Marketing Class Consciousness in A Passage to India: A Marxist Analysis

The present paper is aimed to analyze the novel A Passage to India from the Marxist perspective. For the analysis the major theoretical insights have been taken from Marxist critics including Luckas (1968) and Antonio Gramci (1988). The analysis is thematic in nature. Generally, we see that Marxist criticism takes in consideration that the capitalist society is divided into haves and haves not. Lucaks (1968) considers that Marxist ideology can be extended from mere class conflicts to the class and caste system, gender, and race also. Therefore, this analysis has been extended from the simple Marxist category of class conflicts to the exploitation of the underdeveloped and developed, colonizer and the colonized, religion as well. Gramcian model Marxist criticism considers ideology as superstructure and state apparatuses as discursive tools of exploitation. In relation to Marxist critique, we see that the relationship of both bourgeoisie and proletariat classes is parallel to the colonizer and colonized in imperialist conditions. At present Marxist criticism also includes the slavery as an outcome of socio and economic un-equality. Marxist criticism counts religion as a marker of raising class consciousness. It has been found in the study that as the English people and administrative were the men of resources in India. The English had exploited the Indians on account of being without resources. In the conclusion, A Passage to India as a piece of literature represents the ideological and class-based relations based on economic relations.

thought, a close examination of the consequences which result at the end, is an outstanding aura of empire in the Indian subcontinent.

Class Consciousness as a Construct of Political Landscapes
Although the novel A Passage to India is not any type of judicial understanding of the social and cultural values of India during the colonial rule of the British times yet it sensibly weighs the evidence on both British and Indian sides. So, we see that it has been taken two qualities of contradictory nature in it. The very first charge which is recounted against this novel is that it is some sort of archaic misrepresentation of British colonial perspective. Secondly, it is considered as misleading one. It has not properly represented Muslim canon of reality. At the same time this novel lacks Gandhi's perspective. (Herz, 1993) As a result of the class consciousness the novel attempts to view the concepts of class on account of differential economic relation at the same time presenting the landscapes of spirituality by the symbols of mosques, caves, and temples. In this way he simultaneously maintains the impact of both Indian and western intellectual and philosophical quest of class, gender and race among the colonizers and colonized. For the analysis of the novel along with above mentioned constructs, not merely the Western values and intellectual quest but Indian perspective of philosophical inquiry has been presented from the Marxist perspective. This attempts to analyze and attacks the human troubles including race, poverty, age, gender, social alienation and ethnicity' (Wagner, 1994)  By intensifying our consideration of a broader outline of geographical and cultural landscapes, we might bring it parallel the Marxist point of criticism. For example, Marxist critics consider landscapes as some sort of expressions which reveals disproportionate social and economic interaction and relations in the umbrella of capitalism', (Till, 2004). In this way till (2004) associates the Marxist perspective with political landscapes of inequality as well.
Therefore, all sort of landscapes including religious, cultural, and political nature are in conjunction in Marxist analysis. Another stance which has been developed by famous Marxist critics Nancy and James Duncan with the title post Structuralist Marxist lens of criticism take into consideration the landscapes as cultural texts which also communicate the political values and discourses. (Till, 2004).
Moreover, landscapes are considered as a parallel to the powers of the state (Cosgrove, 1992). There are also a lot of others who consider the national landscapes are founded on interests of the local elites as these landscapes aggravate the concept of nation. Furthermore, how do the people of some localities look themselves in relation to the other nations? (Olwig, 2002).
So, we see that landscapes define themselves as indicators of the prevailing social and cultural relations and political morals. In the same way, Foster's present novel takes the geographic and religious landscapes for example mosque, cave, and temple, all as some sort of wonderful natural outset of a given cultural context of a particular society. So, these exceptional cultural and religious landscapes evolve as representative of prevailing gender, race, class inequalities and spiritually constructed myths. Therefore because of these rational grounds, the novel A Passage to India can be taken from the perspective of cultural geography representing the concept of class consciousness inherently.

Data Analysis
Our major concern here is that in which perspective we take gender, class, and religion.
On these ground, Marxist criticism fallouts in two distinguished approaches. Both religious and political approaches take into consideration the landscapes and view that how did these landscapes can create the political spaces of different nature at different scales ranging from the local to that of the global and world systems, the microcosmic category to the macrocosmic order. As a matter of fact, landscapes themselves act as an ingredient of multifaceted processes by which different individuals and the members of different groups may define themselves accordingly and can make their claims and challenges towards a particular political authority as well' (Nash, 1999). So, we see that the novel of the present study displays an imperialist version of civilization. It represents an ideological category which holds a central position in Marxist criticism. The dominant political ideology prevalent in the novel is that western political system is superior to the Indian political system. Same is the case of western culture. The western culture is superior to the Indian culture. The religion of the westerns is superior to the Indians.

Race as Construct of Class Consciousness
In relation to Marxist criticism the model of class and race is essentially taken in two different ways which includes the concept of cultural and geographical analysis as well. The first one i.e., culture is taken as an approach towards life which is predominantly an artifact of the Western culture. The western culture has been considered as a culture of superior and civilized people. And the cultural values of the orient culture have been considered as relatively inferior to the western culture. This concept is not new in the western culture rather it is profoundly set in the colonial past of the European ideological constructs. So, we see that Marxist ideology divide race into the categories of Western and Eastern cultures.
In this novel Forster consciously employs contradictory races in array to reveal the concepts of disparity, inequality, and misconception between two classes of different orientations. But in doing so to it, he overtly presents the characters from Hindu, Muslim, and the English as representatives of such miscellaneous classes. So, the different characters which Foster has taken for his novel are basically the representative of different races. So, the novel through these characters embalms a situation of class consciousness. These characters are respectively (1) Godbole, a very mild and a mystical professor at the Government College (2) Aziz, as a very volatile and perceptive physician in a job by the British Civil Surgeon; and a display of Indians ranged from many Anglo officials like Colonel Turton, Major Callendar, and  element of failure because it was bound to be collapsed soon" (Das, 1977, 19-20).
So, the human race as a category of class consciousness is primarily divided among two distinguished and separate categories i.e., the colonizers and the colonized. Fanon (1963) contends his view as colonialism inherently is a product which divides this world into different discriminatory parts. In Indian context the society was divided into two classes' i.e., the colonizers and the colonized. Said (1978) in his seminal work is of the view that colonialism basically is all about to create the Europeanized stereotypical which may take the Orients as inferior and other in relation to the western world. Moreover, the west intrinsically is more tended to put down such people i.e., who is non-European. The Europeans also try to govern the others through the manipulative use of language and dissemination of knowledge. So, we see that the colonizers find themselves and the colonized ones on different social scales. Consequently, these colonized are scarcely treated equal the colonizers on equal human boards. Therefore, these colonized rapidly tend to be in the status of an object and treated as others (Memmi, 1974, 85-86 India. As, we had an idea that the ultimate agenda of the colonizers in India was to bring out the forefront the utter darkness of the colonized people' (Memmi, 1974). If we consider this novel from the perspective of Marxist criticism, we see that Foster seems successful in depicting the real situation of class consciousness in Indian context. Lukacs holds the view that class consciousness is not merely a peculiar situation in the society, or slightly, it is only apparent a situation which is portrayed in this novel.

Construct of Class as a Category of Exploitation
From cultural perspective the concept of class refers to the status, an occupation of a group, or the lifestyle of the members of that group. It also includes the patterns of production and consumption without paying a significant concentration to the questions related to ontology. The constructs of class are more exploitative in nature. The structured relations that a class usually inherits are lived and experienced ones. So, the concept of class includes the aspects of identity as well which are more regional and historical variables (Duncan & Legg, 2004, 253).
The construct of Class takes into consideration the cultural and geographical aspects as well. In novel, yet she never confirms and never denies the existence of a deity. She keeps on believing that these fundamentals of the transcendent world are still sufficient to meet her spiritual demands.
In A Passage to India overtly it has been represented those colonizers in India have had some sort of a mission that was justified by Christianity. If we take into consideration the religion as a parallel to the class, the religion of the whites' i.e., Christianity has been represented superior to the other religions of India. For example, Ronny considers that we (the white people) are not the sons of the soil rather some foreigners for India but the sole purpose of our presence in India is to provide justice and maintain the situation of peace in India. Further, he says we are not enjoying our lives in India in its occupation rather we are in great difficult situation. He considers that Indian Territory is not like drawing room for them. About himself Ronny says that I am merely a government official. However, we (The English people) are not feeling well in India. Similarly, we-The English-also have no intention in our mind to feel pleasant in India.
We are here on a mission. We are here to do something of great importance which is also divinely in nature. (pp. 51-52).
This passage clearly purports that the colonialists had some inherent objectives in their mind that these people are here on some divinely duty. While at the same time, these colonial masters wear some sort of masks to hide their identity as imperialist and occupiers.

Religion as Infusing Opium-a Category of Exploitation
As we know from the review of the Marxist criticism that religion has been considered a very important marker in the class division and exploitation as 'these [religions] hold a similar at position on human sense of curiosity' (Glacken, 1967: 35). According to Marxist perspective sacred places, in essence, are both locally and universally admitted, it cannot mere drive one to the other as divinely quest for power. It also drives someone from consciousness that the persona of God cannot be restricted around a solo locality (Lane, 1988, 15 "'There is no God but God, it is only a game with words, really a religious pun, not a religious truth" (307).
As the other objective of the present paper is the consideration of the philosophical practice of India, it is noteworthy to elucidate that Hinduism as well. It as a religion with followers more than one billion and as being third largest world religion after Islam and Christianity, includes in it many other various types of the sects, communities, ethnicities and classes like other religions of India. Traditionally, temples of Hindus are majorly the places of transcendence and divinity' (Michell, 1988). In this way E.M Foster incorporates all such elements which are considered as the symbol of good and evil in Hindu religion along with the essences of human life in India. Hindu's belief of rebirth (samara) determines the caste system as well. So, the course of rebirth which is named as reincarnation in Hindu mythology is without referential beginning and ending. The idea of One, Brahman as an Absolute Human Being finds expression in Hindu mythology as well. In this way one gets recognition with a broader Cosmo universal self i.e Brahman. Such kind of freedom is named as moksha. These major approaches take into consideration the problems of escaping and the endless cycles of life and death.

Conclusion
To conclude we can say that there is a noticeable class conflict on both theoretical and notional analysis to geography of belief and class consciousness which Marxist criticism suggests. Marxist critics consider that the economic inequality is an inherent structural pattern of capitalist societies. Similarly, cultural and geographical advance in the fictional texts Marxist perspective thus raising the category of class consciousness. Therefore, the major objective of this paper is to take into consideration the implication of spiritual landscape which reflects different modes of life and different circumstances of the people by taking into consideration the characters which are the representative of the colonizer and the colonized world.
So, this paper purports the idea of -race, gender, and class consciousness between the Caves are implied here systematically to each other in order to show a hierarchy of godly sort.
We see that the category of class conflicts is more extended to the exploitation of the underdeveloped and colonized, religion and race as well. In relation to Marxist critique the relationship of the bourgeoisie and proletariat is parallel to the colonizer and colonized. At present Marxist criticism also includes the slavery as an outcome of economic un-equality. It has been found in the study that as the English people and administrative were the men of resources in India, the exploited the Indians on account of being without resources. In the conclusion, A Passage to India as a piece of literature represents the ideological and class based relations on the basis of economic relations.