A Passage to India

Introduction

A Passage to India, a novel written by E.M. Forster, which published in (1924) whose three parts represent respectively the Muslim, Western and Hindu approaches to truth, rationality and spirituality. Forster visited India in 1912-13, and the Barabar Hills there became in his novel the Marabar Caves - the setting for the fateful encounter at the heart of the book. Forster returned to India for six months in 1921, to act as secretary to the Maharaja of Dewas, after which he went back to writing the novel, which he had begun in 1913 (Sen, pp. 12-32). The title is from the poem of the same name by Walt Whitman (1819-92), of whom Forster wrote that there was 'no-one who can so suddenly ravish us into communion with all humanity or with death' (Two Cheers for Democracy). In this connection, this study will attempt to answer that the following questions:

What does Forster's representation of white liberals and their sympathetic attitudes toward the Indians and what does this suggest about his attitudes toward liberalism?

Background of the Novel “A Passage to India”

The novel had originally been planned ten years earlier, and its picture of India belongs partly to that period. The scene is the city of Chandrapore on the banks of the Ganges, and India is under British rule. The background characters consist mainly of the British officials and their wives, and the local Indian intelligentsia. The main characters are as follows: Aziz, a Muslim Indian doctor; Godbole, a Hindu professor; Fielding, the headmaster of the Government College; Ronald Heaslop, another of the British officials; and two visitors from Britain, Mrs Moore, the mother of Heaslop by her first marriage, and Adela Quested, who is engaged to him. Both women have strong liberal principles, and make friends easily with Fielding, the only liberal in the resident British colony. Fielding is also a friend of Aziz, and a colleague of Godbole (JanMohamed, pp. 59-87). Aziz issues an impulsive invitation to the British visitors to visit the local Marabar Caves; these have a strong significance for the Hindus, although Godbole, when he is asked about them, is unable to explain it. The climax of the book occurs when this visit takes place. Heat, discomfort, and the caves themselves cause Mrs Moore and Adela to suffer traumatic experiences. Mrs Moore loses all her faith and idealism; Adela has an attack of hysteria which temporarily convinces her that Aziz has attempted to rape her. This supposed rape brings the already strained relations between the British and the Indians to a crisis, but the crisis is resolved (not without disgracing the more reactionary British officials) by Adela's return to sanity in the witness-box. Mrs Moore, although she is now selfish, hard and disillusioned, whereas before she had been generous, kind and idealistic, is in touch with a new kind of truthfulness which helps Adela's restoration (Olive, pp. 32-35). Only Mrs Moore and Godbole understand the true nature of Adela's experience in the caves, and they understand ...