The early years of the twentieth century saw the rise of the novel as a popular genre in the literature of the war-struck Edwardian England. Novelists like Joseph Conrad, E.M.Forster, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce and D.H. Lawrence gave the form new dimensions. Among these writers E.M. Forster made a mark in the literature of his age through his last novel A Passage to India (1924), which was entirely different from Forster's other novels in that it dealt with the political occupation of India by the British, a colonial domination that ended soon after the publication of this novel. Forster, a liberal and humanist in outlook, emphasised the importance of love and understanding at the personal level in this novel.
Edward Morgan Forster was born in London in 1879 and was educated at Tonbridge in Kent and King's College in Cambridge. He travelled much and visited Italy, Greece, Germany and India. His first novel was Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905). He became part of the reputed Bloomsbury group which included famous writers and thinkers like Virginia Woolf and Lytton Strachey. He also wrote The Longest Journey (1907), A Room with a View (1908), Howards End (1910) and Maurice (a novel dealing with homosexuality in 1914 but not published until 1971, a year after his death
A Passage to India was the direct outcome of his own experiences in India as secretary and companion to the Maharaja of Dewas Senior. Though Kipling had already treated the India of the Raj in his Kim, it was Forster who gave a sympathetic portrait of India under the foreign rule. "The novel offers a distinctly less generous and complacent picture of the Raj and its servants than had Kipling" (Sanders, page 490). The novel's title was taken from Walt Whitman f...
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... his visits to India. He had firsthand knowledge about the decay of the British Empire. He observed the disharmony that the fervent missionaries caused among the Indian people, the social apartheid shown by the English towards the natives, the arrogance of the British officials and the atrocities committed by them led to the dissolution of the British Raj in India.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Crane, Ralph J. Inventing India: A History of India in English Language Fiction. London: Macmillan, 1992.
Cronin, Richard. Imagining India. London: : Macmillan, 1989.
Das, G.K. E.M. Forster's India. London: Macmillan, 1977.
Moody, William Vaughn.,and Robert Morss Lovett. A History of English Literature.8th ed. NewYork: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1964.
Sanders, Andrew. The Short Oxford History of English Literature. London: Oxford, 2000.
Ward & Trent, et al. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1907–21; New York: Bartleby.com, 2000
Ward & Trent, et al. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1907–21; New York: Bartleby.com, 2000
Probst, Robert, et al. "Elements of Literature sixth course literature of Britain." Austin: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1997. 640-644.
Moulton, Charles Wells. Moulton's Library of Literary Criticism of English and American Authors through the Beginning of the Twentieth Century: Volume 1. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1966. Print.
...ndia was rendered unable to progress economically and socially because of their forced dependence on Britain that made the nation unstable. Today, Britain remains an advanced country with a stable economy and strong government while India is filled with corruption, poverty, and crime. British involvement in India forever changed the course of history, and eventually determined the world we know today. While the British were able to thrive in this imperialized society, the most basic rights to freedom and equality were deprived from Indian citizens for centuries. British Imperialism in India allowed Europeans and even people in the Americas to thrive with the valuable goods from India, while people in India were rendered helpless to the greedy hands of stronger nations who believed they were superior and had a right to take whatever they wished from Indian citizens.
Ward & Trent, et al. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1907–21; New York: Bartleby.com, 2000
London: n.p., 1998. Print. fourth Bloomfield, Morton W. New Literary History. Winter ed. N.p.:
A few Indian traders came to the USA in the 1880s for business purposes and traded in goods from India such as silk, spices. Indians witnessed potential interest in their cultures and philosophy from Americans in the USA. Walt Whitman wrote the poem Passage to India in 1868 which also helped Americans get a closer look at India. According to him, the number of people in Boston who were interested in In...
Abrams, M.H., et al. ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. 2 Vols. New York: Norton, 1993.
To begin with, one can observe that the British colonizers did indeed improve Indian civilization by developing means of communication and transport. They built a great number of bridges, over 40,000 miles of railway and paving an astounding 70,000 miles of road (Doc. 4). They established schools,newspapers and telegraphs for the people of the colonies.All blessings of civilization they could not create for themselves (Doc. 1). Furthermore, the British brought 30 million acres under cultivation with large scale irrigation works, began industrialization, improved sanitation and provided an overall higher standard of living (Doc. 4). With many new establishments and institutions to staff, job opportunities opened up left and right for Indian workers.Their contributions to Indian civilization made famine all but disappear throughout India. Without the British, it’s quite possible India could not achi...
Ward & Trent, et al. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1907-21; New York: Bartleby.com, 2000 http://www.bartleby.com/215/0816.html
M.H. Abrams, et al; ed., The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Sixth Edition, Volume I. W.W. Norton & Company, New York/London, 1993.
Ford, Boris, ed, The Pelican Guide to English Literature volume seven: The Modern Age, third edition, Penguin Books, Great Britain, 1973
One of the most important factors in the British loss of control over India was the establishment of English as a unifying language. Prior to British colonisation, India was fragmented and multi-lingual, with 15 major languages and around 720 dialects. English served as a common ground for Indians, and allowed separate cultural and ethnic groups to identify with each other, something which had rarely if ever occurred before on a grand scale. Although it was mainly educated Indians of a privileged caste who spoke English, these were the most influential people in terms of acting as facilitators for nationalist ideas to be communicated throughout the populace. The publication of magazines and journals in English was also a great influence on the rise of Indian nationalism. Although most Indians received nationalist ideas orally, these journals allowed Indians who were literate in English to come into contact with the ideas of social and political reformers.
Dictionary of literary Biography, Volume 162: British Short-Fiction Writers, 1915-1945. A Bruccoli Clark Layman Book. Edited by John H.Rogers, Vincennes University. The Gale Group, 1996. pp. 160-181.