Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice Candy Man

Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice Candy Man: The novel Cracking India (first published as Ice-Candy-Man in 1980), by Bapsi Sidhwa, explores the civil war that occurred during the Partition of India in 1947. Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice Candy Man The political and social upheaval engendered by independence and Partition included religious intolerance that led to mass violence, killings, mutilations, rapes, dismemberments, and the wholesale slaughter of infants, children, men, and women, along with the displacement of millions of refugees—Hindus fleeing to India and Muslims fleeing to Pakistan.

Told from the first-person perspective of Lenny Sethi, a Parsee child who is about 4 years old when the novel begins and approximately 10 years old at the end, the novel portrays the complicated and shifting political and social ramifications of the Partition of India into two countries: a Hindu-majority India and a Muslim-majority Pakistan. Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice Candy Man Lenny and her family attempt to quietly endure the partition that transforms Lahore, India into Lahore, Pakistan in August 1947.

Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice Candy Man: Simultaneously, the novel operates as a coming-of-age novel delineating the parallel growth and formation of identity within the protagonist, Lenny, and the country, Pakistan. Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice Candy Man Both suffer severe growing pains, as Lenny’s child-like vision becomes a quickly-maturing voice reporting upon the violence she witnesses, the many friends who are lost, the friends who are betrayed by their former friends and neighbors due to religious differences, and the terrible human cost of dividing one country into two along brutally enforced religious lines. Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice Candy Man Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, and Parsees all vie for survival.

Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice Candy Man: As a minority group, the Parsee people first seek alliance with other ethnic groups to help protect them, but then quickly resolve to stay on the sidelines of the growing battle, hoping to hide in plain sight. In fact, Lenny’s idyllic childhood, during the first third of the novel, serves as an idealistic backdrop, displaying the ethnic and religious harmony that existed in Lahore prior to the independence and Partition of India. Lenny’s pampered, secure childhood mirrors the peace that precedes the slaughter of Partition. This peaceful coexistence highlights the later terrors of religious intolerance. In this way, Sidhwa unfolds the macrocosm of the civil war through the microcosm of Lenny’s life.

Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice Candy Man: Other parallels also link private life with the larger world. Lenny’s nursemaid, Ayah, attracts a multi-ethnic crowd of admirers that mirrors the complex ethnic compositions of both India and Pakistan. Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice Candy Man The breakdown of Pakistani and Indian society into violent ethnic and religious groups mirrors the breakdown of the previously harmonious relationships between ethnicities and religions in Lenny’s world.

The novel’s themes explore human understanding of being both a social insider and a social outsider depending upon a person’s caste, religion, ethnicity, and economic status. It also examines the experience of being handicapped; the effects of religious and racial conflicts; the subjugation of women through arranged child marriages and prostitution; obsessions with sexuality; and the dangers of politically-motivated violence. Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice Candy Man  By using a child for the novel’s narrative voice and perceptions, Sidhwa confronts the histories of India and Pakistan and their social, historical, and political complexities with humor and compassion.

Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice Candy Man: However, Lenny’s childhood contains many horrors once Partition occurs. These horrors culminate with the ultimate dreadfulness of her own betrayal of her beloved Ayah to the Ice-candy-man and his Muslim thugs. Even her family is confounded by her action; she can barely forgive herself.

The last third of the novel demonstrates the united efforts of Lahori women, across ethnic and religious lines, to repair some of the damage perpetrated during Partition and its aftermath. Since parents hide painful truths from their children, and Lenny has proven that she cannot be trusted, Lenny’s mother hides her own secret work, which involves dangerous, illegal trade on the black market to earn money used to rescue women from enforced prostitution and sex slavery. Lenny only learns about this work near the end of the novel, when her Godmother demonstrates her power and authority by locating and stealing Ayah back from the Ice-candy-man. Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice Candy Man Lenny’s mother’s work enables them to send Ayah back home to her family in Amritsar, India. Perhaps the novel’s most hopeful sign for the future of Pakistan is that these women come together to help one another, regardless of ethnicity or religion.

Told from the first-person perspective of Lenny Sethi, a Parsee child who is about 4 years old when the novel begins and approximately 10 years old at the top , the novel portrays the complicated and shifting political and social ramifications of the Partition of India into two countries: a Hindu-majority India and a Muslim-majority Pakistan. Lenny and her family plan to quietly endure the partition that transforms Lahore, India into Lahore, Pakistan in August 1947.

Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice Candy Man: Simultaneously, the novel operates as a coming-of-age novel delineating the parallel growth and formation of identity within the protagonist, Lenny, and therefore the country, Pakistan. Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice Candy Man Both suffer severe growing pains, as Lenny’s child-like vision becomes a quickly-maturing voice reporting upon the violence she witnesses, the various friends who are lost, the buddies who are betrayed by their former friends and neighbors thanks to religious differences, and therefore the terrible human cost of dividing one country into two along brutally enforced religious lines. Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, and Parsees all vie for survival.

As a minority group, the Parsee people first seek alliance with other ethnic groups to assist protect them, on the other hand quickly resolve to remain on the sidelines of the growing battle, hoping to cover in plain sight. In fact, Lenny’s idyllic childhood, during the primary third of the novel, is an idealistic backdrop, displaying the ethnic and non secular harmony that existed in Lahore before the independence and Partition of India. Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice Candy Man Ice Candy Man Lenny’s pampered, secure childhood mirrors the peace that precedes the slaughter of Partition. This peaceful coexistence highlights the later terrors of spiritual intolerance. Ice Candy Man Summary during this way, Sidhwa unfolds the macrocosm of the war through the microcosm of Lenny’s life.

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