Why can't the Indians and the British be friends?

In A Passage to India, Forster suggests that culture clash is one reason why Indians and the British cannot be friends.

Life in Chandrapore is filled with colliding values between Indians and the British.  Neither side is able to overcome the differences that exist.  Turton speaks to the challenges when both sides try to befriend the other one socially: "I have never known anything but disaster result when English people and Indians attempt to be...

In A Passage to India, Forster suggests that culture clash is one reason why Indians and the British cannot be friends.

Life in Chandrapore is filled with colliding values between Indians and the British.  Neither side is able to overcome the differences that exist.  Turton speaks to the challenges when both sides try to befriend the other one socially: "I have never known anything but disaster result when English people and Indians attempt to be intimate socially." Many of the English who have settled in India refuse to see their role as being hospitable. When Ronny Heaslop expresses sentiments such as "India is not home" and "we don't intend to be pleasant. We've something more important to do," it reflects the British perception of their role in India.  The British are not interested in making lasting connections with Indians.  They are more concerned with consolidating their power over the land and its people.   

Resentment over being subjugated is the reason why the Indians cannot befriend the British.  For example, Mahmoud Ali and Amritrao are convinced that their happiness is only possible when the British leave India. The congeniality that Aziz offers towards many of the British, and in particular, to Fielding, might be a chance of friendship.  However, he is unable to overcome the humiliation and pain of living under British rule.  Aziz cannot relinquish the anger he feels over what happened to him in Chandrapore.  The symbolism of this is evident in the ending of the novel when the Earth seems to divide Fielding and Aziz from being close to one another.  When Fielding offers his friendship, it is almost as if the world, one filled with Anglo-Indian strife, refuses: “No, not yet, and the sky said, No, not there.”  Forster suggests that as long as both sides cling to the clash of cultures that defines India under British rule, friendship is impossible to achieve.