The fifth paragraph addresses how the Bengali people are ruled by the English but have little actual contact with them. Shiraj and Altaf’s amusement at Altaf’s being mistaken for an Englishman reflects their awareness of the significant cultural differences between the two groups and of the conflict those differences imply. Although Altaf is Bengali and is returning home, at this moment he embodies some of this conflict within his own person: “no one would expect a Bengali man” to arrive in a motorboat as he does, and he looks and dresses like an Englishman or European despite the fact that he “would have been more comfortable travelling in a lungi.”
