the transformation of relation: people’s mutual affection and association through wicked grudges...

8/14/2019 The transformation of relation: Peoples mutual affection and association through wicked grudges and ideas of fut

1/19

Muhammad Asif

09-12107

ABSTRACT

My thesis deals with the Bapsi Sidhwas novel Cracking India, a self-acclaimed neutral

perception of a Parsee narrator about the partition of the Sub-continent, India Pakistan. In

the novel, Sidhwa views the events of partition through the eyes of an eight years old

innocent girl Lenny. In this way; the writer tries to give us an unbiased view of the

partition and its consequent effects. My basic concern is to deal with the gradual change in

the relations of the people in the novel belonging to different religious backgrounds. We

notice the upheaval transmits from the authoritative strata to the lower ones and exploits

the feelings and emotions of the people to accomplish the mission of partition. The people

with insignificant claims for any right become the worst victims of the partition. The

change that comes with partition is un-welcomed but still the people drift under the idea of

partition. Thus Cracking India deals with the transformation of mutual affection and

association through wicked grudges and ideas of futile revenge.


2/19

The transformation of relation: Peoples mutual affection and association

through wicked grudges and ideas of futile revenge.

Bapsi Sidhwa is the author of four novels. She is one of Pakistan's most prominent English

fiction writers. She survives as a solitary and lonely child. Her parents were advised by

doctors not to send her to school. She spent her time daydreaming and listening to stories

told by servants, especially her Ayah. This is the reason a strong conscientiousness about

the relationships emerged in her as she writes about servant's lives with sympathy. The

whole novel roams about the relationships and the steady change in these relationships

during the time of partition of the sub continent in 1947.

In the novel Cracking India the young innocent girl Lenny lives with her extended Parsee

family: Mother, Father, Brother Adi, Cousin, Electric-Aunt, Godmother and Slave sister.

Other characters are Ayah, Butcher, the puny Sikh zoo attendant, the Government House

gardener, the Masseur, the restaurant-owning wrestler and the shady Ice-Candy-Man. All

these are either Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Hindus, and they friends and neighbors before

partition but after it they become the victim of disintegration and the violence of religious

hatred.

Cracking India reflects Sidhwas personal experience of the Indian subcontinent's Partition.

She witnessed the blood shedding Partition of the Indian Subcontinent as a young child in

1947. And the most remarkable about Sidhwa's perspective on this Partition is her religious

distance from its most immediate effects as a member of the Parsi community. In the novel

she recounts the traditional story of the Parsees arrival from Iran to India in the 8th century

C.E., in which an Indian prince sent Zoroastrian refugees fleeing Islamic expansion a


3/19

messenger with a glass of milk, signifying that the Indian people were a united and

homogenous mixture that should not be tampered with. In response, the Parsees dropped a

lump of sugar in the milk, saying that they would blend in easily and make the culture

sweeter. It followed that they were granted a home in India because Parsees neither to tried

to convert themselves to other religious faith nor entered into politics. Thus, Sidhwa's

heritage allowed her to witness the Partition from a safe distance, so Parsees held a

religiously and politically neutral position. In an interview she says, The struggle was

between the Hindus and the Muslims, and as a Parsee, I felt I could give a dispassionate

account of this huge, momentous struggle.

The fiction writer has the astute ability to produce a greater comprehension of the events

because he or she inserts racial, religious, socio-economic, and political biases in front of

the reader to present an honest narrative account of Partition.

Sidhwa says in an interview, "As a Parsee I can see things objectively. I see the common

people suffering while politicians on either side are having all the fun."1

Similarly while addressing the Parsee audience about the turmoil in the state, Colonel

Bharucha says, I hope no Lahore Parsee will be stupid enough to court trouble. I

strongly advise all of you to stay at home and out of trouble. 2His speech utterance

presupposes that the Parsees are more sophisticated than the rest of the Indian people. The

way he phrases his sentences hints that Parsee are superior to the other groups: they should

not be involved in the trifling affairs between Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims that cause

political and social chaos in the moments leading up to the Indian Partition.

1The College Street Journal, November 18, 1999.2Bapsi Sidwa,Cracking India: a novel, Milkweed Publication, 1991, p.45.
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/csj/970328/sidhwa.htmlhttp://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/csj/970328/sidhwa.htmlhttp://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/csj/970328/sidhwa.htmlhttp://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/csj/970328/sidhwa.html


4/19

The Partition was caused by a complicated set of social and political factors. The thousands

of instances of rape, and publics subsequent memory loss that characterize the Partition

are of most importance. More than 75,000 women were raped, kidnapped, abducted,

forcibly impregnated by men of the "other" religion, thousands of families were split apart,

homes burnt down, villages abandoned.3

The Partition was caused by crucial religious differences. Religious sentiment has always

been whipped up to wage war. The Protestant-Roman Catholic conflict in Northern Ireland,

the violent Tamil Hindu-Buddhist struggle in Sri Lanka, the Hindu-Muslim conflict that

brought about the partition of India and today threatens to explode into a nuclear war

between India and Pakistan, the nightmare scenario between the Jews and Muslims in the

Middle East, are present examples, to name only a few, of violence perpetrated in the name

of religion and righteous causes.4

The Partition was caused by and the mission of authoritative people. Sidhwa points out in

novel that Nehru and the congress will not have every thing in their way! They will have

to reckon with the Muslim League and Jinnah. If we Quit India today, old chap, youll

bloody fall at each others throats!.....Gandhi and Nehru are forcing the League to push for

Pakistan!.5 These lines show that Muslims were ruled by Muslim League and Hindus by

Congress and they are bitterly against each other in their cause of independence and if

Britishers will quite India they both will cut each others throats, irrespective of their cause

of independence from Britishers. The British pretend to be neutral and they have to take

control over both extremists Hindus and Muslims. Congress did not accept the cabinet

mission plan where as Muslim League was agreed. It is the Hindus who are pushing

3Urvashi Butalia, The Other Side of Silence: Voice from the Partition of India (New Delhi, Viking, 1998):35.4 The voice of 9/11 has a woman echo, Italian Interivew for 'Stylos'5 Cracking India: A Novel, by Bapsi Sidhwa, Milkweed Editions 1991, p.71.
http://www.valentinammaka.net/sidhwa.english.htmhttp://www.valentinammaka.net/sidhwa.english.htm


5/19

Muslims toward partition. Muslims instance of partition according Mamtaz Hasan was that

What divided them was so much stronger than what was common between them. The

question before the Muslims was whether they should live as free and independent people,

preserving their religion and their culture for themselves, or should let themselves be

merged into the caste system of Hindu India, with its inhuman limitations. But Islam is too

vital a force to suffer such a fate. The result, therefore, was the partition of the sub-

continent. This was inevitable.6

"They are only saying that to be in a better bargaining position and you are stringing them

along because of your divide-and-conquer monkey tricks!" accuses Mr. Singh. "You

always set one up against the otherYou just give Home Rule and see. We will settle our

differences and everything!7

These lines show the aggression of Indians towards Britishers who want to maintain their

hegemony in India as they are bargaining with both Congress as well as Muslims League.

Indians thinks that they are good enough to decide their matters by themselves; Britishers

should not take pain and just quit India. Through these lines Sidhwa has shown that it was

the ruling class who wanted India to be divided, they were not concerned with the peoples

long lived relations and they were just fulfilling their ego centered desires to divide India in

any way and to achieve their set goals without thinking that what would be its

circumstances. It was the poor people who suffered all this loss, their brothers and friends

have looted them just because of the intellectual evil of racism. The religion became the

base for all this and the authoritative strata just looked all this bloodshed by sitting in their

6Hardy, Peter, Hasan, Mumtaz, Kabir, Humayun and Chaudhuri, Nirad(1985)'Four opinions about the partition ofIndia',Index on Censorship,14:6,40 (Online Publication Date: 01 December 1985)

7 Cracking India: A Novel, by Bapsi Sidhwa, Milkweed Editions 1991, p.72.


6/19

cozy rooms. It is a main cause of the disintegration of the relations of the Muslims, Hindus

and Sikhs. The leaders have been playing with the emotions of the peoples and they set fuel

on their anguish which burnt all the relationships of the people and from mutual affection

they turned into ideas of futile revenge.

From the birth of the nations, communal riots flared up from the cities to the remote

villages. I hear there is trouble in the cities. . . Hindus are being murdered in Bengal. . .

Muslims in Bihar. Its strange . . . the English Sarkarcant seem to do anything about it.8

In far villages the news of part ion was at the peak and they hear the news of killing of

people such as Muslims in Bihar and Hindus in Bengal and the Britishers seem to do

nothing. It was the presupposed thing that Britishers are not going to control bloodshed and

the Hindus and Muslims forgetting their long lived relations and turned against each other

suddenly and with no positive reason. So the idea of partition was very much there in the

villages as well.

The depiction of partition varies based upon the point of view of the individual. For the

Indians in the partition appears the outcome of British interpretation. For Pakistanis,

Partition became their founding moment, the glorious outcome of the struggle of the

Muslims to have a separate identity recognized by both the British and the Indian

nationalist movement.9 For the British, it was a time for Bargaining. It will become clear

after going through these lines. You know, old chap...if You Sikhs plan to keep your lands

in Lyallpur and Montgomery, youd better start fraternizing with the Muslim League. If

you dont, the Muslims will throw you off your rich lands. 10 In these lines the attitude of

Britishers has been shown that they were just instigating Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs

8 Cracking India: A Novel, by Bapsi Sidhwa, Milkweed Editions 1991, p.64.9 Francis Robinson, "The Muslims and Partition," History Today, Sept. 1997: 40.10 Cracking India: A Novel, by Bapsi Sidhwa, Milkweed Editions 1991, p.73.


7/19

against each other in the result of their own humility by Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs. They

are internally against all the Indians and they Indians to fight with each other and kill each

other and at the end the British can rule easily.

In the novel Sidhwa repeatedly highlights the deterioration of relationships and condemns

the dehumanizing impact that religious supporters played in promoting mob mentality,

separation, and revenge during the Partition. When the citizens of Lahore become more

anxious of the upcoming Partition, they formed groups strictly upon religious lines. As the

circumstances were changing Lenny's perceptions about the social relation of the people

belonging to different religious backgrounds changes at the same time.

Distancing between the people is the more important factor to destroy relations in the novel

and it occurs at many instances in the novel. But our relationships with Hindus are bound

by the strong ties. The city folk can afford to fight . . . we ca.t. We are dependant on each

other: bound by our toil ... to us villagers, what does it matter if a peasant is a Hindu, or a

Muslim, or a Sikh.11In these lines the strong bonds of relationships have been shown that

the Muslims and Sikhs are one. They will fight for each other not against each other and in

result if there is need to sacrifice their lives, they will never hesitate. They all considered it

their obligation to safeguard each other. On other hand it is also clear that the villagers are,

in a way, part of this cause full of aggression and they are slowly getting ready for it. It

developed a sense of futile revenge even before the partition took place. This all mind

hunting was done by the leaders and their parties as congress is making the people to lay on

railway tracks for the cause of Hindus instead to talk with British to find a solution to their

self made problem. This led the fact of weakening the bond of relationship of the people



8/19

and they are like guided machines walking on these lines, set by the authoritative strata. In

these lines Sidhwa has talked about the mind setting of the people by the ruling class.

Moreover, the communal hatred is difficult to pinpoint: was it rooted in a British

propaganda that turned the South Asians against each other or a result of the existing

tension between the native groups. Indians who had only one month earlier been chanting,

"Hindu, Muslim, Bhai, Bhai" as slogans were then using slurs to address one and other.

Entire generations of interconnectedness among differing religions groups were shattered

in a matter of weeks or even days.

The British decision to pull out by Aug. 15, 1947, left the Subcontinent with no orderly

way to deal with the rivalries between Hindus and Muslims, and the partition of India and

Pakistan along religious lines led to bloodshed, massacres. The religious fury and violence

that it unleashed caused the deaths of some 2 million Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. An

estimated 1215 million people were forcibly transferred between the two countries. At

least 75,000 women were raped.12

Whats it to us if Jinnah, Nehru and Patel fight? They are not fighting our fight...but tey

are stirring up trouble for us all13

These lines show that every citizen is worried about up coming uncertainties. The

authoritative strata is not fighting for the cause of common people rather they are causing

troubles for them which will result in the destruction of the relations of the people and will

become the cause of racial discrimination especially on basis of religion.

...the warm flood of stares directed at Ayah by her circle of admirers...14

12Urvashi Butalia, The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India (Hurst & Company, London,2000),p.3.

13 Cracking India: A Novel, by Bapsi Sidhwa, Milkweed Editions 1991, p.84.14 Cracking India: A Novel, by Bapsi Sidhwa, Milkweed Editions 1991, p.97.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partition_of_Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partition_of_India


9/19

Ayahs admirers are sitting around her and staring at her. They are falettis hotel cook, the

Government house Gardner a sleek and arrogant butcher, zoo attendant. Sher Singh. These

all belong to common peoples community, none of them are form upper or elite class.

Now Masseur and ice candy man joins and masseur talks about the oil he made for growth

of heir and they all getting amusement and are laughing irrespective of their race, religion,

class. There, this union has developed a strong bond of relationship that they use to sit like

this and have chit chat almost every week.15

Gardener tells that Hindus leaders dont want Muslims leagues victory in Punjab. An

uncontrollable voice from Masseurs month comes out showing his aggression against

Hindus leaders. He is representing the aggression of whole Muslim community in Punjab

against the Hindu leaders, as they are causing the trouble in Hindu Muslims relation of

Punjab. They all dislike this attitude of Hindu leaders in Punjab.16

Here they all are aware of the polities which the politicians are playing with them and

unwontedly they are dividing themselves as Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims as separate from

each other.17 In any way the hatred among Hindus Muslims and Sikhs is emerging slowly

in the low level class of people as well. It is a great blow to their relations and associations.

There emerges as a sense of futile revenge among them.

It is the Englishs mischief...they are past masters at intrigue. It suits them to have us all

fight.18 It has been clearly revealed by Sidhwa that it was the English policy to divide

India and let the people of India to kill each other. So the basic mischief was done by

Britishers to weaken the relations of Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs as it is evident from these

15 Cracking India: A Novel, by Bapsi Sidhwa, Milkweed Editions 1991, p.98.16 Cracking India: A Novel, by Bapsi Sidhwa, Milkweed Editions 1991, p.99.17 Cracking India: A Novel, by Bapsi Sidhwa, Milkweed Editions 1991, p.100.18 Cracking India: A Novel, by Bapsi Sidhwa, Milkweed Editions 1991, p.100.


10/19

lines. Hindus were supporting English in their evil thoughts without considering the

circumstances.

These are very important lines. These lines represent the thought of all the Indians

especiallthe common people.they are very much worried about their attachments, about

their homes, about their relations. How they would be living through all this hell if the

partition takes place in India. This was the burning question in the mind of every person

and they were aware of the circumstances except the ruling class because they were not

worried about the grievances of common people. They were just following their ego.

There is much disturbing talk. India is going to be broken. Can one break a country? And

what happens if they break it where our house is? Or crack it further up on Waris Road?

How will I ever get to Godmothers then?

...What is God?19

***These lines are the crux of my thesis and these are showing how the people become

cautious about their religious backgrounds. They at once, changed their eyes and turned

against each other. The people leave behind all the relations such as friendships and

emotional attachments. They lost their trust in one another.

Like Ayah, she belongs to Hindu religion, so she was a token of Hinduism which would be

used by muslims and becomes a puppet in their hands and they will play with it. They all

forgot that there was a time when they used to sit together and used to laugh and have chit

chat like childhood friends. They have turned their faces against each other.

19 Cracking India: A Novel, by Bapsi Sidhwa, Milkweed Editions 1991, pp.101-102.


11/19

Imam Din and Yousaf, they are turned into extreme religious zealots. They both become

the tyupical religius Muslims. It is eveident from the lines where they warn Lennys mother

that they will take Fridayafternoons off for Juma prayers. This represents the warning to

Parsees that they dont try to interfere in religious affairs of the people. This is a threat to

them that if they want to remain on safe side they should keep themselves out of this.

Hari and Moti the sweeper and his wife Mucuho and their untouchable daughter Papoo,

becomes more untouchable due to this religious turmoil in India leading to its partition.

They are the worst victim of the hatred of the Muslims and Sikhs both. This happened

throughout the India especially in Punjab where Muslims and Sikhs were in large number.

They belong to low Hindu class so they have to suffer more than other Indus.

As for as Christian elites are concerned they used to look down upon the Anglo-Indian

Christians and they were called as Pens, it is because they were low in status and they

used to look down upon the Indian Christians because of their origin, they were Indians and

they are used to be called as Phail-buses. They further look down upon all the non

Christians. In this way the hatred has developed its roots and all the affections and relations

were all look down upon by high classes.

The Parsees especially Godmother, Slave sister, Electric Aunt and the Nellys nuclear

family are reduced to irrelevant nomenclature, as they are not the part of Indians, that they

are Parsees. They were in minority but are on the safe side.

The writer says that the rulers were more concerned about the division of assets than the

agonies of the Hindu, Muslim and the Sikh masses. The partition was the desire of Indian

and Pakistani ruling classes to gain the positions which the British left behind.20 They

were least concerned by the belonging of the people. They did not even bother about these

20 Partition undone


12/19

peoples families, their children, the people who were living hand to mouth. They just

played a cruel game with them crushed their feelings and emotions and let them blow up in

the fire of agony and brutal killing. In this way people lost their brotherhood relationships.

They became the actual victims of the partition. They suffered long and painful months of

resettlement and reintegration. They had pad the price of freedom, yet they could not get it

after getting independent states. The people who were responsible for this tragedy, they

used to justify all this great loss of lives and relations by achieving separate boundaries for

themselves giving them the name of Pakistan and India.

Jinnah, Nehru, Gandhi, Patel, Liaqat Ali Khan, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Nishtar and all

those leaders from the Hindu and Muslims ruling elites are the real responsible for all this

in one way or the other. They are the one who led the innocent people, like Ice Candy Man

a major character in the novel, towards these horrible and terrible killings of people in

different incidents throughout the India especially Punjab. In result they have lost each and

every thing they had. They were left with only one thing and that is hatred for all religious

groups such as Hindus hatred for Muslims and Sikhs, Muslims Hatred for Hindus and

Sikhs, Sikhs hatred for Muslims and Hindus. Their bloodshed and sacrifices all have been

in vain. The greatest loss they suffered during the cause for partition was the loss of trust,

belief, affection, and long lived mutual relation such as Ice Candy Man and the Ayah in the

novel.

Partition was a wound inflicted in the on the living bodies of one of the oldest

civilizations21 who took a long time to develop the relations of the people by flourishing

diversity of cultures as evident in novel Hindu, Muslim, Sikh cultures, that are rich in art

,architecture, music, literature, rituals and many forms of Indian culture. All these

21Partition undone


13/19

developments just ruined away in this partition. The relation which the people have lost, no

one can un-done it. In the novel Sidhwa has repeatedly laid emphasis on these relations by

discussing each character in the novel. These characters are representing the diverse culture

of India which posses strong bonds of relations. Each character is representing a different

community and the sufferings shown to each character are the sufferings of these

communities. The most important among them is the female community of India has been

presented through the Character of Ayah and Pappo.

Ayah is represented as the puppet in the hands of male community belonging to different

religions and she is the one of the worst Victim of the partition. Like Ayah all the females

of the India were taken as granted irrespective of their relations with the male community.

Through out the novel Sidhwa talks about the Character of Ayah and highlight each and

every incident of the life of females of the India and how once the male community

entertain themselves by having the company of females and how the same people turn into

beasts to hunt down the females.

On the other hand the character of Ice-Candy-Man is the representation of male

community. In the beginning of the novel he has been presented as tactful person giving

little moments of happiness to the people and entertains them with his amusing tricks.

While in the second half there is a great transition in his character he is presented as full of

aggression, revenge and enmity against all other religious communities. He is representing

the male community that how they became furious after looking the dead bodies of their

near and dear ones. They take the revenge from their own neighbours belonging to other

religions.


14/19

The major characters are the Ayah and Ice-Candy-Man. Ayah is representing the Hindus

and the Ice-Candy-Man is representing the Muslims. As the novel goes on the transitions in

their relation has been shown from friends to worst enemies and he puts Ayah from

housemaid to prostitute.

The author also explores the consequences of Partition for women through the child

narrator, Lenny, who realizes many of the immediate problems of the events when her

young nanny, or Ayah, is kidnapped. Ayah, the desirable-woman figure with a substantial

male following, suddenly becomes labeled along national and religious lines as an Indian

Hindu. Other events, including the tragic death of Masseur, one of Ayah's Muslim

admirers, and the departure of another ex-husband Ice-Candy Man, a Pakistani nationalist,

to India after Ayah, foreshadow continued hostility across the border and into the future.

The author uses the tragedy of Partition to justify a certain idea of relating culture and

religion when different individuals become relegated to part of a larger construct.

But there are subtler ways of breaking people.22

Here Sidhwa talks about the emotional break down of people. Physically may be they can

not broken but through fear and mental torture people are easily laid down, which is a great

factor of the degradation of relations.

The men of Pir Pindo those who are not out working in the Fields come from their

barns country yards and sit with the Sikhs in a thick circle beneath a huge sheesham in a

patch of wild Grass.23



15/19

Muslims and Sikhs are living together a harmonious life and they discuss then families

issues first.

I dont think it is because they cant. . . I think it is because the Sarkar doesnt want to!24

Village Chaudhary, an elder and wise person, says the British do not want to solve this

issue; it is wrong to say that they can not solve it.

These lines show that common people are very worried about themselves, their relations.

Their lives are going to be ruined by this un-controllable aggression which the Britishers

can only control last they dont want to control it.

But he also supposes that it all is happening in the cities and they are the villagers and it

will not happen to them, but actually they all were un-aware of the fact that, when doom

happens it doesnt see whether it is a city or a village and at the end the common and

innocent people become its victims, first they were fighting for food and now they were

fighting for their lives so to safeguard their families.

Our villages come from the same racial stock. Muslim or Sikh, we are basically Jats. We

are Brothers. How can we fight each other?25

When the village-Sikhs come to know that they are also participation in the cause in the

city. They say that we (Muslims and Sikhs) are Jats, we are brothers, we can not fight with

each other, it is not possible. Chaudhary says, it is only with city people that they are

fighting we are village people, we are one, whether it is a Hindu or a Muslim or a Sikh, it

does not matter at all.



16/19

But our relationships with Hindus are bound by the strong ties. The city folk can afford to

fight . . . we cant. We are dependant on each other: bound by our toil ... to us villagers,

what does it matter if a peasant is a Hindu, or a Muslim, or a Sikh. 26 In these lines the

strong bonds of relationships have been shown that the Muslims and Sikhs are one. They

will fight for each other not against each other and in result if there is need to sacrifice their

lives, they will never hesitate. They all considered it their obligation to safeguard each

other.

On other hand it is also clear that the villagers are, in a way, part of this cause full of

aggression and they are slowly getting ready for it. It developed a sense of futile revenge

even before the partition took place. This all mind hunting was done by the leaders and

their parties as congress is making the people to lay on railway tracks for the cause of

Hindus instead to talk with British to find a solution to their self made problem. This led

the fact of weakening the bond of relationship of the people and they are like guided

machines walking on these lines, set by the authoritative strata.

In these lines Sidhwa has talked about the mind setting of the people by the ruling class.

Anthony Hyman says that Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, were typical of

Congress leaders in believing passionately in India's unity. For them, partition was a bitter

blow, a tragedy. For Jinnah and other Muslim League leaders, the creation of Pakistan as

hardly what had been envisaged when they, demanded a state for the Muslims of India. It

was a 'moth-eaten' Pakistan because the two major provinces, Bengal and Punjab, were

divided between Pakistan and India on the basis of religion'{ instead of falling to

Pakistan. Moreover, tens of millions of Muslims remained in India. Dreadful massacres in

the Punjab and Bengal hastened the process of exchange of population, of Hindus and



17/19

Sikhs out of Pakistan, and of Muslims out of India. Partition left a legacy of bitterness and

hatred which goes far to explain the bad Relations27

Before the partition the Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Parsees, Christians were living side-by-

side since time immemorial, and they all were leading a harmonious life. The situation

totally got changed when during the time migrations were taking place, a train of Muslims

arrives at the local depot and all the passengers are found murdered, the various sects turn

against each other, and the city is soon aflame. Angry Hindus storm through Lahore one

day and angry Muslims the next. Bapsi Sidhwa in the novel shows that, the once charming

Ice Candy Man turns into a near madman, who is latter one of the many roaming the streets

of Lahore with vengeance and murder on their minds.

In the past, communal tension and conflict occasionally resulted in violent confrontations,

but such events remained small-scale and marginal. Mainstream politics remained

essentially constitutional and peaceful. Partition supplanted the normal model with an

extremist model of conflict resolution.... It is important to note that the vast majority of

Indian Muslims are converts from the poorest sections of Hindu society. They have been

the main sufferers of the Partition Syndrome.28

In volume 1 of his four-volume study,History of Partition of India, the Pakistani historian

K.K. Aziz argues that the Hindu revivalists in Punjab had in the 1920s already suggested

the partitioning of India on religious lines.29

27Hardy, Peter, Hasan, Mumtaz, Kabir, Humayun and Chaudhuri, Nirad(1985)'Four opinions about the partition ofIndia',Index on Censorship,14:6,40 41 (Online Publication Date: 01 December 1985)

28The 1947 Partition of India: A paradigm for Pathological Politics in India and Pakistan, By Ishtiaq Ahmed.

29K.K. Aziz, History of Partition of India, vol. 1 (Atlantic Publishers and Distributors, New Delhi, 1995),pp. 13876.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslimshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindushttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikhshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parseeshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parseeshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslimshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindushttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikhshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parseeshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian


18/19


19/19

5. The 1947 Partition of India: A paradigm for Pathological Politics in India and Pakistan, By

Ishtiaq Ahmed.

6. PARTITIONING BODIES, Literature, Abduction and the State, By Bede Scott, Nanyang

Technological University, Singapore.

7. Four opinions about the partition of India, By Peter Hardy; Mumtaz Hasan; Humayun Kabir;

Nirad Chaudhuri. Online Publication Date: 01 December 1985.

8. Postcolonial children representing the nation in Arundhati Roy, Bapsi Sidhwa and Shyaaa

Selvadurai Sujala Singh, A Lecturer in Postcolonial Studies in the School of Humanities,

University of Southampton, Online Publication Date: 01 March 2004.

9. K.K. Aziz,History of Partition of India, vol. 1 (Atlantic Publishers and Distributors, New Delhi,

1995).

10. Urvashi Butalia, The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India (Hurst &

Company, London, 2000).

11. Francis Robinson, "The Muslims and Partition," History Today, Sept. 1997.

12. The College Street Journal, November 18, 1999.

13. The voice of 9/11 has a woman echo, Italian Interivew for 'Stylos'
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/csj/970328/sidhwa.htmlhttp://www.valentinammaka.net/sidhwa.english.htmhttp://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/csj/970328/sidhwa.htmlhttp://www.valentinammaka.net/sidhwa.english.htm

the transformation of relation: people’s mutual affection and association through wicked grudges...

Documents