Despite the largely negative portrayal of the English presence in India, some characters in A Passage to India employ figurative language to express their approval of it. In Part 1, Chapter 8, the Nawab Bahadur uses a simile to describe the English:
“Oh, it is the duty of each and every citizen to shake superstition off, and though I have little experience of Hindu States, and none of this particular one, namely Mudkul (the Ruler, I fancy, has a salute of but eleven guns)—yet I cannot imagine that they have been as successful as British India, where we see reason and orderliness spreading in every direction, like a most health-giving flood!”
The simile here is "reason and orderliness spreading in every direction, like a most health-giving flood." In other words, Bahadur draws a comparison between floodwaters and the best aspects of British rule. Bahadur wants to express how British influence has extended so rapidly and effectively over India, and how, in his opinion, its effects are largely positive. Interestingly, floods are not always welcome, and they sometimes cause destruction—but this character specifies that this flood is "health-giving." With this simile, he tries to express how powerful and widespread the English influence has become in India.
Nawab Bahadur (Zulfiquar) is a prominent Indian and English Loyalist who strongly supports the British rule of the Raj. It makes sense, then, that he might claim that British India spreads reason and orderliness as floodwaters spread across a plain. Throughout the story, Forster presents a range of characters with many complex opinions of the British Empire, and this simile helps highlight that some Indians sided with the English.
A series of similes in Part 2, Chapter 25 reveals Aziz's low opinion of Dr. Panna Lal, a low-born Hindu doctor:
Of ignoble origin, Dr. Panna Lal possessed nothing that could be disgraced, and he wisely decided to make the other Indians feel like kings, because it would put them into better tempers. When he found they wanted Nureddin, he skipped like a goat, he scuttled like a hen to do their bidding, the hospital was saved, and to the end of his life he could not understand why he had not obtained promotion on the morning’s work. “Promptness, sir, promptness similar to you,” was the argument he employed to Major Callendar when claiming it.
There are two similes at play in this passage. They refer to Panna Lal, saying that he "skipped like a goat" and "scuttled like a hen" to retrieve people and supplies for his higher-ups. These similes compare the doctor to lowly animals. The juxtaposition between the "kingly" Indians and the animal-like Lal makes him seem even less worthy of respect. But the similes are not the main insult in Aziz's mind. In fact, this passage makes it seem almost natural for this man, who apparently cannot be disgraced, to serve others in this manner. The real insult here is that Lal "possessed nothing that could be disgraced." These similes show that Aziz harbors such great scorn for Panna Lal that he believes it's natural to compare him to animals, who likewise possess nothing that can be disgraced.
