A Passage to India

Published in 1924, A Passage to India explores the fragile possibility of friendship between Indians and British colonists during the final decades of the Raj. When the Englishwoman Adela Quested accuses Dr Aziz, an Indian physician, of assault during an excursion to the mysterious Marabar Caves, the resulting scandal exposes the racial prejudices and political tensions beneath the colonial administration. Fielding, a British schoolmaster, attempts to defend Aziz, while Mrs Moore’s spiritual unease deepens the novel’s atmosphere of uncertainty.

The caves, with their disorienting echoes, become an unsettling image of a world in which intentions are misunderstood and moral certainties collapse. Forster examines empire, religion, friendship and the limits of sympathy without offering an easy resolution. His last novel published during his lifetime is a landmark of twentieth-century English literature and one of its most searching examinations of colonial power and the barriers between cultures.