REWRITING TO THE EMPIRE: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF DOUBLE-EDGED CONSCIOUSNESS IN MULK RAJ ANAND'S TWO LEAVES AND A BUD AND E.M. FORSTER'S A PASSAGE TO INDIA

Abstract

This paper examines the narrative consciousness in Mulk Raj Anand's Two Leaves and a Bud and E. M. Forster's A Passage to India, arguing that both texts embody a "double-edged consciousness", simultaneously critiquing and reproducing colonial ideologies. Although Anand aims to expose the exploitative machinery of the British Empire through characters like Gangu and de la Havre, the native consciousness remains marginal, as the European voice becomes the vehicle of intellectual realism. Anand's attempt to demythologize the Empire, though compelling, is undermined by his partial reliance on orientalist imagery and a Eurocentric narrative framework. Similarly, Forster's treatment of India is framed through the lens of mystery and muddle, symbolized by the Marabar Caves. While characters like Fielding and Mrs. Moore reflect moments of cultural insight and detachment from imperialist dogma, the narrative ultimately fails to resolve the tension between colonizer and colonized. The symbolic and literal separation of Aziz and Fielding at the novel's end reiterates the impossibility of genuine coexistence. The paper also considers gender and racial hierarchies, highlighting how Adela's hallucination is legitimized due to her whiteness, while the sufferings of native women like Laila are made invisibilized. Both novels, in their distinct ways, perpetuate a dual consciousness, constructing and deconstructing the image of India as a paradox of oppression and resistance. Despite their anti-colonial overtones, both texts are double-edged; their authors' narrative positions contribute to a diluted representation of the subaltern voice. Thus, the resolution remains suspended, revealing not a triumph of decolonization, but the continuation of ideological tension, historical amnesia, and structural inequity.