A Passage To India revolves around Dr. Aziz, an Indian, who is accused of sexually assaulting a British woman. This book illustrates how a moment of confusion along with prevailing prejudice can lead to the destruction of a person's life.
Summary Of The Book
A Passage To India is set in the 1920s when India was governed by the British Raj. This novel questions if a Britisher and an Indian could be friends in pre-independence India.
In A Passage To India, two Englishwomen, young Miss Adela Quested and elderly Mrs. Moore decide to tour India. One evening, Dr. Aziz, a young Indian Muslim doctor, meets Mrs. Moore, and the two of them become friends. A few days later, the doctor, Mrs. Moore and Adela get invited to a tea-party. Aziz volunteers to take the ladies on a trip to the Marabar Caves. Once there, Mrs. Moore feels claustrophobic, so she decides to stay behind, whereas Adela and Aziz continue with their expedition. Suddenly Adela disappears, and Aziz finds her broken glasses. Worried, he starts searching for her, only to find Adela outside talking to another Englishwoman. Before he can approach them, the two of them take off. The doctor, along with Mrs. Moore, returns to the railway station.
Unexpectedly, he gets arrested for sexually assaulting Adela in the caves. As the case unfolds, the racial tensions between the white minority and the Indian majority heighten. The Britishers are convinced that Dr. Aziz is guilty, because they believe that all Indian men lust for white women. What will happen to Dr. Aziz?
A Passage To India, originally published in 1924, won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. It was also chosen as one of the hundred great works of English literature by the Modern Library. TIME selected it in its list of the 100 Best English-language novels published from 1923 to 2005.
About The Authors
E. M. Forster, born in 1879, was an English author, and essayist.
Forster has written novels like Where Angels Fear To Tread, Maurice, A Room With A View, The Longest Journey, and Howards End. His short story collections include The Eternal Moment And Other Stories and The Celestial Omnibus And Other Stories.
Forster studied at King's College in Cambridge from 1897 to 1901. During World War I, he volunteered with the International Red Cross. In the 1920s, the author became the secretary of Tukojirao III, the Maharajah of Dewas, in India. After returning to London, Forster established himself as a successful broadcaster on BBC Radio, and received the Benson Medal in 1937. He was selected as an honorary fellow of King's College, Cambridge in 1946. In 1953, he became a Companion of Honour, and a member of the Order of Merit in 1969.
Oliver Stallybrass has also written Howards End, Maurice, Under the Autumn Star, and The Wanderer.
Pankaj Mishra is an Indian author and illustrator.
He has written Butter Chicken in Ludhiana: Travels in Small Town India, The Romantics, An End To Suffering, and Temptations Of The West.
