Review of: Forster, E.M. A Passage to India. Illustrations by Christopher Magadini. Afterward by Scott Russell Sanders. New York: The World’s Best Reading; The Reader’s Digest Association, 1989.

            Works of fiction must do more than capture a few moments of history in which the writer TELLS the story. More than the “spirit of the age,” a story must SHOW the conflict in human nature which really gives the story lasting impact. While the times change, and different events dominate different periods, human nature repeats itself, more than the events of “doomed” history. In effect, human nature, and particularly the cultures that it cultivates in different parts of the world, effect civilization more than the kings, presidents, ministers, generals and popes that fill the history books. Real people, common people, define the times and live the events.

            Such a play on human nature in conflict occurs in E.M. Forster’s A Passage to India, an underrated classic of 20^th Century English literature. In the novel, Forster constructs a normal, eager to please life of Dr. Aziz, an Indian in British India an a widower with children who live far away from him. Dr. Aziz has a reputable circle of Indian friends, like other doctors, school teachers, and lawyers, all living under the yoke of colonialism’s final years before World War II.

            Britain has placed in her empire a relatively small group of career, mostly English middle class, civil servants and soldiers who have come to live in India for decades as a social elite. They would receive fewer privileges back home in the United Kingdom. They’ve come to India to serve the Crown in a secure, comfortable, privileged lifestyle in a far away and “backward” land. The British rule through their Indian collaborators, those who serve the British to gain advantages over others in their caste system of social rank over the masses and the “undesirables.”

            The British had for more than a century effectively divided and ruled their vast empire on the backs of native policeman and soldiers obeying white British courts, bureaucrats, and officers. Far, far in the background of the novel lurks the Congress Party, India’s movement for independence. The rights of Indians may not be talked about openly, but there are hints that not all of native India’s professional class of middle bureaucrats like British rule.

            In a strange fate, Dr. Aziz meets Mrs. Moore. Mrs. Moore is the twice widowed English lady who has come to India to visit her son by her first marriage, the district magistrate who distributes justice on the breakers of British law. Mrs. Moore has brought with her the rather homely Miss Adela Quested, the betrothed of Mrs. Moore’s son. Miss Quested has come to India to explore the world and to test her doubts about her fitness for a proper, middle class English marriage.

            In the highly segregated colony known as the Raj, Mrs. Moore and Miss Quested have access to the best India has to offer–white doctors, white clubs, and white friends by virtue of their whiteness. They live first in line before Indians in everything from taxi cabs to displays of obeisance by the mixed, rich variety of India’s many sub-cultures. White clubs play an especially bitter role for people like Dr. Aziz, a Muslim, for the doctor sees himself divided from people by whom he has a longing, even a lusting to be accepted as moral equal.

            Miss Quested and Mrs. Moore came to India not knowing they would break the first rule of colonialism. The two curious ladies want “to see the real India;” to meet real Indians. A party to mingle with local dignitaries fails on the tennis lawns of the white club, the lawns being as far as the Indians are allowed to go on the property. The locals are never allowed to enter the enter the island of white society and white pleasures in an overwhelming sea of Asiatics. To help the women satisfy their curiosity, Aziz offers the ill-thought invitation to Mrs. Moore and Miss Quested to join him in a picnic to explore the far off famous caves at Malabar. Aziz shocked his Indian friends by offering an invitation which could only lead to catastrophe. The two ladies horrified their British peers by accepting by invitation for the same reason.

            Mingling between the two worlds of ruled and rulers, liking neither for their faults, trusted by neither for his virtues, moves the head of the local school, Mr. Fielding. Mr. Fielding has been in India almost 20 years, secure in his beliefs and in his job, but disliking the self-loathing that imperialism causes to both the oppressed and the oppressor.

            Mr. Fielding misses the train to Malabar. Before he realizes it, his close friend, Dr. Aziz, is on trial for attempted rape. Dr. Aziz’ honor, his most valuable property, is completely ruined.

            What happened at the Malabar caves? Can Mr. Fielding save his self-respect, fight the forces of ignorance and prejudice of both the rulers and ruled, and do justice to his own people and his Indian friends, especially the now resentful Dr. Aziz?

            These are some very good reasons for reading A Passage to India. Not only do the author’s artful prose and brilliant style of showing a story make the novel a good read. The lessons learned in the story of human nature and of cultures in conflict can relate to the modern world. Forster constructs a warning that justice, fairness, and equality can create peace and understanding between vastly different peoples in a connected and connecting world. What the novel tells about every day human nature may reveal some secrets as to why the world has rules, and why some rules are stupid and need to change. Finally, the novel is just good, easy to follow, well-done writing. Read and enjoy.