A Passage to India (Dover Thrift Editions: Classic Novels)

E. M Forster was born in England in 1879 and died in 1970. As a child, he inherited enough money from his great aunt to travel and live as a writer after attending public school and King's College, Cambridge. His interest in writing was influenced at Cambridge by membership in a discussion society called the Apostles that included a number of intellectuals such as John Maynard Keynes and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Forster maintained a loose association with the group during the early 1910s and 1920s as it added members and became known as the Bloomsbury Group. The Group was composed of a variety of creative individuals including writers of fiction. Virginia Woolf was an active member. After leaving Cambridge, Forster traveled with his mother extensively in Europe where he developed ideas for subsequent novels including: A Room With A View , Where Angels Fear to Tread , and Howards End . For years, he maintained a privacy regarding his homosexual identity and behavior understanding that it would limit his freedom to publish his work. In the early 1920s, Forster worked in India as the private secretary for a Maharaja during the period of the British Raj. The Raj was a time of occupation of India by British diplomats and soldiers who imposed some controlled structure on the economic and legal system of the largely disparate states within the country ruled loosely by a monarchy. After returning to London from India, Forster published A Passage to India in 1924 based on his experiences during the period when British influence was waning and an Indian Independence movement was developing. The novel is an interesting character study involving structure opposed to substance, self-control over impulse, conformity versus individual freedom, restriction of thought rather than tolerance, and arbitrary racial discrimination limiting open enculturation. There are several characters described in stereotypical ways with representatives of the British ruling and middle classes in the Raj and Hindu, "Moslem", and royal leaders within Indian society. These descriptions set the stage for the interaction of four main characters that illustrate the complexity of two cultures seemingly unyielding in their Western versus Eastern world views. In the novel the reader's attention is focused on the interactions and perceptions of four main characters: Dr. Aziz, Miss Adela Quested, Cyril Fielding, and Mrs. Moore: Dr. Aziz is an Indian physician who works at a British hospital. He is a Muslim man strongly influenced by his religion but intellectually active in his beliefs and impulsive in his emotions and actions. He is tolerant of differences in cultures within his country and the strained relationship between Indians and the British. The tolerance, however is largely on the surface, and when his religious beliefs and secular freedom are threatened by the actions of the Raj, he is quick to feel strong resentment. Adela Quested is a young British teacher who has traveled to India to see if she and a British magistrate are compatible for marriage. Like Dr. Aziz, Adela seems outwardly open to new experiences. She seems to be tolerant in learning about the exotic Eastern culture of India. The reader sees that she is actually intolerant and frightened but fancies herself an enlightened woman willing to step beyond the conventions of her British character. Adela regresses to her British comfort zone in a panic when confronted with the mysterious and unstructured life of India. Cyril Fielding is a teacher at a small British college for Indian citizens. Now in his early middle age, the unmarried administrator has maintained his life of personal intellectual and emotional freedom by keeping a low profile within the British foreign service system and maintaining an open attitude about British and Indian tension during the Raj. He seems to be more willing to understand the cultural differences between West and East than Adela because he has maintained a personal code of ethics largely hidden from both the British and Indian people in the rural district. He is a clever individual who has assumed a role that conforms minimally to the expectations of each culture. He is insightful and aware that his surface behavior is accepted with reservations by both groups and is content to have independence in the deep structure of his personality. Although Fielding is not an avowed homosexual, the reader gains some interesting indications from the character of Forster's private life. Unlike the author, Fielding returns to England, marries a very British woman, and returns to India a more structured man but largely conflicted in his hidden personal identification. Mrs. Moore is an elderly British widower who has accompanied Adela during the trip from England to India. She is the mother of the British magistrate that the younger woman has come to visit. Mrs. Moore is a lifelong British subject who has reached the endpoint of caring, having lived her life for her children with a feminine stiff upper lip. In somewhat delicate health, the trip has been a major sacrifice for Mrs. Moore, but she has done her escort duty. Because of her end of life situation and active life review, she is open to the spiritual aspect of Indian life that is so different from her British structured religious beliefs. Unlike Adela, Mrs. Moore is willing to open herself to Eastern thoughts and beliefs with a substantial lowering of psychological defenses. She seeks answers to the question, what is the meaning of her life of service to her family that cost her own freedom and dignity? Specifically, when can she stop taking responsibility for others and come to some meaningful resolution of the doubts about her life decisions? When faced with negative conclusions during her life review, she embraces a delusion of a tolerable, structured life and begins a journey back to her British home. I highly recommend this novel (Forster's last published work of fiction) for readers who want to examine their own depth of understanding of life and their tolerance of the lives of others in chaotic times. An interesting experience I had reading the novel was an illusive desire to live during the early decades of the 20th Century in India to see how I would react personally to a rapidly changing world perspective. Of course, parallel, dramatic cultural challenges exist in the U. S. today, but perhaps we are too close in time to the effects of the challenges to develop the comprehensive point of view presented in A Passage to India.

“The front in full moonlight had the appearance of marble, and the ninety-nine names of God on the frieze stood out in black, as the frieze stood out white against the sky. The contest between this dualism and the contention of shadows within pleased Aziz, and he tried to symbolize the whole into some truth of religion or love. The mosque had let loose his imagination. The temple of another creed, Hindu, Christian, or Greek, would have bored him and failed to awaken his sense of beauty. "We aren't even seeing the other side of the world; that's our complaint," said Adela. Mrs. Moore agreed; she too was disappointed at the dullness of their new life. They had made a romantic voyage across the Mediterranean and through the sands of Egypt to the harbour of Bombay, to find only a gridiron of bungalows at the end of it. Life never gives us what we want at the moment we consider appropriate.” “It's much more the Anglo-Indians themselves who get on Adela's nerves. She doesn't think they behave pleasantly to the Indians, you see.” "What did I tell you?" he exclaimed, losing his gentle manner. “How like a woman to worry over a side issue!" "How can it be that? "We're not out here for the purpose of behaving pleasantly!" "What do you mean?" "We're out here to do justice and keep the peace. India isn't a drawing room." "Your sentiments are those of a god," she said quietly. It was his manner rather than his sentiments that annoyed her. Trying to recover his temper, he said, "India likes gods." "And Englishmen like posing as gods." “One trace of regret-the true regret from the heart-would have made him a different man, and the British Empire a different institution. "I'm going to argue, the English are out here to be pleasant." "How do you make that out, mother?" he asked, speaking gently again, for he was ashamed of his irritability. "Because India is part of the earth. God has put us on the earth to be pleasant to each other. She hesitated, seeing how much he disliked the argument. "God has put us on earth to love our neighbours. He is omnipresent, even in India, to see how we are succeeding." He looked gloomy, and a little anxious.” “How indeed is it possible for one human being to be sorry for all the sadness that meets him on the face of the earth, for the pain that is endured not only by men, but by animals and plants, and perhaps by the stones?” ************ Three Indian friends Dr. Aziz, Hamidulla Esq. and Ali discuss the British before dinner on a veranda in Bihar in the early 1920’s during the independence movement. Londoner E M Forster had traveled there in 1913 and published this book in 1923, named as one of the top 100 English novels by Modern Library and Time Magazine, both American firms, and won the 1924 James Tait Black Prize, oldest British literary award based in the University of Edinburgh. It was the subject of many stage adaptations and also a 1984 film that won two Oscars. The good natured but bitter talk naturally turns to the bribery widely practiced in the Empire at the time. The novel is set in the fictional city of Chandrapore and Marabar Caves in northeast India. Aziz is suddenly called to the bungalow of the Civil Surgeon Callendar in the midst of the meal. He rushes off by bicycle to attend to this functionary who frequently summons him at dinner time. When he arrives the superior agent of empire has left, leaving him no message. Two ladies from the house abscond with his carriage after his bike tire had gone flat. On foot, he enters a mosque for rest and meets a new arrival Mrs. Moore, a widow who criticizes her country fellows. Dr. Aziz for his part disparages Hindus and Christians, an unusual viewpoint from an English writer but not one that’s historically inaccurate. Forster’s British characters prefer the Muslims who are employed to help govern over the Hindu inhabitants of the subcontinent. Mrs. Moore returns to the colonial club and she talks with her fellow traveler Adela Quested, who complains they haven’t seen the real India after arriving, or even met any Indians. She has come to decide if she should marry Moore’s son Ronny, the City Magistrate. Turton the Tax Collector plans a party where they can meet local leading luminaries. She makes friends with Fielding, the Dean of the British University, who is inclined to favor Indians. An undertow of racism exists most markedly among wives of the colony and their husbands follow. Aziz has an affinity for Fielding’s unconventional congeniality. A Hindu Professor Godbole has been invited and describes the caves across the Ganges where an outing has been planned. Ronny interjects himself on his mother and Adela in attempts to dissuade them from interaction with Indians. Adela initially is put out but agrees to marry him. Forster dissects the major social groups, although at times they appear stereotypical. His description of the Marabar Caves has been ascribed to the Barabar Caves in Bihar but they don’t appear to match; the fictional caves aren’t manmade, have no sculpture or ornamentation and are much older than the 250 BC Mauryan caves. The cast of characters who had congregated at Fielding’s home would attend a picnic; Mrs. Moore, Adela, Godbole with Aziz making arrangements, plus a retinue of servants. Fielding and Godbole miss the train but Fielding arranges an automobile. Adela and Aziz become separated while exploring the caves, and in the confusion it is assumed she caught a car ride back to Chandrapore. Dr. Aziz arrives at the city and is arrested, under the suspicion he had a role in her attempted assault, illustrating the difference in legal treatment of Indians and British. Adela had returned earlier and made accusations against him. The colonial community is aghast and afraid of further attacks. During the trial Adela searches her heart and memory to find where her true loyalties lay, and afterwards whether she will carry on with her engagement to Ronny. Both the European and Indian communities are outraged by her acts for different reasons. There is an element of early 20th century nationalism at work. Although this novel has traits of the age it was written in, and criticized by Edward Said in ‘Orientalism’ it was forward thinking for its time, with insights into the class structure of colonial India and contradictions that existed. It’s surprising Forster was able to accomplish this in the span of five years visiting and working there. I may have run out of fresh ideas to represent the millennia old construct of colonialism, or that its systems have become solidified in my thoughts. It has repeated itself by conquerors in different locations, with concepts of racial superiority being justified by a civilizing mission. Earlier practice by the Greeks and Romans seemed to have not needed any philosophical underpinnings other than the greed or revenge motives.

Alles Gut

Over 50 years ago, I was a 17-year-old first year student enrolled in a physical science program at university. The university in its wisdom required me to take and pass an introductory course in English literature. One of the assigned texts was “A Passage to India”. I still recall some of the discussion that the professor tried to lead in that very large lecture hall with the mass of 17 and 18-year-old naïve students. One of the topics that some of the better students and he brought up for discussion was “Why could Professor Godbole not love the stone?” This was a question that puzzled me then and bothered me over the 50 years since. The novel’s answer comes in the last long sentence: “…they said in their hundred voices, ‘No, not yet’ and the sky said ‘No, not there’”. I didn’t realize all those years ago that the answer to the question would mean an understanding of the meaning of the word ’love’. Godbole is dancing as part of a religious ceremony celebrating the birth of the god ‘Krishna’. The book is et in India during the time of the British Raj. As such India is a meeting place for the peoples of different cultures: Eastern and Western, Christian, Muslim, and Hindu, differing classes…. The novel explores the question of the suspicion and animus that is created by the interaction of people and especially between people of cultures and clashes. It explores just what can be meant by expressions such as “God is love”. What is love in that it is the substance of God? differing If God or gods can love all creation why cannot Godbole love the stone. Forster indicates that Godbole cannot love the stone because he can regard it only as a logical rational operation. Love is a unity among all things and Godbole is not ready for that and as the rest of the novel replies this is applicable to all humanity. It is not ready - “…they said in their hundred voices, ‘No, not yet’ and the sky said ‘No, not there’”. “A Passage to India” is a profound novel. I can understand now why it was included in that introductory course. I think I can also understand why I was not ready to understand it then. It is a gripping, intense book. I highly recommend it.

Published over one hundred years ago, this novel retains a powerful immediacy. It dissects the tensions and intractability of colonial life, especially the relationships between governors and governed with elegance and subtlety. Forster's ability to portray through his characters and the central incident of the Marabar caves the conflicting attitudes and perceptions of those caught up in the existential realities of pre-independence India is masterful. It is rightly considered one of the great novels of the Twentieth Century. ,

A classic

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