E. M. Forster’s Hidden Resistance and Elusiveness: Homosexual Desire and Non-Differentiation in A Passage to India Kyoko Matsui

Ⅰ As Richard Dellamore writes, Forster was “ marked by continual compromise and resistance” since E. M. Forster’s published narratives evasively encode the ideal of male love （ 97）. The tensions created in the narratives between the contradictory impulses to withhold and to disclose homosexual desire are one of the crucial reasons for his elusiveness. Throughout his life Forster kept secret his sexual orientation. In 1967 only three years before Forster’s death, the Sexual Offences Act was finally passed by the British parliament. It repealed the 1885 Act （ Labouchere Amendment） which had severely criminalized homosexuals by prosecutions and imprisonments. Under these circumstances, Forster’s homosexuality had to be kept clandestine, under peril of public disdain. Therefore, the theme of homosexual love was developed unceasingly in coded form throughout most of his published novels and stories, using symbols,1 choice of language and technique. He sought a plausible form to represent homosexual reverie in the heteronormative world. When this was impossible, he often resorted to mystification. Hence, his symbols and texts are replete with ambiguities. Although A Passage to India’s （ 1924） theme is not directly about homosexual relationships, it consistently refers to male friendship between the British Fielding and the Indian Aziz: “ Between people of distant climes there is always the possibility of romance” （ 241）. However, it takes a pessimistic view of such interracial romances, and more precisely, it suggests at the end of the text that at least at that time they were not yet possible. It is curious that PI describes the failure of male friendship and homosexual

－ 18 － relationships across the races, while the posthumously published Maurice （1971）, which was completed in 1914 before PI, advocates human contact between comrades and the significance of homosexual relationships across the classes. To understand the failure in PI, we need to elucidate the features of Forster’s narrative in PI, since the encoded male-to-male desire in his narrative vacillates between realistic and fantasy mode, yielding two layers: a surface plot and a subplot. From the 1990s onwards, some critics, inspired by queer theory, gained a new affirmative understanding of the text’s equivocality.2 However, almost at the same time, Forster’s established reputation as a liberal humanist writer became unstable, following the publication of some essays on Orientalism in PI. Robert Martin claims that Forster’s critics around that time, influenced by postcolonial and poststructuralist analyses, focused more on a “ text’s contradictions, exceptions, and inconsistencies.” These critics’ readings are “ a rejection of an idealized portrait of Forster the liberal” （ 22）. Edward Said’s critical reading of Orientalism in PI is that Forster regards India as “ so strange and unidentifiable” and “ his ［ Forster’s］ view of India as a nation contending for sovereignty with Britain is not politically very serious, or even respectful,” thus concluding that Forster saw India and Indians with imperialist eyes （ 200-04）. Moreover, Sara Suleri’s reading of PI proposes that the novel is associated with imperialism and is obsessed with “Otherness,” and concludes that Forster’s India is“ hollow”（ 109）. As these critics point out, the “ unidentifiable” aspects in the novel tempt the reader to search for meaning in elusive symbols such as the Marabar Caves and the Hindu Brahman Godbole’s chanting “ come, come, come.” The strange sound “ boum” of the echoes that characterise the Marabar Caves, Adela Quested’s hallucinations in the caves, the low-class Hindu punkah wallah’s influence in the court also seem elusive. The language of the text does not offer a secure anchorage for understanding. This elusiveness might make the text vulnerable to the above criticisms. One

－ 19 － of the purposes of this paper is to show that contrary to the negative interpretations of Said and other critics, the elusiveness has a constructive meaning which conveys Forster’s message hidden in the text. The new biography E. M. Forster: A New Life by Wendy Moffat was published in 2011, revealing new facts about Forster’s hidden life, in particular, between the 1920s and the 1950s. These facts are helpful in the investigation of Forster’s ideas hidden in the symbols in PI. Moffat unearthed his unpublished diaries written in 1903-1967 which were finally opened in 2008 to public view at the Archive at King’s College. The biography also includes invaluable first-time interviews with Forster’s friends and his biographers who were still alive and his correspondence kept in his friends’ archives.3 She argues that Forster had no regrets about being homosexual, and did not feel isolated; rather he was more radical than previously thought. Moffat points out that Forster fell in love with an Egyptian tram conductor Mohammed el Adl in Alexandria in 1916 and lost his virginity. She emphasizes that from this point onwards his life changed direction. As Forster wrote to his friend in England that he practiced “parting with Respectability” （ Moffat 148）. He went on to have intimate relationships with working-class men in London, where a gay subcultural world was thriving after the First World War. It was a time when police zeal in hunting out homosexual offenders was rapidly increasing （ Moffat 233, Weeks 2012, 307）, but in spite of the dangerous situation for homosexuals, homosexuality was a glue connecting Forster to working-class men（ Moffat 316）. Moffat’s new findings provide us with the more surprising fact that from the 1950s Forster carefully but energetically supported an embryonic homosexual liberation movement. British “ police agents provocateurs were sent out to entrap homosexuals,” and hostile police made a “ warrantless search” of homosexual men’s homes （ Moffat 306）.4 In these circumstances, in 1964 Forster stout-heartedly offered to testify in court for the defense

－ 20 － that his Bulgarian friend Mattei Radev （ 1927-2009）5 was of good character. Radev had been arrested for cottaging, that is anonymous sex between men in public lavatories （ Moffat 310）. He was a picture framer to the London galleries and Forster knew him because Radev socialized with members of the Bloomsbury Group（ Machin 2009）. In testifying, Forster would have run the risk of public exposure of his own homosexuality. According to Forster’s friend Tim Leggatt, “ Mattei Radev had been arrested ’without cause,’ beaten up by policemen in a police car” （ 151）. Taking another example, in 1959, “he[Forster] also wrote a letter to The Times protesting the treatment of a seventeen-year-old suspected of homosexual offenses, who committed suicide as he waited trial” （ Moffat 309）.6 Forster’s strong wish was to see the law on homosexuality reformed（ Moffat 308-10）. A look at the newly available documents through the lens of his sexuality elucidates the new fact that Forster resisted the governing social and political attitudes. Hitherto, examinations of Forster’s work have not yet taken on board the new view disclosed by Moffat. However, I argue that these findings as well as the fact that the number of prosecutions of homosexuals sharply increased after the Great War will give new hints for understanding PI. Considering Forster’s resistance against the dominant values, as described by Moffat, this paper will show an affirmative revaluation of the effects of Forster’s sexual identity on PI by employing a queer theory approach which has been derived from deconstruction from the 1990s onwards and has challenged normativity and the dominant cultural values. The purpose of the paper is to investigate how his homosexuality is integral to PI and how it affects his ideas by focusing on symbols in the text.

II In PI the omniscient narrator adopts a consistent attitude of ambiguity. We first need to clarify the equivocality in Forster’s use of the echoes in

－ 21 － the Marabar Caves. The echo in the Marabar Caves is, according to the narrator, “ entirely devoid of distinction” and “ Whatever is said, the same monotonous noise replies, and quivers up and down the walls until it is absorbed into the roof. ‘ Boum’ is the sound as far as the human alphabet can express it, or ‘ bou-oum’ or ‘ ou-boum’ . . . blowing of a nose, the squeak of a boot, all produce ‘ boum.’”（144）. The Marabar Caves seem to predate the logical distinctions which human speech has made possible. Generally if a sound echoes, it is heard again as repetition; however, mysteriously, in the Marabar Caves whatever words are spoken, only one sound “ boum” can be heard in the echo. No language is formed there. We must draw attention to a significant feature: the disappearance of language in the echo. If seen in conjunction with the social system and the forbidden desire for the interracial male romance in PI, the echo can be considered as an impulse to turn away from a language system and to go beyond speech. A language system, in other words, represents the society or the establishment. Interestingly, an echo is also used in “ The Life to Come” in Forster’s posthumous collection, The Life to Come and Other Stories （ 1972）. The story’s theme is same-sex racial integration. It was written two years before the publication of PI. It asserts that interracial homosexual love is related to “a midnight cry,” （ 94） that is not heard in the daytime. The cry is heard deep in the forest, a closed space like the Marabar Caves.

Love had been born somewhere in the forest, ［ . . .］. Trivial or immortal, it had been born to two human bodies as a midnight cry. Impossible to tell whence the cry had come, so dark was the forest. Or into what worlds it would echo, so vast was the forest. （ “The Life to Come” 94 emphasis added）

Owing to their male-to-male love, the two main male characters ─ an

－ 22 － English missionary and an African prince ─ must operate outside the social norms. In particular, they must escape from the constraints of language which is the foremost power of society, in order to accept their sexual idiosyncrasy. A strong desire to cling to ‘ echo’ and ‘ cry,’ as something transcending the world of language on which human society is based, is at least partly related to homosexual desire in Forster’s imagery. Importantly, language marginalizes certain groups of people and forces them to be silent. When people recoup their true consciousness about what they really are, they do not accept the power of language. When the homosexual expresses himself, he ought to go beyond the oppressive system of language. The lack of language related to homosexuality in PI reminds us of Michel Foucault’s approach to understanding the relationships between sex, sexuality, and power. The application of Foucault’s analysis of power relationships in society to the disappearance of language in PI will make clearer Forster’s conception of the negation of language. Foucault writes that nothing but words indicate “ a set of values and rules of action that are recommended to individuals through the intermediary of various prescriptive agencies such as the family （ in one of its roles）, educational institutions, churches, and so forth”（The Use of Pleasure 25）. Foucault reiterates “silence was imposed” and introduces the notion that homosexual persons were repressed, and that the repression operated as “ an injunction to silence,”“ an affirmation of nonexistence.” Society’s attitude was that homosexuals had no right to exist; there was by “ implication, an admission that there was nothing to say about such things, nothing to see, and nothing to know”（The History of Sexuality 4）. Furthermore, Foucault’s criticism of Christian tradition sheds light on the non-existence of Christianity in the Caves. Foucault most sharply reproaches the Church as an intermediary of various prescriptive agencies that governed ‘ morality,’ or ‘ heteronormativity.’ He notes that Christian tradition imposed a set of values:

－ 23 － . . . . a certain association of sexual activity with evil, along with the rule of procreative monogamy, a condemnation of relations between individuals of the same sex, and glorification of self-restraint. （The Use of Pleasure 15）

The same rejection of Christianity’s view of sexuality can be seen in PI. In PI Christianity is referred to with contempt as “ poor little talkative Christianity” and it “ only amounted to ‘ boum’”（146）. Namely, Christianity disappears into the echoes. Thus Forster’s negation of language symbolises both the harsh environment for homosexuals and the impulse to be emancipated from the system of language. By erasing language, the Marabar Caves aspire to destroy the sexual imperialism which designates homosexuals as“ others”. Next, with the significant aspect of the denial of language in mind, let us observe a silent half-naked native punkah wallah in the courtroom. Before the trial starts, to save Aziz from the false charge of rape, Fielding, who believes Aziz is innocent and stands by his side, attempts to dissuade the District Superintendent of Police McBryde from presenting the case for the prosecution. When McBryde shows Fielding a letter written by Aziz, that states he is going to visit a brothel, as evidence to prove Aziz’s sexual depravity, Fielding instantly asserts that “ I did the same thing at his age” （162）. The Anglo-Indian legal proceedings could convict an Indian of a sexual crime without solid proof, only because he belonged to one of the “darker races” that “ are physically attracted by the fairer”（202）. PI succinctly describes the British colonists’ discourse of rape, producing a fixation on racial difference that profits the Raj. What saved Aziz was not Fielding’s efforts, but Adela’s brave withdrawal of the accusations against him. The point to observe is that the withdrawal is inspired by the silent punkah wallah wafting a soft wind to her by his manual work of fanning, and importantly it is not by his words（ 209）.7 He seems to endow her with

－ 24 － mysterious power. It is noteworthy that Fielding’s support for Aziz is not effective enough to invalidate the accusations against Aziz. The low caste punkah wallah, who is harshly marginalized in society, is never affected by the clattering outside world. Adela seems to be spellbound by the dignity of the man, which transcends language or social order. Then at last she withdraws her accusation against Aziz. “ Something in his aloofness impressed the girl from middle-class England, and rebuked the narrowness of her sufferings” （ 201）. Forster’s familiar juxtaposition of sexual repression versus sexual liberty, or the cold middle class versus the passionate lower class is apparent. The Indian’s beauty, “ the beautiful naked god” （ 211）, is equivalent to that of Gino Carella in Where Angels Fear to Tread （ 1905） and Steven Wonham in The Longest Journey （ 1907）. Sharp demonstrates that “ an English woman and an untouchable man are complicit in exposing the racist tenets of colonialism” （ 132）. We should notice that the contribution the silent punkah wallah makes to save Aziz indicates a resistance against the dominant system of norms that sustains both the heterosexual world and colonialism.

III In PI, it is not a homosexual man who hears the echoes, but a woman who is engaged to an inflexible civil servant. However, she bravely chooses the life of a single and career-oriented woman. Just before entering the caves, Adela occupies her mind with her impending marriage to her fiancé Ronny Heaslop; “ thinking with half her mind ‘ Sightseeing bores me’ and wondering with the other half about marriage”（149）. While she feels no love or sexual passion for him, she is haunted by a sexual phantom in the caves, and her sudden desire draws her away from her predetermined fate as a wife in the imperialistic system of the Raj. Before her visit to Marabar Caves, Adela had pondered “ Well, by marrying Mr. Heaslop I shall become what is known as an Anglo-Indian”（143）. Her panic in the caves leads her

－ 25 － to an awareness of her body, and to success in achieving self-recognition. She realizes her own limitations in marriage by telling Heaslop that she is “not fit for personal relationships”（185）. The echoes in the Marabar Caves save her from becoming an assistant to British Imperialism and from a loveless marriage which could only bring her unhappiness. Hence, it is wrong to consider her as only a victim of the hallucinatory echoes. The fact that Adela breaks off her engagement with Heaslop highlights her refusal to conform to the values of British middle class women in the Raj, in particular that it was beneficial to marry a sahib. From the middle of the 19th century, civil servants in India were regarded as ‘ ideal husbands’ for British middle class women. The main reason was that they were totally disencumbered from any anxieties related to money. The salary of civil servants in the subcontinent was extraordinarily high, compared with that of civil servants in Britain （ Honda 81-82）. Cunning and practical British mothers, on contemplating their daughter’s future, used to say that a civil servant in India was worth as much as 300 pounds a year, whether he was alive or not. This claim was based on the fact that on the death of a civil servant, a uniform 300 pound pension was provided annually to the bereaved spouse（ Honda 140-42）. Adela’s words endorse her solid confidence about her new life as a single woman: “‘ . . . . I am not astray in England. I fit in there . . . I shall settle down to some career . . . . I shall be quite all right’”（ 237-38）. It is true that in the traumatic aftermath of the Great War, there was a burgeoning women’s employment market in Britain due to the social and political change in middle class women’s private lives （ Shepherd 16）. Adela uses the words “ some career,” rather than ‘ job.’ She may have in mind a career in a bank or a finance house or in the civil service. In fact, there was seven or eight times increase in the numbers of women employed in these areas during the war （ Thom 319）. Nonetheless, the historian Arthur Marwick claims that in the 1920s Britain “ prejudice, of course, remained”

－ 26 － against single women with a career and “ the ambition of the vast majority of women to be wife and mother” was still strong （ 163）. Adela will set herself against the mainstream, along with the homosexuals who are also outsiders. Through Adela, Forster’s symbol of the mysterious Marabar Caves is linked to female independence and emancipation. Hence, as the power of the echoes in the caves successfully encourages Adela to break off her engagement, the echoes indicate a desire to overturn the heterosexual relations that upheld the social values. Mrs. Moore bitterly comments on marriage as follows: “ Why all this marriage, marriage? . . . the human race would have become a single person centuries ago if marriage was any use. . . .” and then she speaks for Forster, “ . . . love in church, love in a cave, as if there is the least difference, . . .” （ 189）. Here “love in church” indicates heterosexual love admitted by society while “ love in a cave” suggests homosexual love spurned by society. The echoes try to destroy the dichotomy between heterosexuality and homosexuality, but more importantly, the kernel of the message is non-differentiation, rather than the overturning of an antithetical world, or to judge rigidly what is right and wrong. Mrs. Moore notices what the echo murmurs: “ it[the echo] had managed to murmur:‘ Pathos, piety, courage ─ they exist, but are identical, and so is filth. Everything exists, nothing has value.’ If one had spoken vileness in that place, or quoted lofty poetry, the comment would have been the same ─ ‘ ou-boum’”（146）. Even if the phrase “ Everything exists, nothing has value” sounds negative, we must remember that values are given by human beings. The natural world, as represented by the echoes in the caves, is indifferent to human values. Unlike nature, human beings cannot ignore differentiation, but Forster dreams for non-differentiation. He considers that the conflict between heterosexuality and homosexuality is human choice. The view of non-differentiation stems from Forster’s appeal for the inclusion of homosexuals in society. Forster supports non- differentiation, which with its scope of inclusiveness, threatens the centre of

－ 27 － heteronormative society. Considering both Adela’s acceptance of the influence of a lower caste Indian man as discussed in section II and the echoes’ effect on Adela’s independence, we notice the philosophy of non- differentiation broadens to undermine the dominant discourses and social barriers: colonizer and colonized, masculine and feminine.

IV Taking into consideration the essential features of the echoes discussed above, we realize that another unknowable element of language, the voice “come!” in the Godbole’s prayer is linked with the echoes. Godbole explains: “‘ I say to Shri Krishna: . . . , Come, come, come, come, come, come,’ but it is in vain since ‘ He neglects to come’” （ 87）. Suleri asserts on this point that “ The structure of the novel images this neglect through its emblematic representation of empty institutions,” that is, she concludes that Forster’s India is “ neat architecture of this lack” （ 107）. Does Forster, as she claims, create an inextricable ‘ otherness’ in the experience of and confrontation with a non-European culture? Godbole’s chant “ come, . . . ” seems to be equivalent to the Maha- Mantra in which the same words are repeated:“ Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama, Hare Hare.” It is said that by repeating this mantra with devotion and faith, one can attain salvation and peace of mind.8 In the Bhagwat Purana, Krishna is the cowherd god, who charms the milkmaids with his sexuality as well as songs and dances. The mixture of mind and body is shown in the story. It is possible that Forster chooses the simple English word “ come” instead of the original repetitive phrase “ Hare Krishna” in order to refer to the fusion of mind and body. Godbole’s chant of ‘ come!’ is clearly reminiscent of Maurice’s repeated cry“ Come!” in the scenes of his invocation in Maurice. Maurice is pictured leaning out of the window at Penge, and crying “ Come!” to the woods

－ 28 － outstretched before him.9

. . . “ Come!” he cried suddenly, surprisingly himself. Whom had he called? He had been thinking of nothing and the word had leapt out. （M 176 emphasis added）.

Some sudden impulse stirred Maurice when he cries “ Come!” He finally feels that he should face the reality of his homosexuality and should not be affected by Clive, who fears homosexuality and has opted for the safety of a heterosexual marriage. A few days later, yearning for the love of gamekeeper Alec, Maurice flings open the window and then cries “ Come!” towards the woods again. His voice is heard in the woods that represent the infinitude of “ spaces no science could reach, but they existed for ever”（M 191）. Alec, in response to the resonant call, climbs through Maurice’s window and answers;‘ Sir, I know . . . ,’ and touched him”（M 192）.10 I will now investigate thoroughly the reason why Forster selected the word “ come” in both PI and Maurice. This question has not yet received sufficient attention. In Forster’s “ Terminal Note”（1960） to Maurice, he certified that the novel was“ the direct result of a visit to Edward Carpenter at Millthorpe.” Carpenter, whom Forster admired, shared with him the same philosophy: individual freedom and comradeship. Carpenter’s esteem for and indebtedness to Walt Whitman never ceased throughout his life and he was greatly inspired by Whitman’s vision of comradeship. By comradeship, Whitman meant the ideal democratic male friendship including love of free and equal homosexual men. Whitman employed the word “ comradeship” in order to avoid public scrutiny. Furthermore, according to Eve K. Sedgwick, late nineteenth century homosexual men in Britain were powerfully united in their support of Whitman （ 205-06）. The fact that Forster took the title of PI from Whitman’s poem “ Passage to India”（1871） in Leaves of Grass （1855） shows his support for Whitman’s ideas.11 Whitman’s epigraph to

－ 29 － Leaves of Grass is: “ Come, said my Soul, / Such verses for my Body let us write, （ for we are one）/ . . . ” It is an evocation of the union of soul and body in which he expresses the joy he feels through his senses. This scope elevated male sexual relationships and eliminated any associated guilt. Similarly, Carpenter uses the term ‘ come’ in Towards Democracy （ 1883） many times in different poems echoing Whitmanesque precepts. In one poem Carpenter writes“ Come! I too call you. I too have looked in your eyes . . .” （XVIII 33 Towards Democracy）. Carpenter asserts in My Days and Dreams （1916） that his first reading of Whitman’s poetry had a huge impact on him: “ I read Whitman ─ and then with a great leap of joy ─ that I met with the treatment of sex which accorded with my own sentiments”（30）. In Carpenter’s poem titled “ I Heard the Voice of the Woods,” the woods speak to a poet, calling “ Come.” The Woods are personified as a same-sex lover who beckons his friends to come closer to him.

I heard the voice of the woods and of the grass growing silently and of the delicate bending ferns, And it said; For the dumb and for the generations of them that have no voice my speech is ─ For them too help comes...... Come unto me, O yearning and inarticulate（ for whom so many ages I have waited）, Breathing your lives out like a long unuttered prayer, Come unto me: and I will give you rest...... Come, walk with me: On the soft moss ─ though you guess not my arm is about you ─ . . . . .（ Towards Democracy 154-56 emphasis added）.

－ 30 － Through the intertextual observations, the word “ come” is interpreted as an appeal to a male friend and as a call to overcome existing norms of behaviour. “Come” is answered in Maurice, but it is not answered in PI. The inter-racial friendship between Aziz and Fielding is not established at the end despite the patient longing for male-male love throughout the text. Aziz’s bitter experience of imprisonment by the imperialists and his plight of belonging to the “ weaker race” unite in his recognition of the need to protest against the evil of discrimination. The philosophy of non- differentiation is very pronounced in Aziz’s thoughts and acts. For instance, in spite of being Muslim, he relocates to the Hindu State of Mau, and writes poems about “ oriental womanhood: ‘ The purdah must go’ . . . otherwise we shall never be free”（265）. Aziz also writes a poem about India which is praised by the Hindu professor Godbole, who asks his permission to translate it into Hindi （ 266）. It is also noteworthy that from the 1910s to the early 1920s, the period in which PI is set, the majority of Muslims supported the Muslim separatist movement, whose goal was the separation of Muslims and Hindus. They opposed the nationalism of the Hindus. Moreover, they did not follow Mahatma Gandhi, who worked towards peace between Hindus and Muslims and campaigned for an independent India without partition. Notwithstanding being Muslim,12 Aziz blurs the differences: Hindus vs. Muslim, and men vs. women. Aziz hopes for an independent India, calling on the British to leave India:“ Clear out, . . . I say. Why are we put to so much suffering?”（288） Whereas Fielding resorts to badinage with him: “ Away from us, Indians go to seed at once”（288）. Fielding’s Orientalist standpoint is apparent. Aziz is in a poignant situation in that he wants friendship, but as a colonized Indian, it is impossible to cross the racial divide. Aziz’s painful awareness of social reality echoes Forster’s own position as a homosexual. However, more importantly, Forster describes not only Aziz’s pain but also his hostility

－ 31 － towards the British Empire and his resistance to colonialism. PI links “inferior race” and homosexuals as the downtrodden “ others” in a dominating society. Aziz’s resolution to continue his resistance against the colonial power echoes Forster’s resistance against the British governing political state. PI indicates how individual personal relationships are clouded and interrupted by formidable political and social factors. In Forster’s works prior to PI, if things are not progressing well, it was usually the fault of individuals. Take the example of Maurice, Forster asserts the importance of personal relationships between homosexuals as well as liberated hearts, and romantic individual self-realization as a homosexual man. As a result, he sends the two male lovers to a utopian greenwood, optimistically hoping their unchanging union sustained by equality between them will overcome all difficulties.

V Why is PI, written ten years after Maurice, much less optimistic about the future of homosexuals? In Britain under the 1885 Act, so called homosexual acts of gross indecency between men were criminalised. Oscar Wilde’s trail in 1895 contributed towards a panic about this taboo subject, but finally in 1967 a new law, the Sexual Offences Act, decriminalized homosexual acts（ consensual sex between men over 21 years old） in private. Many people assume that from the Victorian age until the milestone year 1967, conditions gradually improved for homosexuals. However, this assumption is far from the truth. In Britain there was a severe nationwide crackdown by police after the First World War, which led to an enormous rise in the number of homosexuals who were arrested and prosecuted. Between the First World War and the middle of the 1950s the numbers skyrocketed. Most of those found guilty were sentenced to jail （ Graph 1）.13 According to Graph 2,14 the number of prosecutions for male homosexual

－ 32 － offences almost doubled from 143 cases in 1914, when Forster finished writing Maurice, to 265 cases in 1924 when he completed PI. From 1898 until 1919 there was almost no rise: the number of prosecutions plateaued at about 100 cases per year. From the year 1922 onwards the numbers increased sharply year on year. The years when Forster was writing PI saw a new authoritarian disrupting homosexual lives in Britain. This new harsh phase was not anticipated at the time when he completed Maurice. Jeffery Weeks underlines that “ a ‘ sexual revolution’ in the 1910s and 1920s” was “ followed by a ‘ backlash’” because the political world at that time was dominated by its more conservative elements （ Weeks 1985, 199）. Similarly, Kate Millett articulates that “ the first phase of the sexual revolution, like a moving object arrested mid-course, could not proceed even to the expenditure of its initial momentum”（ 63）. The 1910s were an era of sexual revolution. A major organization calling for sex reform, The British Society for the Study of Sex Psychology, was established in 1914 with Carpenter as the first president. The organization helped “ to shape the field of sex psychology as one of prime significance for social reformers, and in debating the particular topic of homosexuality.” In addition, “ its membership and support was wide among progressive intellectuals.” It is not well known, but in fact Forster was a member, together with Bernard Shaw, Radclyffe Hall, and Bertrand Russell （ Weeks 1985, 183-84）. The organization had regular meetings; nevertheless, in the aftermath of the First World War, due to the British government’s authoritarian stance, it did not have any obvious influence on government policy （ Weeks 1985, 184）. Kollman and Waites conclude that the British state remained comparatively centralized and only elected politicians and civil servants could influence the decision-making process, while contributions from social organizations and movements were rejected （ 184）. In his “ Terminal Note” to Maurice in 1960, Forster referred to the difficulties of persuading the British parliament to reform the laws on homosexuality, and to stop “ police prosecutions” of homosexuals. We can

－ 33 － perceive his grief and anger against the intolerant British government and the status quo that showed no sign of progress.

We had not realized that what the public really loathes in homosexuality is not the thing itself but having to think about it. . . . Unfortunately it can only be legalized by Parliament, and Members of Parliament. . . . Consequently the Wolfenden recommendations will be indefinitely rejected, police prosecutions will continue. . .（ M 255）

Good cannot be dealt with in isolation from the evil of society. After the First World War it became apparent that individual relationships and actions were too weak to bring about change when faced with an intolerant society. PI, which is his only novel completed and published after the First Word War, reflects most strongly, compared with all the other novels, Forster’s opposition to the illiberal British policy. As discussed above, Forster’s attitude towards reforming the law on homosexuality was made apparent for the first time in the biography by Moffat. This new knowledge endorses the view that in PI the encounter of the white colonizer with the brown skinned colonized man is, in fact, a projection of the confrontations in the 1920s between an intolerant British society and the marginalized homosexuals who demanded emancipation. As indicated in Section I, Moffat’s description of his actions, particularly from the 1950’s onwards, shows that Forster was an unknown hero working behind the scenes in support of homosexual liberation. We may reasonably conclude that his last novel PI shows clear signs of Forster’s new public attitudes. At the same time PI challenges British colonialism and seeks solutions for the separation of races and religions and for the divisions between the sexes. We cannot deny Forster’s India is combined with his dream of homosexual love. This makes Forster vulnerable to the accusation of homosexual Orientalism, but it is not the “ other” nor does Forster adopt

－ 34 － Oriental discourse in the text. For example, the cryptic India’s caves, echoes, and punkah wallah are never subordinated to Western concepts. Moreover, they convey the idealistic message of non-differentiation. At the end Aziz looks to the future, anticipating his country’s independence, and likewise, Forster looked to the future, thinking Indian Independence was necessary and hoping for a homosexual liberation that would remove the dichotomy between heterosexuality and homosexuality, and lead to a better and more equal world for all human beings.

This is an expanded version of my paper delivered at The Seventh Asian Conference on Libr Asia 2017 of The International Academic Forum on 1 April, 2017, at Art Center Kobe, Kobe, Japan.

Notes 1 As Oxford English Dictionary explains, a symbol is “ a thing that represents or stands for something else, especially a material object representing something abstract.” Symbols can be universal or private. Symbols created by Forster are mostly private symbols. Water, for instance, is a universal symbol of life or energy, but Forster often employs it as a symbol of homosexual love, because it is linked with men’s bathing. 2 Gregory W. Bredbeck, for instance, argues that Forster, under the influence of Edward Carpenter, wished to overcome the attitude that ‘East is East and West is West’. An essay by Jenny Shape analyses the gender politics of the rape of the white woman in PI, to prove that the text criticizes British imperialism. 3 Many of her new findings came from the archives of Forster’s friends, including the homosexual writer J.R. Ackerley （ 1896-1967） and the homosexual novelist William Plomer（ 1903-1973）. 4 See Daily Mail Online News Article “ Lord Montagu on the Court Case

－ 35 － Which Ended the Legal Persecution of Homosexuals” on 17 July 2007. “As many as 1,000 men were locked up in Britain’s prisons every year amid a widespread police clampdown on homosexual offences. Undercover officers acting as ‘ agents provocateurs’ would pose as gay men soliciting in public places. The prevailing mood was one of barely concealed paranoia.” 5 In 2011 it was revealed that Radev had been a collector of works by great artists including Vanessa Bell, Eugene Boudin, Duncan Grant, Amadeo Modigliani, and Pablo Picasso. Eddy Sackville West （ a cousin of Vita Sackville West）, who died in 1965, left his art collection to his friend, Eardley Knollys, who was an English artist of the Bloomsbury Group, art critic, and art collector. On Knollys’s death in 1991 the collection was given to Radev. The selected paintings were displayed in Britain between 2011 and 2013. See Clive Jennings, “ Loves and Lives of the Men Who Built the Radev Collection.” 6 During the trial of Radclyffe Hall’s The Well of Loneliness, in 1928 Forster published an article “ The New Censorship” that supported the novel. He did not directly mention its lesbianism, but only underlined the significance of not halting “ the creative impulses”（696）. In 1929 Forster published another article “ The Censorship” in which he states that “ I do not see why writers who desire to treat it[homosexuality] should be debarred from doing so ─ always providing that there is nothing pornographic in their treatment,” pretending he was a decent heterosexual person（ 445）. 7 Jenny Sharp points out that Adela’s refusal of the rape charge “ is contingent upon her catching sight of an untouchable man”（132）. 8 See His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada 5-6. The word“ Hare” means the supreme energy of the Lord. Krishna and Rama are both avatars of Lord Mahavishnu. By chanting the mantra, the energy of the Lord helps us to reach the Lord, and “ we can cleanse

－ 36 － away all misgivings within our hearts.” 9. Antony Copley writes the cry of Maurice is “ echoed in Godbole’s summons to Krishna, “ come, come, come” except, of course that Scudder does climb through the window whereas Krishna refuses to come”（172）. 10 Similarly, the virile cry of “ Come” referring to same sex love is also deployed in The Longest Journey. Stephen speaks to Rickie: “‘ Come with me as a man,’ . . . . It’s common sense that you should come.”“ ‘Come, I do mean it. Come . . . ”（257）. 11 See“ Three Countries”（1959） in The Hill of Devi. 298. 12 Frances B. Singh, for instance, writes “ . . . the choice of a Muslim who develops like Aziz is all the more significant” for Forster’s view （275）. 13 This graph is made using the data in Table 2 Sexual offences recorded by the police 1898-2001/02, by Gavin Berman and Grahame Danby （53-54）. Graph 1. Sexual Offences Recorded by the Police 1898-1965

Indecent assaults on males Indecency between males 4000

3500

3000

2500

2000

1500

1000

500

0 1898 1900 1902 1904 1906 1908 1910 1912 1914 1916 1918 1920 1922 1924 1926 1928 1930 1932 1934 1936 1938 1940 1942 1944 1946 1948 1950 1952 1954 1956 1958 1960 1962 1964

This graph is made by using the data in Table 2 Sexual offences recorded by the police 1898-2001/02, p.53 -54 by Gavin Berman and Grahame Danby.

－ 37 － 14 This graph is made by using the data in Table 2 by Gavin Berman and Grahame Danby（ 53）.

Graph 2. Sexual Offences Recorded by the Police 1898-1940 900

800

700 265

600 Indecent 500 143 assaults on males 400 Indecency 300 between males 200

100

0

This graph is made by using the data in Table 2 Sexual offences recorded by the police 1898-2001/02, p.53 by Gavin Berman and Grahame Danby.

Works Cited Berman, Gavin and Grahame Danby. Table 2 Sexual offences recorded by the police 1898-2001/02 in The Sexual Offence Bill ［ HL］: Policy Background, House of Commons Library Research Paper 03/61, 10/7/2003. researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/ RP03-61#fullreport. Accessed 2 Apr. 2017. Bredbeck, Gregory W. “ Queer Superstitions”: Forster, Carpenter, and the Illusion of （ Sexual） Identity” in Queer Forster. Edited by Robert K. Martin and George Piggford. Chicago UP, 1997. Carpenter, Edward. My Days and Dreams: Being Autobiographical Notes. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1916. . Towards Democracy. Billing & Sons, 1985. The Compact Oxford English Dictionary. The 3rd ed. Edited by John

－ 38 － Simpson and Edmund Weiner. Oxford UP, 1993. Copley, Anthony. A Spiritual Bloomsbury: Hinduism and Homosexuality in the Lives and Writings of Edward Carpenter, E. M. Forster, and Christopher Isherwood. Lexington Books, 2006． Daily Mail Online News Article “ Lord Montagu on the Court Case Which Ended the Legal Persecution of Homosexuals” on 17 July 2007. www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-468385/Lord-Montagu-court-case-ended- legal-persecution-homosexuals.html. Accessed 2 Apr. 2017. Dellamora, Richard. Apocalyptic Overtures: Sexual Politics and the Sense of an Ending. Rutgers UP, 1994. Forster, E. M. “ The ‘ Censorship’ of Books,” The Nineteenth Century and After No. DCXXVI. Sampson Low. Marston, 1929. . The Hill of Devi. Edward Arnold, 1983. . “ The Life to Come” in The Life to Come and Other Stories. Penguin, 1989. . The Longest Journey. Edited by Elizabeth Heine. Penguin, 1989. . Maurice. Buccaneer Books, 1976. . “ The New Censorship,” Nation and Athenaeum 43. The Nation Publishing, 1928. . A Passage to India. Edited by Oliver Stallybrass. Penguin, 1979. . A Room With a View. Penguin, 1978. . Where Angels Fear To Tread. Edited by Oliver Stallybrass. Penguin, 1976. Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality: An Introduction Volume 1 Translated by Robert Hurley, Vintage Books, 1990. . The Use of Pleasure : The History of Sexuality vol. 2. Translated by Robert Hurley, Vintage Books, 1990. Hall, Radclyffe. The Well of Loneliness. Random House, 1987 Honda, Takehiko. Indo Shokuminchi Kanryo: Daieiteikoku no Cho Eritotachi. Koudansha, 2001.

－ 39 － Jennings, Clive. “ Loves and Lives of the Men Who Built the Radev Collection,” Fitzrovia News 129, summer 2013. news.fitzrovia.org. uk/2013/06/14/loves-and-lives-of-the-men-who-built-the-radev-collection/. Accessed 2 Apr. 2017. Kollman, Kelly and Matthew Waites. “ United Kingdom: Changing Political Opportunity Structures, Policy Success and Continuing Challenges for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Movements” Edited by Manon Tremblay. The Lesbian and Gay Movement and the State: Comparative Insights into a Transformed Relationship. Ashgate, 2011. Leggatt, Tim. Connecting with E. M. Forster: A Memoir. Hesperus, 2012. Machin, Julian. “ Mattei Radev: Mainstay of Bloomsbury Artistic Society Who Had a Tortured Relationship with E. M. Forster” 14 October 2009. Independent. Obituaries. www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/mattei- radev-mainstay-of-bloomsbury-artistic-society-who-had-a-tortured- relationship-with-em-forster-1802181.html. Accessed 2 Apr. 2017. Martin, Robert K. and George Piggford. “ Introduction: Queer, Forster?” Queer Forster. Edited by Robert K. Martin and George Piggford. Chicago UP, 1997. Marwick, Arthur. Women at War 1914-1918. Fontana Paperbacks, 1977. Millet, Kate. Sexual Politics. Doubleday, 1970. Moffat, Wendy. E. M. Forster: A New Life. Bloomsbury, 2010. Prabhupada, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami. On Chanting the Hare Krishna Mantra. Iskcon, 1972. Said, Edward W. Culture and Imperialism. Vintage Book, 1993. Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire. Columbia UP, 1985. Sharpe, Jenny. Allegories of Empire: The Figure of Woman in the Colonial Text. Minnesota UP, 1997. Shepherd, Janet and John Shepherd. 1920s Britain. Shire Living Histories, 2010.

－ 40 － Singh, Frances B. “ A Passage to India, the National Movement, and Independence.” Twentieth Century Literature: A Scholarly and Critical Journal. vol. 31, Summer/Fall 1985. Hofstra UP, 1985. Suleri, Sara. “ The Geography of A Passage to India”. E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India. Edited by Harold Bloom. Chelsea House Publisher, 1987. Thom, Deborah. “ Women and Work in Wartime Britain” in The Upheaval of War: Family, Work and Welfare in Europe, 1914-1918. Edited by Richard Wall and Jay Winter. Cambridge UP, 2005. Week, Jeffrey. Sex, Politics and Society: The Regulation of Sexuality Since 1800. Longman, 1985. . Sex, Politics and Society: The Regulation of Sexuality Since 1800. The 3rd ed., Peason, 2012. Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. W.W. Norton, 1973.

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