The Racial and Cultural Superiority of Colonizers Over the Colonized - Research Paper Example

RACISM Indeed the manifestations of racism are so heavy in the literature of colonial countries.The relationship between political and social realities and their fictional treatment in the writings of the era has been a subject of comment. The collision and fusion of national and domestic history throw into focus many themes such as racism, gender, secularism, the question of decency and morality in public life and so on. The western civilization has created a ‘we versus you ‘mind -set which delineated the cultural gap between the two societies. Several studies by scholars examined the various kinds of discrimination based on race, religion or gender in the literary works of both past and present as well as in the attitudes of the writers themselves. In some cases racism is the prominent theme while in other work s critics have revealed racist attitude that is seen as underlying assumptions, but may not be immediately evident to the reader. It is best to analyze the works, “A passage to India “by E M Foster, “Heart of Darkness “by Joseph Conrad and “Kim” by Rudyard Kipling, applying the historical and cultural conditions of the society in which they were produced. The works succeeded in depicting the relation between groups and classes of people that imperialism sets up and these works explore the contradiction within capitalism in a way that a similar piece of fiction set within one culture and dealing with characters from that culture alone cannot. Heart of Darkness is a fiction taken from the life of the conquest by the European whites, of a certain portion of Africa, an impression in particular of the civilizing methods of a great European trading company face to face with the negro. According to Robert F. Haugh, in Joseph Conrad, “The story was taken by some as an attack upon Belgian colonial methods in the Congo; as a moral tract; and as a study of race relationships.”1 Haugh goes on to say that, “Most contemporary reviewers read it as a criticism of Belgian colonialism, an issue that remained alive until Conrad’s death and got attention in his obituary notices.” Other reviewers interpreted the story in terms of Christian religious iconography. As Haugh explains, “Paul Wiley, in his Conrad’s Measure of Man ...finds the myth of the fall from innocence throughout Conrad, and ... makes of Kurtz the man driven from the Garden of Eden.”2 The book is more criticized on the basis of racism. In a lecture first given in 1975, entitled “An Image of Africa,” African novelist Chinua Achebe made the argument that, based on this story, “Joseph Conrad was a thoroughgoing racist.”3 Achebe argues that the story is structured on a common racist conception in Western thought, which perceives African people as uncivilized and white people as civilized, and that Conrad, rather than challenging racist conceptions, “chose the role of purveyor of comforting myths. ’Heart of Darkness’ projects the image of Africa as ’the other world,’ the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civilization, a place where man’s vaunted intelligence and refinement are finally mocked by triumphant bestiality.” Achebe goes on to explain that this story continues the racist conception that conceives“Africa as setting and backdrop which eliminates the African as human factor. Africa as a metaphysical battlefield devoid of all recognizable humanity. ...” Marlow’s reference to a decaying corpse is both literal and figurative: elephants and native Africans both die as a result of the white man’s pursuit of ivory, and the entire enterprise is rotten at the core. The cruelties and the greed are both part of a greater, timeless evil, yet they are petty in the scheme of the greater order of the natural world. Women characters are categorized into a separate group, serving as supplements to men’s actions, characters and behavior. All of them seem to live in the realm of their own, built on the idealistic conception of the surrounding world, governed by fair rules and laws. “Women...we must help them to stay in that beautiful world of their own, lest ours gets worse.”4 These words uttered by Marlow deny the quest into the Darkness for women – their role is limited to living in their own world because the might be too weak to face all the obstacles and temptations. E. M Foster’s A passage to India depicts colonial India before its liberation. Elements of race and gender play a major role in this novel also .The separation of the different cultures exists there through religious and spiritual differences. Foster consciously demonstrated The English as superior race and Indians below their own, and entirely unlike them. Ronny is depicted as a polished Christian British male. Ronny “approved of religion a long as it endorsed the National Anthem [of England]” (p 65).Dr. Aziz plays a role contrast that of Ronny. The Indian people are further represented in the Englishs eyes by the description of India itself. The city, presumably a mark of civilization, is a rotting, festering no English colonialist would consider urbane; “the city of Chandrapore represents nothing extraordinary. Edged rather than washed by the river Ganges, it trails for a couple of miles along the bank, scarcely distinguishable from the rubbish it deposits so freely... The streets are mean, the temples ineffective, and though a few fine houses exist they are hidden away in gardens or down alleys whose filth deters all by the invited guest. Chandrapore was never large or beautiful... nor was it ever democratic. The very wood seems made of mud, the inhabitants of mud moving... Houses do fall, people are drowned and left rotting... (p. 29).5   However, there are other themes that help to develop it as a whole.  One of those might be the idea of ambiguity in the social stratification offered in race and gender.  The novel does a very good job of depicting characters that are immersed in a great deal of doubt and questioning social structures, trying to find their own place in these settings as one tries to find their own presence in the darkness of the Marabar Caves.  To a large extent, each character realizes that, despite the socially carved out role for each on basis of race or gender, they still struggle to discover their own identity and understanding their own consciousness.  Each character, from Dr. Aziz to Mrs. Moore , Adela Ronny and Fielding, has to endure some level of question  Race and gender has helped to create this, but there is a greater level of ambiguity, in the structure and their identity.  Race and gender has helped to create this, but there is a greater level of ambiguity, complexity, and doubt that emerges in this process.  Racial tension is most clearly seen in the relationship between Dr. Aziz and Dr. Fielding. The relationship is seen as not being strong enough to avoid misunderstandings and racial tensions. This is a theme that runs through the whole novel, and even when the British colonizers attempt to bridge the gap, they often commit terrible faux pas. For example, Adela asks Dr. Aziz how many wives he has. When the Turtons throw a bridge party, it only serves to reinforce the divide between the Indians and colonizers. Turton, after Dr Azizs arrest, says to Fielding: "I have never known anything but disaster to result when English people and Indians attempt to be intimate socially." Throughout the novel the barriers to inter-racial friendship in a colonial context are explored, and personally experienced by Fielding and Aziz. “Your emotions never seem in proportion to their objects, Aziz.”“Is emotion a sack of potatoes, so much the pound, to be measured out? Am I a machine?”(Chapter 27). In A Passage to India, Lionel Trilling remarks, "the theme of separateness, of fences and barriers [is] everywhere dominant. The separation of race from race, sex from sex, culture from culture, even of man from himself, is what underlies every relationship”(p 151)6. While we examine Rudyard Kipling’s Kim, we can assure that the author tries to remind us that Kim is a white man... Kim is a thirteen-year-old boy of Irish heritage who has been orphaned in India and raised by an opium den keeper in the city of Lahore, amid the myriad cultures of India, (a poor white of the purest Chapter 1 page 49). Because of the ability he has developed to blend in seamlessly among many different cultures through language and his broad knowledge of customs, Kim is known to his acquaintances as ‘Friend ‘of the entire World. Kim contains many examples of the supposedly superior "white" English behaving like fools; for instance, the shallow and silly remarks the English soldiers make when they capture Kim (chapter. 5). Many of Kipling’s critics like Edward Said in his article “Kim: The Pleasures of Imperialism” (1987) and Richard Cronin in his article “The Indian English novel: Kim and Midnight’s Children” (1987) have attempted to re-open the question about cultural hybridity and hegemony in Kipling’s text.7 Kim was forced to balance between the natives and Whiteman. He had practiced it. But later he himself wanted to tear that mantle and search identity among the colonizer. He now remembers his father and his prophecy and carries his identity papers in a leather amulet case around his neck as a proof. Kipling’s characterization of Kim is much complex that he embodies absolute division between the white and nonwhite that existed in India .Thus Kipling exposes his imperialistic ideology. Kim also embodies such an attitude towards the British rule in India. . As a writer of the Victorian era, he did not want to be branded with the terms ‘racist’ or ‘imperialist’ but in the words of Edward Said, Kim is “a master work of imperialism…a rich and absolutely fascinating, but nevertheless profoundly embarrassing novel.” Another scene shows "Kims white blood setting him upon his feet" "where a native would have lain down" (Ch 3). Kim does not understand Sahibs and cannot relate to them until he has finished his training at St. Xaviers. After living with white people and learning their customs, Kim can understand the priests and Mahbub Alis assertion that "once a Sahib always a Sahib (Ch 5 and Ch 6). Yet, throughout the novel Kim rebels this labeling: "I do not want to be a Sahib" (Ch 6). To accept the priest and Mahbub Ali would mean his chameleon powers had vanished and he could no longer enter the nonwhite world. This is the key dilemma in the novel, and it is something Kipling never resolves in the end. How Kim assimilates his work for the British Government and his love for Indian culture is an issue Kipling either fears to face or neglects to perceive. The closest the novel approaches to addressing this issue is in Ch 7: "But I am to pray to Bibi Miriam, and I am a Sahib. He looked at his boots ruefully. No; I am Kim. This is the great world, and I am only Kim. Who is Kim? He considered his own identity, a thing he had never done before, till his head swam. He was one insignificant person in all this roaring whirl of India, going southward to he knew not what fate" (Ch 7).8 The racial, cultural, religious and civilization superiority of colonizers over the colonized were critically depicted in the above mentioned books. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1 Haugh ,F, Robert, Joseph Conrad, Discovery in Design (Norman University Press, Oklahoma ,1957)p 35 2 Wiley, L, Paul, Conrad’s Measure of Man (University Of Wilcosin,1954) 3 Achebe, Chinua, ‘An Image of Africa ‘ in Hopes and Impediments(London, Heinemann,1988)p 1 4 Conrad , Joseph, Heart of darkness (United kingdom, Blackwood Magazine, 1925 ) p 131 5 Foster E.M, A Passage To India (England, Edward Arnold, 1924)chapter 27 6 Trilling, Lionel, E M Foster, A Study ( Hogarth Press, London) p 151 7 Said, Edward, Kim, Culture and Imperialism (Vintage Books Edition,1994) p 132 8 Kipling , Rudyard , Kim (United Kingdom, Mac Million !901)chapter3,5,6,7 Read More