Conflict and Reconciliation Beween Orient and Occident in a Passage to India and a Passage to England

Abstract

E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India nourishes the facet of superiority and inferiority, self and other between occident and orient revealed in Orientalism. Through the character analysis and the development of the plot, the writer shows the conflicts of these senses. The novel narrates the colonial exercise-the English’s rule in India and the relationship between the Indians and the English. The perceived idea, misconception, and colonial politics prevail in the two races. The characters from the English and the Indians find the oriental concept a barrier in their integration for giving pre-eminence of everything occidental and representing the oriental as an inferior other. On the other hand, though Chaudhuri in his travelogue, A Passage to England rounds with a preconceived idea formulated by the west, he feels doubt to meet the west. But he feels home with the west after meeting them. The writer, through his experience, tries to find out the explanation of the west’s negative view on the East. The article tries to explore whether a proper reconciliation or harmony is possible in the conflict of orient and occident following thesis-antithesis-synthesis through the comparative analysis of these books.