How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
The woman [servant] looked frightened, but she only stammered that the Ayah could not come and when Mary threw herself into a passion and beat and kicked her, she looked only more frightened and repeated that it was not possible for the Ayah to come to Missie Sahib.
There was something mysterious in the air that morning. Nothing was done in its regular order and several of the native servants seemed missing, while those whom Mary saw slunk or hurried about with ashy and scared faces. But no one would tell her anything and her Ayah did not come. (1.4-5)
The result of Mary's extremely bossy and violent nature toward her Indian servants is that, when everyone's started to get sick with cholera, no one comes to tell her that there is a plague in townand that her Ayah has died. Mary never gets directly punished for her earlier, horrible behavior in this novel, but her bad health and unhappiness is a kind of indirect punishment for her cruelty and negative nature.
Quote #2
Mary listened to her with a grave, puzzled expression. The native servants she had been used to in India were not in the least like this. They were obsequious and servile and did not presume to talk to their masters as if they were their equals. They made salaams and called them "protector of the poor" and names of that sort. Indian servants were commanded to do things, not asked. It was not the custom to say "please" and "thank you" and Mary had always slapped her Ayah in the face when she was angry. She wondered a little what this girl would do if one slapped her in the face. She was a round, rosy, good-natured-looking creature, but she had a sturdy way which made Mistress Mary wonder if she might not even slap back—if the person who slapped her was only a little girl. (4.11)
Mary has gotten into the habit of beating and kicking her family's servants in their home in India. In other words, British India is a place where English kids can be the most colossal brats to their local servants without any kind of punishment or scolding. When Mary gets to Misselthwaite Manor, on the other hand, she takes a look at Martha and realizes that, if she slapped Martha, Martha "might […] even slap back." Why do you think Mary can get away with slapping her servants in India, but she can't in England?
Quote #3
"Eh! I can see [India is] different," [Martha] answered almost sympathetically. "I dare say it's because there's such a lot o' blacks there instead o' respectable white people. When I heard you was comin' from India I thought you was a black too."
Mary sat up in bed furious.
"What!" she said. "What! You thought I was a native. You—you daughter of a pig!"
Martha stared and looked hot.
"Who are you callin' names?" she said. "You needn't be so vexed. That's not th' way for a young lady to talk. I've nothin' against th' blacks. When you read about 'em in tracts they're always very religious. You always read as a black's a man an' a brother. I've never seen a black an' I was fair pleased to think I was goin' to see one close. When I come in to light your fire this mornin' I crep' up to your bed an' pulled th' cover back careful to look at you. An' there you was," disappointedly, "no more black than me—for all you're so yeller."
Mary did not even try to control her rage and humiliation. "You thought I was a native! You dared! You don't know anything about natives! They are not people—they're servants who must salaam to you. You know nothing about India. You know nothing about anything!" (4.27-32)
The racism in this passage is really striking and hateful. Mary gets angry when she finds out that Martha assumed that she was "black," since she came from India. She screams at Martha that "[natives] are not people—they're servants who must salaam to you." In other words, Mary is so stuck up with her English colonial privilege that she sees the servants who looked after her as a child as "not people;" they're just there to bow to her.
And Martha isn't exactly better, when she says she's got "nothin' against th' blacks." We don't think the novel is necessarily supporting the opinions of either of these characters, since Mary is a spoiled, unreliable brat and Martha is speaking from total ignorance. Even so, it's ugly to read these ideas from characters whom we are eventually (supposed to) care about.
While there is a lot of subtle romanticizing in The Secret Garden about the beauty and the health of England (as opposed to India), this scene is probably the most straightforward moment when we find out how biased the characters are about the people who live in British India.