Product Description

What did happen to Miss Quested in the Marabar Caves? This tantalizing question provides the intense drama of racial tension at the centre of Forster's last and greatest novel. After a mysterious incident during their visit to the caves, the charming Dr Aziz is accused of assaulting Adela Quested, a naive young Englishwoman new to India. As he is brought to trial, the fragile structure of Anglo-Indian relations collapses and the racism inherent in colonialism is exposed in all its ugliness -a theme which still has powerful, dangerous realities today.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #119014 in Books
• Published on: 1998-09-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

About the Author
Edward Morgan Forster was born in London in 1879. He studied at King's College, Cambridge, where he was elected to an Honorary Fellowship in 1946. He wrote six novels, four of which appeared before the First World War: Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905), The Longest Journey (1907), A Room with a View (1908) and Howard's End (1910). Fourteen years later A Passage to India was published, winning the Prix Femina Vie Heureuse and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. E M Forster died in June 1970.

Customer Reviews

Deservedly a classic
An elegant evocation of British India and the racial tensions which divide the colonizer from the colonised. Miss Quested, a young English woman in India for the first time, suggests that she may have been attacked by an ingratiating India during an outing laid on to please her. Amid the outpouring of racial distrust which her accusation sparks, the voices of reason and sense, and even her own doubts as to what actually happened, are completely lost. An Englishman becomes an outcast from his own for speaking in defence of an India and a kindly woman is rejected by her family for of speaking her truth rather than that of the British Raj. The events that follow, demonstrate Forster's view of the impossibility of friendships across racial divides; of unifying India as a single nation and of the duration of the British Raj.

Forster brings his own perspective to 'the India question; and is deeply critical of the British position. But this is not a one sided novel: it exposes uncomfortable truthes regarding India as much as it does uncomfortable truthes of Empire and Oppression.

Forster's Masterpiece - a clash of cultures
As a British colonialist in India himself, Forster saw first hand the obstacles to friendship between the native Indian people and their political masters in the last days of the Raj. His study in racial and romantic tension is a beautiful work of sensitive literature at its best - it strives to understand and explore but isn't preachy or dogmatic. Forster's hero, the well meaning but ultimately inneffectual Fielding tries to break down barriers by cultivating a friendship with Dr Aziz but circumstances, prejudice and social, religious and political differences contrive to make this impossible. The British community and, by extension, the British Raj is portrayed as a stuffy, exclusive, snobbish Gentleman's Club with its strict moral codes and jingoistic traditions - populated by sad anonymous bureaucrats - the Turtons and the Burtons whose attempts try to preserve their quaint "civilised" English traditions, tea parties etc in a hostile climate are gently ridiculed. Fielding is an "outsider" - undoubtedly an anti-biographical portrait, who wants to get to know Indians on level terms, outside of the ruler-subject relationship. Forster shows that Indian society is multi layered, a rigid caste system with a mixture of social and religious tensions of its own - the Muslim and Hindu factions form an uneasy alliance under the yolk of the British Empire. As the climate gets hotter and the uncomfortable physical conditions mirror the political situation the novel explodes due to a horrendous and unfortunate misunderstanding which drives the two sides towards an edgy and violent confrontation. Forster's marvellous prose is wonderfully descriptive and the imagery introduces poetic and philosophic themes about the nature of Life and our place in the Universe - the very landscape becomes an important influence, or obstacle. If there is a simple message in the novel, it is that life isn't simple and if we want to live in harmony with other human beings we must try to lose our preconceptions and social conditioning and try to get to know each other. That could never happen in Forster's India or in this novel but it is an uplifting and deeply rewarding read every time.

The Kindness and Caring Required to Bridge Cultural Gaps
A Passage to India vividly demonstrates the psychology of how people avoid those who are different than themselves. The litmus test of this problem is identified by how even friendly people assume the worst about others, rather than keeping an open mind or assuming the best.

The book is less successful at providing a model of how to overcome those weaknesses. Mrs. Moore, a visiting Englishwoman, in the book successfully establishes a friendship with Dr. Aziz, a Muslim physician in Chandrapore, India. The connection is deeply embedded in her sincere interest in all other people and their feelings. She arrives in the book with that empathy, and only one of her sons also seems to have the same fineness of emotional connection. Another son clearly doesn't. So, it's a rare trait, even in families. There is no evidence of how to create that attitude which leads to such rapid and firm trust.

More typical is the friendship between Dr. Aziz and Cyril Fielding. Both are committed to each other, but are quick to suspect each other's motives. A continuing effort allows them to reconcile. One has to suppose that their relationship is the model that E.M. Forester had in mind for most of us. We can connect with others we respect and like, and with hard work can overcome miscommunications and suspicion.

Dr. Aziz is portrayed in a very thoughtful way. He wants to have friends across the cultural divide, and makes enormous efforts in that respect. However, his intentions often have unintended consequences. He bears up and moves forward. I was impressed from this character about the need to have many people who seek friendship in order to make connections possible.

The plot builds around the arrival of Mrs. Moore, the mother of a local English magistrate, with Miss Adela Quested, who is considering whether to marry Mrs. Moore's magistrate son. Like many newcomers to colonial India, they are interested in meeting native people and seeing the local sites. In attempting to respond to their interests, the various connections take place. Both are initially appalled by the attitude of those English people who have long lived in India towards the Hindus and Muslims there.

The book raises important questions at several levels, such as:

(1) Can people with very different religious beliefs live in peace with one another?

(2) Can colonialism ever be anything other than bad for all involved?

(3) How should one adapt to the local community in which one lives, if it is different from one's own background?

(4) What should people be willing to do to help one another?

(5) What should people not do to help one another?

(6) How can mistrust be dispelled?

(7) How does racism harm the person who is a racist?

A major drawback of the book is that many of the characters are usually unappealing. Even Mrs. Moore, who serves as the ideal in many ways, retreats into self-centered inaction as her health fails. Miss Quested repays Dr. Aziz's hospitality with putting his life and finances in great peril. Cyril Fielding seems to often do too little to bridge the cultural gaps. Dr. Aziz often comes across as a toady. The other English people have severe drawbacks. The characters are often surmounted by their agendas.

One aspect of the book that I liked was the way it showed how those accused of crimes bring out the fundamental social flaws of the community. This happens in fiction in Gone with the Wind in the sequence where Scarlett has some problems driving her carriage, and her complaints lead the white men to attack the African-Americans who live in the area where her problem occurred. In France, the trial of the Jewish Captain Dreyfus created a similar split in the community and rise in racist feelings and actions.

The story also seems a little dated, so that the characters seem too extreme to us today to be credible. They more often seem to be caricatures than characters.

After you read this story, think about whom you ignore. Why do you do that? What effect does it have on those you ignore? What effect does it have on you? What should you do?

Seek friendship and mutual understanding among all those you meet!