A Passage to India

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1924

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-3

Part 1, Chapters 4-6

Part 1, Chapters 7-11

Part 2, Chapters 12-14

Part 2, Chapters 15-18

Part 2, Chapters 19-22

Part 2, Chapters 23-25

Part 2, Chapters 26-29

Part 2, Chapters 30-32

Part 3, Chapters 33-37

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

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Part 1, Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1: “Mosque”

Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary

An omniscient narrator describes Chandrapore and its surroundings, negatively comparing it to the beauty of the nearby Marabar Caves. The Ganges flows nearby with banks clogged by garbage and bazaars. Chandrapore is a place where “the streets are mean, the temples ineffective” (3). Peoples of different class and race are physically segregated. Along the Ganges live the indigenous people, low-ranking “Eurasians” live in small houses further inland, and the most prosperous, influential colonial Englishmen of the civil station live on a rise that overlooks the entire area.

The sky above Chandrapore is personified as a beautiful, beneficent force: “But when the sky chooses, glory can rain into the Chandrapore bazaars or a benediction pass from horizon to horizon” (5). To the south of the city are the Marabar Hills and their accompanying caves; otherwise, the landscape surrounding Chandrapore is a wide expanse of flat ground.

Part 1, Chapter 2 Summary

The young Dr. Aziz arrives at his friend Hamidullah’s house just before dinner. Mahmoud Ali, another friend, is also present. The three men discuss whether it is possible to be friends with an Englishman. Hamidullah once spent a few years in England; he claims that friendship between the races may be impossible in India, but not so in England. Aziz is more critical of the Englishmen they know in Chandrapore, claiming, “The English take and do nothing. I admire them […] Let us shut them out and be jolly” (8-9).

The conversation turns to women; they generalize English women as cold and unapproachable. At dinner, Hamidullah’s wife Begum tries to persuade Aziz to consider marrying again. Currently a widower, Aziz’s three children live with his deceased wife’s mother. Hamidullah Begum argues that Aziz is not fulfilling his social and moral role as a man by abstaining from a second marriage. A servant from the English Civil Surgeon, Callendar, interrupts them with a note calling Aziz to attend on him. Aziz believes the request to be empty and simply a way for Callendar to exert his power as an English man. Hamidullah, “considerately paving the way towards obedience” (13), urges Aziz to go anyway.

Aziz bicycles and walks over and experiences a sudden bout of depression and claustrophobia. To him, the streets “were symbolic of the net Great Britain had thrown over India. He felt caught in their meshes” (13). At Callendar’s house, he tips a servant to discover that Callendar has already left because Aziz took too long to arrive. He begins to walk home but quickly grows tired and stops in a mosque to rest. Inside, Aziz is taken with the beauty of the mosque and reflects on his devotion to Islam.

Aziz notices an English woman walking through the mosque. Aziz approaches her and says she must leave as she is not welcome in the mosque and must take off her shoes. The woman, Mrs. Moore, assures him that she is already barefoot. They begin chatting. Mrs. Moore has recently arrived in India to visit her son Mr. Heaslop, the City Magistrate, whom Aziz knows. Mrs. Moore is a widow and has three children, as does Aziz. Their similarities allow Aziz to feel comfortable talking to her, and he vents his frustration with the Callendar’s treatment of him.

Afterwards, Aziz escorts Mrs. Moore back to the English club to rejoin her family.

Part 1, Chapter 3 Summary

Mrs. Moore enters the club, where the English society of Chandrapore is putting on a play: Cousin Kate. She joins Miss Adela Quested, who is her son Ronny’s prospective future wife and Mrs. Moore’s ward for the trip. They discuss Adela’s desire to experience “real India unfiltered by the club’s prejudices.” Both feel disappointed in their experience of India so far, having expected a more adventurous time. They talk with Mr. Turton, who has served in India for twenty years already. Mr. Turton comments that Ronny may not be professionally qualified for his position but is still “one of us” (24).

More English natives join the conversation. The Turtons rule the social circles of Chandrapore and believe that prejudice and class divisions are inescapable in India. To please Adela’s curiosity, Mr. Turton arranges a tea party that will include the Indian people they most often associate with.

Mrs. Moore, Ronny, and Adela leave the club. On the drive home, Mrs. Moore relates her adventure in the mosque with Aziz, exciting Adela but worrying Ronny at having associated with a Muslim. Once home, Adela goes to sleep, and mother and son talk over the complexities of social convention in India. Mrs. Moore is surprised to find her son more judgmental than he had been in England.

Part 1, Chapters 1-3 Analysis

The narrator opens A Passage to India with a description of the physical layout of the city of Chandrapore to emphasize the physical segregation of class and race. The so-called “civil lines” act as strict physical boundaries that prevent any mixing of race or cultural influence on the Anglo-English. This is represented textually by the English’s vantage point at the top of the rise; from their position above Chandrapore, “new-comers cannot believe it to be as meagre as it is described and have to be driven down to acquire disillusionment” (4). This speaks to the overall moral situation newcomers from England find themselves in. Their view of colonialism has always been from a morally advantageous vantage point; Empire and imperialism is presented to them as a necessary and morally justifiable course of action. When newcomers arrive in Chandrapore, they are blind to the poverty and struggle found in the Indian neighborhoods down below.

The tendency for prejudice and racism to become reinforced within social circles is shown through Ronny’s character, as he blithely uses “phrases and arguments that he had picked up from older officials, and he did not feel quite sure of himself” (33). Even though he is the City Magistrate and responsible for all the citizens in Chandrapore, not only the English, Ronny reveals that the colonial leaders are more concerned with fitting in with their small, affluent social circles. Ronny, and by extension many of the English living in Chandrapore, express the need to solidify their ranks and preserve their cultural norms. Should Ronny act somewhat out of sync with the others, “he felt disloyal to his caste” (33).

For their part, the Indian characters portrayed in the first three chapters of Forster’s novel vary in their relation to the colonialists. Some are indifferent to the English; others are openly resentful of being subordinate to them. Aziz wishes for the English to leave India altogether and is not afraid to state such a claim, while his friend Hamidullah is more reserved, using persuasion to “considerately paving the way towards obedience” (13). Aziz, Hamidullah, Mahmoud Ali, and other Indian characters struggle to find a balance between remaining true to their culture while not bringing misfortune to themselves in a society in which they are divested of power.