Terry Greene
Mr. Manwell
Eng 3
Period 3
4-14-14
AMDG
Failure
British economic interest began in the 1600s when the East India Company set trading posts in three different Indian states. What would India have that Europe would want? The simple answer to that particular question is its spices. Asia was like the Middle East and spice was like the oil of present day trading, and India was one of the most productive markets in the world at that time. During the first hundred years of European presence, the India’s ruling Mughal Dynasty kept the western powers and European traders under control. However, by 1707 the Mughal Dynasty began to fail and in 1757 the East India Company became the leading power in India.(Embree 176)With this shift in
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E.M. Forester’s novel, A Passage to India, demonstrates the relationship between two very different cultures and their inter-workings as a society, and how they fail to peacefully cohabitate the same country.
A Passage to India, inspired by Forester’s experience in India, focuses on the relationship established by the British colonies and the Indians in Chandrapore and draws attention to the difference between the European and Indian way of thinking. In this particular novel, Imperialism dominates both cultures’ ways of life. Imperialism favors the British better than the Indians, and white superiority motivates the main characters. The novel explores the ways in which imperialism informs the human value, or rather, human character under The British Raj, both its derogatory and unifying effects. The ghost of the Colonial Other comes to permeate all the relationships within A Passage to India, creating a gulf over which positive human contact tries, but ultimately fails, to jump. (Lehmann 85) Although the two groups have a different thought processes, the two extremely diverse ethnicities share the same pessimistic outlook on the other The Indians have a pessimistic outlook on the evolution of the
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Interracial relationships almost always fail do to the social milieu of the two races being separate and not equal. The most important relationship in the novel is between Dr. Aziz and Cyril Fielding. Their friendship only happens only because each individual had an open mind and both are very naïve; however each individual’s naïve attitude clashes with the other. Fielding is an outsider among his fellow peers because he does not view Indians as inferior. He truly believes that people from different cultures can come together and get along. “The world, [Fielding] believed is a globe of men who are trying to reach one another and can best do so by the help of good will plus culture and intelligence.” (Forester 44) This overly optimistic heavily romanticized attitude counts as half the reason why their friendship fails. The other half is Aziz’s negligence. Aziz believes that a long lasting friendship could happen if the two are racially and socially equal, however he knows deep down that this will never happen. “In every remark [Aziz] found true meaning, but not always the true meaning. And his life though vivid was largely a dream.’’ (Forster 73) Aziz is a dreamer who lies to himself constantly and deliberately chooses to deny and ignore all the signs that their friendship will never endure. Aziz also tries to achieve the same intimate relationship that he has with Cyril Fielding with other English
The Effects of British Imperialism in India One could approach this topic from two points of view: the British and the Indian. One could choose either party and find very different opinions. When British colonizers first arrived in India, they slowly gained more and more control in India through many ways, the most prominent being trade and commerce. At first, they managed India’s government by pulling the string behind the curtain. However, soon they had acquired complete rule over India, converting it into a true British colony.
“Englishmen.. have given the people of India the greatest human blessing - peace.” (Dutt). Merely coming to India in the 1600s to trade, the British East India Company established trading outposts. After ridding of French influence in India during the Seven Years’ War and having Indians mutiny against British rule, Britain gained full control of India. India was under the imperialist control of the British until their independence in 1947.
After Europeans arrived in East Asia via the Indian Ocean, trade in the Far East changed dramatically moving towards a globalized economy. Between 1450 (39 years before the arrival of Vasco Da Gama) until 1750, the levels of trade in Asia reached a new peak; initial changes came in the form of the addition of new goods; and the eventual addition of colonization into the Indian Ocean Trade Network ultimately turned traditional “trade” into imperial relations. However, the importance of raw materials and the main Asian groups involved in the Indian Ocean trade network largely remained constant after European exposure until the start of British Imperial rule of India. Throughout these three centuries, economic superpowers rose and fell, leadership changed, and cultural exchange was highly prevalent, but the general philosophies, and religions of the societies involved in trade remained intact, resulting in far more positive interaction than in the New World.
Imperialism in India British imperialism in India had many positive and negative effects on both the mother country, Britain and the colony, India. Many people would argue which effects were more prominent in these countries, and some would agree that they were equal. But in both cases, there were actually both. In India, the British colonization had more positive effects than negative. For instance, when the British colonized India they built 40,000 miles of railroad and 70,000 miles of paved roadway.
Two important sources that will be used during this investigation are Indian Summer by Alex Von Tunzelmann and Empire: How Britain Made The Modern World by Niall Ferguson. Summary of Evidence After the Battle of Plussey in 1757, Britain gained much control over India. The British East India Company exercised power in this region instead of the Queen of England. The Company brought British soldiers and missionaries to the foreign land. The military in India was comprised of European troops and Indian troops, resulting in a variety of weapons present.
England sends some of their best man to defend and help India. The white man has the mission to civilize the Indians. It is their responsibility to culture them, to put them on the right path. They are there to make India a better place to live and bring the population up to date on the style of living. This journey will be hard, and a lot of sacrifice will have to be made from the Englishman. It will be difficult to be far away from their home land and their family. A lot of hard work will be needed to reach the final goal, to have a civilize and up to date India. What they will achieve will have t...
"All the leadership had spent their early years in England. They were influenced by British thought, British ideas, that is why our leaders were always telling the British "How can you do these things? They're against your own basic values.". We had no hatred, in fact it was the other way round - it was their values that made us revolt." -Aruna Asaf Ali, a leader of the Indian National Congress. (Masani, quoted in Wood, 32, 1989)
" India was where the riches of the world came from, the jewel in the crown of the British Empire. The British needed to dispel the threat of other Europeans in Africa to maintain control of India, and they did so efficiently. They quickly gained control of both the major sea routes to India and then turned their eyes to the rest of the continent. Whether the British were trying to foster public support or prevent another nation from becoming a threat, all British actions in Africa were directly or indirectly linked to India. The British were motivated by their desire to become powerful, and they skillfully combined enterprise and conquest to create a globe spanning empire centered around the wealth of India.
The authors uses the strategy of symbolism to show how the Indians are struggling and are being restricted. The text states, “my Motherland! - fear, the phantom demon, shaped by your own distorted dreams… burden of ages, bending your head, breaking your back, blinding your eyes to the beckoning call of the future...shackles of slumber...mistrusting the star that speaks of truth’s adventurous path… anarchy of destiny… Sails are weakly yielded to blind uncertain winds… hand….rigid and cold as Death… The insult of dwelling in a puppet’s world… movements are started through brainless wires….repeated… mindless habits… Figures wait with patient obedience for a master of show to be stirred into… Life” These quotes show imagery to develop meaning in word choice. He uses the words ‘Motherland’ to represent India and the ‘phantom demon’ being Great Britain. The Indian people are afraid of the controller that watches them. India tries its best to get out of the clutches of Britain. But the country keeps on getting pulled back in and all the people can do is to have hope for a future in which they can be free. Thus, the rights of Indians were
As many people know, Imperialism has shaped the culture and customs all over the world. Imperialism is the dominance of one country over another politically, economically or socially. Western culture can be seen in all parts of the world; from Asia to Africa, to the Indies and the Americans. The downside of having the bits of western culture all over the world, is how it got there. Western influence was forced upon places in Asia, specifically India, Indonesia with a hellacious price; lives and poverty.
The Indian Ocean proved to be the mine from which the Europeans, in particular the British mined the resources to fund their hegemony over the world. Before the Europeans appearance the Indian Ocean was by all accounts a largely peaceable and open trading route for south east Asian states. The Portuguese were the first intruders, beginning to arrive in the first half of the sixteenth century, they recognised immediately how lucrative the existing trade was and could be. Soon after, attracted by the knowledge of the Portuguese’s profit, the Dutch and the English arrived. They brought with them an aggressiveness most of the existing Indian Ocean trading system had not witnessed before.
The decision to grant independence to India was not the logical culmination of errors in policy, neither was it as a consequence of a mass revolution forcing the British out of India, but rather, the decision was undertaken voluntarily. Patrick French argues that: “The British left India because they lost control over crucial areas of the administration, and lacked the will and the financial or military ability to recover that control”.
Silver, Brenda R. “Periphrasis, Power, and Rape in ‘A Passage to India.’” NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction 22.1 (1988): 86-105. JSTOR. Web. 4 Mar. 2011. .
Because there are many points of view and not all of them are explained, therefore, modernist novels often tend to have narrative perspectives that suddenly shift or cause confusion. This is because modernism has always been an experimental form of literature that lacks a traditional narrative or a set, rigid structure. Therefore, E. M. Forster, author of A Passage to India, uses such techniques to portray the true nature of reality. The conflict between Adela, a young British girl, and Aziz, an Indian doctor, at the Marabar Caves is one that implements multiple modernist ideals and is placed in British-India. In this novel, Forster shows the relations and tension between the British and the Indians through a series of events that were all caused by the confusing effects of modernism.
India was the first major Asian civilizations to fall victim to European predatory activities (Duiker 31). With conquering India, the British had various purposes behind it. Their main purpose was to achieve a monopolistic trading position (The Economic and Social Impact of Colonial Rule in India). The second purpose was the control of India; this was a key element in the world power structure, in terms of geography, logistics and military manpower (The Economic and Social Impact of Colonial Rule in India). When the East India Company continued to trade under the British, huge armies were created, largely composed of Indian sepoys (Marshall). The armies were used to defend the Company’s territories protect the Indian states (Marshall).