A Passage to India Part 1, Chapter 4 Summary

  • 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.