Feeling I had missed a classic of English literature and curious to see Forster’s views on colonial India, I started this book on a plane to India and finished it before I returned. The writing style is excellent, the characters are complex and, for the most multifaceted, the setting is inspired by Forster’s visits to India and hence realistic, the story timeline is well-set, for the most (ie except for the last part), and the scenario is engaging and realistic, but, obviously, what makes the book a masterpiece is its depiction of the British Raj from many perspectives, from British enforcers of its colonialism to British critics of said colonialism, to Indians trained in Britain, to completely local Indians, with the clash of multiple cultures and religions. Victorian prudery mixes with racial prejudices, resentment against discriminations leads to early (?) germs of fighting for independence, and the characteristic reaction of such a discriminatory and racist society to a claim of sexual impropriety on a British woman from a native man. This central event of the book is brought in both very subtly and unexpectedly (for those like me who had no initial idea of the story), with an equally subtle uncertainty about what really happened that remains till the end. If anything, the book may be delivering a pessimistic message on the impossible friendship between individuals from the ruling and oppressed groups, despite it being scandalous at the time for even suggesting such a friendship was conceivable. (The attached cover of the Penguin Classic edition is amazingly close to the excursion episode!)
Archive for systemic racism
a passage to India [book review]
Posted in Books, Mountains, pictures, Travel with tags book review, Britain, British Raj, Chennai, Chennai Mathematical Institute, E.M. Forster, imperialism, India, Indian independence, Penguin Classics, religions, systemic racism, tea, Victorian society, Walt Whitman on July 16, 2025 by xi'anand it only gets worse [verbatim]
Posted in Kids, Travel with tags Agent Orange, America, baby Trump, cliffs, coronavirus epidemics, COVID-19, decency, Donald Trump, Dover cliffs, George Floyd, hydroxychloroquine, incompetence, pandemic, systemic racism, US politics, US presidents on August 13, 2020 by xi'an
““Many doctors think hydroxychloroquine is extremely successful. Some people don’t. Some people, I think it’s become very political. I happen to believe in it. I would take it. As you know, I took it for a 14-day period and I’m here, right? I’m here.”When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” DT, 28 July
“We are on the defence. We’re not out looking for trouble.” W. Barr, 28 July
“Fauci’s got this high approval rating. So why don’t I have a high approval rating with respect – and the administration – with respect to the virus?” DT, 28 July
Mr. Barr said that “I don’t agree that there is systemic racism in police departments generally in this country,” and he quoted statistics that more white Americans had been killed by the police than black Americans. NYT, 28 July
“A lot of the governors should be opening up states that they’re not opening, and we’ll see what happens with them” DT, 28 July
““[John Lewis] didn’t come to my inauguration. He didn’t come to my State of the Union speeches, and that’s OK (…) Again, nobody has done more for Black Americans than I have. He should have come. I think he made a big mistake.” DT, 03 August
“When I took over, we didn’t have a test.” DT, 04 August
Nature reflections on policing
Posted in Books, Kids, Statistics, University life with tags agent-based models, algorithmic policing, all models are wrong, George Floyd, Nature, non-violence, police, racism, systemic bias, systemic racism on June 24, 2020 by xi'an
