They carry their food in bundles and pots, and buy sweets from the native sweetmeat-sellers, and drink the roadside water. That is why in the hot weather Intermediates are taken out of the carriages dead, and in all weathers are most properly looked down upon.
-- Narrator

Importance: This quote encapsulates the British prejudice against the native peoples of their Empire. The narrator describes the Intermediate socioeconomic class as “Eurasian, or native, which for a long night journey is nasty” (3). The Intermediate class thus consists in part of the race of people the British colonized. They are not given the luxuries of the higher classes, which includes the narrator. Despite the narrator’s lack of funds, he is not considered of the Intermediate class. The Intermediates are restricted from the “refreshment-rooms,” meaning they are barred from drinking potable water, a basic necessity of life (3). While the Indian culture includes a caste system, the...