Study Questions
1. How do Aziz and Mr. Das feel about each other during their outwardly friendly conversation?

2. Why does Aziz resolve to leave British India and to go live in a Hindu state?

3. What is the “naughty rumor” Mohammed Latif is spreading?

4. Does Hamidullah insist that his wife keep purdah, or is it her choice?

5. What is Fielding’s reaction when Aziz tells him about the rumor that Mohammed Latif is spreading?

6. Why does Aziz claim to have remembered a previous dinner engagement with Mr. Das?

7. According to Fielding, why is it difficult for Indians to write poetry?

8. Why is Aziz, who is not a mercenary man, haunted by the thought of the 20,000 rupees he did not claim from Miss Quested?

9. What is Aziz’s most extreme fantasy about Fielding and Miss Quested, the one he comes to accept as fact?

10. Why does Fielding feel a sense of disloyalty while he is appreciating the beauty of Venice?

Answers
1. Aziz wishes that Hindus did not remind him of cow-dung, while Mr. Das thinks to himself that some Muslims are very violent.

2. He wants to escape from British India and believes once outside it, he will be able to write poetry again.

3. Mohammed Latif claims to have heard that Fielding is having an affair with Miss Quested.

4. Although the Muslim women claimed that they would give up purdah during Aziz’s trial, the Begum Hamidullah invents excuses for not seeing Fielding. Hamidullah believes that Indian women actually make their own decisions.

5. Fielding says it is unimportant and begins to explain why it is not true.

6. Aziz has been deeply insulted by Fielding’s calling him a “little rotter.” He invents another engagement to avoid having to dine with Fielding.

7. Fielding tells Aziz that Indians cannot go on repeating the tired clichés of traditional poetry, and, since India is not unified under one government, truly patriotic or nationalistic poetry is impossible.

8. Aziz cannot forget the money because he feels that he was tricked about it.

9. Aziz convinces himself that Fielding talked him out of claiming a large compensation so that he could marry Miss Quested for her money. Aziz believes that they have gotten married.

10. Fielding has been in India for some time, and feels that he is criticizing his home by praising the beauty of Venice.