'A Passage to India' & 'A Passage to India'

The book should be considered very important. It was published in 1924, essentially 20 year before the Indian independence movement came to a head.

It captures the attitudes between both the Indians and British during a very tumultuous time when the Western (Anglo) world hadn't gotten their comeuppance on one level and had it's head screwed on straight on another level.

It's shocking the attitude of the British, as if they were some all-knowing presence that the Indians welcomed because it represented a state of judiciousness, peace, order and civility. As if the Indian people hadn't participated in society the last 1,200 years. As if Africa wasn't going well without the Germans, Dutch, British, French and others. Same with the British and North America, the Spanish and Portuguese in South America and French and British in the Far East.

This attitude is prevalent in the United States and as been since the first boat landed 500 years ago or so. It's not unusual. People get too big for their britches all the time and don't realize there's a world that exists beyond the tip of their nose. It doesn't excuse the way the British treated the Indians, but it explains it.

I loved the part in the film when they host the "bridge" party and the British women want something translated and it turns out all the Indian women speak English.

Read Thomas Friedman's "The World is Flat" and you realize that not only do they speak English and are capable of, you know, a civil society, but they are just as prepared to lead this world as any America, England, Germany, Japan, China or Russia.

One interesting observation about the movie, which helps put the time period into a better focus, is how many clothes the British wore. Even during non-hot seasons in India, it's got to be pretty warm and there's a bunch of pretentious British people with long-sleeves, collars, pants, dresses and everything that would make me crazy.