The Women Of A Passage To Indi

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husband, Douglas is unaware of how frequently she visited the Nawab. If Douglas had been fully aware of Olivia’s actions, he would have been enraged. Proper Englishwomen were not to associate with natives while unchaperoned. Adela, Forster’s character, had a similar experience. She desired to see the “real” India. To allow her to do this, a native offered to take her to the Marabar Caves, a local landmark. Again, Englishwomen were not to associate with the natives. Her potential fiancé and host, allowed her to go under the condition that his mother and an Englishman were also included in the group. Socializing with Indians is only one common experience Olivia and Adela had.
Another similar experience occurs near the end of both books. Both Olivia and Adela had relationships irreparably changed through the influence of India. If neither women was in India, their relationships probably would have remained intact. Olivia’s marriage to ...

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quite opposite in their feelings toward the natives. Olivia expressed her support for the natives at a dinner party thrown by one of the other English officials. Suttee, the practice of a widow throwing herself on her husband’s funeral pyre, had recently occurred in the village. This became the topic of conversation. Olivia advocated suttee. She said, “It’s part of their religion, isn’t it? I thought one wasn’t supposed to meddle with that. And quite apart from religion, it is their culture and who are we to interfere with anyone’s culture, especially an ancient one like theirs.”2 Her
ideas were very different from the rest of the English, ...

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