= A_Passage_to

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= A_Passage_to_India =
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Introduction
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'A Passage to India' is a 1924 novel by English author E. M. Forster
set against the backdrop of the British Raj and the Indian
independence movement in the 1920s. It was selected as one of the 100
great works of 20th-century English literature by the 'Modern Library'
and won the 1924 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. 'Time'
magazine included the novel in its "All Time 100 Novels" list. The
novel is based on Forster's experiences in India, deriving the title
from Walt Whitman's 1870 poem "Passage to India" in 'Leaves of Grass'.

The story revolves around four characters: Dr. Aziz, his British
friend Mr. Cyril Fielding, Mrs. Moore, and Miss Adela Quested. During
a trip to the fictitious Marabar Caves (modelled on the Barabar Caves
of Bihar), Adela thinks she finds herself alone with Dr. Aziz in one
of the caves (when in fact he is in an entirely different cave;
whether the attacker is real or a reaction to the cave is ambiguous),
and subsequently panics and flees; it is assumed that Dr. Aziz has
attempted to assault her. Aziz's trial, and its run-up and aftermath,
bring to a boil the common racial tensions and prejudices between
Indians and the British during the colonial era.

Background
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'A Passage to India' is a reflection of Forster's visit to India in
1912-13 and his duration as private secretary to Tukojirao III, the
Maharajah of Dewas Senior in 1921-22. He dedicated the book to his
friend Ross Masood.

Plot summary
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British schoolmistress Adela Quested and her elderly friend Mrs. Moore
visit the fictional Indian city of Chandrapore. Adela is to decide if
she wants to marry Mrs. Moore's son, Ronny Heaslop, the city
magistrate.

Meanwhile, Dr. Aziz, a young Indian Muslim physician, is called from
dining with friends by Major Callendar, Aziz's superior at the
hospital, but is delayed. Disconsolate at finding him gone, Aziz walks
back and enters his favourite mosque on impulse. Seeing Mrs Moore
there, he yells at her not to profane this sacred place, but the two
then chat and part as friends. When Mrs. Moore relates her experience
later, Ronny becomes indignant at the native's presumption.

Because the newcomers had expressed a desire to meet Indians, Mr.
Turton, the city tax collector, invites several to his house, but the
party turns out awkwardly, due to the Indians' timidity and the
Britons' bigotry. Also there is Cyril Fielding, principal of
Chandrapore's government-run college for Indians, who invites Adela
and Mrs. Moore to a tea party with him and a Hindu-Brahmin professor
named Narayan Godbole. At Adela's request, he extends his invitation
to Dr. Aziz.

At the party, Fielding and Aziz become friends and Aziz promises to
take Mrs. Moore and Adela to see the distant Marabar Caves. Ronny
arrives and, finding Adela "unaccompanied" with Dr. Aziz and Professor
Godbole, rudely breaks up the party.

Aziz mistakenly believes that the women are offended that he has not
followed through on his promise and arranges an outing to the caves at
great expense to himself. Fielding and Godbole are supposed to
accompany the expedition, but they miss the train. In the first cave
they visit, Mrs. Moore is overcome with claustrophobia and disturbed
by the echo. When she declines to continue, Adela and Aziz climb the
hill to the upper caves, accompanied by a guide.

Asked by Adela whether he has more than one wife, Aziz is disconcerted
by her bluntness and ducks into a cave to compose himself. When he
comes out, he is told by the guide that Adela has gone into a cave by
herself. After quarreling with the guide, Aziz discovers Adela's field
glasses broken on the ground and puts them in his pocket. He then
looks down the hill and sees Adela speaking to Miss Derek, who has
arrived with Fielding in a car. Aziz runs down and greets Fielding,
but Miss Derek and Adela drive off, leaving Fielding, Mrs. Moore and
Aziz to return to Chandrapore by train.

Aziz is arrested on arrival and charged with sexually assaulting
Adela. The run-up to his trial increases racial tensions. Adela
alleges that Aziz followed her into the cave and that she fended him
off by swinging her field glasses at him. The only evidence is the
field glasses in the possession of Aziz. When Fielding proclaims his
belief in Aziz's innocence, he is ostracised and condemned as a
blood-traitor.

While awaiting the trial, Mrs Moore becomes concerned at her failing
health; taking a ship to England, she dies on the way. Then during the
trial, Adela admits that she had been similarly disoriented by the
cave's echo. She was no longer sure who or what had attacked her and,
despite great demand to persist in her accusation, withdraws the
charge. When the case is dismissed, Heaslop breaks off his engagement
to Adela and she stays at Fielding's house until a return to England
is arranged.

Although he is vindicated, Aziz is angry that Fielding befriended
Adela after she nearly ruined his life. Believing it to be the
gentlemanly thing to do, Fielding convinces Aziz not to seek monetary
redress, but the men's friendship suffers and Fielding departs for
England. Believing that he is leaving to marry Adela for her money,
and bitter at his friend's perceived betrayal, Aziz vows never again
to befriend a white person.

Two years later, Aziz has moved to the Hindu-ruled state of Mau and is
now the Raja's chief physician by the time Fielding returns, married
to Stella, Mrs. Moore's daughter from a second marriage. Though the
two meet and Aziz still feels drawn to Fielding, he realises that they
cannot be truly friends until India becomes independent from British
rule.

Character list
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; Dr. Aziz : A young Muslim Indian physician who works at the British
hospital in Chandrapore.
; Cyril Fielding : The 45-year-old, unmarried British headmaster of
the small government-run college for Indians.
; Adela Quested : A young British schoolmistress who is visiting India
with the vague intention of marrying Ronny Heaslop.
; Mrs. Moore : The mother of Ronny Heaslop.
; Ronny Heaslop : The British city magistrate of Chandrapore.
; Professor Narayan Godbole : A professor at Mr. Fielding's school.
(pronounced )
; Mr. Turton : The British city collector of Chandrapore.
; Mrs. Turton : Mr. Turton's openly racist wife.
; Maj. Callendar : The British head doctor and Aziz's superior at the
hospital.
; Mr. McBryde : The British superintendent of police in Chandrapore.
; Miss Derek : An Englishwoman employed by a Hindu royal family who
frequently borrows their car.
; Nawab Bahadur : The chief Indian citizen in Chandrapore.
; Hamidullah : Aziz's uncle.
; Amritrao : A prominent Indian lawyer called in to defend Aziz.
; Mahmoud Ali : A Muslim Indian barrister who openly hates the
British.
; Dr. Panna Lal : A low-born Hindu doctor and Aziz's rival at the
hospital.
; Ralph Moore : The second son of Mrs. Moore.
; Stella Moore (later Fielding): Mrs. Moore's daughter.

Literary criticism
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The nature of critiques of 'A Passage to India' is largely based upon
the era of writing and the nature of the critical work. While many
earlier critiques found that Forster's book showed an inappropriate
friendship between colonizers and the colonized, new critiques on the
work draw attention to the depictions of sexism, racism and
imperialism in the novel.

Reviews of 'A Passage to India' when it was first published challenged
specific details and attitudes included in the book that Forster drew
from his own time in India. Early critics also expressed concern at
the interracial camaraderie between Aziz and Fielding in the book.
Others saw the book as a vilification of humanist perspectives on the
importance of interpersonal relationships, and effects of colonialism
on Indian society. More recent critiques by postcolonial theorists and
literary critics have reinvestigated the text as a work of Orientalist
fiction contributing to a discourse on colonial relationships by a
European. Today it is one of the seminal texts in the postcolonial
Orientalist discourse, among other books like 'Heart of Darkness', by
Joseph Conrad, and 'Kim', by Rudyard Kipling.
'A Passage to India' emerged at a time when portrayals of India as a
savage, disorganized land in need of domination were more popular in
mainstream European literature than romanticized depictions. Forster's
novel departed from typical narratives about colonizer-colonized
relationships and emphasized a more "unknowable" Orient, rather than
characterizing it with exoticism, ancient wisdom and mystery.
Postcolonial theorists like Maryam Wasif Khan have termed this novel a
Modern Orientalist text, meaning that it portrays the Orient in an
optimistic, positive light while simultaneously challenging and
critiquing European culture and society. However, Benita Parry
suggests that it also mystifies India by creating an "obfuscated realm
where the secular is scanted, and in which India's long traditions of
mathematics, science and technology, history, linguistics and
jurisprudence have no place."

One of the most notable critiques comes from literary professor Edward
Said, who referenced 'A Passage to India' in both 'Culture and
Imperialism' and 'Orientalism'. In his discussion about allusions to
the British Empire in early 20th-century novels, Said suggests that
though the work subverted typical views on colonialism and colonial
rule in India, it also fell short of outright condemning either
nationalist movements in India or colonialism itself. Of Forster's
attitude toward colonizer-colonized relationships, Said says Forster:
. . . found a way to use the mechanism of the novel to elaborate on
the already existing structure of attitude and reference without
changing it. This structure permitted one to feel affection for and
even intimacy with some Indians and India generally, but made one see
Indian politics as the charge of the British, and culturally refused a
privilege to India nationalism. Stereotyping and Orientalist thought
is also explored in postcolonial critiques. Said suggests that Forster
deals with the question of British-Indian relationships by separating
Muslims and Hindus in the narrative. He says Forster connects Islam to
Western values and attitudes while suggesting that Hinduism is chaotic
and orderless, and subsequently uses Hindu characters as the
background to the main narrative. Said also identifies the failed
attempt at friendship between Aziz and Fielding as a reinforcement of
the perceived cultural distance between the Orient and the West. The
inability of the two men to begin a meaningful friendship is
indicative of what Said suggests is the irreconcilable otherness of
the Orient, something that has originated from the West and also
limits Western readers in how they understand the Orient.

Other scholars have examined the book with a critical postcolonial and
feminist lens. Maryam Wasif Khan's reading of the book suggests 'A
Passage to India' is also a commentary on gender, and a British
woman's place within the empire. Khan argued that the female
characters coming to "the Orient" to break free of their social roles
in Britain represent the discord between Englishwomen and their social
roles at home, and tells the narrative of "pioneering Englishwomen
whose emergent feminism found form and voice in the colony".

Sara Suleri has also critiqued the book's orientalist depiction of
India and its use of racialized bodies, especially in the case of
Aziz, as sexual objects rather than individuals.

Awards
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* 1924 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction.
* 1925 Femina Vie Heureuse

Adaptations
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* In 1948, an adaptation by George Lefferts aired on 'NBC University
Theatre', featuring Alma Lawton, Ben Wright, and Joseph Schildkraut as
Dr. Aziz.
* 'A Passage to India' (play), A play written by Santha Rama Rau based
on the novel that ran on the West End in 1960, and on Broadway in
1962. A 1965 BBC television version of the play was broadcast in their
'Play of the Month' series.
* The Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray intended to direct a theatrical
adaptation of the novel, but the project was never realised.
* The 1984 film version directed by David Lean, and starring Judy
Davis, Victor Banerjee, James Fox, Peggy Ashcroft and Alec Guinness,
won two Oscars and numerous other awards.
* Martin Sherman wrote an additional version for the stage, that
premiered at the Shared Experience in Richmond in 2002. It has toured
the UK and played at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Harvey Theater in
November 2004.

Manuscript
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In 1960, the manuscript of 'A Passage to India' was donated to Rupert
Hart-Davis by Forster and sold to raise money for the London Library,
fetching the then record sum of £6,500 for a modern English
manuscript.

See also
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*Stereotypes of South Asians

References
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* S. M. Chanda: 'A Passage to India: a close look in studies in
literature' (Atlantic Publishers, New Delhi 2003)

External links
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*
* [http://www.bl.uk/works/a-passage-to-india 'A Passage to India'] at
the British Library
*
*
* [http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/passage/ Detailed analyses, chapter
summaries, a quiz and essay questions], by SparkNotes
* [http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/classics/0,6121,99926,00.html
Original 1924 review] reprinted by 'The Guardian'
* , from which the title of Forster's novel was derived

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