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EVA TIMÓN MC GUINNESS
TITLE OF MY PAPER:  HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS IN FORSTER'S A PASSAGE TO INDIA
MY PAPER IS BASED ON FORSTER'S NOVEL A PASSAGE TO INDIA

INDEX

 A PASSAGE TO INDIA
THE LIBERAL IDEA
COMMENTARY OF FORSTER'S NOVEL A PASSAGE TO INDIA
TITLE
THE STRUCTURE
ELEMENTS OF VISION
FORSTER'S STYLE IN A PASSAGE TO INDIA
THE IMAGE TO INDIA
RELIGIOUS AND SPIRITUAL IMAGE
OTHER OPINIONS: PAULINE KAEL
DAVID DAICHES
ALIX WILBER
FRANCISCO FERNÁNDEZ

MY OWN FEELINGS ABOUT A PASSAGE TO INDIA :

A PASSAGE TO INDIA
CUALES SON LAS RELACIONES QUE SE ESTABLECEN EN LA OBRA

Academic year 1998/1999
28. Mayo 1999
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
© Eva Timón Mc Guinness
Universitat de València Press

A PASSAGE TO INDIA.

    Forster's A Passage to India has been recognised as a major work of British fiction. Published in June 1924, it is Forster's fifth novel, and probably his greatest. His sixth novel, Maurice (1971), was not published until after his death. With the publication of A passage to India, Forster achieved international recognition, and critics and commentators in England and America readily acknowledege the artistic talent he displayed in this classic presentation of a liberal point of view.

    However, contemporary critical responses to A Passage to India were somewhat mixed. Soon after its publication, L.P. Hartley, a sensitive critic, discovered the novel's cosmic significance. ' A Passage to India ', he wrote, ' is much more than a study of racial contrasts and disabilities. It is intensely personal and ( is the phrase may be pardoned ) intensely cosmic.Virginia Woolf praised it as a novel marching triumphantly and sadly ' through the real life and politics of India intricacy of personal relation, the story itself, the muddle and mistery on life'. Contemporary approaches emphasised the elements of social realism and Indo-English relations in a A Passage to India. Forster's portrayal of Anglo-Indians caused annoyance to the British bureaucracy in India, an one civil servant, E.A. Horne, explained ' how the book strikes an Anglo-Indian --- a task for which I claimed to possess qualifications having spent the last fourteen years of my life Chandrapore ( Patna ) itself.' Horne thought that the Hindus and the Muslims in the novel were ' real enough ', but that the Anglo-Indians were very ' unreal': ' what planet do they inhabit? ' he asked, ' they are not even good caricatures.' This contemporary controversy in the British press reflected very mixed reactions to A Passage to India.

      Even as late as 1954 Nirad C. Chaudhury, an eminent Indian writer, wrote that A Passage to India is primarily a political novel with Indo-English racial overtones. He over emphasises its political aspect when he says that A Passage to India has possibly had an even greater influence on British imperial politics than on English literature. It became a popular and powerful weapon in the hands of anti-imperialits in England and also in India. Liberal English men, on their first voyage to India, made a point of reading it with a view to mapping out their own passage to this baffling country. On the other hand, Paul Scott, revaluing the novel, stated that those who saw themselves caricature as Anglo-Indians ' threw copies overboard from the P.& O. into the Red Sea.' Appreciative critics saw in it a passage to ' more than India,' Whereas unfavourable commentators called it ' passage to less than India.'

THE LIBERAL IDEA

Though the central conception on liberalism is political, is literary and aesthetic context seem to govern Forster's mind and values. Liberalism politically implyes a system of goverment in accordance with people's will, and this view is linked with the English idea of human progress through the use of science and technology. The liberal idea is also allied with the concepts of tolerance, of dissent an individual freedom and humanitarianism. His novels, therefore, demostrated the liberal idea in human and social relationships. His fiction was sensitivily shaped by his liberal imagination. Yet Forster was not always in tune with this liberal tradition. He was primarily an individualist who believed in the individual citizen's freedom in a society left free from excesive governmental pressure or compulsive polices. Receptive to new ideas of social welfare, he believed that an ideal society must show a combination of new economy and old traditional morality. He was also deeply influenced by the creative aspects of liberalism which is related to the writing of fiction. This creative element in liberalism accepts both good and evil in its sphere.

COMMENTARY OF FORSTER'S NOVEL A PASSAGE TO INDIA

THE TITLE

    Forster has stated that he took his title A Passage to India from Walt Withman's well-known poem Passage to India (1871). The great American poet was seeking a passage to more than India, a passage of soul to primal thought, of man to the seas of god.

    Mrs Moore, while observing the Ganges in the moonligth, has a vision of becoming one with the universe. Forster adds the indefinite article ' A ' thereby stressing the individuality, the distinctive identity of his quest for the reality of India. Both Withman and Forster seek the spiritual essency of the experiency, though the mode of their quest is clearly governed by the difference art-forms they use. While Forster wants to express his search by exploring and extending the form of fiction, Withman used poetry for expressing it which was philosophical, panoramic, moral, romantic, and highly symbolic. Although the objectives of their quests appear similar, it is clear that their subject- matter and substance, modes and methods are widely divergent. Forster's ' passage ' to India is primarily a personal, political, liberal, religious, and spiritual mode which reflects his own quest for vision and form.

THE STRUCTURE

       The structure of A Passage to India is three-fold; it is composed of three dominant metaphores: ' Mosque ', ' Caves ' and ' Temple '. This three sections of the novel have their narrative as well as symbolic substances and meanigs. Forster's imagination has quite often been kindled by the concept of three- fold structural patterns. The artistic-spiritual journey toward India takes place through Mosque, Caves and Temple, which are places of worship or primal abodes. Caves are primal abodes because the man in his primitive state lived in them. They are metaphors projecting religious and spiritual meanings. For instance,
' Mosque ' is  associated with arch ( the three arcades of the mosque were Aziz sad ), ' Caves ' with echo, and ' Temple ' with sky. These symbols have positive as well as negative connotations and contexts. The positive meanings of the Mosque symbol consists of the possibilities of friendship between Aziz and Fielding, Aziz and Mrs Moore, whereas denoted of negation of these possibilities is struck by the Bridge Party. The episodes in ' Mosque ', then, bring peoples of different cultures and religions together, and they also aliniated them from each other. The failure of the Bridge Party is an ironic commentary on the attempted to forge a link of friendship between east and west, India and Anglo- India, the ruler and the ruled. Although the symbolic implications of the Marabar Caves are shrouded in mystery or muddle, their interpretations have both positive and negative aspects. This crucial problem is discussed at length in the interpretations of Mrs Moore's and Adela's experiences in the Caves. The symbol of the 'Temple' and ' sky ' signifies reconciliation and harmony, although its effect is not enduring. The divisions of daily life seem to reassert themselves. Thus, the dualism of Forster's values, of earth and sky, heaven and hell, this world and the other, invest the three metaphors with positive as well negative meanings and an air of uncertainty, of ambivalence ( ' outside the arch there seemed always an arch, beyond the remotest echo a silence ' )seems to prevail.

    Another interpretation of the structure of A Passage to India, offered by George h. Thomson, shows 'Mosque' as a prelude to the principal issues, 'Caves' as a physical and spiritual waste-land and ' Temple ' as an escape from it, supported by a promise of spiritual fulfilment. Again these three sections of A Passage to India are believed concurrently to symbolise the three stages of mankind's spiritual history and development. The first stage is represented by a superficial optimism, the second by disillusionament and despair, and the third by a qualified spiritual achivement. These three stages in A Passage to India are represented by, and embodied in Aziz, Mrs Moore and Godbole.

    The image of India, a land  of immense geographical, religious, racial, linguistic and cultural diversities is central to the structure of A Passage to India. Forster projects the various degrees of comprehension of this image by the principal characters, Aziz, Fielding, Adela, Mrs Moore and Godbole. India in Forster's A Passage to India is thus a microcosm of the universe itself. Mrs Moore on her return journey looks at Asigarh and the  palm trees near Bombay: ' Perhaps the hundred Indias which fuss the palm and squabble so tiresomely are one, and the universe they mirror is one.' The threefold structure, of 'Mosque', 'Caves' and 'Temple' encompasses the varied symbolic and religious layers of the universe which Forster creates in his novel.

    The structure of A Passage to India has another level of significance which is climatic, seasonal, of nature. Forster in the ' Author's Notes' refers to the ' three seasons of the Indian year--- winter, summer, and the rains' which are coextensive with the three sections and provide a significant setting which suits the narrative, dramatic and symbolic patterns A Passage to India. It is this association of the Indian seasons and nature with the three sections that strengthens the concepts of the wasteland and fertility in understanding the final meaning of A Passage to India.

ELEMENTS OF VISION

    The question of the form or structure of A Passage to India must not be isolated from its vision, the imaginative quality implicit in it. Forster's imagination is evoked by a strange country in the east with its own traditions of religion and culture.

    The ' Mosque ' section opens out the possibilities of friendship and affection between the Indians and the English, which is one of the principal themes of A Passage to India. It symbolises the values of Islam, such as the equality of all men and universal brotherhood. Its principal representative is Aziz, a highly emotional person, who believes in the unwritten laws of love. His arrival at the departure from Hamidullah's house are marked by very impulsive responses. His first words spoken to Mrs Moore in the mosque are almost censorious, whereas his later words reflect his genuine affection. He recalls the phrase ' the secret understanding of the heart ' with tears in his eyes. His later utterances to Mrs Moore in the mosque ( ' Then you are an oriental' ) are an index of his deep affection and admiration for her and a total reversal of his earlier snarl.

The Bridge Party, organised by Mr Turton, is an ironic comment on the attempt to make East meet West and explore the areas of friendship. It is a comic reversal of the spirit of the meeting of Aziz and Mrs Moore in the Mosque. Forster trenchantly exposes the haughtiness and arrogance of the English ladies, especially Mrs Turton. The Bridge Party does not go beyond formal civilities and surface graces in spite of sincere efforts made by Mr Turton, Mrs Moore, Adela Quested and Ciryl Fielding. The Indians are no less responsible than the Anglo-Indians for this dismal failure because they are too self- conscious to share freely in the pleasure of the conversation. Forster's irony is directed as much againts the Turtons as againts the Bhattacharyas. While Mrs Turton, on being told that the Indian ladies had visited Paris, thought of their movements as if they were migratory birds, the semi- westernised Indian ladies in their anxiety to parade their knowledge of London speak of ' High Park Corner' ( Hyde Park Corner ). The Bhattacharyas arrage that Mrs Moore and Adela should visit their home on Thursday and promise to send a carriage. The carriage, of course, never turns up. Englishmen are prevented by their womenfolk from being cordial to the Indians at the Bridge Party, and this partly explains its failure. All invitations to such attempts at union ' must proceed from heaven perhaps '(p.35),but they do not. It is futile for Turtons and Burtons, Adelas and Fieldings, Azizes and Godboles to initiate their own attempts at unity. The club itself seems a kind of a heaven where, in the words of Mrs Moore, ' Englishmen like posing as gods ' ( p.38 ). The Bridge Party indeed seems one of Turton's ' tiresome ' jokes---superficial in substance and futile in effect. It is only a social and racial correlative of the effort toward spiritual unity, a kind of parallel to the main theme of unity of the novel.
The Bridge Party becomes an ironic symbol of man's indifference to man, set againts the wider horizon of a universe which is open to some and closed to others at the same time. The universe becomes small the moment it is turned into a closed system. It is this smallest of the universe that later becomes part of Mrs Moore's ' double vision '.

The Marabar Caves, although many critics agree that the Marabar Caves are the main symbol in A Passage to India, interpretations of their function and meaning are widely diverse. The visit to the Caves is the central episode in A Passage to India, but this visit has been subjected to a bewildering variety of interpretations. No literary critic who has tried to enter these Caves in a attempt to trace the footprints of Mrs Moore, Adela and Aziz and explain their significance has escaped unscathed. Whether the Marabar in A Passage to India is a mistery or a muddle or a peculiar combination of both will remain a subtle and elusive problem.

What happened in the Caves? Some probable answers. What actually happened in the Marabar Caves and how and why it affected the minds of Mrs moore and Adela are indeed very complex questions. The experiences of these two Englishwomen and their precise interpretations seem to elude neat analysis. Undoubtedly Mrs Moore suffered a spiritual and also a physical breakdown. She was a religious mystic who aimed at becoming one with the universe. She wished to communicated with God but finally ended up with a total loss of desired; She took a pencil and paper for writing but could not proceed beyond ' Dear Stella...Dear Ralph...' She had earlier envisioned a universe bound together by a unity of man and nature. Later the Marabar spoke to her of a universe without value. Even the moral categories, of good and evil, were destroyed and 'Nothingness' prevailed. Mrs Moore  was overtaken by a profound despair and lost her will to live. The echo appeared to end everything for her. The mood which had dominated her in the last two months at last took shape, and she was confronted with the universe without value, of utter Nothingness. This is one of the interpretations of Mrs Moore's experience and the happenings in the Caves.
Secondly, the Caves seem to be symbolic of the principal theme of A Passage to India, of the barrier between unity and separation, matter and essence, India and Anglo-India. In the primitive state of man caves functioned in a dual way: they were his shelter and also his tomb. Men after death, were buried in the caves. They also lived in them. This primordial nature of the Caves suggest man's attempt towards unity between the material and the spiritual and is reflected in the significant scene of the two flames. The Caves thus symbolise man's attempt towards universal unity as well as the fact of his mortal being, death as a fact of life. Mrs Moore, who later dies, represents this death-aspect of the primordial caves. The small black hole in the Cave similarly stands for the act of dying, which is further accentuated by the atmosphere of darkness. Thirdly, Mrs Moore underwent a soulshattering experience in the Marabar Caves. The Caves represent several complex facets of Indian thought, such as the ' impersonal cosmic principle,' the total ' renuntiation ,' the ' Void ' in Buddhism, the dichotomy or division between spirit and matter, the undifferentiated ' Oneness of the Absolute'. Mrs Moore's experience may be religious as she has a vision of the vast immensity of the Timeless Absolute which the Caves signify. In consequence, the inherited values of her Christian faith are annihilated and she is shown as pondering over ' poor little talkative Christianity'(p.150),Mrs Moore died in the course of her sea voyage; her body was lowered into the sea and a ghost followed the ship up the Red Sea but did not enter the Mediterranean. She underwent a strange transformation in that the Indian people began to chant ' Esmiss Esmoor' outside the courtroom at Aziz's trial. This itself is a peculiar ' echo ' emerging from the unconscious stream of events in the book. Mrs Moore had probably planned a retreat into her own cave-like self, the unconscious, psychic state in which the horror and the smallness of the universe would become simultaneously visible to her. This twilight world is dominated by despair, by the ' Ancient Night ' of the Caves. She becomes a legend in India and finally she, or her image, enters the visionary mind of Goldbole and is united with him in search of wholeness and unity, the all-inclusive love for all men, for animate and inanimate beings.

Adela quested's experience in the Caves. The reader may well ask what in fact did happen in the Caves? The answer may be: Nothing--- and perhaps, Everything. From Nothing to Everything includes the vast area--- from negation to all inclusive unity. A subsidiary, yet very significant, question arises about Adela's experience in the Caves. What is most likely to be the nature and quality of her experience?. She is, primarily, a product of Christian rationality and Anglo- Saxon common sense. Like Fielding, she seems to lack religious faith, and this makes her unequal to the task of realising the religious predicaments of the Caves. On entering the Caves, she begins to consider her personal problems, her marriage to Ronny, a kind of union which seems to her without love or real involment. She then observes the ' double row of footholds ' in the rock which remind her of the danger of marriying without love, of pure animal instincts dominating life's major choices.
She begins reflecting on the marriage and the Marabar strikes its gong, making her aware of the hollowness of that union. Marriage without love is tantaumount to rape: this is afeeling in her unconscious mind and it explains why she levels the charge of assault againts Aziz.
Another interpretation of Adela's experience, and specially of the fantastic charge that she brings againts Aziz, is rooted in a psychoanalytical, almost Freudian, interpretation of her state of being. We may repeat the question: What did happen to Adela in the Cave? The answer: Nothing. And, yet, something of a psych shock did happen. Both these answers are partly true. Because, at the time Adela received the impact of the echo, she was alone in the cave, and surely Aziz was not there at all. He had entered another Cave for a smoke and to recover his balance. And, yet Adela, who was quite a sincere girl, levelled the fantastic charge of indecent assault againts him. The main question is: Why did she indulge in such a false, unbelievable indictment?
What is it that Adela really encounters in the Cave? Louise Dauner suggest that what Adela is up againts is--- in terms of the theories of the 'animus'--- the male consciousness that women embodies within her.
Wilfred Stone thinks that it is the Jungian ' shadow ', the dark depth of the unconscious which strikes horror in Adela's being. The process is very similar to that of a human being passing through a narrow passage---in Adela's case, the Cave---where she meets herself as ' something other '---the shadow. It is a crisis of identity, the problem of knowing oneself, the reality of one's being--- and Adela is deeply shocked to realise the truth that she does not love Ronny at all, and that her marriage would be a superficial and unreal coexistence.
Secondly, Adela's experience may be interpretated as an encounter with the Cave of Illusion, which is similar to the Cave that the Greek philosopher Plato described in the seventh book of the Republic. Adela, it appears, realises the illusory nature of her proposed union an her running away from the Caver is analogous to her flight stark reality.
Thirdly, what Adela experiences in the Caves is the dualism between intellect and intuition. No person can realise the truth if he observes it only through his intellectual eye or only through some mode of sensory perception. Adela does precisely this; her being is dominated by her relationality and her response to life by her senses. Both these modes of perception are false and she suddenly realises this falsity in the Caves, Thereafter she runs away from the Cave which suggests her rejection of these false values.
Fourthly, another strange interpretation of Adela's charge against Aziz has been offered. It appears that Adela, in her subconscious, whises to be raped by man, and the cactuses pricking her body, while she is careering down the hill, illustrated the partial fullfilment of this desire. This phisycal pricking is something which she inwardly desires and the moment this happens, through cactuses, she believes she has been raped. Hence the charge of raped. The conclusion is that she speaks of an assault which she very much wanted to take place, but which, in reality, did not take place at all.
Another aspect of Adela's experince in the Cave is her psychic state of hallucination which implies that she develops an illusion, a feeling of having seen a man who is not actually there. In any event she seems to have lost her sense os perception, a fact which is demostrated by the broken strap of the field-glasses she has carried with her into the Cave. These broken straps probably symbolise her broken power to perceive the truth, the reality of the situation. She also begans to suffer from a terrible echo which took hold of her mind and resulted in creating hallucinations. The echo continued to haradd her mind till the trial in the court where she withdrew the charge against Aziz. Then it was suddenly silenced. Obviusly, the echo was concerned with her state of mind which could not perceive the truth earlier but suddenly realised it under the impact of Mrs Moore's image.
Adela seems to be a divided self, torn between the forces of reason and passion; and the feeling of assault might have been an inner conflict within her own being. The Cave made her aware of this division within her, and the animal instincts attacked the rationality in her person. Whatever may be the pausible reasoning behind her hallucination and the consequential echo, it is clear that Adela does not posses adequate self-knowledge. Her entry into the Cave implies her getting into the dark chamber of her subconcious mind and the consequent explosion of her rationality.

The character and personality of Aziz. Aziz plays a very significant role in A Passage to India; he is one of the three or four main characters in the novel. If A Passage to India is regarded primarily as a story of friendship of Aziz and Mr Fielding, its ups and downs and its finales, then Aziz's position becomes central. However, his role has raised much critical controversy and opinions about it, are, therefor, widely divergent.
The key to Aziz's character is provide by the phrase ' the secret understandig of the heart '. He is a creation of impulse, emotion and instinct. He is a lover of gardens, champak flowers, scraps of Persian poetry. Initially he is not much interested in politics, and the themes that attract his poetic temper are the decay of Islam and the transitoriness of love. He obviously hates his domineering boss, Major Callendar, who treats him badly and summons him to his house only to rebuff him. Aziz is an obedient, Anglicised young man who desires equality with the British in the social relations.
Aiz'r relations with Fielding are in marked contrast to those with Major Callendar. He has a row with the Major over his visit to the latter´s house, and as usual, the boss misunderstands him. Aziz feels that `the English are a comic institution´(p.52) and he likes `being misunderstood by them`. Aziz is a competent surgeon and indispensable to the Major in serious cases. Aziz is conscious of his professional skill. He also greatly loved his wife; he avoids attending the Bridge Party because it was being held onthe anniversary of his wife´s death. Aziz is very sentimental, and, looking at the picture of his dead wife, exclaims, `How unhappy I am!´ (p.55). He was self-confident; yet British officialdom overhelms him and he has creeping fears. But Aziz's relations with Fielding, especially in the initial phrase, are based on mutual undesrtanding, deep fellow-feeling and affection. He gives his collar stud to Fielding at their very first meeting, which shows his helpful, large-hearted attitude. Aziz also loves Fielding's untidiness, his informality, his instinctive responses. He particulary appreciates Fielding's visit to his house to enquire about his health. He shows Fielding his dead wife's photograph, a deeply appreciated gesture.
The Marabar expedition was on a lavish scale and Aziz spent a huge amount of money providing an elephant at the site and the sumptuous breakfast. Aziz undoubtely is a generous, large-hearted person, who tends to overrate hospitality. In the course of the trial, Fielding boldly community and his own countrymen. He also resigns from the Anglo-Indian Club, a strong gesture of his identification with Aziz. Aziz loves him for this fine expression of friendship and invites him to join the victory celebrations.
Aziz was deeply shocked by Adela's charge of assault againts him because it meant the end of his reputation. He had intended to be genuinely hospitable and the outcome of it appalled him. Therefore, Fielding's suggestion that he should give up a claim for damages from Adela irks him. He agrees to do so only when Mrs Moore's name is brought in. Aziz's response to Mrs Moore are marked by deep affection and admiration. She thought Aziz was her genuine friend and he generously responded to all her acts of kindness. Aziz's relations with Mrs Moore right from their first meeting in the mosque have been characterised by a profound understanding of the heart and an inwardly felt sense of involvement and affection.
Aziz also had a great liking for prefessor Godbole as an individual and as a pious man devoted to God. Aziz's reaction againts Hindus, their music or their way of life is often adverse. Yet after the trial he takes a job in a Hindu state.
Aziz's responses to Fielding undergo a change. Trust is replaced by suspicion. He suspects that Fielding may marry Adela, and he attibutes motives to Fielding's suggestion of dropping the demand for damages. Aziz and Fielding are brought together in the scene of the bees. The boating incident helps to clear the air of misunderstanding between them.
However, the last scene of A Passage to India shows Aziz and Fielding at a crossroad, their individual, affectionate relations becoming clouded by external political factors and compelling political situations. It is on this ambivalent note that the Aziz- Fielding relationship seems to come to a close in A Passage to India.

FORSTER'S STYLE IN A PASSAGE TO INDIA

    Style is the form in which thought is expressed, the ' manner ' distinguished from the matter. However, the thing said is not entirely independent of the manner of saying it. Each writer dresses his thought is in his own way, and therefore style bears the stamp of his personality. Forster's style in A Passage to India is elegant, urbane, rhythmic and fully attuned to the needs of his story and its subject.
Forster's main objective in A Passage to India is obviously the expression of the interaction of two cultures, the Indian and the Anglo-Indian or British in the social and political situation of India dominated by the British power. It is primarily this confrontation or conflict of cultures and attitudes that he aims at projecting in a language appropriate to the occasion. In his earlier novels he had treated the theme of connecting the prose and the passion of life, but here in A Passage to India he deals with the difficulty of making the connection. The Indians dislike the English;so, too, do the English dislike the Indians. However, people such as Fielding wish to break this barrier and desire to seek friendship. The primary aim of language is communication, but in A Passage to India, strangely, the language is made a means of espressing the lack of communication between individuals or groups of men.
Forster also aims at showing how Indians converse among themselves in English, what kind of idiom they use, and how it departs from the norms of the native speakers of English. Then, again, he has to show indirectly how Indians speak in their own language, which of course have to be rendered in English. Thirdly, he is intent upon highlighting the Anglo-Indian slang, the kind of language that the British used in India in the twenties:

    ' Miss. Quested, what a named! remarked Mrs Turton to her husband as they   drove away.She had no taken to the new young lady, thinking her ungracious and cranky. She trusted that she hadn't been brought out to marry nice little Heaslop, though it looked like it. Her husband agreed with her in his heart, but he never spoke against an Englihswoman if he could avoid doing so, and he only said that Miss Quested naturally made mistakes. He added: ' India does wonders for the judgement, especially during the hot weather; it has even done wonders for Fielding.' Mrs Turton closed her eyes at this name and remarked that Mr Fielding wasn't pukka, and had better marry Miss Quested, for she wasn't pukka. (p.26).

The use of the Anglo-Indian slang term, ' pukka ' reflects the British imperial attitude to life.
Forster presents Aziz's arrival at Hamidullah's in a style which adequately reflects their human relations:

    'Hamidullah, hamidullah! am I late?' he cried.
    'Do not apologise.' said his host. 'You are always late.'
    'Kindly answer my questions. Am I late? Has Mahmoud A li eaten all the food? If so I go elsewhere.Mr Mahmoud Ali, how are you?.'
    'Thank you, Dr Aziz, I am Dying.'
    'Dying before your dinner? Oh, poor Mahmoud Ali!'
    'Hamidullah here is actually dead. He passed away just as you rode up on your bike.'
    'Yes, that is so,' said the other.'imagine us both as adressing you from another and happier world.'

In this passage Forster wants tor portray the social and cultural contextx of Indians coming together for an evening meal. He catches the tenor of conversation of a friendly Indian group in whom the serious and the comic are peculiarly mixed. The banter may appear un- English, but it is the way that some educated Indians spoke English at the time Forster wrote the novel.
At the Bridge Party Mrs Bhattacharya and Mrs Das are introduced to Adela and Mrs Moore by Mr Bhattacharya in a language which bears the stamp of Indian usage:

    'The shorter lady, she is my wife, she is Mrs Bhattacharya,' the onlooker explained.' The taller lady, she is my sister, she is Mrs Das.' ...( p.40 ).

The Indian mode of using an extra pronoun is faithfully incorporated in the speech patterns. Again, the Indians are fond of using double adjectives, ' jolly, jolly good.', 'very,very good' as expressions of intensity of feeling and Forster shows this accurately. 'you'll jolly, jolly well not forget those caves,...' Dr Panna Lal's use of English is sometimes monosyllabic when he enquires about Aziz's health. 'How is stomach?...how head?' This seems to be a liberal translation of Hindi or Indian expressions and also shows the Indian lack of the definite and indefinite articles,'the', and 'a'. The Muslim police inspector praises Fielding for havivg come to see Aziz during his illness:

    'It is good of Mr Fielding to condescend to visit our friend,' said the police inspector. 'We are touched by this great kindness.' ( p.108 )

These civilites and surface graces of Indian speech patterns which seem effusive to the English are faithfully rendered by Forster.
The style which portrays Forster's English characters is sophisticated, logical, urbane and reflects his liberal imagination. Mrs Moore is very polite to Aziz, but he misconstrues her civilities as expressions of profound intimacy. In fact, he applies his own norms to her, which is shown in sentences such as his ' Then, you are an Oriental.' The dialogue between Adela and her servant Antony at the station portrays a facet of Indio-English relations.
The scene at the station indicates the ' celebrated Oriental confusion ' and the speech patterns unfold the relations between masters and servants.
Forster's style achieves a little poetical quality in the descriptions of natural landscapes or cities, visions or nightmares. But there is not false poetical element in A Passage to India primarily because it is a novel about relationships between two or more cultures. His style is rhythmic and words like ' come,come ' are often repeated to show the recurrent strain the measure tones of Forster's style depict the qualities of rhythm, urbanity, precision and elegance.

THE IMAGE OF INDIA

    The social image depicted in A Passage to India is basically one of schism and division. The English are little gods; they created their own heaven in the exclusive Anglo-Indian Club. Hindus and Muslims are entangled in various forms of social relationship, and crested their own little worlds. Friendships are formed and forged, but misunderstandings and alienation cast a dark shadow over the world of human and social relationships. Bitterness replaces affection: hatred comes in the place of love; and the ways of men towards men are strewn with thorns. Forster greatly cheriches the values of personal relation; they are for him the sine qua non of humanistic and liberal creed and, consequently, the blindness of the Anglo-Indians to them is the principal cause of the human and social tragedy he creates in this novel.
The political implications of A Passage to India have been emphasised and interpreted from various points of view. The view that the novel has been a powerful weapon in the hands of anti- imperialism has been emphasised by several critics and from different angles. Whereas liberal and academics critics praise A Passage to India, the imperialistically inclined Anglo-Indians and bureaucrats appeared to be annoyed by Forster's betrayal of the British cause in India. Forster has described, In the Hill of Devi ( 1953 ) a meeting between Sir Tukoji, the Maharajah of Dewas, and the viceroy when the adversed comments were made on A Passage to India.
The tragedy of the British Empire in India, Forster suggests, is in part due to the imposition on Indian tropical soil of the public school mentality of the British in India. Ronny Heaslop has not perception on the truth of personal relationships between the English and the Indians; the only bond he can conceived of is that which subsists between the ruler and the ruled. The failure of his private world, expressed in his inability to love Adela, is extended to his outer life; Thus in Forster own words the reader is made to realised that the life without reflects the life within. British public schools cultivated qualities of leaderships, capacity for action, tact, courage and patriotism, but they also created narrowness and a feeling of superiority. They produce a blindness Forster thought, to personal relation. The Anglo-Indian Club, the odd Bridge Party, the dramatic trial scene and its ramifications contributed to the political image of the novel.
The discussion between Aziz and his friend about the English in India is very revealing and underlines the complex nature of Indo-British political and social relatioships of that period. The English in England are good and hospitable, but on their arrival in British India, they are claimed by the ' herd mentality ' of the bureaucratic Anglo- India. They join the local tribe of Anglo-Indians and are thus drawn to the ' armies of the benighted.' Fielding is a singula exception and he is in many ways the representative of Forster's political point of view. His mind has been nourised on the values of future and liberal education. He is closed in spirit to that small but distinguished minority of English intellectuals who manned the civil service, some of whom made a great contribution to the renaissance of Indian arts and culture. Fielding is ' a holy man minus the holyness' and he swims against the mind powerful current of Anglo-Indian community life in India.
The political image is marked by mutual distrust and fear between the Anglo-Indians and the Indians. Forster's portrayal of political and racial tensions in the wake of Aziz's trial and Mohurram  and the spectacle of the panic of Anglo-Indians is considered by some critics to be rather exaggerated. The English in India can be accused of many failings but not of cowardice. Nonetheless, Forster's basic exposure of Anglo- Indian and the main implications of its portrayal seem valid.
Forster, however, does limit his portrayal of India, because he came into conctac with Syed Ross Masood and Sir Tukoji and the aristocracy of the princely states of Hyderabad but Dewas. By the force of circumstances during his stay in India, he remained outside the realm of resurgent British India. But this is not a serious imitations at all because the principal, dominant image the projects in A Passage to India is neither social nor political, but essentially religious and spiritual. Soacial and racial elements are merely its outer forms, the inner substance is indeed a spiritual quest.

RELIGIOUS AND SPIRITUAL IMAGE

A Passage to India is basically a symbolical novel and its final meaning emerges out of a group of symbolic metaphors. The three sections of the novel make one organic, harmonious whole. While ' Mosque ' symbolises the values of Islam, of unity and brotherhood of man, ' Caves ' suggests primeval darkness and negation resulting in a breakdown of human relationships. ' Temple ' signifies harmony and regeneration, the transformation of the wasteland into a green land, and a changeover from alienation to affection. The spiritual image of A Passage to India is represented through its three-fold symbolistic structure.
Forster's A Passage to India then, is a novel of cosmic significance. His men and women, even animals and apparently inanimate objects, such as rocks, participate in this cosmic drama. The situation Forster presents is dramatic and the whole world, the earth and the stars seem to participate in it. The first chapter, which is quite short, is itself a summary of the theme and symbolism of the whole novel:

        Except for the Marabar Caves--and they are twenty miles off---the city of Chandrapore presents nothing extraordinary. ( p.5).

The extraordinary nature of the caves of hostile rock is suggested in the very first sentence and the chapter ends on a note of their agressive queality: ' These fists and fingers are the Marabar Hills containing the extraordinary caves. ' In the first chapter India and Anglo-India are phisically divided: their descriptions faithfully convey the sense of separation. In the drama between Aziz and Fielding the caves and sky play their part and thus A Passage to India becomes a novel of cosmic significance. Once of its principal themes is the concept of inclusion or exclusion from the Chain of Being and the world of salvation:

    In our Father's house are many mansions, they ( Mr Graysfoot and young Mr Sorley ) taught, and there alone will the incompatible multitudes of mankind be welcome and soothed. No one shall be turned away... ( pp.35-6 )

Ms Sorley was inclined to admit monkeys and even jackals to this divine mansion but he ' became uneasy during the descent to wasp...'
However, Mrs Moore, on observing a wasp seated on the tip of a peg, said, ' Pretty dear'.
The difference between the attitudes of the orthodox missionaries and Mrs Moore to the wasp is central to the meaning of this novel of cosmic significance.
The thread of the wasp episode is picked up in the third section when Goldbole, in an inspired mood, visualises the figure of the dead Mrs Moore with the wasp:

    ...Chance brought her into his mind while it was in this heated state,he did not select her, she happened to occur among the throng of soliciting images, a tiny splinter, and he impelled her by his spiritual force to that place where completeness can be found. Completeness, not reconstruction. ( p.288 )

The wasp is beautiful but it has also a sting and therefore it becomes a symbol of good and evil. The missionaries could not admit it to their heaven but Mrs Moore, by virtue of her association with Goldbole, accepts it and calls it ' Pretty dear '.
The theme of inclusion or exclusion is treated on another level. Whereas Goldbole can accept the wasp, he becomes very uneasy about the stone. He dances on the carpet again since he is unable to include the stones. The stone episode is a clear reflection of Godbole's inability to be inclusive in this particular context, and provides another variation of the theme of inclusion and exclusion.
Godbole's moral cosmos is characterised by the coexistence of good and evil and is in accord with the Hindu view of God. The scene of Godbole's exposition of his philosophy and idea of God forms a significant link in the religious and spiritual pattern of the novel. Aziz is arrested on the charge of assault, Fielding is grieved and ask Godbole: ' Is Aziz innocent or guilty?' Godbole's answer, revealing both his own detachment and idea of the operative power of good and evil, baffle Fielding completely. And Fielding says to him, ' you're preaching that evil and good are the same.'

    What is Goldbole's view of God? He believes that God is one ( a monistic view ) and also that he is personal and has many incarnations ( a theistic view ) such as Siva, Vishnu and Krishna. These are different names of God, but he is essentially one. Godbole also believes in a personal God: His song shows that he is praising Tukaram, a Maharashtrian saint who lived in the seventeenth century. The followers of Vishnu, called Vaishnavas, are believers in a personal god. But Godbole goes further than the Vaishnavas and sings of a living, human, historical figure ( Tukaram ) as God. He sings: ' Tukaram, Thou art my father...and my mother...and everybody.' Forster's Godbole's is obviously based on Sir Tkoji III, the Maharajah at Dewas, who, it is said, sang the same song in the novelist's presence at Dewas. Godbole's view of God therefore is wide and comprehensive enough to include his oneness as therefore as well as his incarnations, and even a real humanist saint as godhead.

East and West meet in harmony in the personality of Godbole, who is the truly prophetic character in A Passage to India ; he provides an answer, at least partially, to the problem presented in the novel. The festival of Lord Krisna's birth symbolises renewal and regeneration, and Godbole's attempt to encompass everything, to transcend the chaos and nullity and to reach out to the unity and affirmation which lie beyond the transitory disorder, is a spiritual quest. His search for the spiritual is limited neither by place nor by time but is beyond them. He attempts to reach the absolute through a complete surrender of the self and extinction of his consciousness. And his valuation of life approximates to Forster's values, and therefore Godbole seems to be a prophetic character in A Passage to India. Even the redemptive power of Mrs Moore is partly derived from the spiritual link with professor Godbole.To form the notion, however, that Hindu mysticism provide the answer to the problem in A Passage to India would be to oversimplify ist complexity.
What,then, is the image of India projected by Forster in A Passage to India? Forster's passage to India is indeed a ' Passage to More than India ': it is surely the passage of man to the seas of God. The image of India is, of course, complex. Though the social, political and racial aspects of this image are important, the fundamental element is spiritual, and therefore the roles and the implications of Mrs Moore and Godbole are central in the novel.
In A Passage to India Forster has found full expression because it is in this liberal classic that the aesthetic wholeness of his art is synthesised with his spiritual quest and visionary power. This is indeed the triuph of this novel which marks the apex of Forster's literary career.

All the information above has been taken from York Notes on A Passage to India, by E.M Forster. © Librairie du Liban 1982.

OTHER OPINIONS ABOUT A PASSAGE TO INDIA

" UNLOOS'D DREAMS " by Pauline Kael The New Yorker, January 14, 1985. " A PASSAGE TO INDIA,

The title of E.M. Forster's A Passage to India is an homenage to one of the loveliest sections in Whitman's Leaves of Grass, and, unlike Forster's other, more neatly constructed novels, this one has an all embracing, polymorphous quality, an openness. Forster had lived in India before and after the First World War, and in story terms the novel, published in 1924, is about the tragicomedy of British colonial rule. The liberal, agnostic author projects himself into Indian character---into the humiliation they feel at being governed by people who have no affection for them, who do not like them. In its larger intentions, the novel is about the Indian's spirituality, their kindness and mysticism. The novel's flowing, accepting manner is re-lated to Eastern philosophy. It embodies that philosophy, yet when Forster attempts to explain it---when he tries for mystery and depth--- the writing seems thin, fuzzy, inflated. ( When his exaltation goes flat, it's like flat Whitman; it's like hearing someone dither on about oneness with the universe.) I don't think the novel is great---it's near-great, or not so-great maybe because mysticism doesn't come naturally to an ironist, and in A Passage to India it seems more willed than felt. But the novel is suggestive and dazzlingly empathic. Forster never falls into mere sympathetic understand-ing of the Indians: he's right inside the central Indian character--- the young Muslim, Dr. Aziz. He embraces Aziz, all right; it's the British he pulls away from.

The movie version, adapted, directed, and edited by David Lean, is an admirable piece of work. Lean dosn't get in over his head by trying for the fall range of the hook's mysticism, but Forster got to him. In its first half, the film ( it lasts two hours forty-three minutes ) has a virtuoso steadiness as the story moves along and we see the process by which the British officers and their wives, who arrive in the fictitious provincial city of Chandrapore with idealistic hopes of friendship with the Indians, are gradually desensi-tized to the same experience by the natives, and become imperviously cruel. The movie shows us the virtual impossibility of communication between the subject people and the master-race British, and between the Muslims and The Hindus, at the same time that we observe the efforts of two Englishwomen to bridge the gulfs---to get to know the Indians socially.

Mrs Moore ( Peggy Ashcroft ), an ederly woman, whose son ( Nigel Havers ) has been in India for a years as city magistrate in Chandrapore, comes to visit him, accompanied, at his suggestion, by Quested ( Judy Davis ), whom he expects to marry. Mrs Moore is displeased to see her son turning into a dull sahib, and the young, inexperience Quested, who has never been out of England before, is shocked by Ronny's new callousness and the smugness of the people he emulates. Mrs Moore, who has little patience with her son and his warnings about the dangers of migling with the natives, atrikes up inmediate, instinctive rapport Dr. Aziz ( Victor Banerjee ), a glistening-eyed, eager doctor poet, whom she meets by chance in a mosque. And later the two women have tea with Fielding ( James Fox ), the principal of the local Goverment College, who, to help them socialize, invites two Indians guest--Aziz and a Hindu scholar, Professor Godbole ( Alec Guinness ). Dr. Aziz, a bit heady with the joys of social intercourse with English women who treat him as an equal, an able to invite the group to his squalid oneroom cottage, proposes an excursion-- a picnic at the distant Marabar Caves.

And that's where, despite Aziz's careful, elaborate planning, everything comes to grief. Hearing the echo in a cave, Mrs Moore is overcome by heat and fatigue, premonitions of death, and the feeling of a void where God should be. While Mrs Moore rests, Miss Quested goes on alone with Dr. Aziz and a guide, and soon comes rushing from a cave suffering, perhaps, from that Withman called " unloos'd dreams "-- is hysterical, and is convinced that Dr. Aziz has attempted to rape her. He is arrested, and the British, with their surface unflappability and their underlying paranoia about the Indians, react as if they were under siege. The British colony closes ranks, except for Fielding, who asserts his belief in the doctor's innocence, and the now irritable and distressed Mrs Moore, who, without waiting to testify on the doctor's behalf, starts the journey home. For the others, the supposed attack on Miss Quested is further proof of the racial inferiority of the Indians. Besides, as the Superintendent of the Police explains at the trial, it's a matter of scientific knowledge that the darker races are attracted to the fairer, but not vice versa.

Forster's plot is a very elaborate sheel game: in the book, just when you think the nugget of truth about Miss Quested's accusation has been located Forster evades you again. He's very lordly, in his way; it's cosmic comedy---each group of players has it own God. ( The incrustable Hindus, with their policy of self removal, are witter than the British Christians, with their disdain. The Muslims are anxious ). Lean isn't as playful, but he has his own form of lordliness. He knows how to do pomp and the moral hideousness of empire better than practically anybody else around. He enlarges the scale of Forster's irony, and the characters live in more sumptuous sttings than we might have expected. But they do live. Lean knows how to give the smallest inflections an overpowering psychological weight. The actors don't sink under it....

David Daiches said in his book called A Critical History of English Literature that A Passage to India ( 1924 ) ' is Forster's masterpiece; here he takes the relations between the English and the Indians in the early 1920's as a background againtst which to conduct the most searching and complex of all his explorations of the possibilities and the limitations, the promises and the pitfalls, of human relationships. Forster as the liberal humanist on the side of Indian independence is also Forster the connoisseur of human littleness and absurdity. Neither English nor Indians are spared: there is a kind of cosmic mysticism mitigating the tragic undertones in the novel. Obviusly the difficulties of genuine human contact can be projected on a large scale when one side consists of English and the other of Indians. But this is not a novel that preaches integration or even toleration. The kinds of contact which are made between English and Indian are odd an inexplicable. Indeed, there are symbolic moments and incidents in the novel which make one wonder whether Forster was not deliberately covering his tracks-- - refusing to push his insights.'

Alix Wilber said about Forster's novel that: ' Arguably Forster's greatest novel, A Passage to India limns atroubling portrait of colonialism at its worst, and is remarkable for the complexity of its characters. Here the personal becomes the political and in the breach between Aziz and his English " friends " Forster foreshadows the eventual end of the Ray.'

Francisco Fernandez, de la Universidad de Valencia. Passage to India es, ciertamente, una novela con unidad orgánica en la que no encontramos ningún cabo suelto, en la que reina la más perfecta economía, en la que cada lectura nos parece descubrir nuevas claves, nuevas intenciones, nuevos símbolos, nuevos ritmos, nuevos y más profundos significados. Y, en efecto, la crítica literaria reconoce unánimemente esta novela como la obra maestra de Forster; y " as one of the finest literary productions of this century ". Y  parte de lo enigmático y difícil radica, sin duda, en que la obra es " complicada y misteriosa ", como nos advierte el propio Forster. A Passage to India es a la vez un documento histórico, una exposición filosófico-religiosa, y una gran obra de arte literario.

HERE YOU CAN FIND MY OWN FEELINGS ABOUT THE E.M. FORSTER'S NOVEL A PASSAGE TO INDIA. It is written in Spanish, I am working in the English version, I will give you as soon as possible.

La India, puede ser descrita de muchas  formas. Grandiosa, paradisiaca, misteriosa, enigmatica, ¿pero quién mejor que un nativo para describirla ?
    " Ahora es el momento en que todas las cosas son felices, viejas, jovenes. Esas gentes son jovenes ahí fuera con sus ruidos salvajes, aunque nosotros no podemos entenderlos; los estanques estan llenos, y ellos hablan: eso es la India".
Aziz, con sus sentimientos nos muestra lo que es para un indio la India.
Aziz es el principal protagonista de un Pasaje a la India de Edward Morgan Forster. Y ¿quién es E.M. Forster?.

     Edward Morgan Forster fue un escritor londinense nacido en 1879 que falleció en Cambridge en 1970. Forster nació en una familia acomodada y curso sus estudios en Cambridge. Una vez acabados sus estudios, pasó una gran temporada viviendo en Italia. Fue secretario del Maharaja de Dewas en 1921.
La influencia de ambientes distintos al de Gran Bretaña, debido a sus viajes, en gran parte por el Mediterráneo y por Medio Oriente, se aprecia en sus novelas, que focalizan en la psicología de sus personajes. De su bibliografía cabría destacar:

" Where Angels Fear to Tread" (1905).
" A Room with a View" (1908).
" The Longest Journey" (1907).
" Howard´s End" (1910).
Y A Passage to India (1924) (que es la que nos ocupa), es considerada como una de sus mejores novelas.

A PASSAGE TO INDIA

Un Pasaje a la India, puede considerarse como una gran novela que profundiza en el abismo, que existía y que existe Socio-cultural entre el Mundo de Occidente y el Mundo de Oriente.
A Passage to India fue fruto de un efímero viaje, que protagonizó E.M. Forster, a la India. Un segundo viaje, en el que su estancia se alargó 6 meses, debido a sus deberes como secretario del Maharaja de Dewas, le permitió terminar la narración.
De A Passage to India se realió la versión cinematográfica en 1984, dirgida por David Lean. Esta versión ayudó a que la fantastica y enigmatica historia de Forster se popularizase y llegase a un mayor público.
A Passage to India relata la historia de un joven indio de origen afgano que ejerce la mediania en la India Británica. A traves de este personaje E.M. Forster nos muestra la bicefalía de la India, la India nativa y la India Britanica.
Las relaciones entre Aziz y sus "amigos" ingleses son de cortesía ya que representan al pueblo indio y al pueblo británico, se ven rotas a raiz de un incidente protagonizado por un indio, concretamente Aziz, y por una inglesa recién llegada a la India, Miss Quested. Aziz, tras intentar contentar y agrdar a Mrs Moore y Miss Quested, se ve arrestado por una denuncia (por intento de abuso a Miss Quested).
Las consecuencias que tendrá este incidente serán impredecibles.

¿CUALES SON LAS RELACIONES QUE SE ESTABLECEN EN LA OBRA?

Podríamos establecer dos grandes relaciones en la obra:

La India nativa y la India subyugada al imperio británico. Forster destaca la relación que se establece entre ambas culturas con maestria. Distingue entre el Mundo Occidental y el Mundo Oriental. Forster relfleja una  India británica que se encuentra apartado tanto físicamente como culturalmente. La colonia británica, o la avanzadilla como ellos se denominan, se encuentran a las afueras de Chandropore, situado en una colina que otorga una sensación de prestigio a los ingleses sobre los nativos. Desde allí  observan la "verdadera India" como alguien que observa a otro por encima del hombro. La estructura de la India es similar  a la de un pueblo inglés, a pesar de encontrarse en bungalow que proporcionan una sensación de recogimiento y paz, propio de los ingleses. Aunque por supuesto no faltan los ingleses que poseen grandes mansiones y disfrutan de  privilegios que otros ingleses no ostentan. El hecho de que se trate de una colonia inglesa no quiere decir que no se administre de la misma forma que otro pueblo sito en Inglaterra y que las clses sociales con sus consabidos privilegios no existan. La India británica es representada por Forster a través de determinados personajes que reflejan a la perfección cómo el Imperio británico dominaba la India.

Culturalmente la India se ha visto bajo el manto "protector" británico durante  largo tiempo. La India británica está representada, por supuesto, por hombres y mujeres con grandes conocimientos culturales. Todos poseen títulos de Cambridge y Oxford y por ello ostentan agraciados puestos en la India. Sus temas de conversación son los propios de un grupo de personas de un nivel cultural medio-alto, y son llevados a discusión en el Club, donde ningun indio, aunque tenga estudios, le esta permitido la entrada. Por otro lado encontramos, también muy bien definido, la India nativa. Se trata de una India poblada en su mayoria por una población analfabeta. Se pueden buscar las razones a tal analfabetismo: La superpoblación y la mala administración ( hablamos de una población con escasos recursos económicos). Este grupo analfabeto aparece en la obra como el pueblo indio trabajador, los esclavos (chuprassi ) o como se denominan en la obra y en la India. Pero, al igual que existen las clases sociales en la colonia inglesa, en la India verdadera los encontraremos también. Como ya he mencionado antes encontramos refejado en la obra la clase baja, dibujada básicamente como los esclavos, tanto de los ingleses, como de los indios propios, y una clase medio-alta con estudios, algunos bien situados, pero siempre bajo el mando, bajo el ojo observador de un inglés. Aquí, en este último grupo encontramos a nuestro protagonista Aziz, que es médico, pero que depende de Mr. Callender, un inglés influyente, o alguno de sus amigos que son abogados titulados en Cambridge.

Dentro de la India Británica, los ingleses, a parte de estar divididos en clases sociales (aunque no estrictamente con la tradicional división o concepción),están divididos en ingleses  que llevan más de un año en la India, como Mr. Turton, que lleva más de 20 años en la India, y en aquellos ingleses que son recién llegados. Esta división abstracta se muestra, deja de ser latente,en el trato de unos y otros a los indios nativos. Esta división es observada incluso por los nativos que empiezan a hacer comentarios. Mr Moore y Miss Quested son ingleses recién llegados, que traen, sobre todo Miss Quested, aire fresco a la colonia, lo que provoca el rechazo de muchos de sus compatriotas e incluso de  su prometido.

Con la penetración de los ingleses en la India motivó numerosas consecuencias culturales, la principal y mayor de ellas es la obligacion atribuida a los nativos de aprender el  Inglés, ya que se estableció como idioma oficial. Otro ejemplo de ello es emigración de muchos, aquellos que podían hacerlo, nativos indios a Inglaterra para formarse culturalmente y con la finalidad de regresar a su país con un título de Cambridge. La India es un compendio de religiones y culturas y lo podemos observar en la ignorancia de Aziz de si lo despedirán por el incidente ocurrido con los hijos de Mrs Moore y Mr Fielding en el lago, cuando Stella perdió el control en la barca y los cuatro cayeron al agua derribando la bandeja que era una ofrenda de los Hindues a su Dios. Todas las culturas existentes dentro de la India se respetan unas a otras y este respeto se extiende a ambas Indias. En la Bridge Parties, que celebraban los ingleses, se debía tener especial atención al tipo de alimentos que se iban a servir.
La India Británica veterana, es conocedora de estas normas propias del país, pero los ingleses recién llegados no son conocedores de estas normas, pero sobre todo Miss Quested, quien está muy interesada en todo lo concerniente a lo que ella denomina como la " verdadera India ", es la que sin darse cuenta realiza preguntas, básicamente por curiosidad, que llegan incluso a molestar al receptor de las mismas. Para ejemplicar lo anterior la mejor muestra dentro de la obra es : " ¿ estás casado ?." Económicamente las cosas no varían mucho. Las diferencias son notables. En general la India no era un país rico, sino todo lo contrario, mientras que Inglaterra se encontraba en una buena posición económica, y ello se reflejaba  incluso en la colonia Británica. Como ya he mencionado antes, los ingleses en la India vivían en una zona exclusiva para ellos sin ninguna falta de caprichos. Tenían un club propio donde celebrar sus reuniones y poseían transporte privado al igual que servicio para su cuidado personal.
El protagonista de la novela, Aziz, a pesar de ser un médico licenciado en Cambridge, no vivía en el lujo, sino en una casa en mal estado, repleta de moscas y con un sirviente un poco incompetente. Tampoco gozaba de ningún automóvil para desplazarsepor la ciudad, se movía en bicicleta: " abandonando la bicicleta...".

    En general muchas muchas eran las diferencias que separaban ambos paises, pero mantenían las distancias que permitían la tolerancia entre ambas culturas, aunque siempre existía un sentimiento de rencor y desprecio latente entre ambos. El fino equilibrio que reinaba en la India se rompió bruscamente por el acontecimiento ocurrido en las Cuevas de Marabar entre un indio nativo, Aziz, y una inglesa recién llegada, Miss Quested. Aziz organiza una excursión a las Cuevas de Malabar para complacer la curiosidad de la joven inglesa por la India. A mitad de excursión Mrs Moore, cansada por el esfuerzo, decide quedarse en el campamento temporal que habían montado. Aziz, un guía y Miss Quested continúan la escalada de la accidentada colina para poder observar las mejores cuevas. Miss Quested, con su incesante curiosidad molesta a Aziz, éste en lugar de contestar, descortésmente, se oculta en una de las cuevas para pensar. Al salir no encuentra a Miss Quested y se alarma, comienza a buscarla y encuentra unos prismáticos rotos, vuelve a buscarla y se da cuenta de que ha bajado porque Miss Derek ha venido. Aziz no le da importancia hasta que a la vuelta, es detenido en la estación bajo la acusación de intento de abuso a Miss Quested.

    Éste incidente, que de normal no habría tenido mayor transcendencia que la lógica, provocó, por un lado, la indignación de los ingleses, quienes ni siquiera querían juzgarlo, y por otro lado, despertó la indignación de los indios, ya que pensaban que era inocente, y el sentimiento de venganza por ser un pueblo oprimido. Éste incidente fue la gota que colmó el vaso. Se produjeron manifestaciones a favor de Aziz, la seguridad de los ingleses desapareció y como consecuencia de ello el pánico surgió entre la población británica. En ambos lados se produjeron reacciones xenófobas.

    Se trata de una convivencia que duró muchos años, convivencia de Inglaterra y su joya de la corona, pero que tras la aparente paz y cordialidad existente se escondían fuertes sentimientos de supremacía, por parte de unos, y de independencia por parte de otros. Y la relación dominador-dominado no suele tener un buen final.

    Forster no solo distinguió de forma superficial ambos mundos, sino que focalizó en los temas políticos, religiosos y culturales a través de sus personajes:

        Aziz, es un joven médico que se queda viudo con tres hijos. Disfruta manteniendo conversaciones sobre temas políticos, culturales... con sus amigos, ya que posee los conocimientos para ello. Se trata de un indio nativo que ha ido a Inglaterra para formarse. Desea obtener la amistad de los ingleses, aunque no de todos, y esto le llevará a su ruina personal y pública.
Aziz ansía establecer amistades con los ingleses que se encuentran en la India. Establece una relación especial con dos ingleses, Mrs Moore y con Mr Fielding.
La primera es una dama inglesa recién llegada a la India. Es la madre de Ronny Heaslop, un funcionario inglés destinado en la ciudad de Chandrapore, y viene acompañada de la futura esposa de Ronny. Ambos, Aziz y Mrs Moore, se encuentran por primera vez en una mezquita, en un principio Aziz se siente turbado ante el hecho de encontrarse a una dama inglesa en una mezquita musulmana. Ambos mantienen una conversación de igual a igual cortésmente, este enfoque de la conversación realizado por Mrs Moore, sin racismo evidente en sus palabras, agradó a Aziz enormemente, ya que no se sentía inferior. Este encuentro entre ambos, aunque efímero, llevará a Aziz a sentir gran afecto por Mrs Moore, él llegará a sentir que ha intimado con ella. Este sentimiento de afecto impulsará a Aziz a querer establecer más relaciones con otros colonos ingleses.
Cuando se produzca el juicio contra Aziz por la acusación de intento de violación, Mrs Moore contribuirá a su absolución, aún cuando se encontraba de viaje de vuelta a Inglaterra. Mrs Moore, por su contribución a la liberación de Aziz, será considerada por los indios nativos como una santa " Essmir, Essmoor, Essmir, Essmoor!... ". Y a su alrededor surgirá una leyenda que recorrerá la India en boca de su pueblo.
A Parte de Mrs Moore, otro inglés con el que Aziz mantiene una estrecha relación, es Mr Fielding. Mr Fielding es un hombre que " viaja sin equipaje " y que lleva varios años en la India dirigiendo un colegio inglés. Es un hombre, que al igual que Mrs Moore, trata a Aziz de igual a igual. Los dos se conocen y desde un primer momento congenian, quizá porque su actitud estaba predeterminada por los comentarios que habían escuchado uno del otro antes de conocerse. Aziz llega a tener en gran afecto a Mr Fielding y pasó a considerarlo un gran amigo, hasta tal punto que Aziz, le llegó a mostrar la fotografía de su esposa ya fallecida. Con este acto, Aziz le deja entender a Mr Fielding el gran afecto que siente por él. Mr Fielding contestará a este afecto con ferviente defensa de Aziz en el juicio, llegará a enfrentarse a todos sus compatriotas por defender a Aziz. Se buscará en Ronny a un enemigo por esta razón. Pero las relaciones se enfrían, el origen de su distanciamiento lo encontramos ya con la acttitud que toma Mr Fielding respecto a Miss Quested. Tras la resolución del juicio a favor de Aziz, Mr Fielding le pide a Aziz que le perdone a Miss Quested los costes del juicio, esta actitud de Mr Fielding desagradará a Aziz, aunque al final acaba cediendo a lo que él le pide. Mr Fielding volverá a Inglaterra, tras la finalización del juicio y la marcha de Miss Quested a Inglaterra, éste viaje a Inglaterra tampoco agradará a Aziz, y a su disgusto se le suma el envenenamiento psicológico de sus amigos. Hamidullah le comenta en más de una ocasión que Mr Fielding le ha convencido de que le perdone los costes del juicio a Miss Quested, para luego casarse con ella y disfrutar del dinero. Aziz se convence a sí mismo de esta afirmación, sobre todo cuando le llega una carta de Mr Fielding anunciándole su boda con la hija de Mrs Moore, Stella, pero Aziz rehusa leerla, se la da a Hamidullah para que se la lea, y éste, suponemos que con buena intención, le dice que con quién se va a casar Mr Fieldinf es con Miss Quested. Ésto provocará un sentimiento de decepción en el corazón de Aziz. Dos años después, Mr Fielding vuelve a la India con su esposa, y anuncia su llegada a Aziz, el cual ha intentado olvidarse de todo durante estos años. Aziz intenta evitar a Mr y Mrs Fielding, pero en vano. Ambos liman asperezas y vuelven a unirse como los amigos que fueron en el pasado.
Con el resto de colonos ingleses mantiene la relación convenida entre ambos pueblos. Pero otro personaje de nacionalidad inglesa le marcará para siempre, ese personaje es Miss Quested. En un principio su relación al igual que con el resto es de cortesía, pero siempre con el pensamiento de que el inglés está por encima de él. Pero el caracter de Miss Quested agradará a Aziz, porque estaba deseosa de conocer la India " verdadera ", no la que los ingleses le presentaban. Su trato con Aziz es como con el de Mrs Moore. Su curiosidad era infinita, incluso llega a hacerle una pregunta muy personal a Aziz, y que en otro contexto hubiera sido muy desagradable. Aziz, para satisfacer el ansia que tenía Miss Quested, a la que acompañaba siempre Mrs Moore, por conocer la " verdadera " India organizó una excursión que le buscará la ruina. En dicha excursión Aziz, Miss Quested y un guía iban escalando la montaña para llegar a las cuevas, Mrs Moore debido a su edad se queda abajo. Una vez arriba Aziz pierde de vista a Miss Quested y en él, a partir de ese momento reina el nerviosismo, hasta que observa que Miss Quested había bajado de la montaña y se iba en el coche con Mrs Derek. Aziz recupera la tranquilidad y procura que el resto de invitados lo pase bien, pero una vez de vuelta a Chandrapore, en la estación de tren , Aziz es detenido bajo la acusación de intento de violación de Miss Quested. El juicio que se llevará a cabo y lo rápido que corrió la noticia entre ambos pueblos llevará a un caos absoluto. Decenas de nativos se agolparon a las puertas del juzgado pidiendo la absolución del culpable hasta que se mostrase lo contrario. Aziz es considerado culpable desde el primer momento por toda la comunidad anglo-india. Se critica a todo aquel que sea nativo, cunde el pánico entre las mujeres inglesas, se piensa en la posibilidad de llamar al ejército, se formulan una serie de circunstancias en contra de los ingleses.
De no ser porque Miss Quested se da cuenta de que ha podido cometer un error, de que Aziz no fue el que intentó abusar de ella, Aziz habría pasado gran parte de su existencia en la cárcel, debido a las presiones ejercidas por los ingleses.
El juicio contra Aziz se convirtió en un juicio entre ingleses y nativos. Los problemas raciales, el dominio británico y el sentimiento de esclavitud, aunque latente, salieron a relucir. El equilibrio entre el mundo Oriental y el Occidental se vio roto, la delgada línea se quebró y todo ello por un incidente que de no existir tales tensiones sociales no habría tenido tanta transcendencia.
La principal y más grave consecuencia fue el daño psicológico producido a Aziz, perdió la confianza de sus " amigos " ingleses, sobre todo de Fielding, tuvo que dejar su trabajo, ya que trabajaba como médico a las órdenes de Mr Callendar y del doctor Pann Pal, y aunque Aziz había sido declarado inocente ellos tenían sus dudas, porque consideraban que él había intentado violar a Miss Quested. Debido a las presiones y a las humillaciones a las que se vió sometido, Aziz se trasladó a otra ciudad, en la que mayoritariamente vivían hindues, y esto es una ironía en si, ya que entre musulmanes e hindues existía una rivalidad. En conclusión, el daño producido a Aziz era irreparable.

Aziz también tenía numerosos amigos nativos, con los que se reunía a la sombra de un porche, donde mantenían tertulias sobre política, medicina, etc. Forster nos introduce a Aziz justo cuando llegaba al porche de la casa de un amigo para conversar.
Hamidullah es su amigo más cercano, también estudió en Inglaterra y es licenciado en derecho. Le busca los mejores abogados para que demuestren su inocencia,y será él quien haga crecer el odio en el corazón de Aziz al decirle que Mr Fielding  le había robado el dinero y se iba a casar con Miss Quested.

El colectivo anglo-indio se nos presenta como un grupo homogéneo en apariencia, que vive en su "propia"
India, pero que en realidad está divida. Forman un grupo todos ellos porque se encuentran en la necesidad de estarlo, ya que aunque son el elemento dominante forman una pequeña minoría ante todo el pueblo indio, que forma un gran conjunto. Son la " avanzadilla " que se encuentra a miles de  kilómetros de su Inglaterra natal.
En este colectivo, encontramos un sistema jerarquizado al que todos se deben someter. A la cabeza de todos encontramos al Mayor Callendar, que estaba al mando del hospital en el que trabajaba Aziz, tras él nos encontramos Mr y Mrs Turton, que llevaban más de veinte años en la India, y eran conocedores del trato que había que dar a los nativos.
Ronny Heaslop es el siguiente, era el hijo de Mrs Moore, la cual se había trasladado a la India para asistir a la boda de su hijo con Miss Quested. Ronny trabajaba al servicio de la corona en la India, y se movía como pez en el agua con todos los ingleses estirados que formaban aquella familia occidental.
Una de las razones por las que Miss Quested rechaza casarse con Ronny, fue el cambio de actitud que había sufrido éste. En Inglaterra era una persona y en la India era otra, debido a la contaminación del resto.
Miss Quested y Mrs Moore, aún no se habían visto afectadas por dicha contaminación, y por esa razón eran bien avenidas entre los nativos, ya que se comportaban con ellos como si de otro inglés se tratara, siempre aliñadas con la cortesía de rigor. El pensamiento renbelde de Miss Quested negaba la afirmación de los anglo-indios de que tarde o temprano acabaría siendo como ellos.
Las diferencias entre ambos mundos, Oriental y Occidental, eran palpables, un ejemplo de ello se puede observar en la Bridge Party que organizan los ingleses, en el transcurso de la misma se podía observar a lo ingleses en un lado del campo de tenis y al otro a los indios. Es curiosa la forma tan brillante que tiene Forster de hacernos imaginar la rivalidad entre ambos grupos presentándonoslos como dos oponentes en un partido de tenis.

Las relaciones que nos presenta Forster en Un Pasaje a la India, en general, nos muestran el abismo existente entre dos mundo, el mundo Oriental y el mundo Occidental. Forster intenta a través de su novela acercar a ambos mundos, para que la intolerancia entre ellos cese, dejando paso a una convivencia pacífica.

Un Pasaje a la India es una crítica, con una coyuntura política, de un momento y de una situación determinados. Refleja la India de los jóvenes años veinte dominada por el imperio británico y nos presenta a una India predecesora de Gandhi, con las connotaciones que ello conlleva, es decir, una India libre.

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Academic year 1998/1999
28. Mayo 1999
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
© Eva Timón Mc Guinness
Universitat de València Press