An omniscient narrator describes Chandrapore and its surroundings, negatively comparing it to the beauty of the nearby Marabar Caves. The Ganges flows nearby with banks clogged by garbage and bazaars. Chandrapore is a place where “the streets are mean, the temples ineffective” (3). Peoples of different class and race are physically segregated. Along the Ganges live the indigenous people, low-ranking “Eurasians” live in small houses further inland, and the most prosperous, influential colonial Englishmen of the civil station live on a rise that overlooks the entire area.

The sky above Chandrapore is personified as a beautiful, beneficent force: “But when the sky chooses, glory can rain into the Chandrapore bazaars or a benediction pass from horizon to horizon” (5). To the south of the city are the Marabar Hills and their accompanying caves; otherwise, the landscape surrounding Chandrapore is a wide expanse of flat ground.

The young Dr. Aziz arrives at his friend Hamidullah’s house just before dinner. Mahmoud Ali, another friend, is also present. The three men discuss whether it is possible to be friends with an Englishman. Hamidullah once spent a few years in England; he claims that friendship between the races may be impossible in India, but not so in England.