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The word muddle to me means jumbled, mixed up, disorderly. Forster uses this word 13 times at different points in the story (how I love the search capability of ereaders!). I liked fantasyfan's conclusion that perhaps muddle is richness not understood. I think that the British create their microcosm with their club, sport, government system, etc in attempt to create order in what they see as muddled India. It creates a comfort zone for them to replicate their superior English life rather than embrace and understand the Indian culture and so it remains a muddle and a mystery to them. The bridge party is rather a joke at trying to achieve real connectedness.
Great selection of the Chapters 22 and 33, beppe. I believe that these sections are very insightful to the message that Forster was intending to convey. In Chapter 22, Fielding enthuses about the Mediterranean "harmony between the works of man and the earth that upholds them, the civilization that escapes muddle, the spirit in a reasonable form". Whenever Forster writes of the Indian architecture and landscape, he highlights that it is formless, shapeless. When Fielding is in Venice, he thinks "he had forgotten the beauty of form among idol temples and lumpy hills; indeed, without form, how can there be beauty?". Forster doesn't write of the exotic and rich qualities of India in order to emphasize the muddle. He experienced India in real life. He very easily could have written of noise and energy in the bazaar, of the smell and taste of spices in the Indian food, of a blazing sunset of colors against the hills, etc.
When the word muddle is first introduced, Aziz says that when they all come to tea at his place it will not be a muddle. Later Ronnie forewarns Adela that he doesn't want her to go to the caves and the invitation probably wasn't real anyway because Aziz will make a muddle of it. Of course, we know now that tea at Aziz's place becomes the trip to the caves which culminates in muddle!
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