A Passage to India - Summary

Summary

The novel is set in the fictional city of Chandrapore. In the first part we meet Doctor Aziz who is having supper with his friends. They are talking about the possibility of being friends with the English. They have different ideas, but none of them can remeber courtesies of the English.

During the dinner Dr Aziz has to leave because his superior, Dr Callendar, has called for him. When he arrives Dr Callendar is not there and he hasn't left any messages for him. So Aziz goes to a mosque. There he meets Mrs Moore, an English woman who has just arrived in India with her friend Adela. They are there to visit Mrs Moore's son, whose name is Ronny. He is the City Magistrate, and Miss Adela is thinking of becoming engaged to him.

She also would like to see the real India, and she is really disappointed to find that the British and the Indians are always separeted, even when they have a party together. In fact the two ladies go to a tea party organized by Mr Fielding, a school teacher, who understood their interest in getting to know Indians. At the party Adela meets Aziz, who is happy to be there and to meet Fielding as they have many interests in common. Dr Aziz and Miss Adela start to speak and Aziz offers to take her, Mrs Moore and the rest of the party, for an excursion at the Marabar Caves. During their conversation they are interrupted by Ronny, who is very angry because he doesn't want Adela to spaek alone with an Indian. After the tea party the young lady tells Ronny that she doesn't want to marry him.

On the day of the trip Aziz, Adela and Mrs Moore meet. In the tour of the first cave Mrs Moore feels ill and she decides not to continue her trip. She stays behind at the pic nic site while Adela follows Aziz and the guide to the other caves. When she enters the cave she begins to feel quite ill, and she also feels something soft and warm on her face. Then she hears a terrible echo. She offends Aziz without being aware of it and Aziz slips to another cave to regain his composure. When he comes out he notices that Adela is missing. At first he is worried about that, but then he sees her down on the plain talking to another woman and he doesn't think about her strange behaviour any more. He travels back to Chandrapore by train, but when he arrives he is arrested. Fielding discovers that he has been accused of assaulting Miss Adela. Moreover he discovers that he himself is considered a traitor for thinking that Aziz is innocent.

On the day of the trial Adela suddenly realizes her mistake and withdraws her charge against Aziz. He is innocent...

At the end Dr Aziz goes to Mau to get away from the English forever.

One day he meets Fielding. They talk with the mutual realization that circumstances prevent them from maintaining thei friendship. They can't be friend, not yet.