A Passage to India

“Wedlock, motherhood, power in the house—for what else is she born, and how can that man who has denied them to her stand up to face her creator and his own at the last day?”

Spoken by Hamidullah Begum to Aziz as she persuades him to consider marrying again after his wife’s death. Her words reflect the inherent patriarchal values of their society, as well as the strict gender roles everyone is expected to fulfill.

“Shrines are fascinating, especially when rarely opened, and it amused him to note the ritual of the English club, and to caricature it afterwards to his friends.”

Shared by Mahmoud Ali, this sentiment reflects the amusement the Indian gentlemen experience when attending Mrs. Turton’s Bridge Party. Rather than being offended by the clear racial separation, Mahmoud Alid considers the experience to be an interesting show and topic of future conversation.

“One touch of regret—not the canny substitute but the true regret from the heart—would have made him a different man, and the British Empire a different institution.”

Mrs. Moore expresses her disappointment in Ronny’s cold-heartedness towards Indians. She reflects that if only he, and by extension the British Empire, could feel a humanitarian regret for their actions, their imperialistic policies would be radically different.

“Most of the inhabitants of India do not mind how India is governed. Nor are the lower animals of England concerned about England, but in the tropics the indifference is more prominent, the inarticulate world is closer at hand and readier to resume control as soon as men are tired.”

Spoken by the narrator as they describe the coming of the intense heat of summer, this quote personifies the effects of the Indian summer as a force capable of quelling the desire for activism and independence. The narrator draws a similarity between the lower classes of England and those of India, offering an equality in political indifference.

“An entrance was necessary, so mankind made one. But elsewhere, deeper in the granite, are there certain chambers that have no entrances?”

As the narrator describes the Marabar Caves, the question of manmade vs. natural caverns is presented as an analogy of manmade social conventions vs. natural affinities untouched by civilization. The natural world serves as a foil for the larger issues of imperialism, civilizing missions, and the ignorance of many to the possibilities of other ways of behaving. 

“She is not a promise, only an appeal.”

The narrator describes the allure of India to Westerners and its function as an idealized place of discovery. However, once it is reached, India is discovered to be merely an “appeal,” unable to uphold the promise of its idealized reputation.

“At the moment when he was throwing in his lot with the Indians, he realized the profundity of the gulf that divided him from them.”

Fielding decides to support Aziz’s innocence rather than siding with his fellow Englishmen without clear evidence of Aziz’s guilt. The magnitude of this choice presents itself to him in the social, cultural, and racial differences between himself and the Indian natives.

“Because nothing can be performed in isolation. All perform a good action, when one is performed, and when an evil action is performed, all perform it.”

Spoken by Godbole while discussing Aziz’s innocence with Fielding, this quote reflects the inescapable interconnectedness of human behavior. The evil that Aziz is purported to have committed is not solely his own, but the moral doing of each person he interacts with. Godbole’s words suggest that there is no one single person to blame in acts of morality, tying in with the novel’s themes of colonialism as one single Englishman cannot be held accountable for the doings of the entire empire.

“Miss Quested was only a victim, but young Heaslop was a martyr; he was the recipient of all the evil intended against them by the country they had tried to save; he was bearing the sahib’s cross.”

The English meet at the club following Adela’s accusations of Aziz and encounter her fiancé, Ronny. Rather than focusing on Adela’s supposed trauma, the men are interested in Ronny’s position and consider his hurt pride to be more significant than Adela’s physical hurt.

“Evil was loose […] she could even hear it entering the lives of others [...] And Adela spent days in this atmosphere of grief and depression.”

Following her accusation of Aziz and convalescence in Mrs. Turton’s care, Adela worries about the implications her claims have on both the English and Indian population of Chandrapore. She realizes that speaking against Aziz has stirred aggressive racial tensions that spread quickly through each population, infecting more and more people with an impulse towards disharmony, aggression, and prejudice.

“She has started the machinery; it will work to its own end.”

Mrs. Moore condemns Adela for having made such a grave mistake as blaming Aziz while being confused over the events in the cave. She believes that Adela cannot but proceed with the course of action expected of her, as Adela has already done too much to rile the racial tensions within Chandrapore to stop now.

“The triumphant machine of civilization may suddenly hitch and be immobilized into a car of stone, and at such moments the destiny of the English seems to resemble their predecessors’, who also entered the country with intent to refashion it, but were in the end worked into its pattern and covered with its dust.”

This sentiments of the failure of foreigners to “civilize” India according to their designs is described by the narrator as the heat of summer begins to descend upon Chandrapore. The stupefying heat as well as India’s multiplicity of religions, nationalities, and provinces, works against England purported civilizing mission of Empire.

“In virtue of what had she collected this roomful of people together? Her particular brand of opinions, and the suburban Jehovah who sanctified them – by what right did they claim so much importance in the world, and assume the title of civilization?”

At the start of the trial, Adela struggles to reconcile her involvement in bringing about a prosecution based entirely on her opinion without evidence. She connects this to the large issue of Empire by asking how the English claimed so much importance in the world that they could get away with prosecuting a man without evidence and fully believing themselves to be in the right.

“I am not defending a case, nor are you trying one. We are both of us slaves.”

Spoken by Mahmoud Ali during the trial, he references his common nationality with the Magistrate Das as well as arguing that the trial is ultimately a farce. Because of their colonial position, Aziz will never experience a fair trial. Furthermore, Mahmoud Ali believes that by himself and Das employing their English legal education in this trial is not only ironic, but indicative of their colonial enslavement.

“Miss Quested has renounced her own people.”

By speaking truthfully at the trial, Adela alienates herself from the English. She fails to meet their expectations in condemning an Indian man without evidence, and therefore is no longer accepted into their society.

“For her behavior rested on cold justice and honesty; she had felt, while she recanted, no passion of love for those whom she had wronged.”

Hamidullah does not fully believe that Adela’s honesty during the trial was sincere because she does not express her emotions as openly as desired. The cultural differences between expressing emotion create an animosity between English and Indian parties; this quote further shows Hamidullah’s understanding that Adela’s honesty was not prompted by love for Aziz or their race but is separate from issues of race.

“How indeed is it possible for one human being to be sorry for all the sadness that meets him on the face of the earth, for the pain that is endured not only by men, but by animals and plants, and perhaps stones?”

After the announcement of Mrs. Moore’s death, the narrator focuses first on the indifference felt by Hamidullah before widening the scope to any human in general; death, sorrow, and pain is an inescapable part of life for all beings, and as such, apathy and indifference tend to rule the man who pretends to feel pain for the death of someone they barely know.

“Civilization strays about like a ghost here, revisiting the ruins of empire, and is to be found not in great works of art or mighty deeds, but in the gestures well-bred Indians make when they sit or lie down.”

Fielding wonders over the nature of civilization, and how deeply such notions of propriety, class, and chivalry can permeate a colonized subject’s behavior. The habitual, daily manners of Fielding’s friends, being a kind of Indian gentlemanly class, reflect a morality of civility that indicates their similarities to English gentlemen than any great work of art or achievement would. 

“Excuse my mistakes, realize my limitations. Life is not easy as we know it on the earth.” 

Spoken by the Magistrate Das to Aziz following the Muslim-Hindu entente after the trial, Das’ statement reflects the need for empathy and understanding between the different social sects men find themselves in. He suggests that life is hard enough without adding to it religious strife based on pridefulness, narrow-mindedness, and a lack of empathy.

“The song of the future must transcend creed.”

Aziz is commissioned to write a poem for a Hindu publication and attempts to compose one without religious distinctions. This quote functions to explain Aziz’s growing concern for Indian unity in the face of colonialism and an end to racial and religious animosities between the different creeds found in India. 

“There are many ways of being a man; mine is to express what is deepest in my heart.”

Aziz expresses this statement to Hamidullah as they argue over whether Aziz should pursue a career without the sphere of British India. Aziz would rather live close to poverty and with the resources to write poetry, contemplate his religion, and never associate with the British again than pursue a career of wealth on European terms.

“Everything echoes now; there’s no stopping the echo. The original sound may be harmless, but the echo is always evil.”

Fielding contemplates the inescapability of an echo, in this instance an echo of society. He considers how humanity across cultures is wrapped up in echoing each other’s faults; there is no longer an “original sound” of social behavior, but rather a never-ending repetition of the same evils and cruelty. 

“There is something in religion that may not be true, but has not yet been sung.”

Spoken by Fielding to Aziz after revealing his hope that Aziz would become a religious poet, Fielding is attempting to convince Aziz that a traditional form like poetry can still be useful for personal and spiritual growth. This reflects Fielding’s disappointment that Aziz plans to separate fully from British India.