Secondly, in a 1954 speech delivered in India, Forster delved into a profound theme within his novel that surpasses the social issues of British-ruled India. He mentioned the concluding part of Walt Whitman's poem, "Passage to India" (1871), which inspired the title of his book:

Passage to more than India! Are thy winds plumed indeed for such far flights? O soul, voyagest thou indeed on voyages like those? Disportest thou on waters such as those? Soundest below the Sanskrit and the Vedas? Then have thy bent unleashed.

Similar to Whitman's poem, the "passage" in Forster's novel signifies more than just India; it symbolizes a journey for truth and universal love encompassing the entire globe.

Forster sets the stage for his novel's themes from the very beginning, even before introducing any characters. He starts by stating, "the city of Chandrapore presents nothing extraordinary," but swiftly reveals the profound divisions within. On one side, "There is no painting and scarcely any carving in the bazaars. The very wood seems made of mud, the inhabitants of mud moving. 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." In stark contrast to this mud, a lush forest of trees emerges—a "tropical pleasaunce washed by a noble river" that hides the bazaars. Particularly after the rains, the trees "screen what passes below, but at all times, even when scorched or leafless, they glorify the city to the English people who inhabit the rise [above the bazaars], so that the new-comers cannot believe it to be as meagre as it is described, and have to be driven down to acquire disillusionment." Above Chandrapore, as well as all of India and England, the most striking feature is the sky. "The sky settles everything—not only climates and seasons, but when the earth shall be beautiful. By herself she can do little—only feeble outbursts of flowers. But when the sky chooses, glory can rain into the Chandrapore bazaars or a benediction pass from horizon to horizon. The sky can do this because it is so strong and so enormous." Through this, Forster offers his readers the key to resolving the novel's main dilemma. The pursuit of truth and universal love can only commence when individuals put aside their petty, earthly conflicts and focus on the shared universe that has given life to them all.