A Passage to India: Part 1, Chapter 2 Summary & Analysis

Forster focuses first on Indian characters, undercutting the typical British novel. Here he also introduces the important theme of friendship, particularly friendship between an Englishman and an Indian. The novel addresses the political tensions between England and India, but also personal relations like the ones portrayed here. Note that the friendship between an Indian and the English is seen as being impossible only in India, where the power dynamics of British colonialism come into play, where the British are the rulers and they see the Indians not as individuals but as a population to be ruled.

Hamidullah’s statement that an Indian/English friendship is impossible in India shows that the colonial system is partly to blame for corrupting English people, rather than the individuals themselves. The “red-nosed boy” will later be revealed as Ronny Heaslop.

This gives a good overall summary of Forster’s portrayal of the English in India—even if they start out with good intentions, they eventually become prejudiced and condescending, and the women are even worse than the men. Aziz is still naïve and thinks he can avoid the English, but they will forcefully intrude upon his life later.

Aziz is a skilled doctor, but his true love is poetry, which more accurately reflects his emotional and imaginative character. The issue of the purdah—a practice of some Muslim Indian women of living their lives hidden from men other than their husbands and family—will come up several times in the novel.

Forster gives hints like this of the potential for a united India, usually through something intangible like poetry or the universal oneness of Hinduism, while at the same time showing the myriad ways that India and its people are so divided. Forster contrasts small details of Indian culture with English culture, and reveals that it is only in their anger at the English that the various Indian groups do share common ground.

Callendar will later prove to be a violently racist and hateful character, but we are first introduced to him (and the English in general) through this annoying display of power and condescension—making Aziz leave his friends’ dinner without saying why.

Aziz tries to ignore the English or laugh at them, but he is unable to escape their presence everywhere as an oppressive force. Aziz’s troubles traveling through town are a small glimpse of Forster’s “muddle” of India. Callendar is rude again just because he can be, and likely because of his racist attitude toward Indians.

This is the first actual appearance of English characters, and we see the rudeness and racism that is so notably common in Forster’s English women characters. Aziz is now truly irritated, contrary to his usual stance of happily ignoring the English.

Forster often personifies the Indian landscape itself as somehow unfriendly to humans, which will later be important regarding the Marabar Caves. Contrary to the “muddle” Forster and the English find in India, Aziz takes comfort in the “mysteries” of Islam—what he feels is an elegant simplicity behind all life, and a divine plan for everything. We see more of Aziz’s romantic and imaginative nature as he daydreams.

Mrs. Moore appears as both a sympathetic English character—one who respects Aziz’s religion and treats him as an equal—but also as a sort of mystical figure who is able to immediately sense that “God is here” in the mosque, even though she herself is a Christian.

It is this encounter that gives the book’s first section its title: “Mosque.” The meeting at the mosque represents the initial possibility of friendship between Indians and English. At this point true friendship still seems plausible if both parties will be kind, respectful, and openminded in the way Aziz and Mrs. Moore are.

This is only a fleeting encounter, but both Aziz and Mrs. Moore have a deep sense of intuition, and after this meeting they will consider themselves to be close friends. Because of the power dynamics at play in an India controlled by the British, Aziz would never be able to criticize one Englishwoman to another normally, but he feels a strong instinctive trust for Mrs. Moore.

Aziz’s comment that Mrs. Moore is an “Oriental” sets in motion the cycle that plays out throughout the novel. “Oriental” is today considered an offensive term, but in Forster’s time this is how Aziz identifies himself – and he sees being “Oriental” as involving different character traits than being “English,” an emphasis on feeling – and so he is essentially declaring that he and Mrs. Moore are equals and can be friends.