O p e n i n g s1 1As far as the tone of this passage goes, we may note among other
things the triple alliteration of the phrase ‘happens not to be holy
here’, which trots somewhat too glibly off the tongue. It represents
a wry poke at Hindu beliefs on the part of a sceptical, sophisticated
outsider. The alliteration suggests a ‘cleverness’, a discreet delight
in verbal artifice, which puts a distance between the narrator and
the poverty- stricken city. The same is true of the lines ‘The streets
are mean, the temples ineffective, and though a few fine houses
exist.. .’ The syntax of this is a little too self- consciously contrived,
too obviously intent on a ‘literary’ effect.
So far, the passage has managed to keep this shabby Indian city
at arm’s length without sounding too offensively superior, but the
word ‘ineffective’ to describe the temples almost deliberately gives
the game away. Though the syntax tucks it unobtrusively away in a
sub- clause, it strikes the reader like a mild smack in the face. The
term assumes that the temples are there not for the inhabitants
to worship in, but for the observer to take pleasure in. They
are ineffective in the sense that they do nothing for the artistically-
minded tourist. The adjective makes them sound like flat tyres or
broken radios. In fact, it does this so calculatedly that one wonders,
perhaps a little too charitably, whether it is meant to be ironic. Is
this narrator sending up his own high- handed manner?
It is clear enough that the narrator, who is not necessarily to be
identified with the historical individual E.M. Forster, has some
inside knowledge of India. He has not just stepped off the boat. He
knows, for example, that the Ganges is sometimes sacred and
sometimes not. Perhaps he is implicitly comparing Chandrapore to
other cities in the sub- continent. There is a slightly jaded air about
the extract, as though the narrator has seen too much of this
country to be easily impressed. Perhaps the paragraph aims to