"A Passage to India" is a novel by E.M. Forster. He uses his first-hand knowledge of India.
The novel is about racial prejudices during the British rule. The plot revolves around three characters: Cyril Fielding, his Indian friend Dr. Aziz, and Adela Quested. During a trip to the Marabar Caves, Adela accuses Aziz of attempting to rape her. During and after the
trial of Aziz, racial tensions become extremely evident, affecting the
friendship of Fielding and Aziz.
The story begins with Adela Quested, a young British schoolmistress, visits a fictional place, Chandrapore, with her elderly friend, Mrs Moore, partly to make up her mind whether to marry the latter's son, Ronny, a city magistrate who exemplifies the narrow anti-Indian prejudices of the imperial bureaucrat. Adela's desire to understand the 'real India,' an interest shared by Mrs Moore, annoys the whole white community apart from the liberal-minded Cyril Fielding, the principal of the government college. Fielding has also nurtured a friendship with
Dr Aziz, assistant to the British Civil Surgeon.
Mrs Moore encounters Dr Aziz while visiting a mosque, and they strike a friendship. He invites her and Adela to visit the renowned and mysterious Marabar Caves, and they accepted. Mr Fielding, who is supposed to escort them, misses the train and so they proceed without him. The expedition proves to be a disaster of some sort. Mrs Moore undergoes a traumatic and psychic experience from which she never recovers while Adela, from some sort of a trance inside the cave, thinks herself to have been a victim of a sexual assault by Aziz.
At the train station, Dr Azis is gravely arrested, charged with sexually assaulting Adela, and committed to prison to await trial. The community at Chandrapore is sharply divided into opposing racial factions. Only Fielding amongst the British continues to assert the innocence of Aziz, nonetheless, their friendship is greatly compromised and affected.
To make the long story short, what actually happens is that Adela, while in the cave, receives a shock similar to what Mrs. Moore has experienced. The echo had disconcerted her much that she temporarily became conscious of her surroundings. Like a madwoman, she ran frantically around the cave, fleeing down the hill, and finally went off with the sympathetic Miss Derek. Not knowing what really happened to her, Adela misinterprets her shock as an assault by Aziz. It's the alleged incident in her mind that she reports to the British authorities.
Mrs. Moore is unexpectedly restless and irritable during the weeks before the trial. Her experience in the cave seems to have ruined her faith in mankind and humanity. Although she curtly professes her belief in the innocence of Aziz, she does nothing to help him either. Instead, she insists on taking a ship back to England before the trial takes place. She dies during the voyage. Under extreme psychological pressure and the death of her friend Mrs Moore, Adela eventually admits that she was mistaken.
Dr Aziz and Fielding meet for the last time two years later when Fielding returns to India. Aziz is now married to Stella, Mrs. Moore's daughter from a second marriage, and he's now the Rajah's chief physician. At first, Aziz continues to be adamant about his resentment towards his old friend Fielding, but soon enough understands and respects him again. However, he does not give up his dream of a free and united India, clearly a message of the author.
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