A Passage to India | Part 2, Chapter 30 ((Caves)) | Summary

Summary

A Hindu-Muslim understanding has developed, and Mr. Das, who presided over Aziz's trial, asks the doctor for a prescription and for a poem to publish in Mr. Bhattacharya's new magazine, intended for all Indians. Das apologizes to Aziz and they half embrace, each still thinking ill thoughts of the other. Aziz is flattered someone knows that he writes poetry and gets to work, but he can't write a poem suitable for Muslims and Hindus. Aziz tells Hamidullah he wants to take a job in a Hindu state and write poetry, but Hamidullah warns him he will be poor if he does. Then he mentions to Aziz a rumor Mohammed Latif has been spreading: Fielding and Adela were having an affair while she stayed at Government College. Then Hamidullah complains his wife has never met Fielding and she and all the women who at the time of the trial vowed to give up purdah have failed to do so.

Analysis

After being desired and hinted at, a Hindu-Muslim unity seems to be developing, their only hope against the British. But in the interaction between Aziz and Das, two who were pitted against each other by the British, readers see the difficulties inherent in Hindu-Muslim unity, even among the well-intentioned. Aziz seems now more interested in following his poetic inclinations, identified with the literary tradition of his Muslim forebears, than in his profession as a doctor, which he learned from the British. Meanwhile, the power of rumor is afoot, keeping alive stories about Adela even after she has gone, just as it did with Mrs. Moore.