A Passage to India: Part 2, Chapter 31 Summary & Analysis

Fielding is away at a conference for several days, and while he is gone Aziz muses on the rumor that Fielding and Adela were lovers. Eventually he believes it to be true, despite having no evidence. He doesn’t have a problem with extramarital affairs, but only with Adela, and with Fielding keeping secrets from him.

Aziz meets Fielding at the station when he returns, and brings up the subject by mentioning that McBryde and Miss Derek had been caught having an affair. Aziz jokes that McBryde will surely blame the hot Indian climate for his infidelity to his wife. Fielding isn’t interested in discussing this scandal, however, and wants to talk about his conference.

Aziz finally tells Fielding the rumor about him, saying that it might injure his reputation. Fielding laughs it off, but doesn’t offer the clear denial that Aziz is looking for. Aziz insists on talking about it more, and speaks as if the rumor were true. Fielding is startled that Aziz would believe the rumor, and he has an outburst of surprise and anger. Aziz feels wounded by his own mistake and by Fielding’s words, but Fielding apologizes as he drops him off. Aziz reluctantly agrees to come to dinner with Fielding that night, though he says he will bring Das along.

Fielding is frustrated by the miscommunications between himself and Aziz. He sees Turton at the post office, and Turton orders Fielding to make an appearance at the English club at six that evening. Fielding stops by and accepts some awkward hospitality. Many of the officials and women have left or been replaced, but the new officials seem just like the old ones and the feeling in the club is unchanged. Fielding internally compares this to an “echo” of evil, which will keep going on until it all crashes down and British India fails.

Fielding then joins Aziz for dinner, and tells him that he is traveling to England soon on official business. Aziz suggests that they change the subject to poetry. Fielding says that finding a subject for Indian poets is difficult, but that he hopes that Aziz will be a religious poet. Even though Fielding is an atheist, he feels that there is something important in religion—or in Hinduism at least—that has not yet been expressed properly.

Aziz then wants to change the subject back to Fielding’s trip to England, and he asks Fielding if he will visit Adela. Fielding says that he probably will, but he seems indifferent about it. Aziz suddenly says he has a headache and should go home early. Fielding apologizes again for his outburst that morning, but Aziz still feels depressed as he rides home. He soon discovers the source of his unhappiness: he can’t help suspecting that Fielding is going to England to marry Adela for the sake of her money.

Aziz discusses the flies on the ceiling with his servant once more, and thinks more about his suspicion, which he doesn’t believe to be factually true, but which still affects him strongly. The narrator says that suspicion is the Easterner’s special “demon,” while the Westerner’s is hypocrisy. Aziz muses more on his suspicions, and soon finds himself believing that Fielding did indeed have an affair with Adela while she was at the college.

The next day Aziz decides to travel with his children back to their home, so that when he returns to Chandrapore Fielding will have already left. Fielding is aware that something is wrong with their friendship, and he leaves a vague note for Aziz, which Aziz finds cold and displeasing. Soon Hamidullah and Mahmoud Ali are contributing to Aziz’s suspicions about Fielding and Adela, reminding him that they are “both members of a different race.” Aziz is haunted by the twenty thousand rupees he never received, and he finally convinces himself that a wedding between Fielding and Adela has already happened, as the natural result of that picnic at the Marabar Caves.