REIMAGINING THE COLONIZED: A POSTCOLONIAL CRITIQUE OF REPRESENTATION IN E.M. FORSTER’S A PASSAGE TO INDIA

Abstract

This research critically investigates the colonial representation of the colonized in E.M. Forster’s canonical novel A Passage to India (1924), examining the extent to which Forster, a British author, succeeds—or fails—to justly depict colonized Indian subjects within the framework of postcolonial discourse. Anchored in postcolonial theories by Edward Said, Homi K. Bhabha, Gayatri Spivak, and others, the study probes the novel’s portrayal of Anglo-Indian relationships, cultural dynamics, and imperial power structures. It challenges the long-held critical consensus that Forster is a connoisseur of cultural fairness by interrogating how his own Englishness and Eurocentric worldview surface—consciously or unconsciously—through narrative choices, characterizations, and symbolic representations. Using a qualitative, textual analysis approach, the research scrutinizes key scenes, linguistic choices, and character perspectives to reveal implicit colonial biases, Orientalist stereotypes, and a skewed depiction of Indian culture and identity. Particular attention is paid to the contrasting portrayals of Eastern and Western landscapes, the dehumanizing depictions of Indian social customs, and the limited agency granted to Indian characters, especially women. The analysis foregrounds recurring motifs such as mimicry, hybridity, ambivalence, and “othering” to dissect the power-laden representations in the novel. The study also situates Forster's novel within broader colonial and postcolonial discourses, based on primary textual evidence and critical scholarship, such as that of Benita Parry, Lidan Lin, Gail Fincham, Amardeep Singh, and Albert Memmi. Finally, it concludes that although Forster attempted to be an East-West cultural bridge, his novel is actually situated within a Eurocentric framework that reconstitutes rather than deconstructs colonial hierarchies. Centering on the colonized subject, this study sheds further light on the boundaries of colonial representation in literary texts and contributes to the ongoing debate in postcolonial literary criticism.

Key Words: Colonialism, Postcolonialism, Eurocentrism, Representation. E.M. Forster, A Passage to India, Colonizer and Colonized, Orientalism, Cultural Hybridity, Mimicry, Othering, Imperial Discourse, Subaltern, Anglo-Indian Relations, Textual Analysis