Nature in a Passage to India

Nature is everywhere. This universal idea inspires many authors to emphasize nature’s role in the human world and to highlight how the human world affects nature. A Passage to India, written by E. M. Forster, does just that. In many instances throughout the book, Forster stresses human struggles and how these coexist with nature. While doing this, Forster also illustrates the resentment and friendship shared between the two ethnic groups in the novel.

He successfully demonstrates the cacophony of the colonial Indian and the discord felt between the English and Indians while also showing the harmony of some English and Indian people, all through the use of nature and it’s actions. The English interaction with the Indian people and culture is anything from kind. Historically, the English conquered India in 1858, through the use of excessive military strength. Although the English did not enslave the Indian people after this act, the entire population was subdued and forced to work for English gain.

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Understandably, this angered the Indian people and caused some resentment between the two groups. Forster is able to display this resentment through various uses of nature. He writes, “…the hot weather advanced, swelled like a monster at both ends, and left less and less room for the movements of mortals” (Chapter 22). This illustrates the restriction between the English and Indian people in the novel; it is a metaphor for what is happening. Aziz, an Indian doctor, and Adela Quested, a young English woman traveling to India, exemplify this very idea. She meets Aziz and together they travel to the Marabar Caves outside of the city.

Adela later accuses Aziz of sexual harassment in the caves, which leads to his arrest. The advancing storm, the English, is growing larger and larger, and more intrusive and meddling into Indian society, causing more and more problems. As more and more problems occur, less and less respect is given to the Indian population, constricting their lives under English rule. Secondly, Forster writes about the sky of India, “Throughout history, purple—whose hues can extend to deep crimson—has been the preferred color for royal robes and other emblems of monarchical or imperial power.

They looked out at the palisade of cactuses stabbing the purple throat of the sky; they realized that they were thousands of miles from any scenery that they understood” (Chapter 19). This further reveals the dissimilarity between English and the Indian styles of life as viewed from nature. The English people, in this instance Mrs. Moore and Adela Quested, are so sophisticated and refined, when compared to the Indians, that they are unable to appreciate the rugged beauty of the Indian sky.

They don’t appreciate what India has to offer as they are so used to England and refuse to change their views. A similar scene in which the Indian and English views of life and nature are contrasted is shown during the Bridge Party. The title Bridge Party is misleading, as, although it tries to tie the English and Indians together, it accomplishes almost nothing. The Indian and English guests remain largely separate and any interaction they have is short and uneventful. The Englishwomen judge the Indian women by what they wear and how they act.

The Indian women try to act like the Englishwomen by dressing like them, “European costume had lighted like a leprosy” (Chapter 5). Once again though, Forster uses nature to conclude the scene. He writes, “…and with an impartiality exceeding all, the sky, not deeply colored but translucent, poured light from its whole circumference” (Chapter 5). Forster uses the sky and nature as an overarching idea that although things may seem different, clothes or looks or ethnic background, everything is very similar and that life is impartial to these things.

He is trying to say that even though many things in India are different, Hindu or Muslim, English or Indian, man or woman, the sky is something that links them all; it holds all of India together as one. Forster also uses the nature of the setting to show the disharmony between the characters and groups in the book. He chooses a very ugly setting in which the differences between the two groups are very evident. “Chandrapore was never large or beautiful…” and “The very wood seems made of mud, the inhabitants of mud moving” (Chapter 1), both show how bad of a place Chandrapore is to be living.

The entire city is dirty and mucky and those who live in it, the Indians, aren’t any better. However, later in the same description, Forster writes, “On the second rise is laid out the little civil station, and viewed hence Chandrapore appears to be totally different place. It is a city of gardens” (Chapter 1), illustrating the English way of life in India. These two contrasting ideas, one of dull and dirty existence, the other of a clean and luxury life, are created through only nature and setting. Forster creates a sense of definite positions by using only these two things, and it helps to build up character later in the book.

Additionally Forster uses nature to explore various topics of interaction between the English and the Indian people. Nature is used to stress positive interactions, such as the full and lovely moon in the sky when Aziz and Adela first meet in the mosque. The full moon is a sign of brilliance and contentment and is very appropriate for that first meeting. Forster’s uses of nature to stress positive environments is also seen when the wasp brings together Mrs. Moore and Mr. Godbole. They both see the wasp as a connection religion and the wasp causes both of them to enrich their sense of religion and of God and his Creation.

The sky is also a point of nature that Forster references often, usually to bring together the two societies; making a positive social interaction. When describing the sky above Chandrapore he writes, “The sky settles everything-not only climates and seasons…but when the sky chooses, glory can rain into the Chandrapore bazaars or a benediction pass from horizon to horizon” (Chapter 1). He uses this all-encompassing sky idea to once again, show that even though sections of the city may be divided into societal areas, that everything is connected and interlacing.

Interaction will happen between the English and Indians regardless of any effort made to stop it, and this interaction will always end in a negative manner. However, with the sky idea, Forster introduces the fact that no matter what happens, nature will also bring everything back together and make everything right again. The final way that nature brings people together in a peaceful and positive manner is when a bee stings Ralph, Mrs. Moore’s son. He comes to see Aziz to get it treated and this causes Aziz to reconcile and to become friendly towards the English again.

The bee, a single and small object, found in nature, was able to convince Aziz that he was wrong with his thinking and that he should change his ways. Nature is also used in the novel to portray negative interactions between the English and Indian people. Before Aziz and Adela travel into the caves, the sky is used as a forewarning of what will happen. After a false dawn the sky appears, “The hues in the east decayed, the hills seemed dimmer though in fact better lit, and a profound disappointment entered with the morning reeze” (Chapter 24). The imagery of a pale sun against a pale and dull sky promotes the idea of mishap and misfortune to those who see it. Secondly, when the group is approaching the caves, by means of a train, “…the assemblage [the caves], ten in all, shifted a little as the train crept past them, as if observing its arrival” (Chapter 14). Forster portrays the caves as a menacing creature who is planning something evil in the future, foreshadowing what will happen while using, once again, the forces of nature.

The novel A Passage to India is rich with instances of nature and how it is used in the plot. Forster uses nature to bring together separate groups, but also to drive them apart. Nature is used to show the interaction between the English living in India and the native population of India, without presenting it in an odd method. It deeply enriches the novel and allows the reader to gain a deeper understanding of the social life in colonial India when the British ruled.

Citations:

Forster, E. M.. A Passage to India,. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co. , 19241952. Print.



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