Forster, E. M.: 1879-1970

A Passage to India, 1924 - Information about the Book

  • General Information
    • The novel portrays the relationship between the British and the Indians in India and the tensions that arise when a visiting Englishwoman, Adela Quested, accuses a well-respected Indian man, Dr. Aziz, of having attacked her during an outing.
    • Information from Wikipedia
  • Facts
    • Winner of the 1924 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction.
    • David Lean, the director of the movie, told Maurice Jarre, the composer of the movie music: "This isn't a story of India, it's a story of a woman. I want you to write music that evokes awakening sexuality". From Le Cinema Paradiso
    • Forster took the title from Walt Whitman's poem "Passage to India", 1870 (explanation of poem). The Suez Canal, creating a passage to India, was completed in 1869. "While "Passage to India" is very much about the anticipatory joy of a global union fulfilling the destiny first sought by Christopher Columbus, it is also about the voyage of the soul or spirit and the resultant discovery that lies beyond India, the cradle of civilization, the motherland of America. In fact it is India, as the ultimate goal of Columbus's voyage, that represents all great human undertaking and, at the same time, the distinct wonder of America, for when Columbus arrived in America, he thought he was in India," from An Analysis of Asian Influences in "Passage to India" by Matthew Whitman Lazenby.

      Forster’s discussion of the possibility of true friendship between British and Indian people – between colonizers and the colonized nation – in "A Passage to India" has much in common with the themes and ideas that Whitman explores in his poem "A Passage to India."

    • Key Facts: characters, etc.
    • Character List
  • Articles
    • The Geographic Images in "A Passage to India": T"he narrative space of the novel is mainly composed of three geographic spaces, that is, the mosque, the Marabar caves, and the temple. These geographic spaces not only provide places for the development of the plots, but also deepen the theme of the novel as geographic images." Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China; September 2020
    • The Political-Cultural Confrontation: "Forster says the "the political side of it was the asptect I wanted to express". Aneed Thanwan Rustan
    • The Colonialists versus the Locals: "The colonialists are definitely the stronger race and have authority over the locals."
    • Beginning of E.M. Forster's "A Passage to India" by Juliane Behm
    • Beginning of The Structure of E. M. Forster's "A Passage to India"