A Passage to India Chapter 1

Chandrapore is an Indian city under the British Raj, or colonial rule. Two contrasting sides of Chandrapore are presented: the dreary landscape of the section of city inhabited by the natives,

"So abased, so monotonous is everything that meets the eye, that when the Ganges comes down it might be expected to wash the excrescence back into the soil. Houses do fall, people are drowned and left rotting, but the general outline of the town persists, welling here, shrinking there, like some low but indestructible form of life." Chapter 1, pg. 2

and the orderly and neat section of the city inhabited by the British colonists,

"On the second rise is laid out the little civil station, and viewed hence Chandrapore appears to be a totally different place. It is a city of gardens. It is no city, but a forest sparsely scattered with huts. It is a tropical pleasaunce washed by a noble river." Chapter 1, pg. 4

Readers are introduced to the Marabar Caves, an imposing part of the Chandrapore landscape.

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