Geopolitical Names and Concepts in Passage to India

 

Note: Terms are listed in order of appearance in the novel.

Context is indicated by quotation and page number.

 

Marabar Caves � caves explored by tourists; scene of confusion in novel; location of Mrs. Moore�s encounter with a strange echo and with Miss Quested�s imaginary assault by Dr. Aziz; �twenty miles off� (7) from city of Chandrapore

 

Chandrapore � fictional city in which main action of novel is set;  �two hundred years ago it lay on the road between Upper India, then imperial, and the sea, and the fine houses date from that period� (7)

 

Ganges � major river in northeastern India sacred to Hindus; flows southeast from Himalayas to Bay of Bengal; �There are no bathing-steps on the river front [in Chandrapore], as the river happens not to be holy here� (7)

 

Maidan � open space or square in a town; �There is an oval Maidan� (8); �He forgot the whole damned business of living as he scurried over the brown platter of the Maidan� (57); polo players ride over the maidan in this novel

 

Cawnpore (Kanpur) � city in U.P. (Uttar Pradesh, from United Province) in northern India; scene of fighting against British rule in rebellion of 1857 � ��I learn now that this boy is in business as a leather merchant at Cawnpore��

 

Map of colonial India in 1805 

 

Punjab � a region in northwest India; �There were owls, the Punjab mail . . . and flowers smelt deliciously in the station-master�s garden� (19)

 

Deccan � a region of central India; its kingdoms of Berar and Khandesh were ruled by Akbar until his death in 1605; part of the Mughal empire until 1707; Dr. Aziz had seen a Persian �quatrain on the tomb of a Deccan king, and regarded it as profound philosophy� (19)

 

Bombay � port city on the western coast of India; on a British trade route; scene of Mrs. Moore�s and Miss Quested�s arrival in India (25)

 

Benares � city in northern India; British gained control of it in 1757 after Clive�s victory at Plassey; they also gained Bihar and Orissa at this victory; also �brass Benares bowls� (196)

 

Pathan � an Afghan of Indo-Iranian descent; Ronny Heaslop comments in the novel, ��The Pathan�he�s a man if you like��(39)

 

Native States � 560 semi-independent states of India under British protection; incorporated into either India or Pakistan between 1947-49; Miss Derek is introduced as �companion[ing] a Maharani in a remote Native State� (48)

 

 Map of India in 1931

 

Delhi � city and region of northern India; region was part of Mongol Empire in the 13th century; Miss Derek�s maharajah�s car �had gone to a Chiefs� Conference at Delhi� (48)

 

Plains � Deccan Plains; Ronny Heaslop says ��I�m not one to keep a wife grilling in the Plains�� (49)

 

Mecca �  Arabian city near Red Sea where Mohammed was born in 570 A.D. ; one of the five pillars of Islam is that every able-bodied Moslem must make a pilgrimage to Mecca once in his/her lifetime; daily prayers are said in the direction of Mecca; �A few of his co-religionists had come to the Maidan, and were praying with their faces towards Mecca� (58)

 

Lord Curzon � British Governor General of India in the early 20th century; Dr. Aziz comments that the natives are stopped by police when they are dressed in their own costume rather than in English dress, remarking ��Lord Curzon did not consider this when he urged natives of India to retain their picturesque costumes�� (66)

 

Peacock Throne � the Peacock Throne is Shah Jahan and his palace at Delhi;  Alamgir II ruled from 1754-59;  ��Mr. Fielding, must not India have been beautiful then, with the Mogul Empire at its height and Alamgir reigning at Delhi upon the Peacock Throne?�� (66)

 

Elephanta � caves where there are sculptures of Siva and Parvati, Indian deities (75)

 

 

Mudkul � a fictionalized Native State where Miss Derek is in the employ of the ruler

 

Punjabi � a language spoken by natives of Punjab; �His outburst took some time, and in his excitement he fell into Punjabi (he came from that side) and was unintelligible� (105)

 

Ghalib � a Moslem poet quoted by Dr Aziz (105)

 

Arabia, Persia, Ferghana, Turkestan � Moslem states near India; �the sister kingdoms of the north� (106)

 

Hindus, Moslems, Sikhs, Parsis, Jains, Native Christians � many different religious groups in India (106); the Native Christians are Syrian Christians, who are mainly located in southern India; they are a very old Christian group

 

Dradivia � southern, indigenous Indians who do not speak Sanskrit based languages; �In the days of the prehistoric ocean the southern part of the peninsula already existed, and the high places of Dravidia have been land since land began� (123)

 

Himalaya � a mountain range in northern India; �As Himalayan India rose, this India, the primal, has been depressed, and is slowly re-entering the curve of the earth� (123)

 

Goa � district of  western India, colonized by Portuguese; �. . . it contained Mrs. Moore, Miss Quested, and their Goanese servant� (128)

 

Simla � Hill Station; vacation place;  �Miss Quested was to be married at Simla� (134)

 

Thibet � Tibet; �some cousins, with a house looking straight on to Thibet, had invited her� (134)

Kawa Dol  - a slab of rock in the Marabar Cave region; �Kawa Dol . . . shot up in a single slab, on whose summit one rock was poised� (137

Babur � chieftan who invaded India in 1524 and founded Mogul dynasty; the dynasty lasted from 1526-1707; Babur was a descendant of Tamerlaine and Gengis Khan; ��You cannot imagine how you have honoured me.  I feel like the Emperor Babur�� (143)

Herat � city in Afghanistan; ��Because my ancestors came down with him from Afghanistan.  They joined him at Herat�� (143)

Aurangzebe � Mogul ruler from 1659-1707; sought to bring an orthodox Islam to India and to unite India under the Moguls; ��I thought another Emperor is your favourite�I forget the name�you mentioned him at Mr. Fielding�s: what my book calls Aurangzebe�� (144)

Kabul � capital city of Afghanistan; ��They should have gone back to Kabul for the bad weather, but could not for reasons of state, and at Agra Humayun fell sick�� (144)

Agra Humayun - place Babur fell sick and died in 1530; Agra was the capital until 1572;  Dr. Aziz says ��Babur walked round [his son�s] bed three times�� and took his son�s fever upon himself, dying in his place (144)

Akbar � often identified as a gifted ruler who was the greatest of Mogul emperors, ruled from 1556 � 1569; great administrator, thinker, patron of arts; known for his religious toleration; founded a religion consisting of what he thought was the best of the Moslem and Hindu religions;  Dr. Aziz thinks he was not the greatest emperor, because he was ��not a true Moslem . . . who never repented of the new religion he invented instead of the Holy Koran�� (145)

Karachi � a city in modern day Pakistan; Mr. McBryde was �born at Karachi� (167)

Mutiny � revolt in 1857 against British tyranny by Indian soldiers called sepoys; ��Read any of the Mutiny records�� (169)

Calcutta (Kolkata) � city in northeastern India; Dr. Aziz was ��fixing up to see women at Calcutta�� (169); Dr. Aziz�s �barrister� (i.e., his lawyer) comes from Calcutta

 

Dominion � defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as a self-governing nation within the British Commonwealth; this status was problematic for India from at least the 1920�s until 1947; �Continuing their work, the wheels of Dominion now propelled a messenger on a horse from the Superintendent to the Magistrate with an official report of arrest� (174)

 

Tank of the Dagger � �It concerned a Hindu Rajah who had slain his own sister�s son, and the dagger with which he performed the deed remained clamped to his hand until in the course of years he came to the Marabar Hills, where he was thirsty and wanted to drink but saw a thirsty cow and ordered the water to be offered to her first� (179)

 

Lucknow � city in northern India near Cawnpore; under British rule near end of Lord Dalhousie�s administration; involved in Mutiny in 1857; �The club was fuller than usual, and several parents had brought their children into the rooms reserved for adults, which gave the air of the Residency at Lucknow� (180)

 

Hill Station � mountains in northern India; �Many of the said women and children were leaving for the Hill Station in a few days� (183)

 

Gurkha � a Mongol group from the mountains of Nepal, known as soldiers in British Indian army;  �One soldier was in the room this evening�a stray subaltern from a Gurkha regiment; he was a little drunk, and regarded his presence as providential� (183)

 

Gurkhas, Rajputs, Jats, Punhabi, Sikhs, Marathas, Bhils, Afridis, Pathans � many of these are explained in notes elsewhere; a subaltern says he will lead native troops anywhere (185)

 

Kerbela (also, Karbala)  �  a city in Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq), the site of the death of the grandson of the Prophet in 680 A.D.; �He was invited to inspect a small tazia�a flimsy and frivolous erection, more like a crinoline than the tomb of the grandson of the Prophet, done to death at Kerbela� (192)

 

Red Sea � body of water between Egypt and Arabia; Mrs. Moore journeys across �the Indian Ocean and up the Red Sea� (207)

 

Asirgarh � a city in central India in the province of Khandesh, the site of an important battle in 1601; one of a list of eleven places or sites Delhi and Agra, plus Rajputana, Kashmir, Girnar, Shri Belgola, Mandu, and Hampi, Khajraha, and Shalimar, which Mrs. Moore regrets not seeing when she leaves India

 

Rajputana � region of northwest India

 

Kashmir � a state in the north whose ownership is under contemporary dispute by India and Pakistan

 

Andamans � Indian territorial islands in the Bay of Bengal; Mr. McBryde believes that Dr. Aziz�s guilt is well-known, but that he is ��obliged to say so in public before he goes to the Andamans�� (218)

 

Hyderabad � a princely state in central India, part of India after the partition in 1947; Dr. Aziz says after his trial ��I shall seek service in some Moslem State, such as Hyderabad, Bhopal, where Englishmen cannot insult me any more�� (252) � the novel appeared in 1924

 

Bhopal � the capital of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh; Dr. Aziz suggests he might go to Hyderabad or to Bhopal to get away from the English

 

Cordova � a once Moslem city in Spain; As Dr. Aziz contemplates writing poetry after his trial, he thinks �Of what help, in this latitude and hour, are the glories of Cordova and Samarcand?� (268)

 

Samarcand (Samarkand) � located in Kazakhstan, once part of the 1370-1405 empire of Mongol conqueror Timur  (or Tamerlane); see Cordova above

 

Afzul Khan (also, Afzal Khan) -  Bijapur general killed by the Maratha leader Shivaji at a meeting; Dr. Aziz imagines for a moment that perhaps Fielding followed Miss Quested into the cave, but he dismisses the thought.  �Such treachery�if true�would have been the worst in Indian history; nothing so vile, not even the murder of Afzul Khan by Sivaji� (280)

 

Sivaji (also, Shivaji) � see entry above on Afzul Khan; Sivaji was a Hindu leader of Maratha forces against the Moghul Empire; he wore a hidden tiger claw to a meeting with Khan, at which he killed Khan

 

Deora � �It was impossible that anyone could get across from Deora in such weather as this� (291)

 

Rani � spouse of Rajah; �Close beneath was the suburban residence of the Junior Rani, isolated by floods, and Her Highness, lax about purdah, to be seen paddling with her handmaidens in the garden and waving her sari at the monkeys on the roof� (297)

 

Rajah � a prince, chief, or ruler in India; �They did not distinguish between the God and the Rajah in their minds, both were too far above them; but the guard was better educated, and ventures to enquire after his Highness�s health� (298)

 

Sources:

 

American Heritage Dictionary Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1971.

 

Mohan, Manju.  Personal Interview. 4 Apr. 2005.

 

Mohan, Raj. Personal Interview. 5 May 2005.

 

Rand McNally Atlas of World History Chicago: Rand McNally, 1983.

 

-----The Great Geographic Atlas Chicago: Rand McNally, 1982.

 

Robinson, Francis.  Atlas of the Islamic World since 1500. Oxford: Equinox,

            1989.

 

The Times Concise Atlas of World History Maplewood, NJ: Hammond, 1982.

 

Wallbank, T. Walter.  A Short History of India and Pakistan.  New York: Mentor, 1958.