Marabar Caves

The Marabar Caves are fictional caves in the novel A Passage to India and the film of the same name. The caves are based on the real life Barabar Caves located in the Jehanabad District of Bihar, India. They serve as an important plot location and motif in the novel. Key features of the caves are the glass-smooth walls and a peculiar resonant echo magnifying any sound made in the caves.

The main characters Mrs. Moore, Adela Quested, and Dr. Aziz are in a large group that journeys to the Marabar Caves. During the tour of the caves Adela, Dr. Aziz, and a local guide carry on separately from the group. Adela privately questions her love for Ronny, a British Civil Magistrate in Chandrapore. Assuming that the Muslim Dr. Aziz has many wives, she asks him about love. Rattled by the question, as his only wife has died, leaving two sons and a daughter, Dr. Aziz takes temporary leave of her to have a cigarette. Adela is attracted to him, though the feeling is not mutual. They realise simultaneously that a relationship is out of the question. When Adela enters a cave, her claustrophobia, as well as what some critics have assumed is a sexual desire for Aziz, and the consequent guilt over her lack of feeling for Ronny, combine to overwhelm her. She flees the caves down a steep incline and is pierced and lacerated by strongly-thorned plants along the way. Coincidentally, a fellow Englishwoman is at the bottom of the slope with a car and swiftly returns Adela to Chandrapore where she lodges a charge of molestation against Dr. Aziz. A trial ensues which is central to the novel's development of the cultural biases and conflicts during the British occupation of India.