The Indians’ Identity Crisis In A Passage To India

As one of the most renowned English novelists in the20thcentury,E. M. Forster has received a wealth of acclamation in the literary field.His widely interpreted novels are not only featured by realism, but alsoimbued with innovative elements of modernism. He has made significantcontributions to English literature at the turn of the20th century. Byanalyzing A Passage to India which is hailed as one of the mostoutstanding novels written by Forster, this thesis aims to interpret theissue of Indian identity crisis represented by the Westernized Moslemintellectual Aziz and the doubly marginalized Indian women. The issue ofidentity has been one of the hottest topics in the cultural field since1990s.People are often confronted with the identity crisis no matter they live inthe colonial period or the present day, in consequence of culturalhegemonism and the unbalanced development in the world. As the morepowerful culture has the tendency to regard and create the weak one as theinferior other, the people growing up in the weak culture are often plagued with marginalization and displacement of identity. Through analyzing theIndians’ identity crisis in A Passage to India, this thesis presents its causesand points out the channels of reconstructing their national identity andcultural identity, hoping it will awaken and enlighten the people today tofocus on such issue. It employs Postcolonial Criticism and uses themethod of exemplification in an attempt to explore the concrete evidencedisplayed on the Indian characters and the causes of the Indians’ identitycrisis. The conclusion could be drawn that it is the Western culturalhegemony and colonialism that result in the Indians’ identity crisis. Andthere are both internal impetus and external reasons for the Indians toestablish their cultural and national identity. Though the process ofreconstruction of identity is prevailed by difficulties and obstacles, thecolonized Indians can eventually attain their goal of politicalindependence and cultural rejuvenation in various ways.