I think this question is largely explored through the character of Mr. Fielding. He will serve as both the conduit between the English and the Indians in A Passage to India as well as the character who can offer the most realistic assessment of the colonial system within India, neither altogether condemning it as do the Indians nor wholeheartedly supporting it as the British bureaucracy do. The degree to which Fielding can move among the English and the Indians illustrates another one of Forster's themes in A Passage to India: the meaning and responsibilities of belonging to a race.' Fielding will demonstrate a fluid conception of race in which belonging to a particular culture does not necessitate supporting that race, yet the degree to which he can break from the English will be tested.