A Passage to India

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A Passage to India (1924) is a novel by E. M. Forster about the tensions between natives of India and British colonials when a white woman, Adela Quested, accuses a native man, Dr. Aziz, of attempted rape. 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. Forster expands on his message in Howards End about the importance of people to "only connect" with each other by showing how hard it often is to do that. He also plays with views of religion and of the possibility of emptiness in the human state.

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

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Adaptations

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.