Review : A Passage to India

E.M. Forster's 'A Passage To India', set in the British Raj during the early twentieth century provides a useful insight of the Indian scenario from the colonial perspective and explores conflicting themes. Said to be based on Forster's experiences in India, the novel borrows its name from Walt Whitman's poem of the same title in 'Leaves of Grass'. The novel published in 1924 is centered around the city of Chandrapore with its only attraction being the Marabar Caves twenty miles off the city. The novel is divided into three parts – Mosque, Caves, Temple. The tripartite division is significant as the events in each of the three parts are centered around these locales. It is in the Mosque that Dr. Aziz, a medical student at the city hospital, meets Mrs. Moore, mother of the District Magistrate Mr. Heaslop . The picnic to the Marabar Caves and the subsequent events form an important part of the novel. Though events are not occurring at the temple, the word 'temple' here is symbolic of Hindu religious practices as the scene opens with the celebration of the birth of Lord Krishna and following events and the court of a Hindu Rajah of the state of Mau.
'A Passage To India' begins and ends by posing the question whether it is possible for an Englishman and an Indian to be friends, at least within the context of British colonialism. The second chapter begins with the discussion on the aforesaid question. Mahmoud Ali, the lawyer, stated that it was impossible while Hamidullah argued "that it is possible in England." Even though Dr. Aziz was scornful of the British, he was open to friendship. In the second chapter itself when Dr. Aziz encountered Mrs. Moore at mosque, after a misunderstanding, they became good friends, so much so that they shared details of their lives in the first meeting itself. Aziz's bond with Mrs. Moore was so deep that even after years when he met her children, he treated Ralph and Stella with a similar gesture of friendliness. The greater issue of friendship explored in the novel is that of Dr. Aziz and Mr. Fielding, the principal of a the Government College,an independent man who believed in educating the Indians to be individuals - a much more sympathetic attitude towards the native than that held by most English in India. The friendship between the two began when Mr. Fielding invited Aziz to his place for a tea party. Though the two men had not met before, they treated each other informally, which delighted Dr. Aziz. Meanwhile, Mr. Fielding 'stamped' the collar - stud for his shirt, Dr. Aziz quickly removed his own and gave it to Mr. Fielding. Though they associated quickly , the tea party ended on a bitter note with Mr. Heaslop's arrival and his suspicion about Dr. Aziz. Three days after the tea party, Dr. Aziz fell ill. Mr. Fielding visited him shortly along with his other friends who discussed the existence of God. While Dr. Aziz's other friends had left, Mr. Fielding had been waiting in the porch for servant to bring his horse when Dr. Aziz called him and directed him to a drawer which contained a photograph of his late wife. Flattered, Mr. Fielding thanked Dr. Aziz for the honour of seeing the picture. Dr. Aziz told Mr. Fielding that he liked him because he valued men acting as brothers. In the first half of the novel, Aziz and Fielding represent a model of Liberal Humanism.
The next time they meet is on a picnic to Marabar Caves in which Dr. Aziz had invited Mr. Fielding, Mrs. Moore, Miss Adela Quested, a companion of Mrs. Moore and a lady to be betrothed to Mr. Heaslop and Professor Godbole, a professor in Mr. Fielding's College. Though Mr. Fielding missed the train, he reached there in Miss Derek's (an English lady who worked under one of the maharanis) car. It's after Adela's accusation that Dr. Aziz attempted to assault her in the cave, that their friendship begins to fall apart. Cracks appear when Mr. Fielding, who had promised to accompany Dr. Aziz when Mr. Haq came to arrest him, acting on Mr. Turton's order, got down the train before Dr. Aziz. Dr. Aziz felt a sense of betrayal. Mr. Fielding, who was sure that Aziz had not committed the crime, tried to contact Adela to speak to her about the incident and also urged the officials that Aziz was not guilty but he was considered treacherous by his fellow Englishmen who then asked him to leave the membership of the club, which he happily did. Aziz's feelings for Mr. Fielding hardened when he discovered that he was not present after his victory when he was shouting for him and was instead escorting Adela to his college to provide her a shelter. Aziz also succumbed to the rumour of alleged affair between Adela and Mr. Fielding and further lost his nerve when Mr. Fielding asked Dr. Aziz not to demand a reparation from Adela because she would suffer more and lose all she had. After two years, when Dr. Fielding returned as the Education Inspector in the state of Mau where Dr. Aziz was now employed as the physician of the Rajah and wrote to him, Dr. Aziz didn't respond and tore the letter apart instead because Dr. Aziz felt that his friend had betrayed him and married Adela for her money. When Dr. Aziz and his children passed by the shrine, they discovered that Fielding has married Stella and not Adela. Next day when they met, the party decided to go for boating where Dr. Aziz and Mr. Fielding re-unite. But in the closing chapter of the novel, when both of them went out for hunting they realized the differences in their opinions. Mr. Fielding maintained that the Empire was necessary for India while Dr. Aziz envisioned a Free India. When Mr. Fielding said that, "you and I shall be friends". Dr. Aziz replied with a denial that they can not be friends 'now'. The nature – horse, rocks, sky, etc doesn't want them to be friends 'yet'. The landscape itself implies that they can either be friends in the English soil or in the Independent India.
Historians have often argued that 'white' women were actors in the creation of racial animosity, that then substantiated imperial dominance. The second important theme explored is the role of 'white' women as portrayed in the novel. The 'white' women shared the dislike of their husbands towards the natives. The earliest mention of women is in the second chapter when Dr. Aziz visits Major Callendar's house and on seeing the two ladies (Mrs. Lesley and Mrs. Callendar ),he lifts his hat, who merely glance and leave. Instead they got into his hired tonga without asking him and left without a word of thanks which only showed their insolence (Major Callendar himself had called up Dr. Aziz but left by the time latter had turned up,even without a message for him). The other 'white' woman introduced in the story is Mrs. Moore. The lady was new to India. She was a kind religious woman who didn't share the antipathy of other English women towards the natives. She took off her shoes before entering the mosque, thus showing due respect to the place. She condemned her son's behavior with the natives and chided him for the same. In fact Miss Adela Quested disliked the 'snubbing' behavior of the English ladies at 'The Bridge Party'. She also wowed "never" to "get like that" and felt the need of allies . In this chapter during the conversation between Dr . Aziz and Mr. Fielding, they discussed about marriage and in turn talked about Miss Quested's engagement with Mr. Heaslop thus commenting on the physical structure of Miss Quested. Though they talked about women , she was reduced to a mere medium of exchange. After the meeting at club which was arranged for, due to Miss Quested's accusations, Mr. Turton, the Collector equated "women and children" as the ones who could act less responsibly and naturally, earlier while addressing the women, he had asked women to behave normally. Once Mr . Turton , commented " After all, it's our women who make everything more difficult out here." Miss Quested's allegations alarmed the entire community and they were up on their sleeves to get Dr. Aziz punished and Mr. Heaslop also disregarded Adela's later insistence that Aziz was not guilty and passed it off saying that it was the effect of Mr. Fielding's letter on her. Later during trial when she withdrew her charges, she was insulted by Mrs. Turton and Mr. Heaslop. Adela later confessed to Mr. Fielding that it was the Guide who had assaulted her and not Dr. Aziz. Aware of the fact that Mrs. Moore knew of Dr. Aziz's innocence and that he would be acquitted if Mrs. Moore appeared at the court, Mr. Heaslop sent her back to England. It can be argued that the role the 'white' women was quite paradoxical. As Mrinalini Sinha has argued in her article "Chathams, Pitts and Gladstones in Petticoats : The Politics of Gender and Race in the Ilbert Bill Controversy" that according to Sir Lepel Griffin, a British official in India, "for to be womanly is the highest praise for a woman, as to be masculine is her worst reproach." A woman, considered so feminine could hardly be the actors in the creation of racial animosity, there were mere followers of what their husbands believed and behaved the way they wanted her to behave. Thus, the belief that 'white' women were better off than Indian women stands as a myth and is revealed well at The Bridge Party when one of the Indian ladies responded to Adela's queries in English and spoke of Hyde Park Corner. During the Ilbert Bill Agitation of 1883-1884, it was argued that 'white' women wouldn't be imparted impartial justice under the Indian judges, the trial scene as well as the accusations satirizes the question of impartial justice because in this case it was the man who had been charged with false allegations and even with the judge being an Indian the chances of his being acquitted was less.
The issue of the bifurcation of the geographical and social spaces between the British and the Natives is also found to be addressed in the novel. The first chapter of the novel itself addressed the issue when the author in his description of Chandrapore, mentioned "Houses belonging to the Eurasians stand on high ground by the railway station. Beyond the railway – the land sinks, then rises again rather steeply. On the second rise is laid out the little civil station,". The houses on the higher ground or raised platform marked the superiority of the British over the Natives and also symbolized supervision, patrolling and control from a higher position. The distance between the living space of the Natives and the British was so enormous that one needed a tonga or a bicycle to reach. The English Club, where the Natives were not allowed marked the separation of social spaces. This bifurcation was also witnessed at The Bridge Party organized by the Collector where the Indians stood on one side of the Tennis lawn separately at the club while the Englishmen were busy with their affairs. The Indian women and the 'purdah' was despised by the British ladies who considered themselves more refined and civilized. Instances for the division of the spaces between the Indians themselves are found during the festival of Muharram when the Hindus intentionally bent the branch of the trees to hinder the passage of the long taziyas carried during the processions by the Muslims, thus leading to riots. At the tea party, Adela complained of the Bhattacharyas who had promised to send a carriage to fetch Adela and Mrs. Moore to their place, hadn't turned up, on which Dr. Aziz called the Bhattacharyas "Slack Hindus" and also maintained that it was due to the Hindus that most of the diseases spread. Dr. Aziz always spoke of The Mughals, mainly of Alamgir whom he considered his ideal and Akbar whom he condemned because he had wanted to unite India through a new religion and often spoke of Babur. Dr. Aziz's constant reference to Islam as the truest faith and his poems of Ghalib brought about his early conservatism. It is only later that his views changed by the third part of the novel. The gathering at Hamidullah's place only consisted of Muslims. Professor Godbole's hymns , his indifference when Mr. Fielding asked him whether he considered Dr. Aziz guilty. These instances implied not only geographical and social separation but also psychological separation. The segregation of spaces can also be seen within the English group when Mrs. Turton herself admits that she earlier treated Adela and had snubbed Mrs. Blakiston , wife of a small railway official.
The disillusionment of the Indians with the British rule is also expressed in the earlier part of the novel when Dr. Aziz reached Hamiduallah's place late on being invited for a dinner and during a conversation when one of them replied saying "Imagine us both as addressing you from another and a happier world." Signifying that they are not happy here. This disillusionment is also felt during the trial when Mahmoud Ali left the courtroom shouting "we are both slaves" , "this trial is a farce,". Dr. Aziz left the job at the city hospital to work for the Rajah of the state of Mau because he had become disillusioned and dissatisfied with the British rule.
Interwoven to the theme of the disillusionment of Indians is the notion "encounter gives birth to the idea of nationalism" which can be clearly seen in case of Dr. Aziz, who earlier was not a rebel against the British rule but the accusation from a British lady whom he treated well followed by his subsequent arrest and the trial, had by the time of his victory in the case had lost faith in The British Government, in friendship and humanity. A conservative Muslim turned into a radical nationalist who preferred to work under a fellow Indian and envisioned a free India where there wouldn't any 'purdah' system, where there would be equality, an India where the natives would live together peacefully without the fear of the British.
As mentioned elsewhere the novel provided the perspective of the British, the ones who felt alienated and disillusioned, who couldn't understand the label 'Anglo –Indian' . They cease to remain the English and can neither associate themselves with the English nor the Natives. Mrs. Moore, though she wanted to discover the unknown land earlier, later felt dejected and longed to return back to her homeland. She often felt sick and the echoes at the Marabar Caves disturbed her and the thought of God, the fear that in the distant land of India she was far from God sickened her more. Adela became the worst victim of the alienation. Though she came to India to decide whether she wanted to marry Mr. Heaslop, her inquisitiveness to discover 'India' , the maltreatment of the Indians by her countrymen irked her too. She couldn't decide for herself in any of the circumstances – whether she wanted to marry Ronny or not, was she really assaulted at the cave, was it Dr. Aziz who assaulted her, was it the guide or was it a concoction of her feverish brain, what disturbed her, why did she hear echoes long after her visit to the caves, why couldn't she recount the exact incident, etc. The author too expressed his dejection in the opening lines of the novel "Except for the Marabar Caves – and they are twenty miles off – the city of Chandrapore presents nothing extra ordinary." A sense of futility and nothigness could be felt in these lines. India is regarded as a 'muddle' more than a 'mystery'. Mr. Turton too dislikes his life in India. Mr. Fielding found it hard to understand why the Indians needed to be ill treated and he also became alienated from his group during the incident of Aziz's trial.
Lastly, the attitude of the British towards the Natives is clearly visible. Mrs. Callendar once remarked, "the kindest thing one can do to a native is to let him die … They give me the creeps." The Indians are addressed as 'subalterns' and 'niggers'. Mrs. Turton remarked "they oughtn't to be spoken to, they ought to be spat at, they ought to be ground into the dust,".
The novel 'A Passage To India' written during the later phase of the British rule in India turns out to be primary source to provide the glimpse of India from the perspective of a British. The city of Chandrapore is a model which represents the entire country, the same feeling of dejection on the part of British and the Indians share the same disillusionment and the vision of a free India. The novel justifies its purpose well.












BOOK REVIEW OF
A PASSAGE TO INDIA
BY
E.M. FORSTER







SUBMITTED BY-
SADAF RUKHSAR YUSUF
M.A. 1ST YEAR, 1ST SEMSTER,
ROLL NO. 122
PRESIDENCY UNIVERSITY,KOLKATA
DATE – 22.09.2014