A Passage to India的作品及背景介绍

A Passage to India (1924) is a novel by E. M. Forster

set against the backdrop of the British Raj英属印度 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 and won the 1924 James Tait Black

Memorial Prize布莱克小说纪念奖 for fiction. Time

magazine included the novel in its "TIME 100 Best

English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005““1923年至2005年最好的百部英语小说” .The novel is based on Forster's

experiences in India.

1.2 Historical background of the Novel

1、E.M. Forster wrote A Passage to India in 1924, the last novel that

he published during his lifetime. The novel differs from Forster‘s

other major works in its overt (公开的)political content, as opposed

to the lighter tone轻快的笔调 and more subdued温和的 political

subtext contained in his other works. The novel deals with the

political occupation of India by the British, a colonial domination

that ended after the publication of Forster's text and still during his

lifetime.

2、The colonial occupation of India is the background of the novel.

Britain occupied an important place in political affairs in India since

1760, but did not secure control over India for nearly a century. In

August of 1858, during a period of violent revolt反抗 against

Britain by the Indians, the British Parliament passed the

Government of India Act《印度政府法案》, transferring political

power from the East India Company to the crown. This was a system

of aloof, condescendingsovereignty这是一个典型的居高临下的英国殖民分离体系 in which the English bureaucracy did not

associate with the persons they ruled, and finds its expression in

characters such as Ronny Heaslop and Mr. McBryde in A Passage to

India.

3、Indian nationalism began to foment around 1885 and nationalism

found expression in the Muslim community as well around the

beginning of the twentieth century. Reforms in India's political

system occurred with the victory of the Liberal Party自由党 in

1906, culminating in the Indian Councils Act《印度议会法案》of

1909, but nationalism continued to rise.

4、 India took part in the first world war, assisting the British

with the assumption that this help would lead to political

concessions让步 , but even with the promise after the war that

Indians would play an increased role in their own government,

relations between the English and Indians did not improve. After

the war tension continued; in 1919 hundreds of Indians were

massacred屠杀during a protest游行示威 . It is around this time

that Mohandas Gandhi became a preeminent force in Indian politics,

and it is also around this time that Forster would write A Passage to

India. More than twenty years later, after a long struggle,

Parliament passed the Indian Independence Act in 1947, ordering

the separation of India and Pakistan and granting both nations their

sovereignty自治 .

The Content of A Passage to India

In A Passage to India, Forster takes the relations between the

Englishmen and the Indians in India in the early 1920s as a

background, tells us a story about an Indian doctor’s being accused

falsely of insulting an Englishwoman, and explores the possibilities

of establishing true friendship between Englishmen and Indians

under the British colonialist rule. The story develops mainly around

the relations of Aziz, a Muslin Indian doctor, and Cycil Fielding, an

English humanist, who works in India as the principal of the

Government College.

Mrs. Moore and Miss Adela Quested have strong liberal ideas and

are eager to meet Indians on

an equal position. In order to meet the needs of Adela’s deeply and

truly understanding of India,

Aziz invited the two women and his friend Fielding to visit the

Marabar Caves. While visiting one of the caves, Adela seems to have

a hallucination of being insulted by someone in the cave. She rushes

down alone and is picked up to go back to Chardrapore. Aziz fails to

find Adela, but is arrested for having insulted Adela according to the

latter’s own testimony. Adela’s accusation brings the already

strained relations between the British and the Indians to a crisis.

During the stormy trial, Adela recovers from her hysteria, and

realizes that she has made a big mistake. The crisis is resolved, and

Dr. Aziz is set free. But Adela fells into a lonely position and is

dropped by all the British community except Fielding, who now

admires her and helps her back to England. Fielding comes back to

India again after two years and meets Aziz. Aziz clearly expresses

that there will be no true friendship between the two peoples

before India gets complete independence.