A Passage to India Characters

The character Fielding calls Adela Quested "one of the more pathetic products of Western education" (1.11.42).Ouch.But you can kind of see where Fielding's coming from. All fresh-faced earnestness...

When Dr. Aziz is introduced to us, we don't see him. We see the bicycle he throws on the balcony, and we see the servant missing the bicycle before it hits the balcony. We know that he is "all anim...

Fielding, the principal at the local college, is your quintessential, tweedy English professor. Think Dumbledore without the beard and flowing cloaks, the Robin Williams guy in Dead Poets Society,...

Mrs. Moore, mother of Ronny, Stella, and Ralph, friend to Aziz and Adela, is a loveable sweet-little-old-lady.Or is she?When she first arrives in India alongside Adela, Mrs. Moore, like Adela, is a...

You might say that Professor Godbole, an instructor at Fielding's local college, is the loopy guru of the school. He seems clueless and utterly oblivious to others' suffering, with a streak of sill...

Ronny Heaslop, the City Magistrate, is, let's face it, a suck-up. Take Martin from the Simpsons, give him a British accent and broad judicial powers over Indians, and voilá, you get Ronny Heas...

As the Collector, Mr. Turton is the head of the British civil administration in Chandrapore. He's an experienced administrator who has swallowed the British imperial project hook, line, and sinker....

Mrs. Turton, in contrast with her husband the Collector, is viciously racist. It's hard to find another character more racist than Mrs. Turton in the novel – even the subaltern that shows up...

Mr. McBryde, the police superintendent, is introduced to us as "the most reflective and best educated of the Chandrapore officials" (2.28.1). No wonder, then, that he gets along so well with Fieldi...

Miss Derek, a friend and frequent guest of the McBrydes, works for one of the Hindu princes in a nearby princely state. She's the party girl of the set – single and always game for a good tim...

The subaltern, a British soldier, only makes two appearances in the novel. The subaltern gives us the military perspective on colonial India. In his first appearance, he plays polo with Aziz. Here,...

Major Callendar, the Civil Surgeon, is the head of the hospital where Aziz works. His racism is as extreme as Mrs. Turton's, and he seeks every opportunity to showcase his disdain for Indians.

Dr. Panna Lal is Aziz's Hindu colleague at the hospital. He's a ridiculous character who panders to whomever is in power at the moment, whether it's Major Callendar or, during the rioting following...

Educated in England, Hamidullah is a kind of mentor to Aziz in the novel. A Muslim like Aziz, Hamidullah is married to a woman who happens to be Aziz's distant relative. As the leading Muslim lawye...

Mahmoud Ali, like Hamidullah, is a lawyer, but not as prominent. He co-defends Aziz with Amritrao, a famous lawyer brought in from Calcutta to argue Aziz's case. He's not much use to Aziz in the tr...

The Nawab Bahadur is perhaps the most prominent, most powerful, and wealthiest Muslim Indian character in the novel. His title was conferred upon him by the British; it's not exactly clear why, but...

Amritrao is a famous lawyer from Calcutta who is brought in to argue Aziz's case. Fielding hesitates when he hears that Amritrao is going to be brought in because Amritrao is known for being anti-B...

Mr. Das is Ronny's Hindu subordinate, and has to preside over Aziz's trial because Ronny has a conflict of interest due to his engagement to Adela.

Stella is Mrs. Moore's daughter by her second husband, and half-sister to Ronny. She arrives in India as Fielding's bride. She doesn't say a word in the novel, but she does get soaked when her boat...

Ralph is Mrs. Moore's son by her second husband, Ronny's half-brother, and Fielding's brother-in-law. Ronny thinks of Ralph as a dim bulb, but Fielding believes Ralph to be quite clever. As Ralph's...