Reading A Passage To India From A Postcolonial Perspective

A Passage to India has been the subject of a variety of interpretations since its publication. In current discussion of the novel, sexual and racial politics have replaced rhythm, romance, and irony as the dominant topics for consideration. Following this trend, and through application of posteolonial criticism to analysis of the novel, this paper focuses on the cross-cultural friendship in the book and analyzes how the author creates barriers for this theme in accordance with his description of India. The paper concentrates on three major colonial motifs that are found in this book as well as in other colonial literature: 1. misrepresentation of the Indian landscape 2. metaphysical and sexual horrors for Westerners in the colonized land 3. the feminine role imposed on the colonized group, and the repression and marginalization of females. The misrepresentation of India is reinforced by the distorted image of the Marabar Caves, and the different roles imposed on the colonizing and colonized group also serve to support the belief of Western superiority The thesis analyzes the way in which the novel develops the theme of Eurocentrism, and further argues that India should not unfairly be held responsible for the failure of cross-racial friendship.