My philosophy is you can do what you like... but the outcome will be the same

Last night I watched David Lean’s A Passage to India again.  I watch it every year and every year I see something I didn’t before.  For example this time I felt a lot of empathy to Professor Godoble (Yes, I know it was Alec Guiness blacked up but this was 1984 – allow it) that I hadn’t felt before.

The first part of the film up to the incident in the Marabar Caves is played as a comedy … Afterwards when Adela Quested accuses Dr Aziz of rape it all turns dark. 

Dr Aziz’s friend Cyril Fielding turns to Professor Godbole for practical assistance but Godbole remains aloof stating that “My philosophy is you can do what you like... but the outcome will be the same.”

Watching the film in 1984 having queued around the block (and indeed having to come back a 2^nd time because the queue was so long we couldn’t get in the first) I saw Godbole as a cold indifferent and rather callous and irresponsible character.  Of course I understood his role in the eventual soothing of enmity between Dr Aziz and Ms Quested and Mr Fielding but I still thought he was – to use a British phrase – a bit of a smug git. 

However, watching it again I appreciated his character more.  For, the more times I watch it, the more I appreciate that Godbole is right.  Firstly, if there has been a rape or might have been – which there hasn’t (at least not in the film ...the book is more ambiguous) – then it isn’t wise to take sides but to let the Judicial process take its course.  Or at least it is wise to keep an open mind... let's not get into the #metoo debate... okay, do if you want but...  It is interesting in today's context that this is a situation where a woman IS believed unquestioningly... Although rape here is used as a metaphorical device... 

From a personal perspective the political farce that the trial becomes is not something it is wise for Professor Godbole to get involved in.  His life will continue whether or not Dr Aziz/Fielding win or not.  Looking at him as less inscrutable and more pragmatical - what's in it for him to get involved anyway?

Furthermore the trial is aborted when Ms Quested realises she has been brainwashed by the Major Callendar while under heavy sedation.  Indeed even Fielding knows that the trial is doomed.  “We're bound to win,... She will never be able to substantiate the charge,” says Mr Fielding.  If so why does he put so much effort into the defence?  Not that his effort isn’t needed but… it's actually Major Callendar's pigheadedness that does the heavy lifting.  Aziz's Indian defence lawyers - sought out by Fielding - spend most of the trial in futile displays of political showboating ...

Godbole sees his role as primarily spiritual.  He is there to guide the souls of the characters.  The events he sees as preordained but what happens to their souls isn’t.  He doesn’t care in a literal sense about what happens to the other characters because he feels he cannot alter the course of events..  But he cares about what happens to them in terms of their personal fulfilment, goals, feelings …that they live good lives.  That they grow as people. 

Godbole misses the trial for the same reason he misses the train.  He sees his religious duties as more important.  Actually Godbole doesn’t want to be involved in any of it at all.  He goes to Fielding’s house in the first place to meet Ms Quested and Mrs Moore because he is a government employee and Fielding is his boss.  Actually Fielding is trying to exert control over Godbole throughout the whole story.  Godbole knows that a visit to the caves is a bad idea which is why when asked to describe them he simply says “They have a reputation” but will not explain what the reputation means or is for…  Although Godbole and Fielding are friends it’s not an equal relationship and…

At the end of the day either Dr Aziz has raped Ms Quested or he hasn’t.  There is very little Godbole can do to resolve this situation.   After all no one can know except the two of them and one of them seems not to remember what happened because of the curious echo in the cave which represents the meaninglessness of existence...? 

Mrs Moore claims to know Dr Aziz is innocent by his character but as  Major Callendar points out what they think they know would not appear to be all there is.  Fielding accuses Callendar of digging up dirt … but then that is his job as the prosecution.  The fact that the prosecution is biased makes it all the more complicated.  But in the end…

…when the trial comes tumbling down to dust you kind of think… Well, actually… yes.  Godbole’s right – the outcome was more or less inevitable so is it actually the most important thing going on? – or are the characters personal journeys more important?

The film looks as beautiful as ever and does a brilliant job of skewering the Raj… we see roads that look as though they should be in England – only with bigger gardens …and names like “Trafalgar Road” etc …and then there is the scene with the temple and the sexual statues which represents the brief revival of Ms Quested and Ronny Heaslop the Magistrate’s relationship.  Everyone is in on the Raj but all to varying degrees.  Heaslop is a career civil servant who sees it as just another government post but is quickly in above his head.  Mrs Moore is on a meaningless search for adventure because she knows she will die soon.  The Callendars see the whole thing as just proof of their belief in racial segregation – they’re the completely and sincerely wrong but they have a certain honesty... unlike Fielding who knows what the Raj is and enjoys its benefits but is in denial about his own role - falling back on the position he's just out there to do his job as a teacher.  Everybody is just doing their job.  Mrs Turton is the snob turned super snob in an environment with no one to laugh at her…

Godbole is really E M Forster saying – look at these people trapped in their own system and yet for all their controlling they simultaneously control nothing…

Or that’s one way of looking at it…perhaps another time I'll look at it differently again....