# The Collector — A Passage to India character guide

> The Collector in A Passage to India by E. M. Forster.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** the Collector, IV The Collector

**First appearance:** 0004-ii

## Snapshot

The British Collector of Chandrapore, a polished administrator whose courteous authority masks the machinery of imperial rule.

## Who they are

As the district's chief British official, the Collector presides over the civil station's rituals of power, from club gossip to the arrangements for visitors and trials. He prides himself on understanding Indians better than his colleagues do, yet his understanding never quite becomes friendship, and his wife's disdain for the native community sharpens the divide he claims to bridge. His measured, faintly melancholy presence establishes the imperial world that the novel's central crisis will expose and strain.

## Relationships

### [Cyril Fielding](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_passage_to_india_se/characters/cyril_fielding)

_professional_

A formal, hierarchical relationship between Fielding and the British district official, marked by tension over the trial.

### [Cyril Fielding](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_passage_to_india_se/characters/cyril_fielding)

_professional_

A formal, hierarchical relationship between Fielding and the British district official, marked by tension over the trial.

### [Cyril Fielding](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_passage_to_india_se/characters/cyril_fielding)

_professional_

A formal, hierarchical relationship between Fielding and the British district official, marked by tension over the trial.

## In the story

### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_passage_to_india_se/chapters/iv)

Issues invitations for the bridge party, fulfilling his promise.

### [Chapter XVII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_passage_to_india_se/chapters/xvii)

Turton is consumed by rage and racial pride, blaming intimacy between English and Indians for the crisis, and is determined to avenge Miss Quested.

### [Chapter XX](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_passage_to_india_se/chapters/xx)

Tries to maintain calm and prevent a riot, but struggles with his own desire for revenge; he refuses to support attacks on Fielding.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_passage_to_india_se/characters/the_collector
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_passage_to_india_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_passage_to_india_se/characters