Abstract

 English fiction pertaining to the British rule in India marked Indian Muslims into visibility through the portrayal of their stable stereotypical identity, and since its publication, A Passage to India has gained the status of authentic imagining of Muslims as conservative religious ‘Other’ of the West. As such, they are analyzing this text as an instance of colonial fixity necessitates the identification and consideration of those discursive strategies used by the text for the projection of abrasive Muslim images. The focus of this paper is to critically approach A Passage to India through the application of Fairclough’s three-dimensional model so as to validate the claim of stereotypical representation of Muslims in India during colonial rule. Largely a matter of despotic manipulation within the text, the narrator dotes on the anecdotal treatment of Muslim characters with a purpose to justify. By adhering to colonial discursive binarism, this novel depicts colonized Muslims as dehumanized and caricatured others in essentialist terms by shelving their political, historical and contextual identification.

Key Words

Colonial Discourse, Foreground, Image Construction, Stereotypical Representation, Colonized Muslims

Introduction

The stereotypical representation of Muslims in western discourses is an important feature of colonial discourse. This stereotypical representation of Muslims is still in vogue in contemporary western discourses. It creates a communication gap that minimizes the possibilities of meaningful cultural dialogue. This article explores the roots of this representation in the fictional narrative of A Passage to India in the colonial period. The purpose of the study is to provide a historical backdrop of contemporary representations. This would help bridge the communication gap and improve the understanding between Muslims and the West. 

 The imperial project of the west brought eastern societies in direct contact with the west. Colonial discourse is the cultural privilege of demonstrating the oppressed others (Said, 1993). The image constructed through this representation is consistent with the colonized people’s conventional representation in imperial discourses. The colonial discourse constructed in “A Passage to India” creates a stereotypical image of the subcontinent’s colonized Muslims. The image constructed through this representation is consistent with the colonized people’s conventional representation in imperial discourses. The present article analyzes how A Passage to India’s colonial discourse constructs a stereotypical representation of the colonized Muslims in the Subcontinent.

The use of representation and modes of perception as instruments of colonial authority to keep colonized people in subservience to colonial control is the subject of colonial discourse theories (Mcleod, 2007 p. 17). After a thorough examination of Victorian novels and early twentieth-century fiction, Boehmer determines that the fiction in the nineteenth and that twentieth-century justifies Empire by constructing a negative image of colonized people in conquered territories.

The concept of colonial discourse originated with Orientalism (Said, 1991). However, critical debates began in the 1950s (Mcleod, 2007). Frantz Fanon was a pioneer in exposing the colonial discourse’s power patterns. Fanon’s two books, “Black Skin White Mask” (1967) and “The Wretched of the Earth” (1990), deal angrily with the mechanics of colonialism and its consequences (Mcleod, 2007, p. 19). Fanon’s critique elucidates the psychological consequences of racism and colonialism. The colonized people internalize the colonizers’ constructed representation of their subjectivity. According to Fanon, decolonization will not be complete until this false consciousness is rejected (Ibid). Fanon's concept about colonial discourse is similar to those of later theorists like Edward Said and Homi Bhaba










Edward Said was the first postcolonial thinker to examine colonial rhetoric in depth. His seminal work Orientalism is widely regarded as the foundation of Postcolonial Studies as a distinct discipline 

(Ashcroft et al., 2004; Bertens, 2002; Mcleod, 2007). As with Fanon, Said believes that colonialism fosters a worldview that is transmitted as reality. However, unlike Fanon, who was concerned with the fate of colonized people, Said pays more attention to the colonizer than the colonized (Mcleod, 2007, p, 21).

Gramsci’s (1988) concept of hegemony and Foucault’s concept of discourse are at the core of Orientalism’s notions. Gramsci is an Italian Marxist philosopher who popularized the concept of political hegemony. In his view, political power can be exercised in two ways: through coercion, that is, the state’s suppressive power through the use of force, such as police, or consent (Ashcroft et al., 2004). Hegemony is defined as the consent-based dominance of a set of ruling beliefs and values (Bertens, 2002, p, 88).

In his writings, Foucault makes no attempt to develop a systematic theory of discourse. Rather than that, he challenges the very act of theorizing in a series of writings that defy any attempt at order. Foucault is more concerned with emphasizing the historicity of all frames of knowledge. However, Foucault’s historicity is neither Marxist, nor Freudian, nor structuralist. Even phenomenological approaches have difficulty reconciling with his views. Foucault delves into the origins of concepts such as madness, illness, knowledge, and truth. Foucault’s Madness and Civilization (1977), The Birth of the Clinic (1975), The Order of Things (1970), and The Archeology of Knowledge (1970) all trace the development of ideas in Western culture. However, when these writings are combined, they become a source for the concept of discourse, which is adopted by scholars who have developed a discourse theory. Foucault’s primary contribution is a reconsideration and reorientation of the relationship between knowledge and power. According to Foucault, truth is constructed through social interaction and reflects the power relations in society; however, unlike Marx’s concept, this power is not repressive but is necessary for collective existence (Mills, 1997). Power relationships are diffused throughout social structures and are constantly negotiated in social interactions, resulting in discursive structures that generate discursive practices and serve as a forum for the negotiation of power and knowledge in social interactions. Foucault does not consider power relations as static or stable. They rely on the social sphere's circulation of discourses. Thus, in social interaction, discourses are not only constructed but also challenged (Mills, 1997).

Said (1991) examines the nature of colonial interaction and the power patterns that result in Orientalism. In his view, Western academics fostered an image of the orient as opposed to the Occident in their literary and non-literary texts. The purpose of generating this knowledge is to exercise representational power. Western scholarship creates stereotypes, which the colonized internalize, and use to maintain the colonizer’s hegemony (ruling by consent). Such stereotypes are propagated through texts and contribute to the development of colonial discourse. This concept of colonial discourse has shaped Postcolonial Studies and set the groundwork for a new discipline. In this paper, Forster’s A Passage to India is analyzed as a colonial discourse that contributes to the propagation of colonial stereotypes.

In Orientalism, Said (1991) focuses on colonial discourse’s stereotypes. He coined the term Orientalism to refer to the body of knowledge created during the colonial period. There is a particular discursive structure to this knowledge, which McLeod refers to as “Orientalism’s general shape” (Mcleod, 2007, p. 40). The orientalist viewpoint establishes a binary distinction between the orient and the Occident, with both considered to be opposite to one another.  According to this view, “the Orient is conceived as everything that the West is not; as its alter-ego” (Ibid). The Occident is a construct of the west in opposition to the orient. Orientalism's binaries favor the west and portray the colonizer as a better person than the colonized. The west is depicted as the cradle of reason and wisdom, whereas the East is portrayed as the home of irrationality and naiveté.  Thus, “East and West are positioned through the establishment of an unequal dichotomy” (Ibid., p. 41), in which the orient serves as the inferior west’s counterpart. Forster establishes this dichotomy throughout A Passage to India by contrasting Aziz and Fielding. Forster continues to draw parallels between India and Europe, Indian villages and European settlements, and Indian Muslims and their Hindu counterparts, as well as their British superiors. 

According to Said (1991), the Western view of the East reflects western dreams and desires more than the East. In this sense, the colonial discourse’s image of the colonized “is first and foremost a fabricated construct, a series of images that come to stand for those in the West as the Orient’s reality” (Mcleod, 2007, p. 41). Said is of the view; Imperial culture fosters a mindset and a way of seeing the world that can be found in both literary and non-literary works. As a result, colonial discourse produces a reality with both imaginative and material implications (Ibid.).  

The imaginative construction of the East in colonial discourse, according to Said, is treated as fact. They permeate society's institutional framework and shape colonizers’ and colonized’ perspectives. As a result, sympathetic writers toward colonized people like Conrad and Forster propagate colonial discourse's erroneous caricatures as truth. In his view, East becomes an object “...suitable for academic study, … in anthropological, biological, … about humanity and the universe.” (Said (1991), p. 7-8). Colonial discourse produces a body of knowledge that conceals its fiction and gives the appearance of objectivity. Not only do travellers, missionaries, colonial administrators, and educators convey a sense of personal encounter, but novelists such as Rudyard Kipling, Joseph Conrad, and E. M. Forster also convey a sense of personal encounter with the lands they write about. Thus, colonial discourse not only establishes an institutional framework but also “influences the plethora of literary (and non-literary) writing” (Mcleod, 2007, p. 42). According to Said, “philology, lexicography, history, biology, political and economic theory, novel writing, and lyric poetry” are all subordinate to colonial discourse (Said, 1995, p. 15). Analyzing a novel as a colonial discourse is thus a practise that emphasizes the text’s image construction strategies. In this paper, ‘A Passage to India’ by E. M. Forster is viewed as the colonial discourse that adheres to the stereotypes highlighted in Said’s Orientalism.

Six stereotypes are identified by McLeod (2007), which Said focuses on in his book. Among them are; the orient’s timelessness and strangeness, femininity and degeneration, and race and gender assumptions. Said is of the view that colonial discourse portrays the East as a historical transcendence, unaffected by historical change. “Orientalism assumed an unchanging Orient” (Said, 1995). The west is depicted as progressive historically, going from one epoch to the next and developing in scientific and intellectual terms. The East, on the other hand, stays primitive or backward as a result of its static rather than dynamic nature. This preconception is mentioned several times in E. M. Forster's novel A Passage to India. A stereotype is the East’s strangeness and its peculiarity; “the orient is not simply different; it is oddly different - unusual, fantastic, bizarre” (Mcleod, 2007, p. 44). The East’s peculiarities are used to demonstrate it's inferiority: “if the Occident was rational, sensible, and familiar, the Orient was irrational, extraordinary, and abnormal” (Ibid). Such binaries give colonial people a stereotypical image and belittle them in relation to their Western counterparts.  Similar analogies abound in A Passage to India. 

East is portrayed as feminine and degenerate in colonial discourse. Eastern people are portrayed in travelogues, paintings, and novels as receptive, impulsive and passive. passive, receptive, and impulsive. “Orientalism as a whole feminizes the East, deeming it passive, submissive, exotic, luxurious, sexually mysterious, and alluring” (Ibid.). The west, in contrast to the East, is shown as having male traits such as activity, domination, heroism, rationalism, self-control, and asceticism. The portrayal of Aziz in A Passage to India has been used as an example of this stereotype (Tambling, 1995). The perspectives of Rustom Bharucha, Sara Suleri Goodyear, and Brenda R. Silver are pertinent in this regard (Tambling, 1995). Associated with this stereotype is the idea of the degenerateness of the East. In McLeod’s view:

Compositely, Oriental stereotypes … Oriental people were often considered as … dubious aspects of human behaviour (McLeod 46).

This passage highlights the colonial discourse’s structure and its role in colonized people’s subjectivity construction. One of the most striking assessments of colonial discourse is Edward Said's colonial discourse theory in Orientalism. (Boehmer; Mills 1995; Bertens; McLeod). 

In the light of the above-mentioned assumptions regarding colonial discourse and imperial textuality, this study examines “A Passage to India”. The novel’s imperial narrative and colonial discourse are stressed by Edward Said, Sara Mills, Tambling, and a range of other critics.

Theoretical Framework and Research Methodology

The data for this study comes from the novel ‘A Passage to India’ by E.M. Foster. The three-dimensional model of discourse analysis proposed by Fairclough (1989) is adopted as a method for textual analysis. The text’s production and interpretation are contextualized through the description,  ‘interpretation’, and explanation. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is an analysis, according to Fairclough (1989), that aims to systematically investigate frequently obfuscated causal relationships and establish relationships between (a) discursive practises, events, and texts and (b) broader social and cultural structures, relationships, and processes. The examination of these practices and processes has ideological implications, as they are a component of a society’s power relations. Because the connection between colonizer and colonized is discursively structured and involves a power struggle, the colonial scenario described in the selected text has a discursive structure. A colonial narrative tells the story of the colonized through the eyes of the colonizer. As a result, critical discourse analysis aids in understanding the relationship between power and language, as well as the ideological framework of the presentation.  The focus of the investigation is on statements made about the colonized Muslims. The literary references in this study originate from Oliver Stallybrass's A Passage to India, published by Penguin in 1979. (Foster, 1979).   

Data Analysis

The Narrative Structure of the Novel

The text’s structure frames the context of statements, forming a discursive pattern that constructs discourse’s typicality. The textual items, according to Fairclough, must be contextualized in the context of their appearance in a text Fairclough (1989). A text’s overall structure is composed of text items that occur in a specific discursive position. In order to analyze the text, it is necessary to consider not only the sociopolitical, historical, and ideological context but also the co-text, which contributes to its meaning. Fairclough asks under the heading,” textual structures”, “what large scale structures does the text have?” (Ibid.). As a result, in Fairclough’s model, the narrative structure provides a framework for critical analysis.

In Forster's A Passage to India, there are various competing discourses, but the colonial discourse is the preferred one, consisting of “a set of regulated practices” that are easily identified as imperial discourse (Foucault, The Archeology of Knowledge 80).    A Passage to India is a narrative that conforms to imperial culture's discursive techniques, despite being sympathetic to natives and critical of colonial hegemony. In the novel's narrative framework, the topic of imperial encounters is given a powerful expression. In Forster's work, India is dominated by the British, and the native population is made up of Muslims, Hindus, and Eurasians. Forster creates images of these distinct communities through comparison and contrast.




The Discursive Pattern of the Text

A Passage to India’s first chapter establishes a discursive pattern and establishes the tone of the novel as an imperial discourse. The Civil Station, a British locality in the fictional city of Chandrapore, is compared to the native city in this chapter. Indians, Eurasians, and British people all live in different parts of Chandrapore. This is one set of comparisons that keeps popping up throughout the story. Indians are not divided into Muslims and Hindus at this level of representation. They are indistinguishable from this perspective. At this point, the comparison is between the civilized and the primitive. Everything in Britain is civilized, while everything in the United States is primitive. The Eurasians, who have both English and Indian parents, are a cross between primitive and civilization. They’ve reached the halfway point of their journey to civilization. They are held in higher regard than natives because they are racial hybrids. This discourse on civilization and primitivism continues throughout the text and is typical of colonial discourse.   The Western discourse of the East, as Said argues in Orientalism and Culture and Imperialism, professes the superiority of Western culture and justifies the colonial enterprise. As defined by Jan Mohamed, this is the discursive activity of binarism that employs Manichean Allegory. This discourse is not constructed on direct pronouncements, according to a detailed textual analysis of this chapter.  It is made up of imagery, symbolism, and the structure of the novel.    

The Manichean pair's inferior side is connected to all of the imagery related to the native place. The employment of emotive language creates a negative image of the Chandrapore indigenous, gloom and primitivism (N. Fairclough, Language, and Power). In the hometown, there is “nothing extraordinary” (29) to be found. The river’s banks are “scarcely distinguishable from the rubbish it deposits so freely” (29). Hindus consider the Ganges to be sacred, but it “happens not to be holy here” (29). Everything is tinged with a sense of inadequacy. “The streets are mean, the temples ineffective…” (29). the streets are strewn with garbage. The city isn’t particularly large or attractive.

From the imperial past, a “few fine houses” (29) have been inherited. Mughal Imperialism is responsible for any touch of grace that a native locale may claim, even though it has been portrayed as far inferior to British imperialism. In the city’s bazaars, there are no signs of civilization. Forster expects to see “paintings and carvings” (29) as a sign of civilization, but there are none in the bazaar, so they are considered primitive. Paintings and carvings are considered marks of civilization by Western standards, and Forster's decision supports this discourse in shaping the image of native Chandrapore because colonial discourse values Eurocentric values as universals. The vegetation, as well as the inhabitants, are of poor quality.  “The very woods seem made of mud, the inhabitants of mud moving” (29).  ”so abased, so monotonous is everything that meets the eye…” (29). There is a touch of inferiority, ugliness, insignificance, and sordidness. (29). Forster wraps up his description of native Chandrapore with a phrase that encapsulates the overall impression that the place leaves on a Western mind: “some low but indestructible form of life” (29).  This phrase’s expressive value appears to pass a moral judgment on the place’s overall impression. Forster stereotypically marginalizes the landscape that serves as the setting for his story.

The first paragraph of the novel is a story about a city that only exists in the imagination. The visuals and statements are all crafted as a discursive activity to set the tone of the novel and a British novelist's perspective on native India. In the colonial discourse, Forster’s images and statements are not uncommon. In imperial writings, this is a common description. Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Kipling’s Kim both have descriptions of natives that are similar to Forster’s. “A Passage to India is a representation and an ideological construct”, according to Benita Perry (Tambling, 1995, 133), and “over Forster, the discursive ghosts of Burke and Kipling shake hands,” according to Sara Suleri Goodyear (Tambling, 1995, 151). When compared to the next paragraph, which portrays Eurasian and British locales, it's evident that this depiction of Chandrapore is discursively constructed and ideologically motivated.   The images in this passage contrast sharply with those in the preceding one.   

The imagery establishes the supremacy of the colonizer above the colonized. The colonizer has the benefit of portraying the local terrain as primordial and primal, chaotic and unknown, unattractive and unappealing due to his better understanding. All traces of beauty and elegance in this area may be traced back to imperial power, which is the source of beauty resulting from imperial authority's ability to organize, arrange, and order the circumstances. Symmetry and artistic grandeur are the results of a power that can resolve things and make decisions. 

Forster has painstakingly and meticulously concocted this fictional reality. The images are thrown and distributed methodically. Forster is consciously creating a discursive dichotomy that runs the length of the novel. The colonial control appears to be justified by both nature and civilization. It’s worth noting that no human subjects are mentioned in this chapter. Instead, through his discourse, Forster creates a context that justifies the discursive practices that are maintained throughout the discourse.

The Colonized Indian Muslim: Doubly Marginalized

The colonial discourse constructs the image of the colonized Muslims on two levels. To begin with, the colonized Muslim is stereotyped as Indian or Oriental. Second, as a Muslim, he is marginalized. Being a Muslim Indian entails more than just being an Indian. Through a series of analogies, Forster creates the image of a colonized Muslim. First, as an Indian, Indian Muslims are compared to European and Eurasian images. Forster creates this image by emphasizing Muslim community life. Hindu and Muslim rituals are not the same. Individual Muslims think and act differently, with a sense of colonial arrogance.  Even the aesthetic and creative perceptions of Indian Muslims differ. The tapestry of discursive threads that Forster has weaved together, and the fabric of Indian civilization, provides an exotic impression of many colours. 

In Chapter IV, Mr Turton, the collector's promise to Mrs Moore of an invitation to a bridge party, is the subject of controversy among the various ethnic groups of Indians. Mr Turton, the collector's promise to Mrs Moore of an invitation to a bridge party, is the subject of controversy among the various ethnic groups of Indians in Chapter IV. The text presents the attitude of the colonized community in general and Indian Muslims in particular in a very systematic manner.

It is owing to orders … from the … “Turton would never do this … would have us treated properly. But they come … far away. (p 51)

Nawab Bhadur, a Muslim elite, responds to Mehmood Ali in an interesting and revealing way. It creates a picture of the Muslim upper class in colonized India. Any call from the authorities is always met with a positive response.

People who go there, according to Ram Chand, “little black man” (51), will be forced to recognize their inferiority. Because he disagreed with “the leading Mohammedan landowners of the district”, Ram Chand received the company’s displeasure (51). This attitude reveals the colonized Indians’ ethnic divide and constructs a discursive image of colonized Muslims (p 51).

This excerpt demonstrates how colonized Muslims think communally and that their opinions are shaped by their ethnic identity. Mehmood Ali does not express himself honestly and favors Nawab Bahadur without actually supporting him.

After Nawab Bahadur clarifies his viewpoint and reiterates his support for the approval, the discussion is settled in favor of going to the party. The Muslim élite appears to favor colonists in this dispute, while the dissident voice is mainly Hindu. Following the debate, the narrative voice constructs an image of Nawab Bahadur, “the leading Mohammedan landowner” (51) whose opinion is weighted because he is “a big proprietor and philanthropist” (52).

The image of Indian women at the bridge party as “uncertain, cowering, recovering, gigging, making tiny gestures of atonement and despair at all that was said, and alternately fondling the terrier or shrinking from him” (57) contrasts dramatically with the confident Begum Hamidullah in the domestic scene. The bridge party, which aims to close the gap between colonizers and colonized, widens it even more, as the native table has a different menu than the “menu of Anglo-India” (61). Mr Fielding burns his mouth while attempting to eat Indian food, and Hindus are not permitted to dine with Muslims or Europeans. The attitude of the colonial administration contributes to the widening of the divide. The Civic Club’s side lawn community will never be able to be homogenized into a single community. The bridge party’s discursive impression is as follows.

The representation of the Muslim community in social contexts, which is seen in full colour at Fielding's tea party and the gathering in Aziz's room, is the novel's discursive structure.   Aziz arrives earlier at the tea party, and his interaction with Mr Fielding and the European ladies illustrates Forster's perspective of Muslim sensibility and how he constructs it. When professor Godbole comes to the gathering, the conversation switches to other issues, and the manner he drinks his tea indicates how Hindus differ from Muslims and Europeans in terms of cultural behaviour. 

The Muslim Community’s Representation in Chandrapore

The human subjects appear in Chapter 2 of the novel, and Forster introduces the novel’s protagonist, Dr Aziz, along with his friends Hamidullah and Mahmoud Ali. The second chapter begins with a scene in Hamidullah’s house. Aziz arrives hurriedly. He asks his friends if he is late because he is bursting with energy. The response he receives gives the reader of the story their first impression of Aziz: “you are always late” (31). In contrast to his English counterparts, Forster maintains this image of Aziz as a slacker who does not perform his duties diligently throughout the first half of the novel.

The two friends Hamidullah and Mahmoud, are debating the possibility of friendship with the English people at Hamidullah's house. For Mahmoud Ali, friendship with the English people is difficult, but for Hamidullah, it is conceivable in England (31). The intruding narrative voice tells us that Hamidullah was formerly well-liked at Cambridge.  As a result of his firsthand knowledge of the English community at the imperial centre, he thinks a little differently. According to Forster, there is no real difference between the two participants in the debate about an Englishman’s friendship.

Forster carefully develops a discourse that compares Indian Muslims to Englishmen through the dialogue of these Muslim friends. Englishmen come to India intending to be gentlemen, but in the colonial setting, they become like everyone else. Something is amiss in the colonial environment; the reader gets the idea that converts the sophisticated and refined English people into the rascals they appear to be in the colony. As evidenced by works like Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1898), which portrays Africa as a region of darkness where Europeans descend into devils, this is a prevalent colonial discourse. 

In these Muslim pals, Forster also shows a sense of inferiority and a proclivity for overgeneralization. Turton used to make Mahmoud Ali pleased by riding in his carriage with him, which he interpreted as a gesture of intimacy. Mrs Bannister's generosity and hospitality in England wowed Hamidullah, who was invited to stay at her home. 

Forster also develops images of Muslim households in this scene. The servant announces the dinner, but no one pays attention. Hamidullah and Mahmoud Ali continue to discuss politics, which Forster qualifies as “eternal”. This provides the idea that among Muslim elderly who are carefree and relaxed, politics is the most popular topic.  Aziz enters the garden, where the scent of flowers reminds him of “scraps of Persian poetry” (33). After politics, poetry is a special interest for the Muslim society of India, and Forster returns to it several times. Forster makes several broad generalizations about Muslims’ attitudes toward poetry later in this chapter.

The conversation between Begum Hamidullah and Aziz takes place “behind the purdah” (33) and represents the

inside of a Muslim home when Aziz visits his distant aunt, Begum Hamidullah.  Mardana, where men may freely come and go, and zanana, where women lived, were the two divisions of Muslim houses in India at the time. 

Begum Hamidullah and Aziz discuss various Muslim practices in India in their conversation.  “a family circumcision that had been celebrated with imperfect pomp,” she tells Aziz (33-34). Forster’s use of the adjective imperfect reveals the narrator’s attitude toward colonized society.

At this point, Forster informs readers that in Muslim society, women are not permitted to dine before men and are not permitted to show impatience for food. As a result, Begum Hamidullah continues to speak about the celebration until she runs out of things to say, at which point she switches to Aziz’s marriage.

If a woman does not marry by the age of thirty, whether for pride or other reasons, she will almost certainly die alone, and remaining single is “a slur on the entire community.”  Polygamy is encouraged because no woman should be denied the pleasures that God intended for her.   “Wedlock, motherhood, power in the house - for what else is she born...” are among the blessings that God bestows on a Muslim woman, according to Forster.  This is a point of agreement among the participants in the discussion, and Forster depicts them in a discursive pattern of representation that runs throughout the work. 

The nature of ties between the British colonizer and the colonized Muslim is exemplified by Aziz's reaction when he receives a call from Major Callendar, the Civil Surgeon. Muslims who have been colonized and are interested in politics have an unsettled mind preoccupied with national and ethnic identity. There is a lack of mutual trust between the races here as well, as evidenced by the earlier conversation amongst the friends about the possibilities of friendship with an English man. Major Callendar, Aziz believes, called him at an inopportune time in order to demonstrate his dominance by interrupting his supper.  This mistrust causes Aziz to become agitated, and when the suggestion of brushing his teeth after the pan is made, he insists on his Indian identity, saying, “I am an Indian; it is an Indian habit to take a pan.” The Civil Surgeon must put it up” (35). Impudence is the term used to describe this act of defiance. “Aziz, Aziz, imprudent boy . . .” (35).  This reaction to the call gives the impression that Indian Muslims are irrationally agitated when called to duty. Aziz’s rage is irrational and unreasonable, as the narrator describes it as “riding furiously” (36). The description of Aziz’s bicycle also demonstrates, on the one hand, Indians’ attitude toward life and, on the other, the differences between India and England. “He had neither light nor bell nor had him a brake, but what use are such adjuncts in a land where the cyclist’s only hope is to coast from face to face, and just before he collides with each, it vanishes?” (35).

This depiction, which is based on a fictional narrative, stresses the chaotic situation that the people of the land are familiar with, but that English people must bear as a jumble that they don't comprehend.  

By constructing and assigning moods and attitudes to Aziz, as well as the symbolic and imaginative construction of a false world that embodies Muslim sensibility, the description of the mosque where Aziz meets an English lady contributes to the picture of colonized Muslims. Forster begins by detailing the architecture of the mosque, which comprises the entrance, ablution tank, courtyard, and covered area.   He compares “the covered part of the mosque’ with ‘an English parish church whose side has been taken out”  (37). As this comparison shows, the narrator is looking at things from a Western perspective. The fact that Aziz is in the mosque has unique repercussions in terms of discourse. God's ninety-nine names are engraved in black on white marble, and Aziz is inspired by them. According to Aziz, the mosque's symmetry is found in its architectural organization. 

Its decoration piques Aziz’s interest, “and he tried to symbolize the whole into some truth of religion or love” (38), according to him. Because it stands apart from “the temple of another creed, Hindu, Christian, or Greek” (38) , the mosque becomes a symbol of Aziz’s identity. Despite being similar to native Hindus in some ways, the Indian Muslim, in Forster’s opinion, maintains his ethnic identity and connects himself to the larger history of Muslim civilization. The mosque is the most visible manifestation of Muslim culture’s symbolic unity. As a result, Therefore, “here was Islam, his own country, more than a Faith, more than a battle cry, more, much more . . . Islam, an attitude towards life both exquisite and durable, where his body and his thoughts found their home” (38).

This description demonstrates Forster’s understanding of Islam as well as Muslim Indian sensibilities. Aziz’s thoughts are tinged with sentimentality. The mosque is “at the edge of the Civil Station”  (38). Aziz, alone and in complete silence, hear a variety of sounds. He can hear the English community’s “amateur orchestra” (38) playing. He can also hear Hindus drumming on their drums. Aziz can recognize the drum sound as Hindus, according to Forster, “because the rhythm was uncongenial to him” (38). Aziz fantasizes about constructing his mosque, as well as a tomb inscribed with a Persian quatrain. Aziz considers the pathos of verse to be a profound philosophy because “he always held pathos to be profound” (38).

Aziz’s attitude toward the mosque is romantic in nature. He is very enthusiastic, and the sight of a mosque piques his interest. According to Forster, his response would have been completely different if he had been in a place of worship of a different religion. Muslims, according to Forster’s observation, are not rationalists and are sentimentally attached to their religion. They romanticize religion, and their responses are always tinged with emotions that their imagination conjures up.

In times of distress, Muslims seek refuge in a mosque. They elevate themselves by praying to Allah. The significance of a mosque to a Muslim in a country where they are a minority race is self-evident. It serves as a symbol of their identity, and they feel a sense of belonging to Muslim civilization as a whole. With hurt feelings, Aziz visits the mosque and discovers that he is connected to the source of his identity. By framing this discourse, Forster emphasizes the importance of mosques to the Muslim community, as well as how they contribute to their image and identity as Muslims.

The Muslim Past

Forster connects Indian Muslims’ nostalgia to their religious sentimentalism in a discursive way. Indian Muslims look back on their history with emotionalism rather than scepticism. Personal preferences and religious affiliation guide their selection criteria. When Adeela suggests that Aurangzeb should have been his favourite, Aziz responds, “In my opinion, Aurangzeb should have been his favourite” (P 142).

The last sentence demonstrates that Alamgir is the true Indian Muslim hero, while Aziz prefers Babur for personal reasons, believing himself to be as hospitable and sacrificial as Babur. Because of Babur’s sacrificial nature, he prefers him. Babur gives his life to save his son Humayun, who had become ill in Agra. Aziz despises Akbar because he sees him as “half-Hindu” (142).

The discussion of the Mughals demonstrates Indian Muslims’ fascination with their imperial past. “I always enjoy conversing about the Moguls,” Aziz says (142). This indicates his strong interest in Islamic history. The Muslim era in the subcontinent was a time of imperial glory. The Mughal Empire is a symbol of the social, political, and cultural splendour of Indian Muslims. Forster just makes brief references to the past; therefore this component isn't completely developed. The discursive practices of colonial discourse do not allow for a strong and completely developed representation of the past. As a result, Forster manages to hold the past glories at bay, leaving only a nostalgic link. In colonial discourse, the Chandrapore setting lacks any vestige of historical glory, which is usually denied to colonized people. In Ahmad Ali and Qurratulain Hayder, (1992). the picture of the Muslim past is thoroughly established, and the image of the colonized Muslims is built against the backdrop of the former greatness.




The Muslim Aesthetics 

A Passage to India highlights various facets of Muslim aesthetics that contribute to the colonized Muslims’ overall image. There are two types of Muslim aesthetics: Muslim architecture and Muslim poetry. The architectural reference is transitory, and it has a negative discursive influence.  Ronny tells Adela that she will spend the summer in Simla and the winter seeing “some of the Mughal stuff - how appalling if we let you miss the Taj!” (136). The term “Mughal stuff” is derogatory and conveys the impression that Mughal architecture is interesting but not sublime. Forster's discourse about Muslim culture is frequently toned down, and the cultural characteristics are not completely developed and understood. The colonizer's existence may be questioned by the cultural images, and their full manifestation may pose a danger to imperial dominance. 

Poetry is a passion for the colonized Muslims. This is the other most essential aspect of Muslim aesthetics. Forster depicts Aziz reciting Persian and Urdu poetry poems several times throughout the narrative. When he considers his death, he composes a Persian couplet that he believes should be engraved on his tomb.  He had discovered this quatrain “on the tomb of a Deccan king and regarded it as profound philosophy - he always held pathos to be profound” (38). Forster gives the impression that for the colonized Muslims, poetry is a state of mind.  Instead of comprehending, they “breathed” (35) poetry, “never stopping to analyze” it (35). 

Forster's interpretation of the sentiments of colonized Muslims toward poetry is a discursive act. By thinking that when religion is praised, Aziz becomes soft-hearted and recites “a poem by Ghalib,” the narrative voice constructs Aziz’s subjectivity (107). “It had no connection with anything that had gone before,” the narrator says, “but it came from his heart and spoke to theirs” (107). The narrator's assumption that the poem had no connection to the debate may be wrong since he is inexperienced with symbolic and metaphoric components of poetry. The narrator constructs a naive art philosophy that colonized Muslims agree with. As a Muslim, the researcher feels that Indian Muslims have never viewed and conceptualized art and poetry in this way.  “Pathos, they agreed, is the highest quality in art; a poem should touch the hearer with a sense of his own weakness and should institute some comparison between making and flowers” (107). This is a very rudimentary analysis of Muslim poetics. Discursively, the phrases “sense of his own weakness” (107) and “some comparison between mankind and flowers” (107) construct a trivial sense of art and poetry. The metaphors, images, and symbols of Urdu and Persian poetry are lost on Forster. As a result, he is unable to appreciate the colonized Muslims’ poetic indulgence. He interprets it as a passion for poetry

The overall impression is of an imaginative escape into a fictitious world of glory. The poetry transports the colonized Muslim into an illusionary bubble that bursts as soon as it comes face to face with reality. In this way, poetry becomes a source of dreadful inspiration for the colonized Muslim, who has no idea what the poet is saying or feeling. 

The narrative voice claims that most colonized Muslims are unable to comprehend poetry. They are simply inspired, and they take pleasure in the fact that these verses were written by a Muslim poet who shares their values. “Of poetry,” the narrator says. Others’ minds were crude and inferior. Nonetheless, they listened with delight because literature had not been separated from their culture” (108). The narrator constructs a discourse in which he claims that most colonized Muslims do not understand poetry because their minds are not developed enough to comprehend and appreciate it. As a result, Ghalib’s poetry and recitation are ineffective and have no lasting impact on the minds of poetry listeners. “The poem had done no ‘good’ to anyone, but it was a passing reminder, a breath from divine lips of beauty, a nightingale between the two worlds of dust,” says the author (108).

Conclusion

The preceding discussion shows that “A Passage to India” is imperial literature that builds Muslim identity stereotypes in colonized India. The novel marginalizes colonized Muslims as Colonial Others because it adheres to the colonial discourse's binarism. Despite his sympathy for colonized subjects and criticism of the colonial administration's mismanagement of the colony, E.M. Forster participates in patterns of imperial textuality for describing the colonized world. Forester provides a reductionist and clichéd portrayal of colonized Muslims and portrays colonized Muslims as dehumanized and marginalized. Indian Muslims who were colonized are seen as unsophisticated, illogical, romantic, nostalgic, and lethargic. Through the family partition of zanana and mardana in Muslim houses, this narrative constructs a caricature of women's isolation and marginalization. Muslims have a separatist attitude as a result of their isolation from both Hindus and Europeans who insist on their communal identity. They are constantly associated with Afghans, Turks, and Arabs. As a result, their separatism is linked to a historical sense of belonging to the Indian invaders. The most prominent caricature produced by colonized Indian Muslims is their obsession with religion. Muslims are portrayed as sentimental and irrational when it comes to religion. They always quote the Quran to support their positions, whether they are correct or incorrect. They excuse their actions by claiming that they are based on religious beliefs. The analysis reveals that colonized Indian Muslims are portrayed as doubly disadvantaged since, on the one hand, they are handled as Indian others and, on the other hand, they are approached as Muslim others. In comparison to the colonizers, who are the torchbearers of Western European culture, the colonial discourse paints a bad picture of the colonized Muslims. This othering of colonized Muslims has permeated western Muslim narratives. In his important work Covering Islam, Said (1981) brought it out, and the mentality is still common in western media coverage of the Muslim world in 2021. There are various counter-narratives that are produced to write back this stereotyping. Zahra (2013) has studied Ahmad Ali’s Twilight in Delhi and Qurratulain Hyder’s A River of Fire as a counter-discourse in comparison to A Passage to India. Forster’s stereotyping is, therefore, colonial and imperial discourse which reflects the west’s ideological construction of orient.

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