A Passage to India by E.M. Forster

*contains spoilers*


In Chandrapore, India, is where we lay our scene…it’s the early twentieth century, and the British colonial Christians, who find themselves bored and tired of the heat and leisure more than anything, control and keep in line the native Hindu and Muslim population. The arrogance of our British colonial past is often a cringe-inducing affair to read anywhere and anytime, and it stinks of the classism that still chokes our televisions, universities and workplaces to this day: “But of course we’re better than them, darling; they’re council-housed and on benefits, and yet still they just won’t help themselves”, one can feasibly imagine a Tory minister pontificating over their bread maker. If only all our daddies provided us with lifetime support measures such as a trust fund, a private/Oxbridge education, and a secret backdoor into one of London’s top TV companies through family friends. This not-so-subtle allusion to David Cameron’s past, present and future fiscal and social security, and thus his inevitable aversion to the lower classes manifested in his Tory government’s policies, came to my mind as the novel’s British City Magistrate, the red-nosed and naïve Ronny Heaslop, declares a knowledge of, and a distaste for, something he’s never even experienced;


‘“Have you [Heaslop] been to them [the Marabar caves]?’

‘No, but I know all about them, naturally.”’


These sorts of parallels can be inferred throughout, and the disgust some British colonials display mirrors perfectly our own, privileged, upper class’s attitude to what they refer to as “scroungers”; “’Why, the kindest thing one can do to a native is to let him die…’” The ex-nurse, Mrs Callendar, provides her fellow white folks with her own professional opinion at the white-only Club in Chandrapore, where the elite lament their own circumstances, not those of others.


Later on in the novel, the prejudices of the British colonials becomes even more painfully apparent when the arrest and charges against the innocent Dr Aziz are made, and a key player in the arrest, confinement and prosecution of Dr Aziz, Mr Mcbryde, states his own personal philosophy; “’All unfortunate natives are criminals at heart, for the simple reason that they live south of latitude 30…’…Born at Karachi, he seemed to contradict his theory…” What makes this hypocrisy really aggravating is that McBryde admits it openly, vocally, and carries on happily living with this cognitive dissonance each day. Sucking deeper on this toxicity, we are made aware of the official line for the British to toe, which is to never mix with the natives – you are either “with us” or you are “against us”. This strictly binary conflict is vividly apparent in the slurs directed at the Chandrapore school’s headmaster, Cyril Fielding, for his scepticism over Dr Aziz’s alleged guilt in assaulting the newcomer, Miss Adela Quested, in one of the Marabar caves; “…every human act in the East is tainted with officialism, and while honouring [Heaslop] they condemned Aziz and India.” Colonial Brits are expected, in their unquestionable superiority to the natives, to remain loyal and to side with each other in every instance; “Fielding realised [this], and he remained seated.” In standing and opposing Heaslop’s assertions of Aziz’s guilt – before a trial is even underway, notably – Fielding would be casting himself into the wilderness, exiled from the society of his fellow colonial Brits at the Club – so for self-preservation’s sake, he fights the compulsion as best he can. And fails.


Look, I want to carry on…but I’m afraid I’ll have to stop here. This is merely a fraction of what occurred to me on reading this glorious work, which is so beautifully written and structured that you’ll beg for your next hit of Forster. But steady on: he only wrote a few novels, so take your time and savour them. And as I mentioned to a friend – if you struggle at first, just skip to the first paragraph of Part 2 and let that sink in. Then go back to the beginning and start again. You’ll thank me for it.

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