The links on this blog are paid advertisements. Learn more here.

Wednesday, July 25, 2018

A Passage to India

A  Passage to India is a novel by E. M. Forster that largely focuses on the tensions that existed between English and Indians living during the British Raj in the 1920s.  I mainly found the book depressing.  That shouldn't be surprising in a book that is mainly portraying an oppressed people having to deal politely with the representatives of their oppressors while often being treated as less than human.  When you add in allegations of sexual assault that certainly doesn't help.  It surprised me, although it probably shouldn't have, that many of the reviews when it came out were critical of how close the relationships were between the English and Indian characters.

Image result for a passage to india


Having said all that, A Passage to India is an important work exploring colonial relationships on a very human level.  The major plot points of the book did strike me as contrived and melodramatic but created a needed point of friction that could be used as a basis for this exploration.

No comments: