A Passage to India: Part 1, Chapter 6 Summary & Analysis

Aziz did not go to the Bridge Party. First he was distracted by surgical cases he had to attend to. Major Callendar, his superior, disrespects him because he is an Indian, though Callendar knows that Aziz is a better surgeon than he is. Callendar also is upset with Aziz for being late the night before when Callendar summoned him. He ignores Aziz’s valid excuses and accuses him of laziness. Aziz generally views the English as comic figures, and he “enjoyed being misunderstood by them,” so he decides not to be angry at Callendar.

The day of the Bridge Party is the anniversary of Aziz’s wife’s death, so he decides not to go. Aziz’s marriage was an arranged one, and he had not loved his wife at first. But he fell in love with her after the birth of their first child. She then died giving birth to their third child. After her death Aziz felt that no woman could ever replace her, so he never remarried, and sometimes he becomes deeply depressed. On the anniversary of her death he takes out his wife’s picture and weeps, suddenly repulsed by the idea of mingling with the insensitive British.

Aziz then borrows Hamidullah’s pony and goes riding to cheer himself up. He plays polo on the town green with an English soldier he has never met. The two men feel an immediate comradeship and they play for a while. When they depart they both think to themselves “if only they were all like that.” Aziz then returns home, and on the way he has an awkward encounter with Dr. Panna Lal, a lower-class Hindu who had planned on going to the Bridge Party with Aziz. He impolitely insists on understanding why Aziz failed to attend.

Aziz insults Dr. Panna Lal and then leaves, feeling defiant, but by the time he reaches home he worries that he will be in trouble with the English for not attending the party. He finds a letter with a British government stamp waiting for him, and he is afraid of what it might say. He is pleased to find that it is an invitation to tea from Mr. Fielding. Aziz is especially pleased because Fielding has overlooked the fact that Aziz had forgotten another invitation from him a month earlier. Aziz is excited to meet the principal, and writes a reply accepting the invitation.