A Passage to India (Unabridged) [Audio Download]

Almost a century after the book's publication the most crucial problems it discussed are as current as they were during Forster's life. The impossibility of communicating across the divide of culture, religion, and race, seems to be even more alive then when he saw it. The value of the novel lies not so much in representing it but in the fact that Forster offers a way out - personal contact.
The story takes us to India of the 1920s - we follow the path of a young Englishwoman who goes to marry a British official but wants to know "the real India". This she never achieves but she gets to know something by far more important - herself. Her inept attempts at connecting with India and Indians make other characters of the novel learn more about themselves, force them out of safe shells in which they lived. The lesson is painful but at least for some of the characters opens the door to a better life.
There is little chance people will suddenly like Muslims, Pakistanis, gays, lesbians, Moroccans, Turkish, Kurds etc etc - there is a chance (a very slim chance, Forster would be quick to add) that a specific American and a specific Muslim, a Turk and a Kurd, an Israeli and a Palestinian can be friends. The world may not want it, the people that surround them may not want it but the results depend on us alone. If we do not try we only have ourselves to blame.

When I first picked up Forster's classic novel, I wasn't sure what to expect. As a modern, 21st century reader, a book about colonial India didn't seem particularly appealing. However, A Passage to India exceeded all my expectations. The characters were both believeable and convincing but what is most striking are Forster's descriptions of setting. He brings India to life so that we not only see what it was like to live there, we almost hear and smell it too! I know that Forster's book has its flaws and is not always completely accurate but it is still one of the most important novels concerning the conflict between rulers and natives around. Read it!

The novel is highly regarded by critics as a portrait of socio-religious-political ethnicity in the latter days of the raj, written by an author with a profound interest in Indian culture and a liberal's view of the ruling British attitude. Forster spent several years in India gleaning an insight into the beliefs and mores of Hinduism and Islam, and the clashing cultures of East and West which form the backbone of the novel. In addition he packs the novel with additional issues. And `there's the rub'; he has so much to say that it's done at the expense of a plot subordinated to philosophical badinage and tit for tat conversations which occasionally border on the trite.

The novel begins brightly enough, with a lyrical account of Mrs Moore's meeting with Dr Aziz in the moonlight mosque. The two central female characters, Mrs Moore and her protégée, plain naive and neurotic Adela Quested have just arrived in India to fulfil Moore's hopes that Adela will marry her magistrate son Ronny. Adela, a virtuoso of the faux-pas, innocently tramples on the natives' sensibilities, culminating in the famous court case where she makes a wrongful accusation against Dr Aziz only to retract it, causing a scandal which rocks all levels of society both Indian and British. These events account for the first and second part of the novel, which are not without some lighter moments, and despite the minimal plot are entertaining and in the main very readable. The author's tendency to overwork pronouns and omit proper nouns is a little trying when the reader has to backtrack to find out who's speaking. And there is the missed opportunity to inject more atmosphere into the visit to the caves which have such an effect on the two English ladies.

However, towards the end of Part two with the departure of Mrs Moore, Adela and Cyril Fielding the main British protagonists, the novel loses momentum and we are left with the Indians bickering among themselves. Fielding's return, having married Moore's daughter does little to restore the interest, and the reader is left wishing more had been made of a disappointing finale.

The appendices which run to thirty three pages contain a lot of esoteric dissertation that may be of interest to specialists and four short rather matter of fact essays by Forster.