E.M. Forster’s account of his Indian travels is a very fabulous account of India at a particular time. The Avenger edition, in particular, contains an account of Forster’s intimate life at the Maharaja’s place in Dewas, where he was a private secretary, which is not in any other edition of the book. It’s quite a revelation about the the palace and about Forster’s own shenanigans, so it’s worth tracking down. Forster made, in total, three trips to India, but the two trips that are covered in that book sort of bookend the writing of A Passage to India. His first visit here was in 1912, the second in 1922. The first visit was for six months, the second was for a whole year. It was at the height of the British Raj, so it’s loaded with all kinds of rather horrible political associations, but Forster was an outsider to the Raj and also an insider. He’s kept a very detailed journal of his travels on his first trip, and it’s just full of lovely little anecdotes and insights. On his second visit, although he was staying more or less in one place, he offers a rich insight into the very unreal world of a princely state, and how it worked. I spent a lot of time laughing at what he was describing because it’s so weird, and so very British and very Indian at the same time, and so much of what he recounts feels very contemporary. For all those reasons, I really love the book.

Damon Galgut is a novelist and playwright whose books include the Man Booker-nominated In a Strange Room

(As told to Shreya Ila Anasuya)





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