God.  Mrs. Moors says, “‘God has put us on earth to love our neighbors and to show it, and He is omnipresent, even in India, to see how we are succeeding’” (Forster  53).  The discourse of the colony is strong, but Mrs. Moore’s strong Christian beliefs, which have not been contaminated by colonization, make her resist the imposition of this foreign discourse on her mind, although she acknowledges its “truth” (Baker  76).  While Mrs. Moore’s words are pleasing to read, this is not an entirely realistic way of thinking in terms of the situation that is present in A Passage to India.  Despite her good intentions, she is struck by the accuracy of her son Ronny Heaslop’s unflattering description of Aziz as she recalls her initial meeting with Aziz in the mosque (Christensen  163).   

Ronny has no intent to change his ways of thinking while being in India.  In a sense, Ronny is the anti-Mrs. Moore in Forster’s novel.  A conversation that takes place between Mrs. Moore and Ronny displays their contrasting opinions.  Ronny says, “‘But whether the native swaggers or cringes, there’s always something behind every remark he makes, always something, and if nothing else he’s trying to increase his izzat—in plain Anglo-Saxon, to score.  Of course there are exceptions’” (Forster  33).  Mrs. Moore responds with, “‘You never used to judge people like this at home.’  ‘India isn’t home,’ he retorted, rather rudely, but in order to silence her he had been using phrases and arguments that he had picked up from older officials, and he did not feel quite sure of himself” (Forester  33).  Ronny resorts back to the familiarity of home.  While Ronny is being rude by not at least considering the idea of associating with the people of India, however, he is displaying a genuine attitude in response to his environment.  For someone who is raised with a particular set of values it is difficult to simply be willing to adapt to another culture.  This passage proves that Ronny has no intentions of adapting to his current surroundings.  He chooses to remain close-minded about India and displays separation between himself and the people.  Of course, a person’s attitude and state of mind plays a large role in wanting to change.

When reading A Passage to India I was able to relate to Mrs. Moore and Ronny.  I have lived in Pasadena, Texas, all of my life.  Over the years I have seen a drastic change in racial demographics.  Pasadena was once a predominantly white city and now the majority of the population is Hispanic.  In regard to Ronny’s character I was confronted with a change in my environment.  I was resisting the idea of change because my surroundings lacked the familiarity I was used to when growing up.  I noticed more signs in Spanish throughout the city and that the Spanish language was spoken more frequent.  While my situation deals with immigration, it still is closely tied to colonialism.  At first I reacted to my environment with a personality similar to Ronny, but over the years saw the change in population as a world progression.  Instead of resisting what was taking place around me I choose to acknowledge the culture.  Now I live as a person similar to Mrs. Moore’s character, being open to other cultures. 

In response to a situation such as my own as well as the plot in A Passage to India it would be nice and convenient if everyone embodied Mrs. Moore, but the realistic approach is Ronny’s character.  In response to my question whether a colonizer can adapt to a colonized environment depends on the individual.  People, like myself, have to take it upon themselves to know when they are ready to accept a new culture.  This aspect is displayed by Forster as he assigns everyone in the novel an individual story to show how each character reacts to colonialism.  While different cultures exist together in different countries there remains an underline sense of realism. 

Works Cited

Baker, Ahmad M.S. Abu.  “Rethinking Identity: The Coloniser in E.M. Forster’s A Passage to India.”  Nebula  3.2  (Sept 2006):  68–85.

Christensen, Timothy.  “Bearing the White Man’s Burden: Misrecognition and Cultural Difference in E.M. Forster’s A Passage to India.”  Novel: A Forum on Fiction  39.2  (Spring 2006):  155–178. 

Fincham, Gail.  “A Passage to India, Colonial Humanism and Recent Postcolonial Theory: A Response to Lidan Lin.”  Ariel  34.4  (Oct 2003):  73–97. 

Forster, E.M.  A Passage to India.  San Diego:  Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers,  1984.

Goodlad, Lauren M.E.  “Where Liberals Fear to Tread: E.M. Forster’s Queer Internationalism  and the Ethics of Care.”  Novel: A Forum of Fiction  39.3  (Summer 2006):  307–336.