A Neocolonialist Take on Amitav Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines & E.M. Forster’s A Passage to India

Abstract

The article discusses the zealous idea of nationalism in A Passage to India and The Shadow Lines that can rewrite colonialism in a new mask. Thorough study has been done to analyze the ambivalent situations on the characters from the novels that have been through colonialism and partition. The researcher discusses the struggles of crossing the arbitrariness of borders and influence of cultural diversity in the light of the aforementioned novels from a neocolonialist view. Both of the novels depict the same aftermath of colonialism and struggle to identify themselves in the hazy idea of ‘nation’ which often ended up in homogenizing a heterogeneous community. Although, both of the novel is set in separate time zones- colonialism and after independence, the effect can be summed up from a neocolonialist perspective. That is why, infusing the idea of Edward Said´s orientalism, Fanon’s pitfalls of colonialism and Bhabha’s third space, the paper discusses how people carry the hegemonic idea of nationalism especially about the minorities in the society. The article is conducted using a qualitative research with textual analysis to support the argument of the study. It’s been found that the idea of nationalism- exclusion, othering and aggression, might create the spirit of independence but also lessens the tolerance. As a result, a neocolonial hybrid state emerges that often dehumanizes the minorities just how as some countries of the West treated the nonwhite people.