The Oxford Companion to English Literature | A Passage to India
Passage to India, A, a novel by
E.
M.
Forster
, published
1924
. It is a picture of society in India under the British Raj, of the clash between East and West, and of the prejudices and misunderstandings that foredoomed goodwill. Criticized at first for anti-British and possibly inaccurate bias, it has been praised as a superb character study of the people of one race by a writer of another.
The story is told in three parts, I, Mosque, II, Caves, III, Temple, and concerns Aziz, a young Muslim doctor, whose friendliness and enthusiasm for the British turn to bitterness and disillusionment when his pride is injured. A sympathy springs up between him and the elderly Mrs Moore, who has come to visit her son, the city magistrate. Accompanying her is Adela Quested, young, earnest, and charmless, who longs to know the ‘real’ India and tries to disregard the taboos and snobberies of the British circle. Aziz organizes...
[The entire page is 341 words long]
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