A
Passage To India
A
Passage To India, written by E. M. Forster, is a novel
about the troubles of the British control in India. The novel focuses on Adela
Quested, an Englishwomen who wants to see 'the real India,' and Dr. Aziz, and
Indian doctor. When Adela accuses Dr. Aziz of attempted rape, it turns both of
their lives upside down and inadvertently changes it. The film adaptation of A Passage To India, directed by David
Lean, also follows this plot fairly closely; however, there were quite a few
major differences in the movie version. Although the movie followed the book
very closely, and I know that there can be artistic changes made for book to
screen, but the parts that were either changed or left out were important parts
of the book.
David Lean did stick to the original plot of A Passage To India and kept a lot of the
movie the same as the book. Lean stayed true to the characters that Forster had
created. Judy Davis portrayed Adela
Quested, in my mind, perfectly. She was able to keep Adela's repressed nature
while also being open- minded to the new world surrounding her. She was dressed
very plainly and wore no make- up, or at least looked like she was not wearing
make- up. Victor Banerjee played the role of Dr. Aziz, and to my amazement he
stole my heart in this movie. Banerjee was able to take the character of Dr.
Aziz and made it his own. In the book, Dr. Aziz went head- over- heels to do
what he could to make the Englishwomen, Adela and Mrs. Moore, comfortable on
their trip to the Marabar caves, but it seemed like he was doing everything
because he had to. In the movie however, he actually looked like he was glad to
do whatever he could for the Englishwomen. Banerjee made Dr. Aziz a loveable
character that I wanted to root for the entire movie. Peggy Ashcroft played the
role of Mrs. Moore, and she seemed to be the most typical high- class
Englishwomen. She looked and acted like the type of woman I would see going to
see a show at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. Cyril Fielding was played
by James Fox. In the movie, Field dawned a mustache that was styled slightly
like a handle bar mustache. He looked like the ideal traveling British man. His
look actually reminded me of the character Nigel Thornberry from the cartoon The Wild Thornberrys. Nigel Havers
played Ronny Heaslop, the magistrate of Chandrapore, Mrs. Moore's son, and
Adela's soon- to- be fiancé. Clive Swift and Ann Furbank played the roles of
Major and Mrs. Callendar respectively. All of the characters in the movie look
and act how they were described in the novel, so it seems like we are off to a
nice start.
Another similarity between the book and the movie are the
stereotype of Indian culture. In the first chapter of the novel Forster
describes the make believe city of Chandrapore. He starts the novel out with,
"Except for the Marabar Caves- and they are twenty miles off- the city of
Chandrapore presents nothing extraordinary" (Forster, pg. 3). With the
first line of the novel Forster has already given readers the thought that the
city is nothing special. In the whole first chapter Forster never actually
calls the city beautiful until he mentions the sky. At the end of the first
chapter, Forster describes the beauty of the sky and how it can change one's
view of their surroundings. "The sky settles everything- not only climates
and seasons but when the earth shall be beautiful. By herself she can do
little- only feeble outbursts of flowers. But when the sky chooses, glory can
rain into the Chandrapore bazaars or a benediction pass from horizon to
horizon" (Forster, pg. 5). I will agree that the sky is a beautiful
phenomenon, but it only enhances the beauty of its surroundings. The sky and
the earth can stand on their own when it comes to beauty. Everything is
beautiful in its own way. Forster puts the image in the reader's head that the
image of the city that they are about to explore is mean, dirty, and will make
people not want to come unless they are invited (Forster, Pg. 3).
The Indians themselves are also heavily stereotyped
throughout the entirety of the novel and movie.
In the move, there is a scene where Mrs. Moore and Adela are getting off
of their boat into India and are walking to their train into town, and when
they are walking through that part of the city there are so many stereotypes
that are show in that little span of thirty seconds you see women wearing hijabs,
you see Mrs. Moore holding her nose from the presumable stench, you see a typical
snake charmer, and you see extremely overcrowded place with people pushing past
at every step (Lean, A Passage To India).
Hijabs are commonly worn by Indian
women, but this is the only time during the movie where you see an Indian woman
wearing a hijab. Therefore, it is my belief that this was used to show a
stereotype of the Indian women.
The part of the scene where Mrs. Moore holds her nose to
keep the stench of India and the Indian people away is also considered a
stereotype. According to Mohammad Jajja's , an English professor at the
University of Bahawalpur, Pakistan, article "A Passage To India: The
Colonial Discourse and the Representation of India and Indians As
Stereotypes" he claims that, "The Indians are represented as dirty,
ugly people, who are associated with smell, tobacco and the sound of
spitting" (Jajja, pg. 44). What Jajja is saying is that whenever people
think of Indians they automatically associate them with a terrible odor because
they are considered unclean. This is how they are stereotyped in not only A Passage To India, both the novel and
the movie, but also in life now.
There is a small time where you see a snake charmer,
there is never mention of one in the book, but there is no doubt that Lean
decided to put a snake charmer in the movie so people would believe it was
India. And finally the scene ends with an extremely large group of Indians
walking the passengers to their train. And by 'extremely large' I mean that
there were so many people that they could barely get outside of the gate from
the dock to the streets. There are quite a bit of Indian children pushing
people out of the way to get closer to the Englishwomen. You see others pushing
the men who were carrying the luggage so they could help the Englishwomen. It seemed
like that if someone would have tripped, then they would have gotten trampled.
The horde of Indians were like a mob of people at a Walmart Black Friday event.
There were that many people crowded around the women. This stereotypes the
Indian city and population being overcrowded. It shows that there are too many
people in one city.
There is no doubt
that both the novel and the movie contains racism from both parties. The
English people are extremely racist towards the Indians, it is shown throughout
the whole of the story, and There are moments throughout where the Indians make
racist comments about the English people. The English are so quick to judge the
Indians because they see themselves as the superior race. There is a part of
the book where Major Callendar sends for Dr. Aziz to come to his bungalow at
once. Dr. Aziz receives the note while he is in the middle of his dinner. He
doesn't want to leave but knows that he must. After hiring a tonga, a light,
two- wheeled, horse- drawn vehicle used in India (Tonga), he goes to Major
Callendar's bungalow to see what the civil surgeon needs. However, when he
arrives, he finds out that Major Callendar has left with no message for Dr.
Aziz. This is one of the first sightings of Major Callendar's insulting behavior
towards the Indians. Gulzar Jalal Yousafzai and Qabil Khan, the authors of the
article "Rudeness, Race, Racism, and Racialism in E. M. Forster's A Passage To India," respond to
Major Callendar's action of not leaving a message, "Major Callendar, due
to negative attitude towards the Indians, does not like to take pains and leave
a clear message. This shows his insulting behavior" (Yousafzai and Khan,
pg. 80). Major Callendar knew Dr. Aziz would be on his way as soon as he
received the letter, but he didn't even stay to tell Dr. Aziz what he needed.
The fact that he didn't leave a note with one of his servants shows how much he
just does not care for the Indian people. He made Dr. Aziz come all the way out
to his bungalow for no reason, and Dr. Aziz is not even able to take his tonga
back to his house. Later in this scene, two Englishwomen come out of the
bungalow and literally take it away from Dr. Aziz. "This is the first
example of racial superiority or racially biased attitude in the novel. Both
the ladies are English and take the tonga without any thanks, without any
obliged behavior" (Yousafzai and Khan, pg. 80). I'm sure they have an
inkling that this tonga did not just appear out of thin air for them, they knew
that it had to be somebody's. The only people around at this time are Indians
and so they have no problem with taking the tonga because they feel like they
are superior.
Another instance where the English people are very
racist, and very prejudice as well, is when all of the English people gathered
in the club to discuss what happened to Adela are the Marabar Caves. They
assume that the Indian people are all working together to attack their own.
Elizabeth MacLeod Walls, the author of the article "An Aristotelian
Reading of the Feminine Voice- as- Revolution in E. M. Forster's A Passage To India" which is about
the use of the character Adele Quested, talks about this scene. She says,
"These prejudices become apparent when the Major, addressing the Club
members, claims that Adela's chaperone Mohammed Latif had been bribed by the
'prisoner' to shirk his duty, and the dawdling Godbole had staged his own
tardiness to facilitate Aziz's planned attack" (Walls, pg. 64). They are
assuming that Dr. Aziz, because he is an Indian man and can't be trusted around
Englishwomen, planned the trip to the Marabar caves so that he could attempt to
sexually assault Adela. The English people are saying that Dr. Aziz spent
countless amounts of rupees and told his friends that he brought with him to
make Mrs. Moore feel claustrophobic so that he could be alone with Adela. This
sounds a bit farfetched to me. The English people also insist that all of the
Indian people were in on it, including Godbole who is one of the most
respectable Indians in the book/ movie. They assume that Godbole planned to
delay Fielding from catching his train so he could not possibly stop Dr. Aziz
from making his attack. They believe this all to be true simply because they do
not like the Indian people so they all agree that they cannot be trusted.
The Indians are also quite racist towards the English
people as well, although, they do not openly show it like the English people
do. In the beginning the of second chapter of the book, Mahmoud Ali and
Hamidullah are having a conversation about the English and about how they all
end up the same. Hamidullah talks about Dr. Turton and how he used to be very
nice to him and they would share carriage rides. But that was Dr. Turton first
arrived to India, he has since changed and have become like the other
Englishmen, rude and the sense of being superior. Hamidullah says, " They
all become exactly the same, not worse, not better. I give any Englishman two
years, be he Turton or Burton. It is only the difference of a letter. And I
give and Englishwoman six months. All are exactly alike" (Forster, pg. 7).
They do not think that there can be any 'different' Englishmen and women. They
are all alike no matter what. They may start out very nice, but they end up
showing their true colors and changing. Hamidullah, Mahmoud Ali, and Dr. Aziz
show their slight racism towards the English is this scene.
While there were many similarities between the novel and
the movie, there were many differences as well. There were many scene's from
the book that were left out of the movie for timing reasons and of course there
were scenes that were scenes that were changed for artistic purposes. One
difference from the book to the movie was the absence of Miss Derek. She is not
in the movie at all. All of her parts are used with Mrs. Callendar. In the
movie, Adela does not hitch a ride with Miss Derek, instead Mrs. Callendar
drops Mr. Fielding off at the Caves and inadvertenly catches Adela as she is
running down the steep hill from the Marabar Caves. She then drive Adela
straight to her house so she can be treated for her injuries (Lean, A Passage To India). Although Mrs.
Callendar was used for Miss Derek's role with finding Adela, she does not take
Ronny and Adela back to Ronny's from the polo game. Actually, Ronny and Adela
don't ride back together at all. Adela tells Ronny that she does not want to
marry him at the polo game and then the scene cuts to Dr. Aziz, Hamidullah, and
Mahmoud Ali talking about how much it will cost for the trip the Marabar Caves.
There is not a scene where Adela and Ronny fall back in love. Instead, there is
a scene where Adela decides to go on a bike ride to sightsee by herself. She
travels to outside of the city of Chadrapore and comes across a bunch of
statues, most covered in moss and ivy, of people showing signs of affection by
hugging and/ or kissing. Adela gets off her bike to look around at the statues.
Out of nowhere, about a dozen or so monkeys appear and start to chase Adela and
attack her for coming into their habitat. She immediately hops back on her bike
and rides back to Chandrapore while the monkeys chase her to the edge of their
home. Once Adela reaches Ronny's she throws down the bike and runs into Ronny's
arms saying that she wants to marry him after all (Lean, A Passage To India). It was strange.
While I was confused about what seemed to be a random
monkey attack, I now understand why that scene was put into the movie. Most
English people, a quite a few other people today, refer to the Indian people as
'monkeys.' This scene shows the audience how the English people think of the
Indian people. They are seen as monkeys who will attack when a foreigner enters
their habitat because they are wild. This scene foreshadows the accusation of
Dr. Aziz by Adela and the English people. They don't actually know for sure if
he did it or not, but they are willing to assume that Dr. Aziz would attack an
Englishwoman because he is an Indian man.
In an interview by Mark Tully David Lean, director,
discusses the difference between the book and the movie.
"MARK TULLY: How much
difference is there between Lean's 'Passage To India' and Forster's 'Passage To
India'?
DAVID LEAN: He's a writer, I'm a
film maker. I like movies, and I've tried to make a movie that I would like to
see. The end is different, certainly, but I think I wouldn't be ashamed for
Forster to read the script. I think I stuck with his characters, and on the
whole, given the limitations of time, I mean what's one doing? One's doing
something in 2 hours, a book that thick, it's a sort of sketch of it, and I'm
extracting a movie from it. Those who want to read Forster, read the book.
Those who want to go to a movie, and don't read, come and see our film"
(Lean).
Lean is open about
there being differences in his movie. He was right about the end being
different. One of the biggest differences between the novel and the movie is
one of the major themes in the book is entirely left out. The question of
whether or not the English people and the Indian people can be friends. In the
book, this question is brought up twice, once in the beginning and once in the
end. It really wraps up what the book is discussing. It is brought up in the
beginning by Hamidullah and Mahmoud Ali when they are talking about how all
Englishmen and women are the same. They determined that they cannot be friends
in India but possibly in England (Forster, pg. 7). The question is then brought
up again at the end between Fielding and Dr. Aziz. Fielding asks, more
personally, why Dr. Aziz and he can't be friends now. India's response to Fielding's
question is "No, not yet. No, not there" (Forster, pg. 362). This is
one of the most important themes of the book and without this scene, it
completely changes the story in my perspective. Throughout the whole novel, I
wondered if Fielding and Dr. Aziz was going to break the tension between the
two conflicting nations and become friends, and in time would change how each
nation saw each other. Without it you really have nothing to hope for. Dr.
Aziz's innocence happens much earlier in the book that you are left with so
much falling action and the film doesn't really tie it together.
As I finished reading the novel and watching the movie, I
took away two different experiences. Although there were many similarities and
pretty much stuck to the book with the exception of a few scenes, I do believe
that the differences outweigh the similarities. When you leave out a major
theme of a book, you are changing what the author wants you to get out of it,
therefore changing your perception of the story.
Work's
Cited
A
Passage To India. Dir. David Lean. Perf. Judy Davis and
Victor Banerjee. EMI Films, 1985. A Passage To India. YouTube, 9
July 2013. Web. 9 Dec. 2014.
Forster,
E. M. A Passage to India. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1924. Print.
Jajja,
Mohammad Ayub. "A Passage To India: The Colonial Discourse And The
Representation Of India And Indians As Stereotypes." Gomal
University Journal Of Research 29.1 (2013): 38-48. Academic
Search Complete. Web. 9 Dec. 2014.
Lean,
David. "Newsnight Gold: Lean's Passage To India- 1." Interview by
Mark Tully. Mapability.com. Tim Mankins, n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2014.
"Tonga." Dictionary.com.
Dictionary.com, n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2014.
Walls,
Elizabeth Macleod. "An Aristotelian Reading Of The Feminine
Voice-As-Revolution In E. M. Forster's A Passage To India." Papers
On Language & Literature 35.1 (1999): 56. Academic Search
Complete. Web. 9 Dec. 2014.
Yousafzai,
Gulzar Jalal, and Qabil Khan. "Rudeness, Race, Racism And Racialism In
E.M. Forster's "A Passage To India." Dialogue (1819-6462) 6.1
(2011): 75-92. Academic Search Complete. Web. 9 Dec. 2014.
