E.M.

Forster
Biography
He was born into a comfortable London family in 1879. He lost his father when he was
very young and was raised by his mother and great-aunt. As soon as he graduated he
started travelling a lot, living in several countries and experiencing different cultures
and ways of living life. His first works such as A Room with a View and Howards
End already enlighten us about his very open-minded ideas as he criticizes the
prejudices and the class divisions of Edwardian England. He had a really close friend
that came from India and that pushed him to go and visit the country. His journeys in
India enabled him to discover another entire world that at the moment was completely
submitted to the British empire. During his journey Forster spent time with both
Englishmen and Indians during his visit, and he quickly found he preferred the
company of the latter. He was troubled by the racial oppression and deep cultural
misunderstandings that divided the Indian people and the British colonists. He was a
really sensitive person. In fact, he had the desire to overcome any social and racial
differences. That is because he had long experienced prejudice and misunderstanding
firsthand being homosexual. It is no surprise, then, that he felt sympathetic toward the
Indian side of the colonial argument. Indeed, Forster became a lifelong advocate for
tolerance and understanding among people of different social classes, races, and
backgrounds. This strong sensitivity is highly expressed also in his way of writing as
his style is marked by his sympathy for his characters, his ability to see more than one
side of an argument or story, and his fondness for simple, symbolic tales that neatly
encapsulate large-scale problems and conditions.

India
Homeland of many of the most ancient cultures and religions, India has always been
an extremely wide land with a great diversity and hence, many resources. Its been
always difficult for anyone to keep a stable control over a so large territory. In ancient
times some really strong and influential dynasties succeeded in this as the Guptas and
the Cholas. However these kingdom didnt last long because they werent centralized.
A great empire was the Moghuls one, that flourished in northern India in the 16 th
century, reaching its peak in the 17th century. As it started declining it caused a
vacuum into which the Europeans moved. The English East India was formed and it
lasted till the second part of 19th century. In these centuries England amongst all,
gained more and more influence and strength until in 1857 India became an English
colony. At this point it occurred a big cultural collision that caused effects that are still
ongoing nowadays. The British started considering India and its population as suffering
from a deep backwardness. They imposed their culture, changing the way people lived,
establishing an English-based education along with a new social and law system. These
changes brought along many misunderstandings and prejudices. The Indians themselves
started feeling subordinate to the British. E.M. Forster makes his way in this really complicate
atmosphere trying to analyze the causes and the effects provoked by this general behavior and
eventually affirming that was actually possible to build a bridge between these two cultures
and to find a matching point.