'Prejudice is reasonable if it preserves culture' - To what extent is this the prevailing view in EM Forster's 'A Passage to India'

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“” How far do the views presented in ‘Our Country’s Good’ and ‘A Passage to India’ agree with this statement?

Culture is a word that is difficult to define as it is a transient notion; culture is constantly changing over time. Despite this, culture can be summarised as the shared values, practices and goals that characterise a group of people and give them a sense of belonging. In ‘Our Country’s Good’ and ‘A Passage to India’ there are examples of different cultures which clash.

The idea of exporting culture is one that is unlikely to prove fruitful, as culture is based on common ideas uniting a group of people. Attempting to take culture overseas ‘for the spread of civilisation, for the Christianising of the negro’ (Bax, 1896) was supposedly the main philanthropic aim of British colonialism, in addition to the exploitation of foreign resources to further strengthen Britain and gain vast wealth. The implicit sense of superiority found through the aims of colonialism is found in ‘Our Country’s Good’. Scene 3 opens with the empowered men ‘shooting birds’ whilst discussing that the land of Australia is bound by English law, this creates a distinct image of the English destroying indigenous species at the same time as strengthening their own power. Whilst they are discussing how they can further enforce their superiority and sense of justice onto the convicts, they show no respect for the new land and begin to destroy their surroundings in order to establish their own. This treatment of the indigenous animal population can be compared to the treatment of Aziz by Major Callendar in Chapter 2, as Aziz is plucked unwillingly from his environment and forced to offer his services unquestionably to Major Callendar. The comparison is drawn as the Englishman exerts his power onto his native subordinate, perhaps as a message, to constantly show the Indian population that the English determine their actions and are that they are the power they answer to.  Both these examples serve as evidence for the treatment of indigenous beings as fairly inconsequential, serving as a means to enforce superiority of culture. These actions create division; in ‘A Passage to India’ the English then appear to be unapproachable and heavy-handed, separate from the natives and filled with self-indulgence. This allows the English not to have to adapt to Indian culture, but to preserve the way of life they left behind in England.

Hamidullah Begum in chapter 2 of ‘A Passage to India’ refers to the difference in Englishmen in England and Englishmen in India, remarking friendship is ‘only possible in England’. There is inference to the way in which people change after living in India, they are turned by their own kind and become enveloped in the colonial way of life, maintaining what they perceive to be English culture. “I give any Englishman two years.... All are exactly alike.” The isolation of the English in India that is self-inflicted in order to maintain a sense of Englishness, as found in the club where only Englishmen are permitted entry. This isolation creates divisive barriers which cannot be transcended and unknowingly creates an aggressive form of English culture. This culture is completely non-progressive and whilst culture in England would progress, English culture in India would remain still. This is the preservation of the cultural identity that all of the English characters can identify with and by creating barriers formed from prejudices, this sense of Englishness can be maintained. The preservation of Englishness through the club and the prejudices which create barriers are formed as a reaction to the new culture which they have not previously experienced, forcing the English into their club which acts as a hermit-like shell. This is comparable to the rituals that Ralph Clark undertakes regularly before sleep. The ritual in which he reads a passage from the Bible and kisses his wife before bed is fairly irrational and is not necessarily something that he strongly believes in, but does as a reaction to the culture of sleeping with the convicts. The convicts he sees as “guilty” and inferior, he cannot envelop himself in this developing culture amongst the other officers, yet finds himself performing absurd rituals that allow him to cling onto the Englishness that would be found at home in England. Ralph seems defensive when springing up upon the entrance of Ketch, as though to hide what he is doing, showing self-awareness of the ridiculous nature of his ritual. This is perhaps a reflection upon the cultural dilemmas that colonialism creates, showing that clinging onto a sense of Englishness and creating divisive barriers formed from stereotypes such as “I’m not a convict, I don’t sin” without interpreting events in lieu of their circumstances, is not the best course of action and is ridiculous.

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Ralph Clark’s absolute sense of right and wrong, based upon what he deemed to be ‘sin’, was thrown into disarray by Ketch Freeman. Ketch shows the circumstances in which he was labelled as a criminal, which don’t correspond with an absolute sense of criminality, but are born out of circumstances that are misinterpreted. “I wasn’t even near the sailor that got killed... And I had hopes of making a good life here.” Ketch shows his perception of his own innocence to Ralph, by presenting a humane anecdote, in which his intentions and actions were misinterpreted and taken out of context, ...

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