A Passage to India

Following the trial, the previously opposing Hindu and Muslim Chandrapore population reach a cooperative peacefulness. Aziz receives the Hindu Magistrate Das as a patient and is commissioned to write an Islamic poem for Das’s brother-in-law. They discuss how long this amity will last, with Das commenting on the need for brotherhood: “Excuse my mistakes, realize my limitations. Life is not easy as we know it on the earth” (297).

That evening, Aziz attempts to write a poem with an Indian universal appeal. Though he doesn’t succeed in writing the poem, the act of contemplating a unified “mother-land” leads him to conclude a necessity for a king or independently Indian ruling body. He informs Hamidullah of his resolve to move out of British India, preferably to a quiet job or writing poetry. Hamidullah complains of Aziz’s decision to not sue Adela, as he could have been living as a rich man and not contemplating a future of remote poverty for himself and his three children.

Hamidullah relates to Aziz a piece of gossip circulating through the city that Adela and Fielding had an affair during her time living at the College. Aziz does not consider the gossip of much importance; he is too distracted by the prospect of a life writing poetry.