Guest Column

Jatindra K Nayak

E.M. Forster, one of the greatest English novelists of twentieth century, dedicated his famous novel A Passage to India to “Syed Ross Masood and to the seventeen years of friendship”. Eager to plunge into the gripping narrative of colonial encounter, few would pause to seek information about the dedicatee and the nature of his relationship with the celebrated English novelist. So, the readers may overlook the dedication as a para-textual detail that need not detain a reader of fiction. But Forster’s dedication of his masterpiece to an Indian friend assumes great significance in the context of the racially charged Indo-British milieu and should not be passed over lightly.

It has been suggested by Forster scholars that Aziz, the central character of A Passage to India, was modelled on Syed Ross Masood and why did E.M. Forster choose to dedicate his most famous novel to him and who was Ross Masood?

Ross Masood was the only grandson of Sir Syed Ahmad, the founder of Aligarh Muslim University who promoted western-style scientific education and organised Muslim entrepreneurs. After matriculating from Mohamedan Anglo Oriental College in Aligarh in 1905, Ross Masood went to England to study at Oxford. He stayed with his local guardian Sir Theodore Morison, who lived in Surrey. Ross Masood needed someone to teach him Latin and E.M. Forster, who happened to be Morison’s neighbour, agreed to be Ross Masoood’s personal tutor. In no time, Ross Masood and Forster became very close friends and the former introduced him to his circle of Indian friends. To Forster, Ross Masood became a window on Indian civilisation and culture. Of Ross Masood, Forster once said: “Until I met him, India was a vague jungle of Rajahs, sahibs, babus and elephants and I was not interested in such a jumble. Who could be? He made everything real and exciting as he began to talk.”

The following gives one a vivid idea of the deep debt Forster owed his Indian friend: “He woke me up out of my rather suburban and academic life and showed me new horizons and a new civilisation and helped me understand India.” He added that A Passage to India would never have been written without Masood. Masood returned to India in 1912 and Forster visited India during 1913-14. He went to Aligarh to meet Ross Masood and the two friends toured India for six months. The tour gave Foster an intimate knowledge of the country and helped him understand the realities of colonial rule. Forster returned to India in 1921 to serve the King of Dewas as his secretary and he went to Hyderabad to meet Ross Masood.

In Masood’s family, he was affectionately called Forster Chacha by the children. Before his untimely death in 1937, Ross Masood had filled many important positions which included the director of public instruction of Hyderabad, vice-chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University and the education and public work minister of Bhopal government. Forster was shattered by the news of his friend’s death. The Forster-Masood correspondence not only illuminates aspects of colonial rule in India, they provide insights into the nature of a unique friendship. The story of this intimate friendship connects with Odisha in a very interesting way. In the course of his career as a distinguished educationist, Ross Masood served as a professor of history at Ravenshaw College. (Some websites mention that he served Ravenshaw Collegiate School in Cuttack.

Thus there is need to establish facts relating to Ross Masood’s stay in Cuttack through research). One knows practically nothing about when Ross Masood came to Odisha and how long he spent in Cuttack.

Websites providing accounts of Ross Masood’s career simply mention about his stint at Ravenshaw and offer no other details about this friend of E.M. Forster. While some facts about the time eminent historian Sir Jadunath Sarkar spent in Ravenshaw are available, Ross Masood’s Odisha connection remains unexplored and awaits investigation by historians of modern Odisha. One therefore has to content oneself with unverified details thrown into Wikipedia and other websites.

It would be a great pity if this gap in our knowledge of Ross Masood’s Odisha connection is not filled. Collecting relevant information from Aligarh Muslim University should not be difficult given improved access to archives in the age of the Internet and inter-library borrowing. It is perfectly possible that Ross Masood has left accounts of his experiences at Ravenshaw College and in Cuttack in letters and diaries.

In fact, we should not forget that, in the recent past, professor Altaf Hussain, a legendary teacher and an alumnus of Aligarh Muslim University headed the department of history in Ravenshaw College.

Even if such accounts are not available, Ross Masood’s associations with Ravenshaw College (now a university) should be remembered and celebrated. That one of the greatest novels of the 20th century was dedicated to someone who served Ravenshaw as a professor of history links this great institution to a modern classic. It will be a wonderful idea if the history and English departments of Ravenshaw University jointly institute an annual Forster-Masood memorial lecture and involve Aligarh University in this exciting initiative.