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My holidays are over. I add the last thought that I elocubrated under the parasol. I will keep an eye on the thread to see if something comes up.
A recurring element in the India of Forster, a very minor one, is the curious behavior of the servants. They act and move on courses that are quite off axis with what their masters command, wish, desire and need. They even spy on their masters. For money or favors, or for basic hostility, they spread gossips. The poor cousin with the affair between Fielding and Adela insinuates gratituous poison in Aziz heart and friendship sinks.
I think of Beaumarchais, of the Marriage of Figaro and of Mozart that so naively lost the favor of his patron. We, Westerners, we are harsh and vindictive. While our Indians, Forster's Indians actually, just take it as part of everyday life. What a social environment! Everybody knows everything of everybody else, distorted. The muddle again.
Is it just Forster view? Does it correspond to real reality?
Recently, I read The White Tiger, by Aravind Ardiga: the contemporary and picaresque tale of the rising of a young Indian. There, one can appreciate the servants' underworld: the drivers of the powerful Indians, cheating on their masters.
Maybe it is the obvious consequence of a strong social gradient, in which different classes navigate on independent planes and tracks. Where envy and despise reign.
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