A Passage to India by E.M. Forster (1924)

The book was written at a time when the end of the British colonial presence in India was becoming a glimmer of a very real possibility. The novel is considered  one of the truly great discussions of that colonial presence in a country in all of  English literature.  That is a real shame, because while it exposes many of the problems of the corrupt British rule in India, it is not without it's very significant biases.  I wish someone had done a better job, but that was the world in which Forester lived.

The main event in the novel is the accusation by an English woman that an Indian doctor who she had previously befriended followed her into a cave and attempted to rape her. Doctor Aziz (the accused man) is a respected member of the Muslim community in India. Like many people of his social class, his relationship with the British administration is somewhat ambivalent. He sees most of the British as enormously rude, so he is pleased and flattered when an English woman, Mrs. Moore, attempts to befriend him.  His accuser is let off far too lightly in the story in my estimation.  She leads the doctor on, ignoring the social norms that would preclude their relationship, and it isn't until she is physically in court testifying that she retracts her statement that it was he that attacked her.  Her reputation is ruined and she is forced to leave the country with her prospects forever stained, but my feelings about her behavior are far stronger than those of the author.

The book does address the issue of friendship in a colonialist country.  Can a subjegated population ever have a true friendship with their oppressors?  Fielding also becomes a friend of Aziz, and he is the only English person who attempts to help himafter the accusation is made. Aziz is on the one hand appreciative of any support he can get, but he is also suspicious of what Fielding's motives might be and anticipating being double crossed.  Forster suggests that the two can never really be friends until the English withdraw from India.

A Passage to India is a marvelously written and tremendously sad novel. The novel recreates the Raj in India and offers insight into how the Empire was run. Ultimately, though, it's a tale of powerlessness and alienation.