A Passage to India is the first book I’ve read from E. M. Forster, and it will not be the last. The book, which was written in 1924, presents scenes of India under British rule. Selected as one of the best 100 books of the 20th century by the Modern Library, the novel also managed to enter Time Magazine’s “All Time 100 Novels” list. The novel, inspired by the years spent by the author in India, exquisitely captures the relations between the British and the people of India.
A Passage to India is a novel about four characters. Dr Aziz, his English friend Mr Cyril Fielding, Ms Moore and Ms Adela Quested. Dr Aziz is a man who tries to understand the British and thinks that he can be friends with them. He invites his British friends to a trip to the Marabar Caves to make these thoughts a reality. These caves have an interesting feature; when you make a sound in them, you can hear it in a different cave.
Adela was in one of the caves with a thousand thoughts in her mind when she thinks she is alone in the caves with Dr Aziz. She panics and quickly escapes from the cave. This escape will cause different events afterwards. In the novel, you will see very clearly how the British have been managing in this country and think about colonialism a lot. E. M. Forster should be in your library with at least one of his books. You’ll enjoy reading his complex characters and exquisite criticism. Enjoy!
A Passage to India
Exploring issues of colonialism, faith and the limits of comprehension, E.M. Forster’s A Passage to India is edited by Oliver Stallybrass, with an introduction by Pankaj Mishra.
When Adela Quested and her elderly companion Mrs Moore arrive in the Indian town of Chandrapore, they quickly feel trapped by its insular and prejudiced ‘Anglo-Indian’ community. Determined to escape the parochial English enclave and explore the ‘real India’, they seek the guidance of the charming and mercurial Dr Aziz, a cultivated Indian Muslim. But a mysterious incident occurs while they are exploring the Marabar caves with Aziz, and the well-respected doctor soon finds himself at the centre of a scandal that rouses violent passions among both the British and their Indian subjects. A masterly portrait of a society in the grip of imperialism, A Passage to India compellingly depicts the fate of individuals caught between the great political and cultural conflicts of the modern world.
E. M. Forster
Edward Morgan Forster OM CH was an English novelist, short story writer, essayist and librettist. Many of his novels examine class difference and hypocrisy, including A Room with a View, Howards End and A Passage to India. The last brought him his greatest success.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
