CHAPTER: IV ICE-CANDY-MAN / CRACKING INDIA Much has been written about the holocaust that followed the Partition of India in 1947. But seldom has that story been told as touchingly, as convincingly, or as horrifyingly as it has been by novelist Bapsi Sidhwa, seeing it through the eyes of young Lenny...there is great humanity in this novel. (Qtd. in Ice-Candy-Man) The division of Indian subcontinent in 1947 has been among those tragic disasters, which not only stirred soul of natives but also compelled few of them to search for the larger meaning of savage events occurred during the havoc; the magnitude, ambit, and influence of those barbaric acts affected the minds of literary writers so deeply that they could not help pouring down their grievances on paper. Bapsi Sidhwa s Ice-Candy- Man, also published as Cracking India, falls in line with so many other great novels that have been penned down on the theme of partition on both sides of the Radcliffe line; Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh, Sunlight on a Broken Column by Attia Hosain, Azadi by Chaman Nahal, A River with Three Bands by Shiv K. Kumar, and A Bend in the Ganges by Manohar Malgonkar s are the Indian versions of the holocaust; while on the other hand Shadows of Time (1987) by Mehr Nigar Masroor, and 111
Ice-Candy-Man by Bapsi Sidhwa put forth the Pakistani perception of the cataclysm. Though, many Bangladeshi and Pakistani authors have also highlighted the theme of partition in their creations, yet Indian writers have an edge upon their foreign counterparts; Raj Gill in The Rape, H.S. Gill in Ashes and Petals, and Kartar Singh Duggal in Twice Born Twice Dead, all Sikh authors, have also placed the horrific events of the divide in their novels as the juncture of the story, though theirs was a Sikhfavoured portrayal. Attia Hosain s Sun Light on a Broken Column is one of the most significant books on Partition, though the holocaust is projected as a peripheral theme in the novel; for the first time a woman as well as Muslim-author narrates the tragic saga of partition. In The Shadow Lines, Amitav Ghosh has spoken about the national grief of partition using the device of a child narrator and taking the linear time narration, but Bapsi Sidhwa has made Ice-Candy-Man distinguished from other partition novels by using the unbiased lens of a Parsi narrator, through which the story is portrayed; across the globe, this is so far the only novel written by a Parsi (male or female) author based on the theme of Partition; alongwith it, Sidhwa has the credit of being the second woman author (after Attia Hosain) who has written on this horrifying historical happening. Sidhwa admits in a conversation with David Montenegro: 112
The main motivation grew out of my reading of a good deal of literature on the partition of India and Pakistan...What has been written by the British and the Indians. Naturally, they reflect their bias. And they have, I felt after I d researched the book, been unfair to the Pakistanis. As a writer, as human being, one just does not tolerate injustice. I felt whatever little I could do to correct an injustice I would like to do. I don t think I have just let facts speak for themselves, and through my research I found out what the facts were. (36) Lame girl Lenny, hailing from the Parsi heritage, is the narrator of the novel, which seems to be Sidhwa herself, as she herself is a Parsi and afflicted with polio in her right leg; not only this, she has also been eight year old, like Lenny, at the time of partition. To Jugnu Mohsin, in an interview, published in Friday Times, she admits: I had polio as a child. I had to have extensive treatment; my parents were advised not to send me to school. I was tutored at home by an Anglo-Indian lady who taught me to read and write. Autobiographical elements of the novel impart it an authentic colour, as London Magazine eulogizes her: With skill and sympathy, and a delightful sense of humour, Bapsi Sidhwa shows the small girl Lenny growing up in comfort and tranquillity. The book s many characters all come to exuberant life, exhibiting the odd tastes and 113
unpredictable behaviour of real individuals (Qtd. in Ice-Candy-Man). The narrator and other Parsi and non-parsi characters in the novel appear to be highly truthful: Like all Sidhwa s work, the novel contains a rich undercurrent of legend and folklore. It combines Sidhwa s affectionate admiration for her own community with a compassion for the dispossessed. Her own childhood memories give the novel further depth and resonance (Qtd. in Ice-Candy-Man). In the novel, Ice-candy-man throngs with a number of Muslims at Lenny s house in search of Shanta, a Hindu; the same incident took place in Sidhwa s life when she was a child; author reminisces: When I was a child living in Lahore at the time of partition, my maiden name was Bhandara, which sounded like a Hindu name. After most of the riot was over, a gang of looters came in carts into our house thinking it s an abandoned house and were quite shocked to see us there. At that time our Muslim cook came out and said, What do you damn people think you re doing? This is a Parsi household, and they said we thought it was Hindu household, and they went away. I decided to write a story about Partition because this scene was vivid in my mind. (Jussawalla and Dasenbrock) 114
In Ice-Candy-Man, Sidhwa has made realistic and an extensive use of Urdu poetry; the novel opens with the poetry of great Urdu poet Iqbal; poets like Mirza Ghalib, Alama Iqbal, Pakistan s national and a mystic poets, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, a Lenin prize winner, and female poets, such as, Zehra Nigar and Kishwar Naheed, have left a great impact on Sidhwa s mind, and appear in the novel frequently. In her interview to Feroza Jussawalla, she says: Yes, my love of Urdu poetry overflows in this book [Ice-Candy-Man]. I ve made it part of this book and woven it into the structure because I feel it gives a resonance to the book, a cultural resonance. Something which is very eastern, Urdu has permeated the book in the form of poetry (215). The Ice-Candy-Man is an epoch-making tale of the horrors of partition, wherein the lofty ideal of patriotism was cruelly bartered for communal frenzy that resulted in an involuntary divide, social and political absurdities, and human devastation on very large scale; Bapsi Sidhwa s sensitive portrayal of the political disturbances and social loss, which all the Indians faced in 1947, is worthy of admiration:...sidhwa s novel Ice-Candy-Man is one of the finest responses made to the horror of the division of the subcontinent (Qtd. in Ice-Candy- Man). The Partition is the shaping force of the novel; socio-political equations altering kaleidoscopically in the pre-partition India are deftly 115
presented by the novelist; growing communal tensions among the people pertaining to different religion, in which religion is used as a definition of individual identity, political opportunism, and power, are taken up as the leitmotif of the novel. The scene is set in Lahore alongside the aftermath of partition; the use of history is deliberate, but the lesson tucked in the story is without sagginess; in an interview to Julie Rajan, Sidhwa preaches: If we are not going to learn lessons, we are doomed to repeat our evils. Historically people have gone on fighting each other for religion, for land, for women, for position, for greed and those elements prevail still. Man s nature has not changed but one can try, and hope it will. (www.monsoon.mag) Sidhwa s optimistic attitude towards the 1947 disaster, and her attempt to learn from it and make her readers acquainted with the history of the nation, is not only commendable but also imitable. As an author, Sidhwa plays a proselytizing role; so, in her writing she attracts the attention of her readers to diverse problems of the society, as women subjugation, religious chauvinism, unjust oppression meted out to females, and prejudiced evaluation of historical events, like the 1947 upheaval, and so forth, which are the major concerns of her novels. To David Montenegro, the author puts forward: But I do think that a writer 116
can at least place facts so that people recognize themselves and stop taking themselves too seriously or start seeing themselves in a more realistic light. We all are so prone to see ourselves as a little better than the other person (51). Parsi customs and life in the subcontinent during the historical feud of 1947 are poignantly depicted in Ice-Candy-Man; their interaction with Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs is shown in a buffer state: Bapsi Sidhwa...authentically chronicles the exodus of Parsees to India of the prepartition era, their world view, customs, religious practices and their politics in the course of her novel Ice-Candy-Man (Rao V. 183). Sidhwa writes how a Parsi child, Lenny, living among the people of different religions, learns from the partition and the growing rift among friends and neighbours: Lenny s house being in a lush and densely populated area of Lahore gives her a chance to befriend many big people and derives maximum news about partition (Patil 75). Nevertheless, Parsis, despite having lived among people of different religions for centuries, remain separate on the basis of religion, as Patil remarks: The Ice-Candy-Man deals with the partition horror and the life of Lenny, a limping girl, an Ice-candy-man, a Muslim and an ayah, a Hindu. Lenny, the Ice-candy-man and Ayah s lives are governed by the event of partition and its consequences. Still a number of characters are affected by 117
the 1947 s communal troubles. Bapsi Sidhwa succeeds in elaborating the intercommunity life from Parsi angle. (74) Ice-Candy-Man, divided into thirty two chapters, sparkles with the sub-continent teeming with political, social, and religious import; partition forms the main body of the book; main events, besides Second World War, India s Independence, and the division of the nation, moves around Ayah aka Shanta, a significant woman character of the novel who is appointed by Mrs. and Mr. Sethi to look after their handicapped girl Lenny; Shanta is a chocolate brown and short woman at the age of eighteen years, Lenny is the narrative persona; her narration begins with her fifth year of age, and it comes to an end after her eighth birthday. Due to her disability, Lenny feels herself different from other children, and thus feels solitariness; to fill up life s emptiness, she spends her day with her lovable companion, Shanta and her friends. Shanta has friends in all communities; Imam Din, the Ice-candy-man, Yousaf, Hari, and Moti, are all her admirers; everyday, all these friends arrange meeting, and make gossips at Queen s Park. The news of Hindus killing Muslims bursts into flames of revenge among the Lahore Muslims; they start attacking Hindus, and Sikhs; on fearing this, Hari, the gardener, converts to Islam, and becomes Himmat Ali. The whirlwind of Partition perturbs the unity and affection of the friends also; in the wake of communal riots, Shanta is abducted and her lover, Masseur, is bumped off by her once-time friend 118
and admirer, Ice-candy-man; on the one hand, he deceives Shanta and makes her a dancing girl at Hira Mandi, a brothel house; while on the other, he goes down the aisle with her. What is remarkable about him is his transformation; he repents and goes to India in search of Shanta, indeed, in search of his love, and his beloved; Jagdev Singh rightly observes:...the Ice-Candy-man is willing to leave the land that he so much cherishes, for the sake of his Hindu beloved, is not only an example of self-sacrifice but also symbolic of a future rapprochement between the two warring communities- the Muslims and Hindus (175). N. S. Gundur opines: The story of Ayah and the Ice-candy-man is important for the angle from which it looks at the Partition. Because, it is invested with symbolic mode (70). Lenny s eighth birthday records the birth of the new nation, as an outcome of partition; so, her birthday fails to arouse any enthusiasm in her parents, as for their neighbours are engaged in, and everybody is anxious about the ongoing riots, and their uncertain and perilous future; Mr. and Mrs. Singh come to Lenny s family and ask her father to store a few things in the hope that things would subside. Shanta s admirers are also tense in the grim communal situation; suddenly, Ice-candy-man appears dried up, shrivelled, and looks frantic; he tells that the train from Gurudaspur has only dead bodies of Muslims; Lenny feels that all of Shanta s friends are growing suspicious of one another. Ice-candy-man 119
gives Shanta a gold-coin looted from the house of Kirpa Ram, the moneylender, but she refuses to accept; Moti and Papoo decide to convert to Christianity; Lenny, a Parsi, among them, is startled and terrified by these changes; Masseur proposes Shanta to marry and she accepts the proposal, while Lenny protests against her decision. Sidhwa gives a sordid account of this devastation unleashed by the divide; displacement of millions of people and the Hindu leaders canvassing in favour of Britishers is depicted vividly. Hari alias Himmat Ali, accompanying Lenny, find Masseur s body in a gunny sack; the incident is portrayed in an objective manner and it highlights the macabre morbidity of the scene. The life of Parsis was deeply affected by the horrors of the events occurred on the eve of partition; they felt marginalised not only at the time of pre-partition but even after partition; the novel depicts their fear in the aftermath of partition; the use of words like power and rule is meaningful in this context; commenting upon the freedom struggle, Col. Bharucha, a Parsi, says: It is no longer just a struggle for Home Rule. It is a struggle for power. Who s going to rule once we get Swaraj?...Hindus, Muslims and even the Sikhs are going to jockey for power: and if you jokers jump into the middle you ll be mangled into chutney! (Ice- Candy-Man 36) Parsis realized that their life in the divided country would be in peril; they had never been a power factor, hence to remain faithful 120
to the ruling authority was the only option. They were aware of the fact that they could only practice their religious traditions and prosper by allegiance to the ruling people and this basic attitude has been cautiously portrayed by Sidhwa in all her novels; but in pre-partition days, they were confused as to which side of the groups would ultimately emerge as the ruler. Colonel Bharucha, silencing the acrimonious debate, rhetorically remarks: No one knows which way the wind will blow....there may be not one but two or even three new nations! And the Parsees might find themselves championing the wrong side if they don t look before they leap! (37) On the basis of religion, they were also confused as to which community should they trust; a man inquires in impatient voice: If we re stuck with the Hindus they ll swipe our businesses from under our noses and sell our grandfathers in the bargain: if we re stuck with the Muslims they ll convert us by the sword! And God help us if we re stuck with the Sikhs! (37) The portrayal of the Congress, the Muslim League, Nehru, and Jinnah is a common mode found in the partition novels. Demonstration of the dilemma of an uninvolved community is the important feature of Ice-Candy-Man that makes it unique among other books written about the cataclysm. Saros Cowasjee, poses a question about the emotional trauma of the religious minorities such as Christians, Parsees and the Jews? Though uninfected by the communal 121
frenzy, these too were victims of the Partition of a country on a purely religious basis (38). The first glimpse of the feeling of insecurity can be detected in the Jashan prayer held at Lahore for celebration of British victory in the Second World War; the peaceful routine of maintaining friendly terms with, and regular holding of the parties for the British Superintendent of Police by Mrs. and Mr. Sethi is also symbolic, and justifies the matter. R. S. Pathak, in this connection, observes:...most of the Parsees thought that if the government and the country were in the hands of the Hindus, the Parsees would be pushed to the wall: their rights would not be respected and their monopoly in business would crumble...the Parsees were particularly disturbed by increasing radicalism of the national movement strongly influenced by the neo-hindu renaissance. They felt that they had very limited access to the socio-religious nationalism of the Congress movement under Tilak and Gandhi. These fears encouraged the Parsees to oppose even the concept of the Home Rule in India. (128-129) Thus, Col. Bharucha advises to maintain the status quo and perpetuate the old attitudes: Let whoever wishes rule! Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian! We will abide by the rules of their land! (Ice-Candy- 122
Man 39) At this juncture, Parsis seem to be the captive of the time as they are forced to spend their lives in a society, which they are not members of, and in which they are under such circumstances wherefrom escape is impossible. Sidhwa gives the message that Parsis have played an important part in the pre-partition society, and have contributed well in strengthening the social fabric, even in the critical time of division. Though, Parsis had been almost neutral in politics, communal discord, riots, arson, and other horrific events, yet it would be unfair to set aside their role in the politics of the subcontinent; Nani A. Palkhiwala applauds and recognizes their contribution: History affords no parallel to the role of Parsis in India. There is no record of any other community so infinitesimally small as Parsis, playing such a significant role in the life of a country so large (317). Most of the Parsis considered politics mundane and gross, but a few of them got an honourable place in the society and politics; Dadabhai Naoroji (1825-1917), Sir Pherozeshah M. Mehta (1845-1915), and Sir Dinshaw Edulji Wacha (1844-1936) were the top class Parsis of the time; praising the trio, Jeejeebhoy states: Following the death of withdrawal of these three politicians, no Parsees ever again had a comparable influence on Indian politics (Quoted in Kulke 213). There have been some Parsis who participated in politics, and became famous therein and society as well; J. N. Tata, K. N. Kabraji, Behramji Malabari, and Jamsetji Jeejeebhoy were the prominent names in 123
the history of politics; on the basis of participation, Naoroji Furdoonjee, Khursetjee Rustomjee Cama, Sohrabjee Shapurjee Bengalee, Maneckjee Cursetjee, and Dosabhoy Framjee Karaka are worth mentioning; Wacha, the General Secretary of the Congress, was a great social reformer; Naoroji, Mancherji Bhavanagari and Shapurjee Saklatvala have got the credit of being the first Indians as well as Parsis to have been elected to the British Parliament. Parsis were not only good politicians but they had also been social reformers; their contribution in the public welfare had been so much so that they were rewarded with the posts of the General Secretary, British Parliament s membership, reputed orator, etc. R. S. Pathak aptly remarks while applauding the Parsi politicians and socialists: Feroze Gandhi and Taleyarkhan were great parliamentarians. Among later politicians also some Parsees emerged as important leaders. When the All India Congress Socialist Party was initiated (though still within the Indian National Congress) in Bombay in 1934, the inner circle of its founders included...two Parsis Minoo R. Masani and S. S. Batlivala. Batlivala soon changed over to the Communist Party of India, but Masani became the General Secretary of the Congress Socialist Party in 1936. He played a leading role in the founding of the Swatantra Party in 1959 and served as its General Secretary for years. (128) 124
Morris Jones adjudged Minoo R. Masani as India s most modernistic politician (156). Sidhwa makes use of the literary devices like parody, allegory, and comedy to depict the perils of compromising with religious obscurantism when it leaves its impact on the historical processes; she also portrays how the communal hysteria was responsible for the riots occurred on the historic eve of partition, and its after-effects i.e. dislocation, loot, rape, murder, molestation, and arson, as Novy Kapadia observes: With a sprinkling of humour, parody and allegory Bapsi Sidhwa conveys a sinister warning of the dangers of compromising with religious obscurantism and fundamentalism of all categories. Otherwise a certain historical inevitability marks this historical process. Though her novel is about the traumas of partition, Bapsi Sidhwa like Amitav Ghosh reveals that communal riots are contemporaneous and that those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it. (90) The precocious Parsi-girl-narrator is employed as a tool in the novel; she observes, with the wonder of a child-view, the change in milieu and human behaviour, noting and absorbing side-issues, seeking and listening to opinions, and sporadically making judgments: 125
The device of the child narrator enables Bapsi Sidhwa treat a historical moment as horrifying as Partition without morbidity, pedanticism or censure. The highlight of the novel is that the author throughout maintains a masterful balance between laughter and despair. The subtle irony and the deft usage of language create humour which does not shroud but raucously highlights the traumas of Partition. (Kapadia 77) Partition and the riots occurred during it are the juncture of the novel; Parsis as well as people of other religions get terrified by the brutal scenes; the violence occurred after the declaration of Master Tara Singh that Sikhs would not allow the creation of Pakistan sets Lenny and Shanta to trembling; safe and sheltered on the roof of Fallettis Hotel they watch brutality: A naked child, twitching on a spear struck between her shoulders, is waved like a flag: her screamless mouth agape she is staring straight up at me. A crimson fury blinds me. I want to dive into the bestial creature clawing entrails, plucking eyes, tearing limbs, gouging hearts, smashing brains: but the creature has too many stony hearts, too many sightless eyes, deaf ears, mindless brains and tons of entwined entrails... (Ice-Candy-Man 134-135) 126
The terror generated by the brutal acts of crowd is palpable in this trembling scene; the dreadful procession of mob flows like a sluggish watercourse in the veins of the readers, and the characters of the novel, which trembles them like an evil; Lenny, the child, is severely affected by the calamity: The whole world is burning. The air on my face is so hot I think my flesh and clothes will catch fire. I start screaming: hysterically sobbing (Ice-Candy-Man 137); the violent scenes, arson, loot, rape, murder, and above all the hatred amongst the friends leave their frightening impact on the innocent mind of the child. Trembling scenes are etched on heart of Lenny; the fire itself could not have survived for months but in her reminiscence it is branded over an inordinate length of time (139). Her rage, as a reaction against the riots, is seen at her collection of dolls when she tries to re-enact the scene, with one of them: I pick out a big, bloated celluloid doll. I turn it upside down and pull its legs apart. The elastic that holds them together stretches easily. I let one leg go and it snaps back, attaching itself to the brittle torso (138); she does not get satisfied until his brother Adi does not help her in wrenching out the legs of the doll; Novy Kapadia rightly comments in this connection: Lenny s tears at this juncture indicate her refusal to accept the inevitable demands of cruelty. Her reaction is positive as it indicates an instinctive revulsion at her brutality and 127
destruction of her doll. The girl child narrator thus implies that a sensitive reappraisal and rethinking is required to resist the dangers of communal frenzy. So, Lenny thus upholds positive and progressive values. (120) The violent act is a clear allegory on the disaster; with a strong sense of humour, Sidhwa tries to show that how deeply such acts can affect a child s psyche, and how such fantasy turns into a brutal violence: a sombre message by the novelist that unless there is re-thinking, brutality and insensitivity becomes a way of life, such is the conditioning of communalism (Gaur 83). The same technique is put to use by Attia Hosain in her novel, Sunlight on a Broken Column, in which narrator-heroine akin to Lenny is used; heroine Laila reveals the pain of partition through sensitivity and memories of her Taluqdar family; likewise, in Ice-Candy-Man, the enigma of partition is shown with Lenny s awareness. Having wedded in Pakistan, Laila s cousin, Zebra, returns to Hasanpur and she quarrels with him: In the end, inevitably we quarrelled, and though we made up before we parted I realized that the ties which had kept families together for centuries had been loosened beyond repair (Hosain 303); similarly, Laila is also nostalgic and restless like Lenny; Laila s viewpoint gets enlarged after she has seen the partition upheaval, which enables her to recover from the pain of death of her husband and trauma of partition as well, as 128
Kapadia writes about Lenny: The precocious girl-child narrator in Ice- Candy-Man provides a new perspective on the traumas of Independence and Partition. Her astute and instinctive observations are often an apt parody of the adult world of poses and rigid stances (122). Thus, both the heroines react against the communal rifts and the horrors of violence; wrenching out the legs of doll by Lenny, and Laila s quarrelling with her brother, both these acts are allegorical reactions to the violent acts of the historical divide; through this allegory, Sidhwa conveys the message that there are no winners in the communal discords; instead, all people and even the children get negatively affected by such horrific and divisive events. The melodious song of Nur Jahan s popular film is very apt to make the message clear: Mere bachpan ke sathi mujhe bhool na jana Dekho, dekho hense na zamana, hanse na zamana (Ice-Candy-Man 159); unfortunately, the sense of the song is not followed, and Britishers play a divisive role in parting the inhabitants of the nation. Chapter eight of the novel unfolds the contemporary political situation through the scene of bickering amongst the characters; Mr. Singh and his American wife, Inspector General of Police, Mr. Rogers and his wife Mrs. Rogers are the guests for dinner at Lenny s house. Mr. Singh shouts arguing with the Inspector General of Police: I am up to ruling you and your Empire! You recruit all our Sikh soldiers into your World War Number Two and we win the war for you! Whyfore then you 129
think we cannot do Home Rule? (Ice-Candy-Man 61) Mr. Rogers abuses Gandhi, calling him old bugger who is up to his old bag of tricks; through the quarrel, Sidhwa underlines the role of Britishers in the partition; when Mr. Singh asks, if Gandhiji dies of fast, his blood will be on Britishers head, and in such situation what they will do? Inspector General of Police replies that he would celebrate and having lost his patience cries almost as loudly as Mr. Singh: Rivers of blood will flow all right!... Nehru and the Congress will not have everything their way! They will have to reckon with the Muslim League and Jinnah. If we quit India today, old chap, you ll bloody fall at each other s throats! (62); Justifying their role Mr. Singh answers: They are only saying that to be in a better bargaining position and you are stringing them along because of your divide-and-rule monkey tricks!... You always set one up against the other...you just give Home Rule and see. We will settle our differences and everything! (63) Mr. Singh could not tolerate this and grabs Mr. Roger; he tries to attack Roger with a fork, though, the commotion subsides soon. English people are also held responsible for the partition nation; they played a significant role in dividing India, as the Government House gardener says, It is the English s mischief...they are past masters at intrigue. It suits them to have us all fight (92); Mallikarjun Patil, in her article, has presented the same point of view in connection with the role of British Rulers in the divide: Indeed, Lord Mountbatten implemented his plan of 130
partition and Gandhis and Nehrus nodded to it. But the fanatic Hindu- Muslim misused the genesis of partition and saw that a river of blood drained on either side (72). Sidhwa, through the narrator, reveals the dread of a child amidst the chaos of partition: 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 Warris Road? How will I ever get to Godmother s then? (Ice-Candy- Man 92) Lenny further exposes her fright: They ll dig a canal... she ventures. This side for Hindustan and this side for Pakistan. If they want two countries, that s what they ll have to do crack India with a long, long canal. Gandhi, Jinnah, Nehru, Iqbal, Tara Singh, Mountbatten are names I hear (93). History creeps into chapter ten; Gandhi is shown sitting crosslegged on the marble floor of a palatial verandah surrounded by women; he gives them enema himself, by treating them as their mother and to get them recovered soon from the illness. Next chapter makes the readers aware of the changing communal levels of the society; this subtle change suddenly turns significant through the gatherings at the Queen s Park: Gandhiji, Nehru, Patel...they have much influence even in London, says the gardener mysteriously, as if acknowledging the arbitrary and mischievous nature of antic 131
gods. They didn t like the Muslim League s victory in the Punjab elections. The bastards! says Masseur with histrionic fury that conceals a genuine bitterness. So they sack Wavell Sahib, a fair man! And send for a new Lat Sahib who will favour the Hindus! (Ice-Candy-Man 90) Jokes developed to ridicule other religions are becoming favourite, and people are growing conscious of their own religious practices; Lenny instinctively realizes the social divide between communities, as she says: And I become aware of religious differences. It is sudden. One day everybody is themselves and the next day they are Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian. People shrink, dwindling into symbols. Ayah is no longer just my allencompassing Ayah she is also a token. A Hindu. Carried away by a renewed devotional fervour she expends a small fortune in joss-sticks, flowers and sweets on the gods and goddesses in the temples. (Ice-Candy-Man 93) This is the consciousness growing in Lenny regarding social rift; she protests Shanta s acceptance for Masseur s proposal for marriage; this not only indicates towards a mature gaze-point of a child but also reveals that the mind of a child gets so much deeply affected with the riots and heinous crimes caused by the racial disunity that it develops 132
within a short period, at the mere age of 8, and evaluates the events like an adult. That s why, Lenny prevents Shanta, a Hindu, to be wedded with Masseur, a Muslim, for the ethnic differences are in full swing; in this context, Novy Kapadia expresses admiration for Sidhwa: The author cleverly delineates Lenny s reactions to the growing orthodoxy of the people around her...the Ayah becomes a token Hindu as with renewed devotional fervour she offers joss sticks, flowers and sweets to the gods and goddesses in the temples. The Sharmas and Daulatrams stress that they are Brahmins. The girl-child narrator sees them as dehumanised by their lofty caste and caste-marks...the English Christians look down upon the Anglo- Indians and the Anglo-Indian consider the Indian Christians inferior. Lenny realises that her nuclear family and her relatives have also been reduced to irrelevant nomenclatures we are Parsee. (116) On the Muslim side, Imam Din and Yousaf also turn into religious zealots; they take Friday afternoons off for the Jumha (Friday) prayers: On Fridays they set about preparing themselves ostentatiously....they wash their heads, arms, necks and ears and noisily clear their throats and noses....sometimes, at odd hours of the day, they spread their mats on the front 133
lawn and pray when the muezzin calls. Crammed into a narrow religious slot they too are diminished: as are Jinnah and Iqbal, Ice-candy-man and Masseur. (Ice-Candy-Man 93) Ice-candy-man blames the Hindus surveying the gardener s face: but aren t you Hindus expert at just this kind of thing? Twisting tails behind the scene...and getting someone else to slaughter your goats? (Ice-Candy-Man 91) Most famous political figures of the time such as, Gandhi, Nehru, Jinnah, Iqbal, Patel, Bose, Lord Mountbatten, and Master Tara Singh, etc. are described on various occasions in the book; the Hindu leaders are presented in an unfavourable manner. Jinnah is portrayed with sympathy and respect, while Gandhi is said to be a tricky politician by Masseur, as the butcher abuses Gandhi: That non-violent violence-monger your precious Gandhijee first declares the Sikhs fanatics! Now suddenly he says: Oh dear, the poor Sikhs cannot live with the Muslims if there is a Pakistan! What does he think we are some kind of beast? Aren t they living with us now? (Ice-Candy-Man 91) Chapter 17 th of the novel records the birth of a new nation, and British Rulers are held responsible for it; Radcliff Commission is shown dealing out with Indian cities like a pack of cards; Lenny realizes: I am Pakistani. In a snap. Just like that. A new nation is born. India has been divided after all. Did they dig the long, long canal... (Ice-Candy-Man 134
140). Britishers, having achieved the objective to divide India, start doling out favours to Indian political leaders represented by Nehru, as he is young, charming, handsome, and close to Lord Mountbatten; in stark contrast to Jinnah, who is austere, deathly ill, and incapable of cheekkissing; author highlights the biased role of the English (in Pakistani context) in the partition: For now the tide is turned and the Hindus are being favoured over the Muslims by the remnants of the Raj. Now that its objective to divide India is achieved, the British favour Nehru over Jinnah. Nehru is Kashmiri; they grant him Kashmir. Spurning logic, defying rationale, ignoring the consequence of bequeathing a Muslim state to the Hindus: while Jinnah futilely protests: Statesmen cannot eat their words! Statesmen do. They grant Nehru Gurdaspur and Pathankot, without which Muslim Kashmir cannot be secured. (Ice-Candy-Man 159) In Sidhwa s Ice-Candy-Man as well as in Chaman Nahal Azadi Britishers are believed to have played a dividing role at the time of independence:...the partition of the country that brings about an enervating change in the placid life of Lala Kanshi Ram.... 135
He is startled to know that he is a refugee in his own home...he remembers the English people at the moment for their deft handling of crises, he is critical of them for not ushering in freedom smoothly and calls them the real villains in the drama of violence and destruction.... (Jha 41-42) Sidhwa has portrayed Jinnah more sympathetically than the Hindu political heavyweights; in this frame of reference, Randhir Pratap Singh sharply comments:...ice-candy-man presents a Pakistani version of Partition. Sidhwa s Parsi faith keeps her out of the religious imbroglio of Partition but as regards nationality, she is definitely a Pakistani and it biases her in favour of Pakistan (56). Chapter twentieth displays a sordid account of the devastation unleashed by partition; refugees flood newly born states; within three months five million Hindus and Sikhs and seven million Muslims are uprooted that records the largest and most terrible exchange of population known to history (Ice-Candy-Man 159). Partition affected the lives of people and shaped their future as well; in the tense communal situation, people wanted to get their tools and weapons sharpened; Lenny feels a perceptible behavioural-change in Shanta, Ice-candy-man, and others. Ice-candy-man has attained an unpleasant swagger and a strange way of looking (154) at Hindus; he is still full of stories, but unlike the previous tales, new ones are of plunder and murder; he tells them that 136
with his Muslim counterparts, he has looted the house of Kirpa Ram, the money-lender; he offers Shanta a looted gold-coin whereof she refuses to accept. The growing tension among the people of different religion can easily be felt here; plundering the Hindu families by Muslims and Shanta s refusal to accept the pillaged article from a Hindu house, both these reactions display two different sides of the same coin; on Muslim s side, Ice-candy-man has changed himself and has no hesitation in killing and looting, even those people (Hindus and Sikhs) whom he has known all his life; while on the other side, Shanta, a Hindu, exhibits affectionate attitude towards the people of her religion; that s why, she declines to accept a gold coin plundered from a Hindu house: keep it. It s for you (156). Jaya Lakshmi Rao notices the deadly impact of riotous divide on Lenny, a Parsi girl and Shanta, a Hindu-maid, not only on the community basis but also from the gender perspective:...for Lenny, in a few years time a whole world, which is also her world, undergoes a sea change marked by blood dimmed anarchy. Her focus, switches from her own sense of inadequacy and unworth and the trivia and trappings of her learning, to the world outside, which she finds, is dark and dangerous. With greater perception, she notes the fast, unstoppable and violent changes that leave her and those 137
around her, particularly Ayah wounded in the soul. (Ice- Candy-Man 185) Similarly, in Chaman Nahal s Azadi, Arun and Munir, very close and devoted friends since the pre-partition time, too feel a tension towards each other (Azadi 118) when the dividing line is stretched on India s soil. The picture of the unity among villagers of Pir Pindo is drawn in the pre-partition days; villagers blame the Britishers for growing discord among the friends and neighbours; during a conversation, a village mullah says, I hear there is trouble in the cities...hindus are being murdered in the Bengal...Muslims, in Bihar. It s strange...the English Sarkar can t seem to do anything about it (Ice-Candy-Man 55). The village Chaudhary (Headman) comments: I don t think it is because they can t...i think it is because the Sarkar doesn t want to! (55) Imam Din informs the villagers that Hindu-Muslim trouble is spreading across the cities of India and which might affect the rural areas also; upon which, the Sikh granthi, being over-confident says, our villages come from the same racial stock. Muslim or Sikh, we are basically Jats. We are brothers. How can we fight each other? (56) About the unity of villagers, chaudhary brags:...i m alert to what s happening...i have a radio. But our relationships with the Hindus are bound by strong ties. The 138
city folk can afford to fight...we can t. We are dependent on each other: bound by our toil; by Mandi prices set by the Banyas they re our common enemy those city Hindus. To us villagers, what does it matter if a peasant is a Hindu, or a Muslim, or a Sikh? (56) Imam Din, having been satisfied with the logics, calms down and responds: I think you are right, brothers, the madness will not infect the villages (Ice-Candy-Man 56); at the end of the conversation, oaths are taken to protect the neighbours of different religion, and it is regarded as their duty; the unity at the rural level can be realized; it is also felt that at that time of historical division, riots were basically the part of the cities, not of the villages. Sidhwa has captured the impacts on the secularism during the British Raj; the fright in the hearts of the people of villages, which were not infected with the fanaticism yet, can be seen vividly. Like Pir Pindo, in Sialkot, a small village depicted in Azadi; people listen to the news of partition and suddenly become aware of their religions and ethnic roots (be they Hindu or Muslim) of their relations to the majority or minority communities: In the Muslim-dominated city of Sialkot, which was until a few days ago a picture of peace and amity and co-operation among the Muslims and the Hindus and the Sikhs...the division of the country on a blatantly communal basis does 139
bring about a psychological wedge, an emotional and spiritual rift among the civil, police and military personnel of undivided India. (Jha 37) In this way, it is again the partition that vitiates the idyllic tranquillity of Indian villages like Pir Pindo; partition has expanded the thematic potentials of Ice-Candy-Man; at the same time, two broad patterns of communal relations are discernible, as harmony as well as discord among the villagers and city dwellers. It is Sidhwa s deft handling of the theme that both the patterns are historical, though the climax is visionary: Hindu-Muslim-Sikh characters who were jolly good friends before turn into enemies, once the news of Partition of the country is announced and implemented (Rao 186). Rumours are also used by Sidhwa as a device to carry out the psychological impression of the calamity of partition on the life of people. Not only adults but children were also hit badly, they fell under the suspicion, doubt, and susceptibility to the rumours. In Ice-Candy-Man while depicting political figures, Sidhwa is seen like a Pakistani (opposing India) not a Parsi (neutral); she is felt taking side of Jinnah regarding his role in religio-political activities occurred during the partition. As a Pakistani, her sympathy is with Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan (her own nation) and the leader of Muslims, not with Gandhi (pertaining to India), a Hindu; in this context, her patriotism 140
exceeds on Zoroastrianism (well-known neutral view); with a totally partial view, she disregards the importance of Gandhi through her characters communication in the novel; digging the historical facts, Sidhwa sings the praises of Jinnah, while pours scorn on M. K. Gandhi: And today, forty years later, in films of Gandhi s and Mountbatten s lives, in books by British and Indian scholars, Jinnah, who for a decade was known as Ambassador of Hindu Muslim Unity, is caricatured, and portrayed as a monster (Ice-Candy-Man 160); author takes support of Indian poetess Sarojini Naidu s applauding statement about Jinnah to pacify her own speech in the novel:...the calm hauteur of his accustomed reserve masks, for those who know him, a naïve and eager humanity, an intuition quick and tender as a woman s, a humour gay and winning as a child s pre-eminently rational and practical, discreet and dispassionate in his estimate and acceptance of life, the obvious sanity and serenity of his worldly wisdom effectually disguise a shy and splendid idealism which is of the very essence of the man. (161) It might be the quality of a native to prefer his or her own country and people, not that of a writer s; it would be considered as a fault of the author. Sidhwa is politically and historically biased towards Gandhi and Nehru; that s because of her patriotic feelings; while, a writer should try 141
to remain unbiased and impartial, as Pooja Singhal rightly observes: Ice- Candy-Man is a politically motivated novel. One finds references to the names of political leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawahar Lal Nehru, Lord Mountbatten, Subhash Chandra Bose and Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Here Bapsi Sidhwa does not treat Gandhi as a saint but as a clever politician... (149). On the religious level, Sidhwa has tried her best in showing a balanced involvement of both Sikhs and Muslims in partition riots and violence; the gunny-bags of Muslim women s breasts in the train from Gurdaspur, and the mass murder of Muslims in Pir Pindo are stark portrayal of the atrocities perpetrated by Sikhs; on the other side of the fence, abduction of Shanta, and murder of Masseur by Ice-candy-man and his colleagues are the example of Muslim barbarity and abomination: Ranna saw his uncles beheaded. His older brothers, his cousins. The Sikhs were among them like hairy vengeful demons, wielding bloodied swords, dragging them out as a sprinkling of Hindus, darting about at the fringes, their faces vaguely familiar, pointed out and identified the Mussulmans by name. He felt a blow cleave the back of his head and the warm flow of blood. Ranna fell just inside the door on a tangled pile of unrecognisable bodies. Someone fell on him, drenching him in blood. (Ice-Candy-Man 201) 142
A thrilling scene of Sikh rebels, moving in marauding bands of forty thousand people like swarms of locusts, is presented; they are shown killing all Muslims, setting fire, and looting their houses; the most disgusting act of theirs is parading the Muslim women naked through streets, rape and mutilation of the ladies in the open area of villages and even in mosques: The shouting and screaming from outside appeared to come in waves: receding and approaching. From all directions. Sometimes Ranna could make out the words and even whole sentences. He heard a woman cry, Do anything you want with me, but torment me...for God s sake, don t torture me! And then an intolerable screaming. Oh God! a man whispered on a sobbing intake of breath. Oh God, she is the mullah s daughter! The men covered their ears and the boys ears sobbing unaffectedly like little children (Ice- Candy-Man 200). Sidhwa draws another terrible scene when the monsoon carries hundreds of corpses; it exhibits on what large scale the slaughter was carried out; the scene catches the turmoil of Indian subcontinent during partition, and presents a lively glimpse into the events. Sidhwa has suggested two types of victims of this historical divide; the first are those who would prefer to be killed on their homeland instead 143
of being uprooted from their ancestral land; the second kind are those millions of people, who, though, had driven away themselves from their homeland, yet to uproot themselves from the soil of their ancestors had seemed to them akin to tearing themselves, like ancient trees, from the earth (Ice-Candy-Man 198). The previous kind of villagers are shown making preparations, girls and women would burn themselves, young men will engage the attackers in the fight and young boys will be locked in secluded back rooms, hoping to escape from detection; the whole context puts forth the deadly impact of the division; Rashmi Gaur in her article Treatment of Partition in Ice-Candy-Man declares it a grim historical reality, which not only stirred the soul of nation but also made the internal structure of society fragile, as per her viewpoint, the novel:...describes a society which has lost its courage, and therefore only crumbles away. It not only presents the barbaric details of atrocities perpetrated by one community over other, but also delineates various manifestations of pettiness and degenerated values which, like termite, had hallowed the inner structural strength of the society. Ice- Candy-Man narrates a society which has deflated chivalrous attitudes, encourages petty self-serving tendencies and indifferent tolerance of pogroms so long the self stays alive with a whole skin; a society which was given what it 144
deserved a sanguine and blood-curdling mindset, which made Partition of India a grim reality. (45) Lenny beholds a wound spot on the back of Ranna s head; this grisly scar that has acquired the shape of a four-day-old moon is the symbol of brutality being meted out to Muslims. Though, everybody is tortured and treated badly, yet women have been the worst sufferer of partition; through this, Sidhwa presents a feminine gaze-point of the divide. The narrator of the novel is a little Parsi girl suffering from polio due to which her world is confined; her eighteen-year-old home-maid, Shanta, is another victim of the calamity, who, despite having many friends and admirers of all races and faiths, is kidnapped and raped; Icecandy-man, her great admirer, gets her abducted, and drags her into the disgusting life of prostitution; the worst thing, of which she is shocked, is that her friends and acquaintances, which she keeps united until the communal lines get polarized, gratify their lust on her body; later on, Icecandy-man forces her to convert to Islam, and marries her forcibly but she has no love for him at all. Hamida, portrayed like a starved and grounded bird, is the third victim of men s atrocity, and represents those women who are abducted and raped, and then rejected by their families; similar incident in Azadi occurs, when Suraj Prakash is killed and his beloved Chandni is abducted by the Muslim marauders. In Cracking India, Shanta s lover is bumped off by Ice-candy-man; in Raj Gill s The 145
Rape, Dalipjit s beloved Leila, a Muslim girl, is raped by his father Ishar Singh; in Ashes and Petals by H.S. Gill, Ajit is not granted permission to marry a Muslim girl namely Salma; whatever be the reason, lovers, pertaining to different religions, don t get wedded: in Ice-Candy-Man, Shanta or Ayah (a Hindu girl) gets her lover Masseur (a Muslim) dead in a sack; in Azadi, Arun and Nur (Nurul Nisar), ardently in love, in spite of their different religions, might have got married, but with the outbreak of communal violence everything goes topsy-turvy. So, be the lover alive or dead, it is in fact the religion that prevents them to go down the aisle with each other; religion compels Ice-candy-man to bump Masseur off, and this is again (in Azadi) the ethnic parity that separates Arun and Nur, and above all, communal holocaust assigns the future of the characters. During the riots, Ice-candy-man gets the chance of killing Masseur; with rebels he abducts Shanta; due to the growing racial-rift, relationship of Arun-Nur goes to an incomplete end; even, Shanta and Ice-candy-man s marital life, a one-sided love, comes to an end; when Ayah or Shanta is sent to her parents across the Wagha border, Ice-candy-man too disappear after her; here, the border is symbolic that refers to the partition; in fact, the Radcliff line, whereof both the ones cross, shows that it is the drawn line that has pulled both apart. Thus, in almost all the events, it is the partition, somewhere in form of riots or communal violence, sometimes in the guise of dislocation of the families, and in some incidents as arson, 146