Another Way of Mimicry in ‘In a passage to India’

“Mimicry in colonial and postcolonial literature is most commonly seen when members of a colonized society (say, Indians or Africans) imitate the language, dress, politics, or cultural attitude of their colonizers (say, the British or the French)“. Mimicry is an important term in post-colonial theory, because it describes the Contradictory relationship between the colonized and colonizer. One of the reasons that colonized people mimic their colonizer it because they hope that they can reach or achieve the power and wealth that the colonizer has. However, mimicking could be sometimes unintentional behavior because of the conditions the colonized live in for example, getting education in the colonizer country or getting Influenced by the media and so on.

In a passage to India there is another way mimicry could actually be seen as a way in ruining or empowering when it involves copying the concepts of freedom, justice or law. Which has been seen in a minor character a lawyer named Mr. Amritrao whom the British were afraid of him because he was threat to them. What is threating about him is the fact that he has learned a lot from their British principle of law than realize that those principle should be applied to the Indian as much as to the British . As foreign English speaker educated Indian, British people might mock him as mimic or babu, but it might be they only mock him to cover up their fear from him. 

Another example is demonstrated by Aziz character where he always try hard to become British, but he fails every time and becomes what is called mimic man which means that he is almost the same as them , but not fully . “The effect entailed in Aziz acts of imitation and accommodation inevitably marks him as Other —a man must work to produce what the Englishman does naturally, what the Englishman inherits as his birthright and observes through an internalized code of behavior “ . Also mimicry could be reversed to the colonizer disguising them self or fantasizing doing it , for example on revers mimicry is Richard Francis Burton, how is often dressed like an Arab or Indian as his job a colonial .

Inconclusion, mimicry could be seen in two ways either good or bad , but in my opinion it could possibly be used for good purposes for instance , improving education , practicing better law or learning new language or culture .Rather than thinking that I have to be like the dominate country and act like one of them thinking you can be powerful as much as them by losing your values and identity. “Acquiring knowledge is a form of imitation.”  

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