A Passage to India Themes

On one level, A Passage to India is an in-depth description of daily life in India under British rule. The British “Raj” (its colonial empire in India) lasted from 1858 to 1947. The prevailing attitude behind colonialism was that of the “white man’s burden” (in Rudyard Kipling’s phrase)—that it was the moral duty of Europeans to “civilize” other nations. Thus the British saw their colonial rule over India as being for the Indians’ own good…

Throughout the novel Forster uses the words “muddle” and “mystery” as distinctive terms to describe India. A “muddle” implies chaos and meaningless mess, while a “mystery” suggests something confusing but with an underlying purpose or mystical plan. On the English side, Fielding sees India as a muddle, though a sympathetic one, while Mrs. Moore and Adela approach the country with a sense of mystery. Forster himself often uses “orientalizing” terms to describe India, portraying it…

Ideas of division and unity are important in A Passage to India in both a social and spiritual sense. The social and cultural divisions between English and Indians are clear, but India itself is also internally divided. The phrase “a hundred Indias” is used several times to describe the “muddle” of the country, where Hindus and Muslims are divided against each other and even among themselves. The best hope Forster proposes for this chaotic division…

Many observations about race and culture in colonial India are threaded throughout the novel. A Passage to India is in some ways a sort of ethnography, or an examination of the customs of different cultures. On the English side, many cultural forces affect the characters. Ronny is naturally goodhearted and sympathetic, but his “public school mindset” and the influence of his English peers compel him to become hardened and unkind to Indians. The other English…