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Chapters 9–12

Summary: Chapter 9: On the Way to India 

Fogg and Passepartout travel toward India aboard the steamer the Mongolia. Fogg spends his days playing whist with other passengers and eating four full meals a day. Passepartout spots Detective Fix on the ship and greets him warmly, asking him where he’s headed. Fix pretends that he is on the way to Bombay because he works for an English company there. Passepartout, not suspecting anything, continues chatting casually, saying he hopes that he’ll have more time to see the sights in India, adding that he finds Fogg’s plan to travel all across the world without taking the time to see anything “stupid.” Fix, trying to pull more information from Passepartout, says that he wonders if Fogg is performing some secret mission. Passepartout replies that if he is, he doesn’t know anything about it. The ship makes a pit stop in Aden, Arabia, to take on more coal and sails into Bombay on October 20, two days ahead of schedule. Fogg, elated to see that he now has two extra days, hands the captain a reward as he departs the steamer.

Summary: Chapter 10: Passepartout Leaves His Shoes Behind

Fogg and Passepartout get off the steamer and await their train from Bombay to Calcutta. They have four hours to kill. Fogg, uninterested in exploring the city, goes straight to the consul to get his passport stamped so he can prove he was in Bombay. Detective Fix heads to the police station to see if the warrant for Fogg’s arrest has arrived, and Passepartout heads to the city to buy more clothes. On his way to the store, Passepartout finds himself drawn toward a pagoda, an Indian temple. He enters the temple without taking his shoes off, not realizing that it is customary for visitors to leave their shoes at the door before entering and that it is a crime to wear shoes inside the holy place. The Indian priests in the pagoda begin to attack Passepartout. Passepartout rushes back to the train with five minutes to spare, leaving his shoes behind, and tells Fogg what happened. Fix overhears the story and is happy, thinking now that Passepartout has committed a crime, it will be easier to detain him and Fogg as he waits for the arrest warrant. He remarks to himself that Fogg must be held responsible for Passepartout’s actions.

Summary: Chapter 11: A Long Ride on an Elephant

Fogg, Passepartout, and Detective Fix are on the train to Calcutta. Fogg notices Sir Francis Cromarty, a man he played whist with on the Mongolia. Cromarty is an English army officer stationed in India. Cromarty strikes up a conversation about India, but Fogg isn’t interested. Cromarty points to the mountains outside their window, saying Fogg is lucky the railroad runs through the mountains now. He explains that the train used to stop at the foot of the mountains, and they would have had to travel by horse for part of the way. Fogg brushes off Cromarty’s comment, saying he has already factored delays into his plan. Later, the train stops abruptly at the village of Kholby. The conductor explains that the track isn’t finished and that passengers will have to find a way to travel the fifty miles between Kholby and Allahabad themselves. Fogg protests, saying the newspapers back home said that the railroad runs fully across India now. The conductor, unfazed, says the newspapers made a mistake. Fogg remains calm, recalling that he still has two extra days. Fogg spots a Parsee man outside the train with an elephant and offers to buy the elephant. The Parsee man doesn’t want to sell his animal but gives in once Fogg offers 2,000 pounds. Fogg hires the Parsee man to take himself, Passepartout, and Cromarty to Allahabad.

Summary: Chapter 12: An Adventure in the Indian Forest

Fogg, Cromarty, and Passepartout cross the rough Indian terrain, passing by several rural villages. Fogg and Cromarty are sitting on the elephant’s neck, and Passepartout is sitting on the its back. They come upon a procession of Brahmins, priests of the Indian religion of Hinduism, who are chanting and carrying a platform decorated with a statue of the Hindu goddess Kali, a goddess of death. Behind the platform, a group of men lead a woman dressed in a beautiful robe and jewelry. The woman has light skin and looks European rather than Indian. Another group of men with sabers and guns carry the body of an Indian rajah, or prince. The Parsee explains that the woman is the rajah’s wife and that she will be burned alive beside him on his funeral pyre as a sacrifice to the gods. Horrified, Fogg spurs into action, saying he has twelve hours to spare and must stop and save the woman.

Analysis: Chapters 9–12

By Chapter 9, Fogg and Passepartout are already almost in India. Fogg, adept at making connections and keeping close tabs on schedules, feels pleased with his progress. The dizzying pace, while something Passepartout was once used to, frazzles him now, and he struggles to keep up. Privately, Passepartout laments to Detective Fix that he thinks Fogg’s plan to travel across the world without stopping is stupid. Clearly, Passepartout and Fogg have different values and goals in life. While Fogg is more focused on the destination, attaining goals, and keeping his word, Passepartout is more interested in the journey and engagement with the world.

Furthermore, when Fogg engages with Cromarty in conversation on the train to Allahabad, he’s uninterested in learning more about India from the officer. This is to Fogg’s detriment, however, as he soon learns when the conductor announces that everyone must deboard and find their own way to Allahabad because the tracks have stopped. Here, readers note that getting information solely from newspapers is not adequate, especially because the information reported is prone to exaggeration and propaganda. The reports that the railway stretched across India were glossed, presumably to attract more tourists and to overstate Britain’s success in “modernizing” India. Socializing with locals to get knowledge about the area can be crucial while traveling. Passepartout instinctively knows this truth, as he’s always eager to talk with people on their travels. Although Passepartout’s socializing might lead to trouble because he’s engaging with the “enemy”—Detective Fix—communication both helps and hurts Fogg and Passepartout on their journey.

Passepartout’s curiosity lands him in trouble almost as soon as he steps on Indian soil. On his way to buy more clothes in Bombay, Passepartout wanders into a pagoda and insults the Hindu priests by neglecting to take off his shoes. The incident shows how Fogg and Passepartout are truly now in new territory. The social mores and codes are clearly different here than in England. While wearing shoes is extremely important in Britain, it shows a lack of respect in certain areas in India. In fact, it’s a crime that is upheld and punished by the government. The clash between cosmopolitanism and religious tradition will continue to play out as Fogg and Passepartout make their way across India.

By the end of Chapter 12, readers begin to see signs of cracks in Fogg’s frigid exterior. When he learns that a woman is about to be burned alive as a human sacrifice, Fogg leaps into action to save her. It’s not yet clear, however, how honorable he truly is, since he makes his decision to save her based on the fact that he has twelve hours to spare.

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