A Passage to India

A Passage to India (1924) is a novel by E. M. Forster set against the backdrop of the British Raj and the Indian independence movement in the 1920s. It was selected as one of the 100 great works of English literature by the Modern Library.

Plot

In this story, a British woman, Adela Quested, joins her fiancée in India where he works for the government. She is befriended by an Indian doctor, Aziz H. Ahmed, who is later accused of raping her. The accusation takes place after Adela's unidentified traumatic experience while touring a local natural attraction, the Marabar Caves. The ensuing court trial increases the racial tension between the Indians and the British (threatening to tear apart the colonial society of Chandrapore, India) and foreshadows the end of the British Raj.

Awards

• The novel won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction in 1924.

References

• Forster, E.M. Overview and selection from "A Passage to India." The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Twentieth Century (Vol. 2C), 7th Edition. New York: W.W. Norton, 2000: 2131-2141.

Adaptations

Film

• 1984: A Passage to India is a feature film directed by David Lean, starring Victor Banerjee, Art Malik, Saeed Jaffrey, Roshan Seth, Peggy Ashcroft,Alec Guinness and Nigel Havers.

Television

• 1965: A Passage to India was produced for television in the United Kingdom by the BBC in 1965, as part of their regular Play of the Month strand. The 110-minute adaptation was shown on BBC1 on November 16. The script was an adaptation by John Maynard of the 1960 stage version of the novel by Santha Rama Rau, and the play was directed by Indian director Waris Hussein. Sybil Thorndike starred as Mrs Moore, with Cyril Cusack as Fielding, Virginia McKenna as Adela, Zia Mohyeddin as Aziz and Ronald Hines as Ronnie Heaslop. The play also sees early appearances of Saeed Jaffrey and Doreen Mantle in minor roles. Unlike many BBC productions of the 1960s which have been junked, A Passage to India still exists in the BBC archives, and was repeated on BBC2 in 1992 as part of the Black and White in Colour season of programmes.

External links

• Original 1924 review reprinted by the Guardian
• TIME MAGAZINE: 100 ALL-TIME NOVELS
• The Modern Library 100 Best Novels
• The Literary Encyclopedia
• A Passage to India (1965 television) at IMDb