E.M.Forster’s novel ‘A Passage to India’ narrates the social and political condition of the days of the British Raj and the relation between the colonial masters and their Indian subjects. The relationship was strained and fragile. The novel presents the fractious and mistrustful sentiment that permeated this unequal relation and even gestures or attitudes which radiated friendliness and amicability got botched and thwarted in confusion and suspicion. The principal characters in the novel are Dr Aziz, Ms. Adela Quested, Ms. Moore, Mr. Fielding and others. For the Britishers, India is a muddle. In their self-set aim to establish justice in the country, they display cold impersonality and superciliousness towards the natives. But there are people like Mr. Fielding and Ms. Moore who desire to meet and understand the local people. In fact Mr. Fielding is regarded with suspicion by the Britishers because he is educating the Indians and education would make them dissatisfied. The women disliked him more because he didn’t make petty talk and didn’t dine out.
Miss Quested accepts everything that Dr Aziz says as the truth. For her Aziz is India. But she couldn’t know that this outlook was limited: “That no one is India”
Things take a critical turn when Dr. Aziz plans a visit to the Marabar caves with the Ladies. Ms. Moore is affected by the echo in the caves and she is haunted with a certain dubiousness which seemed to say, “Everything is, but nothing has value.” Ms Quested leaves the caves without parting from Dr. Aziz and after arriving at Chandrapore, Dr Aziz is arrested by the inspector of Police. Dr. Aziz is accused of assaulting Ms Quested. But she is confused and cannot accuse him with conviction. She says, he never actually touched her once. She mutters in half-relief and half-horror that Aziz is innocent. Life was simple for an instance before it got confused again. The novel steers clear of perceived, popular and exotic notions of India. Yet it observes the ‘Orient’ to be incomprehensible and different. There is an unbridgeable gap, the horses did not want and the earth did not want to bridge this gap. The obfuscation that is India for many of the Britishers reinforces the notion regarding the complexity of the Orient. This novel has been made into a movie by David Lean. More about some novels from the East in the next post (To be continued)