A Passage to India Life, Consciousness, Existence Quotes Page 4
Citations follow this format: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
| Quote #10 Illogical poems – like their writer. Yet they struck a true note: there cannot be a mother-land without new homes. In one poem – the only one funny old Godbole liked – he had skipped over the mother-land (whom he did not truly love) and gone straight to internationality. (3.34.6) |
This passage describes Aziz's attempt to step outside his Muslim identity and celebrate all of India, including all of its religious groups. Yet the only one that strikes a chord with his Hindu friend Godbole is one where Aziz doesn't celebrate India as a nation, but India as a fundamentally international entity. They're illogical poems because they're trying to describe India as an international nation – how can a country be a single nation and international at the same time? What a muddle! But Aziz's muddled poems strike a "true note" because they are in essence trying to work with the muddle, just as Forster's novel is trying to do.
