The Manifestation of Multiculturalism in the Works of Maalouf’s "In the Name of Identity" and E. M. Forster’s "A Passage to India"

Abstract

This paper probes the claims regarding the success or failure of multiculturalism in Amin Maalouf's In the Name of Identity and E. M. Forster's A Passage to India. The researchers hypothesize that the applicability of multiculturalism is very much dependent on the political situation of the society in question. More precisely, it depends on whether or not that society has experienced the subjugation of colonialism. Examples from both texts will be critically reviewed in light of multiculturalism, postcolonialism and the post-colonial notion of hybridity. Each of these texts concerns a distinct political situation, the one having to do with life under colonial authority (A Passage to India), while the other is written in a politically free country (In the Name of Identity). The selected examples from both texts show that multiculturalism failed in the colonized society, leading to tension and a clash between the two cultures, whilst achieving relative success in the societies of the colonizers, thus resulting in hybridity. Therefore, it is concluded that multiculturalism might have relative chances of success insofar as it is not enforced or imposed on people.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n2s1p251