Bombay

Bombay is the first Indian city reached by Phileas Fogg’s party, a maritime gateway and railway departure point where the novel’s timetable-driven journey meets the complexities of colonial rule and religious practice. The visit lasts only hours, but its consequences extend across India: the Great Indian Peninsula Railway promises rapid passage toward Calcutta, while Passepartout’s impulsive entry into a temple results in a prosecution that will later detain him and Fogg.

Port of Arrival and Colonial Setting

The Mongolia reached Bombay on October 20, two days ahead of its scheduled arrival. The ship entered the bay among its islands and came to the quays at half past four in the afternoon, after the Indian coast, hills, and rows of palms had come into view. The arrival places Bombay at the meeting point of sea travel and the overland route that Fogg must now follow. The schedule is immediate: the passengers go ashore at 4:30, and the train for Calcutta is due to leave at eight.

The city is presented within a wider account of India under British rule. The narrative distinguishes the vast subcontinent from British India, describing the Crown’s dominion over a large portion of the country and noting that Bombay has a governor. It also recounts the East India Company’s earlier expansion and its eventual replacement by direct Crown control. This political background matters to the journey because British authority is extensive but not uniform: independent territories remain beyond its reach, and the railway’s route crosses regions with different political conditions.

Bombay appears as a place of many possible encounters, but Fogg treats it chiefly as a transit point. After leaving the Mongolia, he says goodbye to his whist partners, gives Passepartout errands, and insists that he be at the station on time. Fogg walks to the passport office with the regularity associated with his clocklike habits. The city’s landmarks and institutions—the city hall, library, forts, docks, bazaars, and religious buildings—do not divert him. He declines even the chance to visit the celebrated cave monuments and Buddhist remains near the city. Having completed his passport business, he goes to the railway station and orders dinner.

Railway Gateway and Timetable

The Great Indian Peninsula Railway is described as a major new connection across the peninsula, making a journey from Bombay to Calcutta possible in three days. Its route is not direct: it runs from Bombay through Salcette, crosses to the mainland opposite Tannah, passes over the Western Ghauts, and continues northeast before turning toward Allahabad and then east to Calcutta. The account presents the railway as a sign of changing travel conditions in India, where journeys once made on foot, horseback, or in palanquins can increasingly be made by steamer and rail.

The promise of a continuous line proves misleading. At Kholby, the passengers learn that the railway is unfinished: a fifty-mile section remains to be laid before the line resumes at Allahabad. Bombay is therefore not simply the start of a seamless railway crossing. The gap interrupts the timetable and forces the travelers to find another means of covering part of the route. The contrast between the announced opening of the railway and the actual break exposes the material limits behind the novel’s expanding network of fast transport.

Passepartout in the City

While Fogg attends to the passport and departure arrangements, Passepartout explores Bombay. He buys shirts and shoes, then wanders among crowds representing numerous communities and nationalities. His arrival coincides with a Parsi festival, whose processions, music, and dancing hold his attention. The scene makes his travel a sharply different experience from Fogg’s: where Fogg measures the city by the minutes remaining before departure, Passepartout is absorbed by what the city offers to see.

That curiosity carries him farther from the station than he intends. On Malabar Hill, he spots a pagoda and enters, unaware that Christians are forbidden to enter certain temples and that visitors are expected to remove their shoes. The narrative connects the prohibition to the British government’s stated policy of protecting local religious practices and punishing disregard for them. Inside, Passepartout admires the Brahmin ornamentation before finding himself on the sacred floor. Three priests attack him and tear off his shoes; he knocks two down, escapes the third by blending into the crowd, and loses the parcel containing his replacement shirts and shoes.

The immediate consequence is visible at the station: five minutes before eight, Passepartout arrives breathless, bareheaded, and shoeless. His mishap turns Bombay’s cultural encounter into a practical obstacle to the journey, but it also creates a longer legal one. At the later hearing in Calcutta, three Indian priests appear as complainants, and the accusation concerns the violation of the Malabar Hill pagoda. The judge sentences Passepartout to fifteen days’ imprisonment and a fine of three hundred pounds; Fogg is implicated in the complaint alongside his servant.

Police Inquiry and Narrative Significance

Bombay is also where Fix tries to advance his pursuit of Fogg. Shortly after Fogg goes ashore, Fix visits the Bombay police headquarters, identifies himself as a detective from London, explains the case against the suspected robber, and asks whether the warrant has arrived. It has not. The police director refuses Fix’s attempt to obtain a local arrest order, explaining that the matter belongs to the London office, which alone can issue the warrant. Fix therefore has to wait and resolve not to lose sight of Fogg in the meantime.

The city brings three systems of movement and authority into close contact: the ship’s early arrival, the railway’s strict departure time and unfinished line, and the legal procedures governing both religious observance and arrest. Fogg’s disciplined itinerary can bypass Bombay’s monuments, but it cannot prevent the consequences of Passepartout’s unscheduled excursion or make Fix’s warrant appear. In this way, Bombay is a compact turning point: the overland journey begins there, while the temple incident and the delayed police process plant complications that will continue after the party has left the city.