Chapter – V

The Partition and its Horrors in Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice-Candy-Man

This chapter would foray into Bapsi Sidhwa’s novel Ice Candy Man and

depict another facet of the horrendous experience of the Partition of India. Sidhwa is

currently a name to reckon with in the domain of fiction writing, since her works have

won international acclaim. While all the other novelists chosen for this study are

Indians, Sidhwa is a Pakistani. This work has been chosen since any study on

Partition, necessitates a study of works from the other side of the border too.

Sidhwa, lauded as Pakistan’s finest English novelist, was born on August 11

1938, to Peshotan and Tehmina Bhandara, in Karachi, in an undivided India. Sidhwa's

family practices the Zoroastrian religion which belongs to the Parsi ethnic

community. Her family moved to Lahore soon after Sidhwa's birth. She contracted

polio when she was two years old that paralyzed her leg and also had an effect on her

life. After studying for about one and a half years at the Karachi Mama Parsi School,

Sidhwa was left under the tutelage of a private tutor at home. As a lonely and solitary

child, she passed her time listening to the stories told by her servants.

On her 11th birthday, her tutor presented her a copy of Little Women (1868) by

Louisa May Alcott, thus introducing her to the world of books and literature. It was

the first book she read and it turned out to be the most influential reading of her

childhood. As a lonely child, Bapsi Sidhwa had no other alternative but to read

extensively. She started reading everything that she found - magazines, comics,

classics from different languages. Apart from Alcott, her reading of the works of

Charlotte Bronte, Daniel Defoe, P.G.Wodehouse, Charles Dickens, Khushwant Singh,

Emily Bronte, Enid Blyton, V.S. Naipaul and Tolstoy really influenced her writings.
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Her world was that of books. Her passion for reading shaped her as a writer. In an

interview, Sidhwa has stated to Kanaganayakam thus:

Even as she was eleven, she devoted her time reading books like Little

Women until she got married at the age of nineteen. She admits that she couldn't make

friends much as she belonged to a minority community in Lahore. She then had to

pass her time reading books voraciously which ultimately prompted and enabled her

to write. (cited in Amudha 12-13). From Kinnaird College for Women in Lahore,

Bapsi Sidhwa obtained a bachelor's degree in the year 1956. In 1957, at the age of

nineteen, she got married to an Indian Parsi from Bombay with whom she stayed for

five years, until she obtained a divorce and returned to Pakistan. In 1963 she married

Noshir Sidhwa, a businessman in Pakistan who was also a Zoroastrian. He was very

encouraging and helpful when she started to write. It was after her visit to the area of

Karakoram mountains in Pakistan along with her husband that she began her career as

a writer at the age of twenty six.

Bapsi Sidhwa served as a delegate to the Asian Women's Congress from

Pakistan held in 1975 in Russia. In 1983 she immigrated to the United States and

became a naturalized citizen of America in the year 1993. It is in the United States

that she started her career teaching creative writing at the University of Houston and

has since taught at both British and American universities, including Southampton

University, St.Thomas University, Mount Holyoke College, and Columbia University.

Bapsi Sidhwa held a Bunting fellowship in 1986 at Radcliffe/Harvard. She was a

scholar in 1991 at the Rockefeller Foundation in Italy. She was also the Fanny Hurst

writer-in-residence in 1998-99 at Brandeis University Massachusetts. The numerous

awards Bapsi Sidhwa received for her distinctive writing is a proof of her brilliance as
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a novelist. She was the recipient of Pakistan's highest national honor in the arts, the

Sitara-i-Imtiaz in 1991. She also received a variety of awards and grants for her

fiction, including a National Endowment for the Arts grant in 1987; Notable Book of

the Year award from New York Times Book Review for Cracking India (Ice-Candy-

Man) in 1991; the Liberaturere is from Germany in 1991; a Lila Wallace-Reader's

Digest award for her literary contributions in 1993; and Premio Mondello for Foreign

Authors in 2007. She served as a member of the advisory committee for former

Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on women's development. Sidhwa also won

the Sony Asia TV’s South Asian Excellence Award in 2008 for Literature for creating

an exclusive position in Asian-American Literature.

Bapsi Sidhwa wrote five novels and a collection of short stories. The Crow

Eaters was the first novel published by her in 1978 although it was written after The

Bride. The title, The Crow Eaters, indicates the Parsis’ commendable capability to

talk continually at the top of their voice like a congregation of crows. It is taken from

a native idiom that: “Anyone who talks too much is said to have eaten crows”. Her

native country Pakistan and her city Lahore form the background of The Crow Eaters.

The plot revolves around the fortunes of Faredoon Junglewalla, a Parsi man. The

novel focuses on his gradual rise to affluence and provides a glance into his migration

from central India to Lahore with Putli, his wife and Jerbanoo, his mother-in-law. The

novel is written in a comic mode celebrating the triumphs of a small community that

survived dislocation, relocated peacefully and flourished without losing its cultural

identity.

Bapsi Sidhwa’s second novel The Pakistani Bride published in 1983 deals

with one of the interesting subjects in feminist discourse, the subjugation of women in
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the patriarchal set-up. It depicts the story of a Pakistani girl named Zaitoon who is

married to a tribal man, near Karakoram mountains in Pakistan. The novel depicts the

pain, oppression and brutality that she undergoes, and the final self-discovery that she

achieves often prolonged pain.

Sidhwa's An American Brat published in 1993, is set in the United States of

America, the New World. It deals with the intercultural spaces, migration and re-

adjustment, that has assumed vital importance for the postcolonial novelists. The

novel deals with the story of Feroza, a young woman who journeys through three

cultures - her own Parsi culture, her country's Islamic culture of Pakistan, and the

United States, the western culture. It deals with the transformation that young Feroza

undergoes in the West and how her perception on life changes.

Sidhwa's novel Water published in 2006, based on the film of the same name

directed by Deepa Mehta, is set in India in 1938. The novel is the story of the life of

an eight year old child-bride Chuyia. After her fifty year old husband dies, she is

forsaken at a widows' ashram in Benaras where she is supposed to spend the rest of

her life in repentance. Reluctant to accept her fate, the child becomes an example for

change in the lives of the widows. The novel is about the Indian widows in 1930s and

how they survived in the widow houses. Water depicts the exploitation of women

particularly widows and how they are forcefully drawn into prostitution. In fact,

Water provides a fascinating study of the plight of the widows in British India.

Bapsi Sidhwa, like all good novelists, has elicited a variety of reactions with

her writings. She is known for her supple style, variety of themes, a sensitive

portrayal of characters, a keen perception and above all, her sense of humor. Her

works are exceptionally different from one another in both treatment and subject. One
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can find a wide range of subjects in her fiction like the Parsi milieu, the Partition

crisis, patterns of migration, the theme of marriage, expatriate experience, social

idiosyncrasies of the small minority community and women’s problems. Her

treatment of such varied disciplines and subjects is an evidence to her progress as a

remarkable and an impressive novelist who is both a loving and sharp observer of

human society and an effective teller of stories. New York Newsday observes that,

Bapsi Sidhwa is a world renowned writer with seamless talent and ability to endow

trivial domestic instances with universal drama and ascribing calamitous historical

events with profoundly felt personal meaning. (Cited in bapsisidhwa.com)

Ice-Candy-Man (1988) also known as Cracking India is the third novel of

Bapsi Sidhwa which contains several layers of connotative and inexplicable

interpretations. It is widely revered in Asia and abroad. In 1991 it received the

Notable Book of the Year award from New York Times Book Review. In the same

year it received Germany's Liberator Award, a prize given annually to a non-

European woman writer.

Ice-Candy-Man is Bapsi Sidhwa's most political novel, written on the theme of

Partition. It is also the first novel written from a Parsi perspective by a Parsi woman

on the theme of Partition. Bapsi Sidhwa, in fact, became a household name in India

when the novel Ice-Candy-Man was made into a successful film by noted director

Deepa Mehta under the title 1947: Earth. Though Partition is the major theme dealt in

her novels, Ice-Candy-Man offers a different look on Partition, national identity and

inter-communal relations, thereby revealing the other reality of independence.

Philadelphia Inquirer states that:

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A lot has been said and written regarding the holocaust that

took place in the aftermath of the Partition of the Indian

sub-continent that was made in 1947. But, no writer has

described this story so horrifyingly, touchingly and

convincingly as the novelist, Bapsi Sidhwa has. (cited in

milkweed.org).

Ice-Candy-Man, like the other Partition novels, portrays the horrible details of

brutality, human loss and displacement. It depicts the change in attitudes between the

Muslims on the one side and the Sikhs and Hindus on the other, the rising communal

tension, the increasing violence and bloodshed between these communities, and also

describes the fate of abducted women in a sympathetic manner. In her article titled

“Treatment of Partition in Ice-Candy-Man” Rashmi Gaur says:

This work throws light on not only the bestial accounts of

abominations inflicted by one community over the other

but also describes various other manifestations of their

malice, envy, wrath, insanity and their degenerated values.

Ice-Candy-Man describes a society which has weakened

gallant tendencies, promotes undesirable self-servicing

attitudes and indiscriminate practice of massacres. A

society was offered what it deserved a sanguine and blood-

curdling mindset that attributed a ghastly experience to the

Partition of India. (45)

In 1947, during the time of Partition, Sidhwa was just eight year old and was a

first hand witness to the turmoil. Recalling the terrifying experience of those days,
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Sidhwa tells Feroza Jussawalla how the moment of Partition had left deep

psychological marks on her memory/psyche:

A part of my memory was occupied with the scenes and the

ceaseless fires that overshadowed the city Lahore. The sky

turned red with the blood of the people that were shot dead.

She says it was a rather appalling sight. The roaring of

slogans was extremely terrific to her ears. She goes on

recalling that there was a threat to her family and friends as

there was a frightening noise everywhere around them. She

attributes her decision to write a story of Partition to these

emotions and images that haunted her from her mind

during the Partition. (Singh 37-38).

Sidhwa in Ice-Candy-Man narrates the horrors of Partition which inexorably

divided families, friends, lovers and neighbors. She being a Parsi, excludes herself

from the major communities: the Hindus, Sikhs and Muslim. The outsider position

bestows her with a certain objectivity.

In Ice-Candy-Man Bapsi Sidhwa deploys a narrator to tell the tale. A

precocious eight year old child, Lenny, tells the story of her changing world with

curiosity and elegance. With the wonder of a child, she perceives human behavior and

social change, seeking and listening to ideas and thoughts of the others and at times

making judgments. Thus efficiently using the character of a child narrator and a

chronicler, Sidhwa displays the rapidly changing socio-political experiences of the

sub-continent before the event of Partition. Commenting on the child narrator Novy

Kapadia in "Communal Frenzy and Partition: Bapsi Sidhwa, Attia Hosain and Amitav
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Ghosh" remarks that the child narrator is akin to the narrator in Chaucer's Prologue.

The persona of Lenny is what Chaucer adopts to the Canterbury Tales, offering

integrity and reliability with the reader's consciousness being taken into

consideration. As the child often exhibits its wonders, she finds a social change and

human behaviour. She becomes adept at listening to others, evaluating other's words,

taking everybody's opinions and thereby passing her judgements. The analogy

between her childish innocence and the Chaucer's persona is clearly noticeable. It's

indeed a source of pungent irony. (77).

The comparison with Chaucer is indeed a tribute, since it simultaneously

endures the narrator with an apt story-telling capacity and a subtly loaded sense of

irony. Lenny narrates the trauma of Partition through her memories with a touch of

humour, allegory and parody, illustrating how neighbours and friends become

powerless and inefficient while faced with the fury of the mob.

The novel Ice-Candy-Man is set in Lahore and probes the period from 1943 to

1948. When the novel opens, Lenny, is just a four-year-old child. Her right leg is

affected with polio (much like the novelist) and she is pampered by everyone

everywhere. She has a brother named Adi, who is one year younger than Lenny.

Lenny lives in a big house in Lahore, on Warris Road, with her well-to-do parents, her

younger brother Adi and a large staff of servants. Owing to her physical deformity,

Lenny is always accompanied by her eighteen-year-old Ayah, Shanta. She takes

Lenny out to the Queen’s Park, to the Zoo, to her Godmother’s and electric-aunt’s

house on the Jail Road. Lenny is intimate with her Godmother and loves visiting her

most. She is shown as Lenny's refuge and haven, a pillar of courage and strength and

seat of love and support, and offers matchless comfort with her immense confidence
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and docility. Lenny's bond with her Godmother is strong, a source of strength and

succor: She describes her affection in the following words thus: “She sits by my bed

stroking me, smiling, her eyes twinkling concern, in her grey going-out sari, its pretty

border of butterflies pinned to iron strands of scant combed-back hair. The intensity of

her tenderness and the concentration of her attention are narcotic. I require no one

else.”(8)

Bapsi Sidhwa in Ice-Candy-Man contends, that the pre-partition days were

one of harmonious unity, where different communities and religions lived culturally,

religiously and socially in peace and harmony. She also shows that the Hindus and the

Muslims could even fall in love with each other and inter marry. Shanta, Ayah by

profession and a Hindu girl, is beautiful and draws covetous glimpses from everyone

around her. As she passes, the cooks, hawkers, holy men, cyclists, cart-drivers,

beggars and coolies turn their heads and ogle at her. However, the real coterie of her

admirers and friends consist of the Muslim protagonist, Ice Candy Man, Sikh Zoo

attendant Sher Singh, a knife-sharpener Sharbat Khan, Hari the Government

House gardener, Imam Din, Masseur, Ramzana the butcher, the Falettis Hotel cook,

restaurant-wrestler and a Chinaman. They are people belonging to different

communities – Muslim, Sikh, Hindu – yet live together cordially and harmoniously in

pre-Partition India. Of these, Ice Candy Man and Masseur are Ayah’s most favourite

admirers. But the condition post partition, turn nightmarish.

Nightmares are an important technique in Ice-Candy-Man. Since it is used

cleverly by the novelist to depict the trauma of the Partition. In her first nightmare

Lenny faces a German soldier "who appears to be getting her (Lenny) on his

motorcycle"(22). Yet in another nightmare that Lenny remembers from her childhood
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days which is more significant and indicative is that "there are some men in uniforms

that unobtrusively catch children and chop off their arms and legs" (22). Another

nightmare that she has is that of a lion escaping from the zoo and merciless, mangling

her "with a hungry lion feeding on fresh flesh across Lawrence road to Bird wood

road. He's poised to lurch to the bedroom door from the back of the house. She further

dreams of this very lion springing on her and tearing off her stomach. Even worse is

the impact of this dream that she stays awake every morning to the roar of the lion

that is promptly awaiting her to wake up to shatter her dreams."(23-24)

The hungry lion that is seen at the break of dawn seems to be an image of

bloodshed, communal hatred and riots that the dawn of India’s freedom released to

cause disaster in the lives of the Sikhs, the Hindus and the Muslims on either sides of

the border. This haunting image is somewhat akin to the grotesque image in Yeats’

poem Second Coming. With these nightmares, the author gears up the reader for the

ghastly and horrific communal strife that becomes apparent during the time of

Partition. She feels benumbed with acute pain.

During the time of Partition, the people belonging to the Parsi community had

the privilege of detachment from any of the disputes which incited the other

communities. The e community resolved not to be entangled in the conflict not only

because of its status as a marginal group, but also because they feared the Partition of

the Indian sub-continent, and were in a dilemma as to which community they should

defend. The Parsis in Lahore express their opinions freely on the existing political

conditions in the sub-continent at the Jashan prayer meeting. A person suggests that

they should join the political movement, march to jail and relish the comforts of free

board and lodging intended for the class prisoners. The president of the Parsi
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community and a doctor by profession, Col. Barucha, cautions against joining the

fight for power:

.... the struggle for Home Rule has now turned a struggle

for power. He emphasizes the fact that once they achieve

Swaraj it's not the Hindus, Muslims nor the Sikhs that are

going to jockey for power. He further warns them not to

jump into the middle of the struggle as jokers for they will

be mangled into chutney. (36).

Dr. Manek Mody another character in the novel, however feels it necessary to

join the freedom movement, He says, "He says that how they can remain uninvolved

while others are striving for freedom. He opines that their neighbours might feel that

these people are betraying them and siding with the English"(37). Col. Bharucha

requests them not to acquire any resentment against any community. He also states

that they will cast their lot with whoever rules Lahore:

Let whoever wants to rule India, be it Hindus, Muslims,

Sikhs or Christians, they will be loyal to them and abide by

the rules of their land. He firmly assures them that they

need not fear as long as they do not interfere in these

issues. He further urges them to continue to respect the

customs of their rulers as they have always done. He

appears optimistic when he says that Ahura Mazda, who

has looked after them for thirteen hundred years, will look

after them for another thirteen hundred. (39).

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The dilemma and anguish can be seen when some Parsis in Lahore express

their concern about staying back in Lahore after Partition while the others wish to

migrate to either Bombay or to London. The final decision is one of compromise and

adaptableness, ruling out the wishes to either migrate to London or Bombay. Col.

Bharucha says: "They will literally prosper there itself provided they conduct their

lives quietly and cause no threat to anyone."(40)

The neutral attitude of the Parsis towards Partition and Independence emerges

at the Jashan prayer meeting which is meant to celebrate the victory of the British in

the Second World War. This policy proves to be very helpful. While the Parsi

community lived in harmony and concordance with the Muslims, the other

communities, the Sikhs and the Hindus, were extirpated from their homes and were

exposed to atrocities. In an interview with Feroza Jussawalla, Sidhwa admitted:

Parsis were always ahead to the best of the things.

Wherever they are they feel loyal to the country they

belong to. If they belonged to India, they would become

“patriotic Indians”. Those that were left in Pakistan stayed

“loyal” to their country. It's their little “minority status”

that makes them adapt to whichever country they belong to

and live among others notwithstanding their colour, creed

and culture. (qtd in Luther 82).

Lenny experiences and comprehends the existing communal harmony and

cordiality in rural India on her first visit to Pir Pindo, forty miles east of Lahore. She

has her first experience of country life in Pir Pindo. The village with its close to earth

dwelling- which Lenny views in contrast to her "elevated world of chairs, tables and
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toilet seats"(58) - and the simplicity of ploughing and virtual hand-to-mouth

existence, is not however immune to the toxic political scenario. She finds the

Muslims and Sikhs of Pirpindo and Deratak Singh villages sitting together and

sharing their concern about the mounting Hindu- Muslim riots. When Lenny’s family

cook Imam Din and a townsman raises the issue of Muslim and Sikh discord for

discussion, the villagers, both Muslim and Sikh, flare up in protest. After the

combustion settles down, Jagjeet Singh, the Sikh granthi responds addressing them as

brothers that their villages emerge from the same racial background. He says that

irrespective of their being Muslims or Sikhs they are fundamentally Jats. He wonders

how they can fight each other being brothers. (56)

Chaudhary of Pir Pindo endorses the opinions of Jagjeet Singh and says:

Their relationship with the Hindus are bound by strong ties.

The people living in cities might afford to fight while they

visually can't as they are interdependent on each other and

are bound by their toil. He claims that Banyas, the city

Hindus, are their common enemy. For them, he says, it

doesn’t matter if a person is a Muslim, Sikh, or a Hindu.

(56-57)

Their affirmation of love and affection for each other relieves Imam Din’s

anxieties and states that they are right and the madness of religion can never infect

their villages.

The Sikh granthi in order to make him feel even more confident says: they

would together protect their Muslim brothers with their lives, if need be (56). The

Muslim Chaudhary asserts he's ready to promise “on the Holy Kuran” that every
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Muslim in the village will safeguard their Sikh brothers regardless of their own lives

(56-57). The Mullah in a delicate voice appeases them saying they don’t need to take

oaths to fulfill their duty. (57).

Thus their words and reactions maintain the fact that the far remote communal

unrest cannot disrupt the harmony that exists among the different religious groups of

the peasants in the villages. Indeed, the roots of communal peace and harmony in the

villages of Punjab is deep-seated that the people of both the communities are ever

ready to sacrifice their lives for safeguarding each other. But despite such peaceful

coexistence, the waves of dissent and the ugly tide of hatred soon overwhelms them.

The once peaceful village is now ravaged by bloodshed and violence. Sidhwa traces

the gradual emergence of the hatred thus as the novel progresses.

Lenny's parents frequently entertain guests not only from their Parsi

community but from the Sikh, Hindu and British communities as well. One day they

invite the police inspector, Mr. Rogers, their neighbour Mr. Singh, and their families

to dinner. The adverse impact of the impending Partition is clearly visible in the

heated discussion between the family members of Lenny and the guests.

When Lenny’s father asserts that there was no any sort of trouble until the

British arrived in India, their conversation deviates to politics. Singh asks Rogers to

leave India. Rogers immediately says that there would be violence and bloodshed

everywhere the minute the British quits India because all Indians will tear one

another’s throats. Further, Singh alleges that the British is following the “divide-and-

rule”(63) policy and says the British always try to engender violence by turning one

against the other. Their impassioned discussion turns violent when Rogers bursts out,

the Sikhs are the bloody slaughtering radicals! In sheer anger, Singh takes the fork
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and attempts to pierce his eyes. Lenny’s father immediately grabs the fork and rescues

Mr. Rogers. At that moment, Lenny's father cracks some jokes to subside the heated

discussion. This incident reveals the fact that hostility emerges at the slightest

provocation.

With the imminence of Partition, the Queen's Park which once stood as an

image of unity, now displays a sight of different communities gradually keeping away

from one another's company. The emotions run high even when people belonging to

various religious groups converse and talk with each other. A reference to Nehru,

Patel and Gandhi’s impact in London provokes Masseur to retort angrily that they

have sacked Wavell Sahib who's a fair man. He then says that a new Lat Sahib be sent

for, who will favour the Hindus.(90). The Ice Candy Man comments that this is not

rather astonishing and asks the gardener referring to the Hindus whether they aren't

adept at just this kind of thing “... twisting tails behind the scene...” and getting

somebody else to slay their goats.(91).

The government house gardener Hari, makes an effort to cool the passions

saying that the British is to be held responsible or the discord between the Muslims

and the Hindus: It is the mischief plotted by the English. He calls them “past masters

at intrigue” (92) who have been incurring their wrath to the point where they can no

longer stand their atrocities. He further prompts them to fight the English in due

course. Not agreeing with the views of the gardener, the butcher blatantly and

rhetorically says:

It was not the Hindus that had conspired with the English to

ignore the League and support a party that hadn't won a

single seat in the Punjab? He says it's just an unnecessary

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fear they have. He further alleges that the Hindus have

influenced and plotted few Muslims “against the interests

of the larger community.” Likewise now they have

contrived Master Tara Singh and other Sikhs. (92).

Ayah stands up and shouts that she won’t come to the park here after if they

all continue to talk about Hindu Muslim business. Her enchanting words can be seen

more powerful than religious and communal belongingness as it ends the dispute, and

this can be seen when the Ice Candy Man says that such talk makes the atmosphere

clear. However, “for your sake,” (92) he asserts we will not bring the subject for

discussion again. The atmosphere becomes more depraved and vociferous rather than

pleasant. Sidhwa thus shows the gradual advent of the communal strife in India.

Everywhere there is some rumour of India about to be divided. There is a

Continuous reference to the national leaders like Nehru, Tara Singh, Gandhi, Patel,

Jinnah, Mountbatten and Iqbal. Lenny learns that India is going to be divided, and

remains perplexed with a battery of unanswered question,

Can someone really break a country and what happens if

it's broken where they have their house. She wants to know

how she could ever get to Godmother's then. (92).

Ayah, considering India to be a canal, she says that if it's divided, one side will

be Hindustan and the other side, Pakistan. She goes on saying that if they really want

to have two countries, they will have to crack India with a long canal. (93). Lenny’s

innocent questions thus rightly convey the human loss in partition. Lenny wonders

how she will be able to see Godmother again. This is something shared by many in

India and Pakistan, whose families and other kin live across the border.
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Though Lenny is perplexed at the news that India is going to be cracked, she

simultaneously becomes aware of religious differences. She worriedly remarks,

It all happens suddenly. In the beginning everybody feels

they are all. Later on they being to isolate themselves

labelling Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians. In the name

of symbols, people are shrinking. Even the addressing words

such as Ayah have come to be meant for a token of a Hindu.

(93).

The Partition is not an ordinary historical event. It presents steeping changes

in the Indian socio-cultural and political fabric.

The caste and communal differences having popped up, Lenny notices a

change in the behaviour of the people around her. Ayah, who was very frugal starts

visiting temples and spending some wealth on flowers, joss-sticks and sweets and

offers to the gods and goddesses in the temples. Imam Din and Yousaf become

religious fanatics and warn mother that they would go for the Jumha Prayers on

Friday afternoons. Moti and his wife Muccho, Papoo, their daughter, become more

and more untouchable because they are deep-rooted in their Hindu caste. The

Daulatrams and Sharmas enunciate that they are Brahmins, although Lenny sees them

as "dehumanised by their lofty caste and caste-marks."(93). Even the English

Christians get infected and consider Anglo-Indians inferior and the Anglo-Indians

consider themselves superior to the Indian Christians, who in turn regard all non-

Christians with a supercilious air. Lenny realises that the Parsis being a small

community, are condensed to inappropriate nomenclatures.

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Though the communal violence divide the people in Lahore, Ayah’s presence

is safe and unifying. Lenny observes that the people of different religions, the Sikhs,

the Muslims and Brahmins cluster around in their own groups. But only the people

around Ayah, who belong to different communities Parsi, Sikh, Muslim, Hindu,

remain, as always, unified and unaffected around her. Ayah’s distinctive impact and

power enables her to bring together people belonging to different professions,

ethnicities and communities thus unifying the multiple faiths, and ushering religious

harmony in tempestuous times. But even that proves fragile given the volatile times in

which the novel has been set against.

The historico-cultural changes that the Partition had ensured has been vividly

depicted by Sidhwa. The events which follow are also described in a detailed manner.

Post-partition, human relationships remain severed. Sidhwa uses Lenny’s visit to her

village a year later, to depict the altered human relationships.

Lenny accompanies Imam Din to Pir Pindo. On the occasion of Baisakhi,

Lenny also accompanies the family members of Imam Din to Dera Tek Singh, the

Sikh village. They realise that the festival is in its full activity as they reach the

village. While the children are enjoying dainty dishes and riding the merry-go-rounds,

the adults are singing and dancing. It is in the midst of these celebrations that the

small boy Ranna perceives an ambiance of anxiety, sadness, fear and suspicion.

Sidhwa captures this feeling with a photographic realism thus:

Inspite of there being the glee and disturbances, Ranna

perceives the chill pervaded by the presence of strangers

with their unprecedented harsh and cold faces. There was a

Sikh who Ranna had met a few times before and who had
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always been kind. He went about as though he hadn't

noticed Ranna. Even others who, upon noticing Ranna,

would naturally smile at and greet him, slid their eyes past.

His smile gradually withered away and his laughter

strident. It all happened little by little even without his

knowledge. (106).

The changing emotions are reflective of their gradually changing attitudes.

Ranna’s father also observes the presence of the outsiders with staves and long

Kirpans. When he visits Jagjeet Singh, the Sikh granthi in the afternoon, he learns

from him that they are Akalis. The Sikh granthi himself is frustrated at their arrival in

their village but he remains helpless. Moving closer to Ranna’s father, Dost

Mohammad, he explains their evil plan of dividing Punjab:

They are plotting to drive the Muslims out of East Punjab and

to divide the Punjab unscrupulously. The Sikhs are learnt to

have decided not to live with the Muslims if at all there is a

need to be a Pakistan. He says that it's a owlish talk. He further

calls them troublemakers. He then cautions them to look out till

this evil blows are over. (107)

Thus the pattern of communal peace and harmony between Lenny’s first and

second visit to the village, Pir Pindo are worlds apart. During her first visit to the

village, the Muslims and the Sikhs have promised to save each other from any

trespassers. But during her second visit, that fervor and zeal has disappeared in the

heat of the carnage and bloodshed that the Akalis extend for anyone who comes in the
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way of their determination. The pattern of cordiality, harmony and amity has been

substituted by the pattern of terror and distrust between the two communities.

As the British prepare to leave, the people around Ayah gather rarely at the

Queen’s park and more frequently at the wrestler’s restaurant, symbolic of the ring of

the fight that the Partition of the country is going to invoke on the borders of Pakistan

and India. It is at this juncture that Ayah’s admirers meet at the wrestler’s restaurant

and argue over the talk of Partition which is very much in the air. Masseur says that if

the Punjab is to be divided, Lahore is invariably bound to be part of Pakistan. He

claims that there is a lot of Muslim majority there in Pakistan. However, the

Government house gardener Hari, as a Hindu, argues that Lahore will continue to stay

in India as "There is too much Hindu money here,” “They own most of the property

and business in the city" (129). Masseur contends that due to a majority of Muslims,

Lahore shall remain in Pakistan. "there are too many Mussulmans!”(129).

Sher Singh, the Sikh zoo attendant also argues on behalf of the Sikh peasants

and shouts demanding their rights. He contends that the Sikhs possess more land in

Punjab than both the Muslims and the Hindus put together. Masseur suggests Sher

Singh that it would be better for the Sikhs to be united as one country instead of being

split up into two halves and losing their “clout in either place," (129). Sher Singh, like

the lion in his name, grows furious and in an offensive tone, lashes out, warning them

not to panic about their “clout” and he says that they can look out for themselves. He

further remarks that they will “feel their clout” all right (129) in the course of time.

Troubled at the verbal skirmishes among hitherto allies and fellow admirers of Ayah,-

the butcher and the masseur; the gardener, Sher Singh and the wrestler, Lenny says
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that she closes her eyes and can’t bear to open them because they would open on a

"suddenly changed world."(129)

The pattern, of religious unity and peaceful co-existence that was eminent

before Partition has been replaced by the pattern of communal hatred, mutual distrust,

suspicion, frenzy and fear. Everybody begin to lose their personal identity as they

cram into a narrow religious slot. It is in such ambience surcharged with communal

emotions that Tara Singh, the Akali leader, pays a visit to Lahore. Speaking in a huge

rally outside the assembly chambers, he bursts out referring to the Muslims as Muslim

swine and challenges them to get Pakistan. He says that they're inclined to fight the

last man. He further says that he knows how to deal with those willing to leave

Lahore. (133-134). His speech is welcomed with the slogans, "Pakistan Murdabad! ...

... Bolay se nihaal!" (134)

The venomous speech of Master Tara Singh invites more hatred, resentment,

and wrath from the Muslim community. After listening to his speech, the infuriated

Muslims make a rallying cry: "So? We’ll play Holi-with-their-blood!” (134). The

speech is significant owing to the violence embedded in the talk. Lenny watches

Gowalmandi, Mochi Darwaza, Lahori Gate and Delhi Gate set on fire from the top of

Ice Candy Man’s dwelling in Bhatti Gate. She then looks down and notices a mob of

Sikhs chasing English soldiers, which is a terrifying sight indeed.

Then a gang of Muslim fanatics appear. They strike down a lean man and

forcefully tie his legs to two jeeps. As the vehicles move forward, his body is torn into

pieces. Horror-struck Ayah, covers the child’s eyes, flops on the floor and drags

Lenny down with her. However, in the face of Ice Candy Man, the muscles get tight

with excitement. When a Hindu locality, Shalmi is set on fire, the people belonging to
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Muslim community on their roof-tops laugh and hug one another and pat each other’s

hands. Burnt bodies and scorched limbs fall from the roof-tops. But for the Ice Candy

Man, it is nothing but a funny incident.

But Lenny is deeply disturbed by the happenings around her. She fears that

even she would be a prey to the flames. Bapsi Sidhwa significantly uses memory as

both a technique and theme to depict the state of shambles to which the place has been

reduced. She wonders how long the city burns: "Mozang Chawk burns for months . . .

and months... Despite its brick and mortar construction"; "steel girders" and the

solidity of its irregular high-low "terraces"; the remains of "passion and regret"; the

broken dreams; wrecked lives; hidden gold; "loss of those who have in panic fled";

"bricked-in rupees"; concealed jewellery; lasting hopes, it is still afresh in (Lenny’s)

memory "over an inordinate length of time" for it "demands poetic license". (139)

Memory is an important device. It is a deep psychological reality that affects

time-consciousness. In memory, events may be expanded or contracted. Here, when

the characters are experiencing states of emotional intensity, the unceasing agony

imparts horrific reminiscences of the same. Finally, when the borders are drawn,

Pathankot and Amritsar go to India, while Lahore and Sialkot go to Pakistan. Lenny

says, "I am Pakistani. In a snap. Just like that."(140). As borders are created to crack

India, communal hatred and frenzy shakes the two sides and cartographical division

leads to the division in soul of the people. Both sides get their staves, knives, axes,

choppers, scythes and daggers sharpened. Sharbat Khan, the knife sharpener, tells

Ayah that he never thought there were loads of knives and daggers in Lahore.

Venomous rumors add fuel to the fire of religious hatred and frenzy.

Suddenly, while the Government House gardener, Hari, Sher Singh and Masseur sit
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on Shankar’s verandah at the back side of Lenny’s house and listen to the news on the

radio, the Ice Candy Man comes breathless in sweat and dust on cycle to announce the

worst outcome of these communal riots:

A train has arrived with massacred Muslims from

Gurdaspur. However, among the dead, there are no young

women but "only two bags full of women’s breasts!" (149)

(emphasis mine)

Bapsi Sidhwa here draws specific attention to the gendered aspect of the

event. The women are the worst-affected since they are doubly victimized by the

enemies both psychologically and sexually.

This act of terror and bloodshed against Muslim women provokes him to

perpetrate atrocities on Sikh and Hindu women. He exclaims that when he thinks of

the brutally massacred bodies on that train from Gurdaspur, he loses his senses. He

further says that night he had gone mad. He hated their guts and would have thrown

grenades through the windows of Sikhs and Hindus that he had known all his life.

"For each of the breast they cut off the Muslim women", he shouts that he wanted "to

kill someone!"(156).

As Hindus and Sikhs in Pakistan are ransacked, looted and brutally killed, the

lucky ones flee to the other side of the border, in search of safety. Sher Singh, the zoo

attendant runs away from Lahore after his brother-in-law is killed. The Government

House gardener moves to Delhi where he has already sent the members of his family.

Rahul Singh’s family is accompanied to a convoy leading to Amritsar. The cook of

Falettis Hotel flees from Lahore. Likewise the family of Prakash move to Delhi. The

life of the students of King Edward’s Medical College gets disturbed. In Lenny’s
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neighbourhood, Mr. and Mrs. Singh leave with their two children and a few

belongings. Kirpa Ram, The money lender runs away leaving his wealth behind. The

middle class families also like the Shankar’s leave hastily. Still others who opt to stay

back convert their religions to secure safety. In Lenny’s household, Hari converts to

Islam and changes his name to Himat Ali. To prove his new Muslim identity, he has

to go through circumcision. Moti changes his name to David-Masih because he and

his family members get converted to Christianity in order to survive the attacks of

religious hooligans.

Thus, of all Lenny’s relationships and friends it is only Ayah, who still lives in

Lahore. She also wishes to go to Amritsar where her family resides. However,

Masseur whom she loves, doesn’t allow her to go saying that he is there to guard her

against any danger and tells that no one would dare to "touch a hair on your (Ayah’s)

head.... You know I (Masseur) worship you..."(158).

Not much later, Lenny on her way home with Hari – alias Himat Ali,

discovers a mutilated body in a gunny sack. They are shocked on finding that Masseur

has been murdered most probably by the Ice Candy Man:

The swollen gunny-sack" was found in their way.. It slowly

tumbles over and Masseur falls out – half on the dust, half

on the coarse tar... A block of flesh was neatly chopped off

his “waist,” and his “spine", in a velvet container, almost

“dipped into his lungi” ... they stare at him as if he is a lump

of flesh, and not as a person. After all, his body is reduced to

a thing. (175)
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Ayah is utterly dazed at the news of Masseur's death. She then avoids meeting

visitors. She now relies on no one. With Lenny, she goes to all those places she and

Masseur frequently visited. Without their knowledge, the Ice Candy Man follows

them everywhere.

Later, the Ice Candy Man joins a mob of Muslim men to loot the abandoned

houses, and also to destroy the name plates on the gates of Sikhs and Hindus living in

Lahore. One day they come to Lenny's house, looking for Hindu Ayah. Lenny’s

mother and their servants stand solidly before the mob, stating that Ayah has already

left Lahore. They enquire about Moti and Hari but they are upset to know that Moti

has been converted to a Christian and Hari is circumcised and also converted into a

Muslim. Then a person inquires about the Hindu Ayah. Imam Din, their cook, lies to

them saying that she left for India. They demand him to promise before Allah and he

without any hesitation takes an oath and Imam Din says, in the name of Allah she has

gone.

The Ice Candy Man unexpectedly appears on the scene. He persuades Lenny

to tell the truth about the whereabouts of Ayah and gets her convincingly carried

away. She naively reveals the truth regarding Ayah's presence in the house that

subsequently leads to her abduction. Through Lenny’s eyes Sidhwa narrates the most

barbarous and brutal scene of Ayah’s abduction:

They drag Ayah out; her arms stretched tight; her bare feet;

lips drawn from her teeth; her violet sari slipping off her

shoulder; breasts straining at her sari-blouse; and sleeve

tears under her arm. She is dragged to the cart carelessly

almost like an object with their rough hands. Four men

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stand against her, supporting her body and their "lips

stretched in triumphant grimaces". (183)

Later, the guilt-ridden and repentant child Lenny understands that honesty is

not always the best policy and punishes her truth infected tongue. Ayah’s abduction

reveals her naivety falling a prey to the cruel world around her. Lenny holds herself

responsible for the abduction of Ayah.

After kidnapping, Ayah is gang-raped and then taken to Hira Mandi and is

forcibly pressed into prostitution in the red-light area of Lahore. Further, she is also

made to work as a dancing girl. Let alone innumerable drunkards, coolies, goondas,

peddlers and merchants she is sexually abused even by the Ice Candy Man, the

Butcher and Imam Din whom Ayah always considered them as her friends. The Ice

Candy Man re-names her as Mumtaz and marries her after three months.

The story of the abduction of Ayah which stems from a true incident reflects

the lives of thousands of women during Partition. In her interview to Chelva

Kanaganayagam, Sidhwa says, “The scene where the people ride into the house to

kidnap Ayah did happen in real life, although I have fictionalized it” (qtd in

Amudha 121).

Ayah is a remarkable character who becomes a prey to religious

fundamentalism. Her character symbolizes those women who had to encounter

numerous atrocities during the days of Partition. The women were not only gang-

raped, but also exposed to the utmost humiliation, disgrace and indignity. Ayah is just

an example of thousands of abducted and cruelly abused women during one of the

most callous chapters in the history of the country. Sidhwa thus highlights the

multiple forms of violence inflicted on women. Physical violence on women was

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perpetrated during Partition. The novel realistically portrays the struggle and misery

of the women of an entire village, raped and killed. Defilement of a woman's body

became an expression of the victory and intimidation of one community over another.

During the tragic history of the Partition, even children were subject to

immense violence. Sidhwa’s work has focused on this facet of the disaster through

the characters of Lenny and Ranna as well. In her childhood times, Lenny witnesses a

Sikh gang burning buildings, attacking the streets and clashing with the Muslims. She

witnesses a man tied to several vehicles and then cruelly pulled apar. Lenny’s eyes

concentrate on a lean "Banya wearing a white Gandhi cap.” He is pushed down. The

men on the street move back and in the small area, his legs thin and brown, "sticking

out of his dhoti right up to the groin" – are "tied to the jeep."(135). Lenny's young

mind is unable to fathom the violence meted out to the old Banya. On reaching home,

helpless and confused Lenny expresses her anger and annoyance by torturing her doll.

She tears the legs of her doll. As they come off without any difficulty, she repeats the

violence on another doll.

Lenny’s seeming act of violence is indeed symptomatic of the psychosomatic

agony that the characters undergo on account of the Partition. Not only has the event

disrupted human relationships, but it has also devastated the psyche of the victims

often leading them to commit meaningless acts of violence. Lenny, finally collapses

on the bed weeping. Enraged by her meaningless brutality, Adi asks her, if she could

not bear to see such violence why was she so cruel.

Adi fails to comprehend the fact that his sister is inflicting her psychic pain on

a supposed physical body and that she is only re-enacting the scene she witnessed

earlier in the street. Lenny‘s re-enactments reveal her utter bewilderment and
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disenchantment with the world around her. Lenny’s vicious act is a pertinent allegory

on the tragedy of Partition.

Bapsi Sidhwa also skillfully presents the psychological effect of the tragedy of

Partition on the lives of ordinary people. It deforms the lives of people and gives way

to distrust, suspicion and susceptibility to rumours. Sidhwa symbolizes this in the

children, Lenny, her cousin and Adi who suspect in their mother’s seemingly

surreptitious activities during the bloodshed of the Partition. Aunt Minnie and

Lenny’s mother, Mrs. Sethi travel all over Lahore in the car carrying out secretive

rescue operations. However, their children aren’t allowed to accompany them.

Shocked at the activities of their mothers, Lenny and her cousin suspect that they are

behind the arson and attacks in Lahore. Ayah adds fuel to the children’s suspicions

when she tells that the dickey is full of petrol cans. The three children naively believe

it and let their imagination run wild. Finally, the children come to the same

assumption: 'We' (Lenny, Adi and Lenny's Cousin) come to the conclusion that their

"mothers are setting fire to Lahore!" Furthermore, Lenny worries that this act may get

them arrested. (173).

Lenny also deplores the sad fact that even children are not permitted to mingle

with each other. When she goes to play with a group of children belonging to the Sikh

community in the Queens Park, Masseur accompanies her and pulls her away. People

have become so isolated that some burkha-clad women enquire Lenny about her

religion. When she says "I’m Parsi," (96) they express their astonishment to discover

a religion they have never heard of: "O kee? What’s that?"(96). These experiences are

just few examples of what was happening before the event of Partition in the sub-
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continent. Lenny‘s delicate mind is appalled to witness such inhumane acts that

trigger her to states of psychological horror.

Ranna‘s confrontations in the village of Pir Pindo involve considerable

psychological and physical suffering. Ranna, a small and naive boy, is thrown into a

world where he is an alien to vehemence and cruelty. He remembers the death of his

father before his eyes and recollects every point of the murder, the blood, his bodily

actions and his head - a ghastly scene that he will remember forever. Ranna is also a

witness to the carnages perpetrated on the strangers on his way to Pakistan. Men and

women, young and old are all subject to torture. Most importantly, he sees the

newborn babies being “snatched from their mothers” and “smashed against walls” and

he is also a witness to their mothers being “brutally raped and killed.” (207).

Ranna's village Pir Pindo is shocked to see a huge gang of Sikhs, perhaps

coming to retaliate the killings in their own village, and after the attack he is most

likely to be the only survivor. The people of the village hear the girls and women

crying of the sorrow and horror before they themselves are massacred by the mob.

Ranna lies hidden beneath the dead bodies of the men and boys of his family for hours

and when he wakes up he witnesses the grotesque scenes of violence on women.

The carnage and butchery in the village described by a small boy Ranna

displays probably the ugliest side of the adult nature which disturbs the reader.

Ranna‘s wounds would get cured, but the marks left behind will persistently remind

him the dangerous day when his near and dear ones were taken away from him. Every

act of inhumanity and brutality that he is a witness to is engraved on his mind forever.

Sidhwa Thus depicts a comprehensive account of the physical and psychological

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pains that the naive and innocent children experience at the hands of the harsh and

brutal world around them.

Sidhwa’s Ice-Candy-Man also presents some remarks on political leaders. She

has presented the Pakistani standpoint concerning these people and almost all the

Indian political leaders are either satirised or portrayed in a prejudiced manner. She

confesses that Ice-Candy-Man is a politically motivated novel in a conversation with

David Montenegro. The main motivation had actually stemmed from her reading

extensively the literature concerning partition of India and Pakistan written by the

British and Indians. The accounts seemed biased. After having extensively researched

these books, she concludes saying that they have always "been unfair to the

Pakistanis." Not just being "a writer" but "a human being," nobody tolerates injustice.

She exhumes her confidence to do whatever she can to correct any iota of injustice.

She states that she's "let the facts speak for themselves" and she claims that she's

found out what the facts are through her research. (qtd in Dipak Barman 42).

Another important aspect of this novel is the fact that all revered political

leaders are seen in a new light in the backdrop of the Partition. Gandhi, Nehru and

Jinaah are re-defined by Sidhwa. Gandhiji is respected all over the world, but in the

novel Ice-Candy-Man Sidhwa depicts him as a crafty political leader. According to

Masseur, Gandhi is a politician who changes his stances as the situation demands.

(91). Lenny regards him as an “improbable toss-up between a clown and a

demon”(87) and is confused as to why he is very popular. She recollects how Gandhi

endlessly talks regarding the sluggish stomachs, personal hygiene and enema. In the

animated conversation among the followers of Ayah, the butcher calls him "That non-

violent violence-monger – your precious Gandhiji". (91). Lenny recalls him as a lean,
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small and dark old man really like Hari, her gardener. In the dinner party at Lenny's

house, the Inspector General Rogers says: "Gandhi and Nehru are forcing the League

to push for Pakistan!”(63). The Government House gardener says that "They (Gandhi,

Nehru, Patel) didn’t like the Muslim League’s victory in the Punjab elections."(90).

Likewise, Nehru is depicted as a cunning leader who “will walk off with the

lion’s share” in spite of all the efforts of Jinnah.(131) Thus the glorious stature of

Mahatma Gandhi is diminished to a strange politician whose preoccupation with

enemas and his unusual relationship with women become a point of mockery.

According to "most of the Indian historians," Gandhiji is

solely responsible for the British to have been ousted from

India. Sidhwa, in her Ice Candy Man, writes Rahul Sapra,

confines "him (Gandhi) to the role of an eccentric

dietician." (201).

This is also not totally acceptable, since Sidhwa seems to ignore the deeper

spiritual commitment of Gandhiji for India. The scathing attack by various characters

in the novel is reserved only for the Indian leaders whereas Jinnah is assessed as a

leader of high calibre, which is reflective of Sidhwa’s pro Pakistani stance which is

far from her professed objectivity. Though it is incorrect on Sidhwa’s part to say that

Gurdaspur and Pathankot were granted to Nehru, it reveals her bias. She goes on to

glorify Jinnah:

“…..Jinnah", who was known as "Ambassador of Hindu-

Muslim Unity", (160) is now depicted and shown as a

cruel, wicked and inhuman person in the books by the

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Indian and British scholars and in the films of Gandhi’s

and Mountbatten’s lives.

In fact there are numerous derogatory references to Gandhi, Nehru and

Mountbatten. This leaves one in no doubt that Sidhwa reveals that, with all her love

for truth, all her compassion, she sees Partition from the western side of the Indo-Pak

border.

In the light of the above references from the novel, it would probably not be

wrong to say that Sidhwa's depiction is not an impartial one. Sidhwa not belonging to

either of the communities do not obviously make her impartial, as she wants us to

believe. The novel Ice-Candy-Man, as a matter of fact, displays that she has simply

replaced one prejudice by another. This prejudice is revealed not only in the manner

she depicts the Indian political leaders, but is also apparent in her portrayal of

communal violence and riots, where her sympathies are completely on the Pakistani

side.

Cowasjee observes that the “Human kindness, as it wades through blood, is

the theme of the novel. It is also man's only hope of survival” (94). This kindness can

be found in Lenny’s mother, Godmother and electric-aunt. Bapsi Sidhwa makes

Godmother as all-powerful in her role as a rescuer. Lenny’s electric-aunt and her

mother devote themselves fully to the mission of helping the refugees by rescuing

abducted women and sending them back to their families or to the Recovered

Women’s Camps, and providing them with ration, petrol and other amenities. Lenny’s

mother employs Hamida, a fallen woman, to replace the abducted Ayah as Lenny's

nanny. Lenny’s Godmother is an old woman, however, she continues to donate blood

to save the lives of the injured. She makes arrangements for free education for Ranna.
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When the Godmother learns about Ayah’s presence in the red light area in

Lahore, Hira Mandi, she herself works out strategies to liberate her. First, the

Godmother calls Ice Candy Man and lashes out at him for disgracing the Ayah.

Branding him as “badmash”, and a “royal pimp”, she questions him:

What kind of man are you to allow one’s wife "to dance like a

performing monkey before other men?" She shouts at him

saying that he is not a man, and he is "a low-born" who is a

"two-bit evil little mouse!" She yells at him that he has

disgraced and destroyed his wife’s modesty. She further

screams at him that due to his immoral act, his wife has to live

off her womanhood! She tells that you "talk of princess and

poets" in vain. She calls him as "the son of pigs and pimps" and

not even "worth of two-cowries" being thrown at lepers.

(250)

When God Mother asks Ice Candy Man to restore Ayah to her family in

Amritsar, he weeps and pleads with Godmother to let Ayah stay with him as he had

now married her and he also pleads sincere repentance.

But Ayah expresses her inability to forgive and forget what has happened to

her, in spite of Ice Candy Man’s transformed attitude and renewed love and devotion

towards her. She wishes to go to Amritsar though she is not sure if her family would

take her back. She says: "…whether they want me or not, I’ll go". (262). Godmother

later gets her released from the red light area and brings her to the Recovered

Women’s Camp. The Ice Candy Man comes to take away Ayah but gets beaten by

the guard. Ayah is taken to her family after a few days in Amritsar. The Ice Candy
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Man becomes a fakir and follows her. The Godmother's skillful management of the

situation is just an instance of the humanitarian deeds carried out by the Parsis during

the tempestuous period of Partition.

It is right to say that Bapsi Sidhwa has magnificently produced a historical

discourse to convey the tumultuous past to the society. The novel probes into the

subjects of Partition and independence, which bring out the larger image of the bloody

creation of new nations, destruction and continued problems. Sidhwa has cleverly

replicated the communal, socio-economic, political and racial prejudices that led to

the historic plundering, disintegration, defiling and bloodshed in the society. What

distinguishes Bapsi Sidhwa's Ice-Candy-Man is that it depicts a fictional account of

the horrors of Partition from three perspectives – Pakistani, feminist and Parsi and

there lies the uniqueness of the novel. It distills the love-hate relationship of the

people belonging to three different religions, the Sikh, the Hindu and the Muslim,

through the sensibility and point of view of Lenny, a precocious Parsi girl.

The novel touchingly presents the inhuman violence and concentrates on its

socio-historical effects upon the women. The sensitive depiction of the horrors of

Partition enhances the savagery and poignancy of the event even without the author

ever appearing pedantic or pretentious. Bapsi Sidhwa portrays how political leaders

influence the thoughts and ideals and evoke the feelings of fear and disbelief in the

mind of the ordinary man. Ice-Candy-Man enables the readers to comprehend the

scope of the horrors of Partition and assess it in its historical background, and thus

meaningfully describes the effect of horrible violence on individual and collective

lives.