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Part 2, Chapter 20
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Passage to India, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Colonialism
“Muddles” and Mysteries
Friendship
Division vs. Unity
Race and Culture
Summary
Analysis
Fielding rides into Chandrapore to join “his new allies,” the Indians. He hears constant drumbeats and passes some children dressing up to celebrate Mohurram, a Muslim holy month honoring Mohammed’s grandson’s martyrdom. Fielding spends the evening with the Nawab Bahadur, Hamidullah, Mahmoud Ali, and Aziz’s other friends. They have renewed their application for Aziz’s bail and sent for Amritrao, the famous anti-British lawyer. That night Fielding wants to talk with Professor Godbole about his regrets in being rude to Ronny, but Godbole is asleep. The next day Godbole quietly disappears to his new job starting a high school in another town.
Once again Godbole avoids discussing practical real-world matters, and disappears until later in the novel, never involving himself with the confusion and tedium of the trial. He goes to Mau, the site of the novel’s third section. The celebration of Mohurram provides a backdrop for all the turmoil of Aziz’s trial, a constant reminder of both the spiritual world and the divisions between Hindu Indians and Muslim Indians.
Themes
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