Parallels between “Heat and Dust” and “A Passage to India”

I think in most of the facts concerning the British colonial society the two films agree. Both show the relationship between the East and West in India affected by the predominance of the British Raj. Also the characters correspond: Olivia Rivers fits to Adela Quested, the Nawab to Dr. Aziz and Ronny Heaslop represents the Crawfords and Minnies.

 

After their arrival in India the English women Olivia and Adela are confronted with problems to fit in the precast stiff British society. Both are married or alternatively engaged to a British member of the Indian government who has been in India for a long time. The Nawab and Dr. Aziz also have similar characteristics. Both love to enjoy the British and do everything to have a good time with the British women. They also both live beyond their means to show a high lifestyle. But it is not easy to assign Cyril Fielding to a person from Heat and Dust because on the one hand he is involved in the British society (although it does not concern him and he resigns) but in the other hand he is close to the Indians. So maybe he has some character traits from Olivia Rivers. Moreover, Godbole also includes a mystical aspect just like Chid and Maji.

 

In both films the contrast between the Indians and the British become apparent for example in Heat and Dust  at the Nawab’s dinner party or in A Passage to India  at the party Mr. Turton arranges to show Adela and Mrs. Moore some Indians. Ronny Heaslop, the man Adela is about to marry perfectly shows the long-established British Indian society (in Heat and Dust mainly represented by the Crawfords and the Minnies). In A Passage to India this aspect is even somehow intensified because of the club the Indians are not allowed to enter.

 

 

But I think there are big differences in the realization of the main topic “relationship between Indians and British”.

A Passage to India concentrates on the conflicts and prejudices. So the main story deals with the sexual assault of Dr. Aziz imagined by Adela. Moreover, the big differences between the British and Indians are pointed out in an ironic way.

However, Heat and Dust’s main topic is to recover the “forbidden” love between an Indian prince and the wife of a British colonial government member. The big differences between the Indians and British are secondary because it is about a prince. This contrast is more shown in the story of the narrator when she and Inder Lal fall in love. So I think the differences are better shown at the story of the narrator and Inder Lal but all the other facts like the British colonial society are better shown in Olivias story.

All in all the stories have impressive similarity.

© of “A Passage to India” picture

© of “Heat and Dust” picture