Social Identity and Cultural Boundaries in English and Uzbek Novels: A Comparative Study of Cho'lpon and E. M. Forster

This article examines the representation of social identity and cultural boundaries in Abdulhamid Cho‘lpon’s Kecha va Kunduz (Night and Day) and E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India. The comparative study focuses on the ways in which literary characters construct, negotiate, and lose their social identities under conditions of cultural hierarchy, political domination, gender inequality, and social transformation. Although the novels emerged from different historical and geographical contexts, both explore the tension between individual identity and socially imposed categories. Cho‘lpon’s novel represents early twentieth-century Turkestan through the experiences of characters whose personal lives are constrained by patriarchal traditions, social hierarchy, ignorance, and colonial political structures. Forster’s novel, published in 1924, examines relations between British colonizers and Indian subjects in the context of the British Raj. Particular attention is paid to Zebi and Miryoqub in Cho‘lpon’s novel and Dr. Aziz, Cyril Fielding, Adela Quested, and Mrs. Moore in Forster’s work. The research employs comparative-historical, contextual, textual, and postcolonial approaches. The analysis demonstrates that cultural boundaries in both novels are not merely geographical divisions but social and psychological structures that determine communication, belonging, personal freedom, and interpersonal relationships. The study concludes that both authors expose the contradiction between individual human identity and rigid social classifications, although Cho‘lpon emphasizes national awakening and internal social reform, while Forster concentrates more explicitly on colonial power, intercultural misunderstanding, and the limitations imposed on friendship by imperial structures.