Almost An Ally, But Not Quite: Intersectionality and Insistence in Forster's A Passage To India

Abstract

In this paper I seek to analyse the events in A Passage to India by E. M. Forster to argue that it is impossible for a coloniser to develop a genuine friendship with his/her colonised counterpart. Using postcolonial theory, and particularly Homi K. Bhabha's concept of ‘mimicry,’ this paper demonstrates why the desperate attempt by the colonised to become friends with the coloniser fails. This is an effort to discover an answer to the question that the author poses in his novel. The author poses the query in one of the first chapters of the book. In this paper, I analyse the hypothesis that colonised people frequently strive to imitate the values and customs of their oppressors in an attempt to be seen as their actual allies, but fail miserably. This will be analysed by looking into the various points of intersectionality that are present throughout Forster’s novel.