Synopsis:
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
The
novel is set during the British Raj. Chandrapore is a town on the Ganges
in north
–eastern India. It is without interest save for the Marabar Hills and
their extraordinary caves that lie twenty miles away. Adela Quested
accompanies Mrs Moore on a visit ot Chandrapore to see her son, the new
City Magistrate, Ronny Heaslop. Adela and Ronny have met in England and
the primary purpose of the visit is to confirm an engagement between the
young couple. Adela
is a serious-minded girl who wants to see “the real India”.
While she is at the English Club expessing this wish, Mrs Moore
meets a young Moslem, Dr Aziz, by chance in a small mosque on a an
evening walk by herself. Aziz
is proud and sensitive; a social evening with his friend has just been
disrupted by an imperious summons by his superior at the City Hospital,
Major Callendar, and a snub by his wife. He is angry at first, but, when
he sees that Mrs Moore respects his religion, an intimacy quickly
develops between them. To
please Adela, the Collector, Mr Turton, arranges a Bridge Party, where
the English visitors can meet some local Indians at the club. This is
not a success, but the women meet Cyril Fielding, the Principal of the
Government College. He likes their liberal attitude and invites them to
tea at the college along with the Hindu Brahmin, Professor Godbole, and
Dr Aziz. He has wanted to meet Aziz for some time and the feeling is
mutual. Aziz arrives early and they immediately establish a friendly
rapport. The tea-party starts well and Aziz impetuously invites the
English ladies on an expedition to visit the Marabar Hills and their
famous caves. However, Ronny arrives, is displeased by the lax
informality of the gathering and the party breaks up in some discomfort.
Adela considers that Anglo-Indian life has changed Ronny for the worse
and decides that she cannot marry him, but a mysterious car accident
brings them together again. The first section ends with Adela and Ronny
now formally engaged, and Fielding and Aziz firm friend. The
ill-fated expedition to the Marabar Caves coincides with the arrival of
the hot weather. Matters do not go smoothly from the start as Fielding
and Godbole miss the train. Despite Aziz’s costly and elaborate
preparations, the visit proves to be a disappointment. On entering the
first cave, Mrs Moore becomes ill. She suffers from claustrophobia and
also from a strange spiritual disillusionment caused by the cave’s
empty echo. Apart from a single guide, Adela and Aziz go on alone. They
become separated and enter different caves. The guide loses Adela and
Aziz and next sees her at the foot of the hills talking to an Enlish
woman, Miss Derek. They drive away. Aziz arrives back at the camp to
find that Fielding has arrived in Miss Derek’s car. He is so pleased
that he makes light of Adela’s strange behaviour. On their return to
Chandrapore, Aziz is arrested for molesting Adela in a cave. In an
atmosphere of hysteria and racial mistrust, attitudes soon harden
between the British and Indian communities. Fielding believes that Aziz
has been falsely accused and resigns from the English Club. Adela has
suffered a breakdown, complaining of a strange echo in her head. Mrs
Moore also acts strangely; she too believes Aziz to be innocent, but
takes no further interest in the proceedings and soon leaves India for
home. On the day of the trial, she dies at sea, but Indians outside the
court chant her name, believing she would testify for the defence if she
could. Inside Adela is led through the events of the fateful day and
suddenly declares Aziz to be innocent. The trial breaks-up in disorder;
Adela is disowned by the Anglo-Indian community and is protected by
Fielding, much to the displeasure of Aziz and his Indian friends. Adela
and Fielding grow to like and respect each other, but cannot make any
sense of the events at the Marabar Hills. Ronny breaks off the
engagement and Adela leaves for home. Aziz is suspicious that Fielding
plans to marry Adela himself and has persuaded him to forgo his rightful
compensation for that reason. He is deliberately absent from Chandrapore
when Fielding, too, departs for leave in England. The
final section of the novel takes place at Mau, a Hindu native stat in
central India, two years later. Godbole is Minister for Education and,
through his influence, Aziz is now the personal physician of the
Maharajah. It is the time of the monsoon and the climax of the Gokul
Ashtami festivities celebrating the birth of Krishna. Godbole remembers
Mrs More in a trance-like state as he leads the religious worship. Aziz
learns of Fielding’s arrival on an official visit as an Education
Inspector with his wife and her brother. Believing that Fielding has
married Adela, he has no wish to meet him. When they do meet at a small
Moslem shrine, de discovers that it is not Adela that Fielding has
married but Stella, Mrs Moore’s daughter by her second marriage and
half-sister of Ronny Heaslop. Later that evening, he visits the State
Guest House to attend Ralph Moore who has been stung by bees. He finds
himself strangely drawn to him, just as he was to his mother. They row
out onto the great Mau tank to see the final torchlight procession of
Gokul Ashtami. Fielding and Stella are also in a boat which collides
with them, capsizing everyone together into the water at the conclusion
of the festival. This accident heals the breach between the two friends
but, as they go riding the following day, they recognise they cannot
sustain true friendship while political inequality exists between their
two nations. Despite their private feelings for each other, the Indian
earth and sky will always intervene to cry
“No, not yet” and “No, not there” (chapter 37, p. 289). |