4: Formatting and the Great Net

The beginning of Part 1 alludes to the great net that the English have laid out for the Indians:

“The roads named after victorious generals and intersecting at right angles, were symbolic of the net Great Britain had thrown over India” (14).

The use of the word ‘net’ here sets the tone for inter-racial interaction throughout the narrative. The very foundation of this net is based on a vigorous process of ‘formatting’ which in turn renders friendship between the English and the Indian impossible on Indian soil.

This formatting (i.e. the process which creates the Anglo-Indian colonizer and his colonized other) refers to the process which newcomers (English immigrants) have to go through so that they end up like the other colonial settlers in terms of ideologies, attitudes and practices. Without this the English immigrants would not be accepted into the community of the colony.

The colonial situation manufactures colonialist. The new comers “come out intending to be gentlemen and are told it will not do” (9).  And owing to their formatting “they all become exactly the same-not worse not better”(9). This is precisely what makes Heaslop (Ronny) a sahib.  Mr. Turton announces, “he’s the type we want, he’s one of us” (22).  

Case in point of this formatting is Mrs. Moore’s interview with Ronny after her encounter with Aziz in the Mosque.  Ronny’s mistrust of the native Indian is clearly evident from this conversation

Ronny: …there is always something behind every remark he makes, always something, and if nothing else, he’s trying to increase his izzat…Off course there are exceptions…

Mrs Moore: You never used to judge people like this at home

Ronny: India isn’t home.

Here instead of relying on reason he is “using phrases and arguments that he has picked up from older officials, and he did not feel quite sure of himself. When he said ‘Off course there are exceptions’ he was quoting Mr.Turton, while, ‘increasing izzat’ was Major Callendar’s own” (29)

In addition, the native too is aware of this brainwashing process-“I give any Englishman two years, be he Tutron or Burton. It is only the difference of a letter” says Hamidullah- which contributes to the ever widening gulf between the two (9). And this realization prevents any attempts to forge a friendly relationship on part of the Indians.  Therefore, friendship is impossible on under British occupation Indian soil because formatting disrupts any friendly interaction due to two factors: a) the colonizer virtually remains in double exile not only because he inhabits a foreign land but also because he is trapped within the same net-he is forced to enact a performance which consciously manufactures a colonized other whilst maintaining his own status. b) The colonizer too is trapped within this net because of the mistrust and misgiving caused by  the brainwashing process.