『인도로 가는 길』에 나타난 식민주의적 인간관계

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to discuss some problems of human relations from the colonial perspective shown in A Passage to India (1924) by E. M. Forster. It discusses division including conflict and confusion that the figures experience in the colonial situation through the human relationship between the British, colonial rulers and Indians, subjects and it is never simple. Therefore, to establish true human relationships by person-to-person in division spread to various aspects, the method to overcome this division should be presented and it should be based on human understanding. In chapter Ⅱ, understanding the ideological background of the novel through the background and ideologies expressed throughout the novel. In chapter Ⅲ, racial conflicts of characters were handled with respect to psychological and cultural perspective. It was aimed to reveal that a narrow-mindedness and dichotomy of thought, with which colonial rulers ruled political situations, deepened foreign ethnic feelings and encouraged ethnical split and animosity, by focusing on an ethnic or cultural conflict between the English and Indians. Moreover, unique narration, description and images of Indian landscape which are shown in the work are also found to have colonial influences. In chapter Ⅳ, the intention of the author is to clarify the latent premise: 'possibility of harmony and balance of foreign people'. Forster stipulates a true effort between two parties who seek order in more tolerant and universal viewpoints, in the disordered and various worlds. In the conclusion, Forster intends to stress, while there is the potential to overcome, through 'tolerance and reconciliation', these difficulties suffer in the course of making the effort to understand the nature and universe of humans. Characters in this novel show the limits in overcoming foreign ethnic senses while not knowing principles of the nature and the universe without losing a sense of colonial ideology. A Passage to India was published when India was still a colony of England, in 1924, and dealt with a very sensitive issue which was enough to arouse criticism both socially and politically. Despite those conditions, Forster tried to objectively describe the colonial reality of India, focusing on the nature of colonialism. He shows that colonialism is not just for domination, oppression and ignoring the Orient by criticizing the British in the work. However, by just describing some impressions of Indians and India, Forster himself describes all of the properties of the Orient, it is shown that he was also not free from political reality, the British Empire and the prejudice of the West against the Orient.