Since the release of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s final report in 2015, there has been a political and societal focus on the atrocities that occurred in residential schools. The abuse, sexual abuse, murder, and genocide of Indigenous children through the residential school system has become the main focus for many settlers in Canada. However, focusing our attention on the most heinous acts alone can obfuscate manifestations of Indigenous regulation and oppression that are subtler or more covert. This project takes a genealogical approach to allow for the exposure of naturalized settler colonial logics, while also placing residential schools within a continuum of Indigenous regulation and oppression. This project uses Foucault’s concepts of power (disciplinary power, biopower, governmentality) and contemporary colonial concepts of recognition and accommodation to uncover the governmental technologies used within the residential school system and the Correctional Service of Canada’s approach to Indigenous corrections. This project challenges the progression fallacy which states our current epoch is more ethical than any other that came before by arguing the political rationalities of Western superiority and settler colonial benevolence that justified the creation of residential schools still exist today. This project examines the Correctional Service of Canada’s approach to Indigenous corrections as a contemporary illustration of how the political rationalities of Western superiority and settler colonial benevolence not only serve as justifications for harmful policies, programs, and initiatives, but also aid in the production of new Indigenous subjects and populations. Although the manifestations of Indigenous oppression have changed throughout time, the political rationalities that underpin them have stayed the same.

This essay provides an in-depth analysis of E.M. Forster’s A Passage to India through the lens of postcolonial criticism, with a specific focus on Edward Said’s theory of Orientalism. It explores the complexities of colonial relationships in India during the British Raj, examining themes of power dynamics, cultural dominance, and racial discrimination. By drawing from key postcolonial theorists such as Edward Said and Frantz Fanon and other writers like Albert Memmi, the essay explains how Forster’s narrative exposes the influence of Western superiority and the perpetuation of cultural disparities between the colonizer and the colonized. It underscores the portrayal of Chandrapore as a microcosm of colonial tensions, where privileged English settlers dominate over the marginalized native population. The essay also discusses Forster’s critique of colonial conditions and the accidental reinforcement of Orientalist stereotypes. Ultimately, it concludes that A Passage to India effectively portrays the clash between Eastern and Western cultures within the colonial context, thereby highlighting the expressed urgent and significant desire for autonomy.