“A mystery is only a high sounding term for a muddle”
This distinction that Mr. Fielding makes while attempting to
describe the puzzling, ambiguous and unintelligible nature of India, portrays a
significant theme that serves as a backdrop for the entire novel. Mystery
implies that there is some truth to uncover, but the connotations of a muddle
are more dubious, suggesting a lack of meaning, hidden truth or clarity.
Several instances propagate the depiction of India as a
muddle. Among them, a few that are memorable include Adela and Ronny’s
mysterious car accident, where despite investigating the scene with a
flashlight they fail to reach a definite explanation and are forced to assume a
hyena was the cause. Another, more significant instance is in The Marabar caves
– Adela and Mrs Moore accept Aziz’s invitation out of a sense of excitement and
adventure, however their desire to see and understand the “real” India, remains
unfulfilled as they are unable to extract any meaning from the experience, and
the echo is left to symbolize the incomprehensible nature of India. Even the ‘incident’
of Adela in the cave is left ambiguous and uncertain. The land and even the plants and animals of India
are beyond classification, depicted by Ronny and Adela’s failure to categorize a
green bird that they see. “But nothing in India is identifiable, the mere
asking of a question causes it to disappear or to merge into something else.”
The significance of the portrayal of India as a muddle is
the idea that the land itself is antagonistic to the ideals of logic and reason
upheld by the west. Furthermore, the tendency of the British to misconceive the
ungraspable nature of India as a ‘mystery’ and their consequent attempts to fit
it into the explainable, scientific context of rationality, not only detracts
from its essence, but can be seen as an effort to appropriate it. The British
assume and assert their own interpretation of the events as te ultimate truth,
though they are deeply misguided such as the Hyena, Aziz in the cave, etc “This
pose of ‘seeing India’… was only a form of ruling India” This also alludes to
the fact that they will always be outsiders, failing to grasp and understand India
in its entirety. Finally, the notion of
the muddle itself - is a means of necessitating and rationalizing western efforts
to control and govern India. Thus the idea of the muddle thus plays a quintessential
role in colonial relations and discourse
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