Such friendships cannot last in the heat of the Indian sun nor under the auspices of the British Empire. They meet at a Mosque as the light is fading, and they discover a common bond.

Moore, begins in almost mystical circumstances.

The friendship between Aziz and his English friend, Mrs. There appears to be little doubt that Aziz will be found guilty because the word of an English woman is believed over the word of an Indian.īeyond his concern for British colonization, Forster is even more concerned with the right and wrong of human interactions. The head of the police believes that the Indian character is inherently flawed by ingrained criminality.

The novel explores the many rights and wrongs of the Empire and how the native Indian population was oppressed by the English administration.Įxcept Fielding, none of the English believe in Aziz's innocence. Forster suggests that the two can never really be friends until the English withdraw from India.Ī Passage to India is a searing portrayal of the English mismanagement of India, as well as an accusatory missal against many of the racist attitudes the English colonial administration held. The two-part ways and then meet many years later. Despite Fielding's help, Aziz is constantly worried that Fielding will somehow betray him). Moore, attempts to befriend him.įielding also becomes a friend, and he is the only English person who attempts to help him after the accusation is made. He sees most of the British as enormously rude, so he is pleased and flattered when an English woman, Mrs. Like many people of his social class, his relationship with the British administration is somewhat ambivalent. Doctor Aziz (the accused man) is a respected member of the Muslim community in India. The main incident of the novel is the accusation by an English woman that an Indian doctor followed her into a cave and attempted to rape her. Written as a precise mixture between a realistic and recognizable setting and a mystical tone, A Passage to India shows its author as both an excellent stylist as well as a perceptive and acute judge of human character. But, the novel also demonstrates how friendships attempt (though often failing) to span the gap between the English colonizer and the Indian colonized. The novel now stands in the canon of English literature as one of the truly great discussions of that colonial presence. A Passage to India was written at a time when the end of the British colonial presence in India was becoming a very real possibility.

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