Temple: A Passage To India

A Passage To India, concludes with a section named Temple. The shortest section in the book, but an important one. Right off the bat, after retading only a few pages of this section, I was inspired to write about a particular passage and idea. "The corridor in the palace at Mau opened through other corridors into a courtyard.... he and the six colleagues who supported him clashed their cymbals, hit small drums, droned upon a portable harmonium, and sang: "Tukaram, Tukaram..."' As I read this passage, I felt as if I was at peace, just as the characters in the story were. Despite all the tension that was going on between them and the English, they still remembered who they were. They remembered there duties as a people and whom they owed respects to. They put up with the way they were treated by the English all throughout the year. However at this particular time of year, they came together as one, and worshiped there God. It just goes to show that the worst brings out the best in people. The Indians really showed that they were the bigger people.

What do you think this revealed about the Indians as a people?

Do you think if the English were watching this ceremony, they would have felt differently about the Indians?

From the ending of the book, what did you think about it as a whole?

Week 2 A Passage To India

As I continued to read A Passage To India, I noticed that I constantly came across stereotypes about the Indians from the Englishmen who lived in India. "Let me explain. Natives don't respect any the more after meeting one, you see....Why, the kindest thing once can do to a native is to let him die,..." The English, according to this quote, believed the Indians to be disrespectful and worthless. They felt that it was there job to come to India and bring about some kind of order within the Natives. To the English, the Indians were their subordinates, even though it was their native land. I however disagree with this notion of the Indians being disrespectful and worthless. All throughout the novel, the English came off more so as the disrespectful ones. They didn't treat the Indians with any respect, and Ronny, a high government official in India from England, even stated that, "We're not out here for the purpose of behaving pleasantly!" Instead they were forcing the Indians or at least trying to force them to adopt their English ways and rules for maintaining what they believed to be justice. The Indians were simply misunderstood because they were not accustomed to the customs of the English. As Aziz stated, they weren't used to wearing such clothing the English wore. Aside from this, the Indians were treated lower than the English. This however is contradicting of one of the reasons why they were in India, which was to convert the Indians to their religious beliefs in God. If they believed that God created everyone equally, then why did they treat the Indians as subordinates? I also found it as an excuse to blame the women for the actions of the men. As Ronny said, they were just trying to appease their women. If this was the case, then they could have stayed in England instead of journeying to India. Ultimately the actions of the English as far as they way the treated the Indians, contradicted their beliefs of how the Indians treated them.

How do you feel about the way that the Indians are treated by the English?

Could you relate this treatment to another race of the 22nd century?

Do you disagree with my claim or agree, and why or why not?

Week 1 A Passage To India

'There is no painting and scarcely any carving in the bazaars. The very wood seems made of mud, the inhabitants of mud moving. So abased, so the Ganges comes down it might be expected to wash the excrescence back into the soil." This quote from A Passage To India, by E. M. Foster on the scenery and life of Chandrapore, is very significant to the flow of this novel because it in a way sets the mood of this community and the racial tension that is supposed to exist between the British and the Indians. After reading this quote, I felt that the community would be life-less and that this "excrescence" would be this sense of racial tension that occurs in the lives of the natives and the British colonials. This tension resulted in the British feeling like they were superior to the Indians, which relates to the reason for their dwellings on a higher ground than that of the Indians dwellings. This type of tension relates to the same racial tension that persists today among minorities. From the tension that occurs between African Americans and Hispanics to the tension that still persists between African Americans and Caucasians. There are some among these races that feel that they are superior to others among different races, and so they themselves will cause tension by exercising this "superiority". Another reason I felt this way about Chandrapore because of it's dull description, was because there were no paintings drawn anywhere in the bazaars. Paintings bring objects and ideas to life with color and sharp images. Reading that there were none of these, made me think of Chandrapore as "city full of the dead". These first depictions of the city, showed me that the mood of the novel would be boring.

Questions For Discussion

1. Did anything resonate with you as you read the description of Chandrapore?

2. How do you think the tension between the Indians and English will excel?

3. Does Chandrapore's description connect with the people of this community?