Study Guide

A Passage to India Part 1, Chapter 4

By E.M. Forster

Part 1, Chapter 4

Mr. Turton sends out invitations to a Bridge Party to the prominent members of the Indian community.
A few Indians discuss Turton's invitation. Some, like Mahmoud Ali, believe that the Bridge Party is a political move on the part of Turton.
Others, like the Nawab Bahadur, see the invitation as a simple gesture of good will and decide to attend. Because of the Nawab Bahadur's prominence, the others decide to follow his lead.
The scene abruptly shifts as the narrator considers all those who were not invited by Turton, people who are so poor that they don't even have a class to describe them.
The scene abruptly shifts yet again to two missionaries, Mr. Graysford and Mr. Sorley, who work with the kind of people who were not invited by Turton.
The missionaries profess that all are invited to God's house.
The narrator hypothetically asks them whether this invite includes non-human creatures, like monkeys. Mr. Sorley can accept monkeys, because, as he says, who wouldn't want a heaven with monkeys? But he draws the line at oranges and bacteria.