Two English women, the young Miss
Adela Quested and the elderly Mrs. Moore, travel to India. Adela expects to
become engaged to Mrs. Moore’s son, Ronny, a British magistrate in the Indian
city of Chandrapore. Adela and Mrs. Moore each hope to see the real India
during their visit, rather than cultural institutions imported by the British.
At the same time, Aziz, a young
Muslim doctor in India, is increasingly frustrated by the poor treatment he
receives at the hands of the English. Aziz is especially annoyed with Major
Callendar, the civil surgeon, who has a tendency to summon Aziz for frivolous
reasons in the middle of dinner. Aziz and two of his educated friends,
Hamidullah and Mahmoud Ali, hold a lively conversation about whether or not an
Indian can be friends with an Englishman in India. That night, Mrs. Moore and
Aziz happen to run into each other while exploring a local mosque, and the two
become friendly. Aziz is moved and surprised that an English person would treat
him like a friend.
Mr. Turton, the collector who
governs Chandrapore, hosts a party so that Adela and Mrs. Moore may have the
opportunity to meet some of the more prominent and wealthy Indians in the city.
At the event, which proves to be rather awkward, Adela meets Cyril Fielding,
the principal of the government college in Chandrapore. Fielding, impressed
with Adela’s open friendliness to the Indians, invites her and Mrs. Moore to
tea with him and the Hindu professor Godbole. At Adela’s request, Fielding
invites Aziz to tea as well.
At the tea, Aziz and Fielding
immediately become friendly, and the afternoon is overwhelmingly pleasant until
Ronny Heaslop arrives and rudely interrupts the party. Later that evening,
Adela tells Ronny that she has decided not to marry him. But that night, the
two are in a car accident together, and the excitement of the event causes
Adela to change her mind about the marriage.
Not long afterward, Aziz organizes
an expedition to the nearby Marabar Caves for those who attended Fielding’s
tea. Fielding and Professor Godbole miss the train to Marabar, so Aziz
continues on alone with the two ladies, Adela and Mrs. Moore. Inside one of the
caves, Mrs. Moore is unnerved by the enclosed space, which is crowded with
Aziz’s retinue, and by the uncanny echo that seems to translate every sound she
makes into the noise “boum.”
Aziz, Adela, and a guide go on to
the higher caves while Mrs. Moore waits below. Adela, suddenly realizing that
she does not love Ronny, asks Aziz whether he has more than one wife—a question
he considers offensive. Aziz storms off into a cave, and when he returns, Adela
is gone. Aziz scolds the guide for losing Adela, and the guide runs away. Aziz
finds Adela’s broken field‑glasses and heads down the hill. Back at the picnic
site, Aziz finds Fielding waiting for him. Aziz is unconcerned to learn that
Adela has hastily taken a car back to Chandrapore, as he is overjoyed to see
Fielding. Back in Chandrapore, however, Aziz is unexpectedly arrested. He is
charged with attempting to rape Adela Quested while she was in the caves, a
charge based on a claim Adela herself has made.
Fielding, believing Aziz to be
innocent, angers all of British India by joining the Indians in Aziz’s defense.
In the weeks before the trial, the racial tensions between the Indians and the
English flare up considerably. Mrs. Moore is distracted and miserable because of
her memory of the echo in the cave and because of her impatience with the
upcoming trial. Adela is emotional and ill; she too seems to suffer from an
echo in her mind. Ronny is fed up with Mrs. Moore’s lack of support for Adela,
and it is agreed that Mrs. Moore will return to England earlier than planned.
Mrs. Moore dies on the voyage back to England, but not before she realizes that
there is no “real India”—but rather a complex multitude of different Indias.
At Aziz’s trial, Adela, under oath,
is questioned about what happened in the caves. Shockingly, she declares that
she has made a mistake: Aziz is not the person or thing that attacked her in
the cave. Aziz is set free, and Fielding escorts Adela to the Government
College, where she spends the next several weeks. Fielding begins to respect
Adela, recognizing her bravery in standing against her peers to pronounce Aziz
innocent. Ronny breaks off his engagement to Adela, and she returns to England.
Aziz, however, is angry that
Fielding would befriend Adela after she nearly ruined Aziz’s life, and the
friendship between the two men suffers as a consequence. Then Fielding sails
for a visit to England. Aziz declares that he is done with the English and that
he intends to move to a place where he will not have to encounter them.
Two years later, Aziz has become the
chief doctor to the Rajah of Mau, a Hindu region several hundred miles from
Chandrapore. He has heard that Fielding married Adela shortly after returning
to England. Aziz now virulently hates all English people. One day, walking
through an old temple with his three children, he encounters Fielding and his
brother‑in‑law. Aziz is surprised to learn that the brother-in-law’s name is
Ralph Moore; it turns out that Fielding married not Adela Quested, but Stella
Moore, Mrs. Moore’s daughter from her second marriage.
Aziz befriends Ralph. After he
accidentally runs his rowboat into Fielding’s, Aziz renews his friendship with
Fielding as well. The two men go for a final ride together before Fielding
leaves, during which Aziz tells Fielding that once the English are out of
India, the two will be able to be friends. Fielding asks why they cannot be
friends now, when they both want to be, but the sky and the earth seem to say
“No, not yet. . . . No, not there.”
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