communication breakdown

Book Review: A Passage To India (1924)

[ 5 / 10 ] E.M. Forster's last and most influential novel about British-occupied India and the cultural tensions between the two peoples is a daring work, considering the timeframe in which it was written. Penned before the true emergence of Gandhi and the independence movement of his nation, A Passage to India shed light on the problems posed by British occupation - indeed, for many readers it was probably their first exposure to the issue. The story takes place in the small town of Chandrapore, and follows the daily routine of several Indians and the British occupiers with whom they interact. Though relations are tense and far from ideal, they abide under a fragile relationship, until a misunderstanding between a British lady and Indian doctor causes the foundation to crumble and hostilities to come out into the open...

The crowning achievement of Forster's story, and the thing which makes it an interesting read, is the frank look at the differences between the two cultures. The British population are generally as you might expect them to be - the men, being in positions of authority, treat the Indians as subordinates, while the British women see them as vermin. The men interact with the natives because they must in order to "enforce British rule", and though they are mostly civil in order to keep tensions at a minimum, it is clear that they think themselves superior. The women throughout the novel are crude, dismissive, and altogether contemptuous. The Indian characters, by contrast, are a bit more multi-dimensional. They are overly willing to please, as their culture seems to dictate, and they mostly seem content with a subordinate relationship with respect to the British. Yet, at the same time, they fiercely love and cling to their culture, traditions, and superstitions; any attempt to infringe on these causes strife.

The striking thing about the novel is how it sheds light on the power of subtlety; misunderstandings and mistaken assumptions steer the course of events throughout the story. This is no more clear than in the central crisis of the novel, a trial in which an Indian man is accused of assaulting a British woman. The reader knows from the outset that the man is innocent, yet it is staggering to watch how the Brits' unwillingness to consider the man as anything but a criminal barbarian lead him towards conviction. They blind themselves with stereotypes and generalizations, never taking a moment to look around and realize that they are dealing with real people.

As you might expect, the story is interesting and proceeds quickly throughout the first two-thirds of the book. But then something interesting happens; at the conclusion of the trial, the book completely shifts gears, and veers hopelessly off-course. Though it does well at this point to peer even further into the Indian psyche, it is so disjointed from the framework setup by the rest of the book that it really ruins the mood and eventual conclusion of the story. While it does come back on track in the final pages, the damage is done. For me, the book suffers from the recency effect: though most of the novel was an intriguing read, I was set off by the bewildering final chapters. Nevertheless, it is worth a read, if only to get a feel for the period in history, and to gain a deeper understanding of the inherent flaws with the occupation of a foreign land.