DISLOCATION AND SENSE OF LOSS

“ICE-CANDY MAN”

ABSTRACT...!!

Baspi Sidhwa employs the genre of partition novel in her Ice-Candy Man,known as
“Cracking India”. She exposes Pakistani, Indian view on partition and Lenny, girl as
narrator’s perspective on the great communal divide showing “dislocation” emotional
confusion and “sense of loss”.
Sidhwa explore that partition as an offshoot of fundamentalism sparked by hardening
communal attitudes. She shares her view on the disaster of partition and she
emphasizes the vulnerability of human lives. This relentlessly divided friends, families,
lovers and neighbours in both countries.
In Ice-CandyMan the characters from all communities Hindus, Muslim, Christians,
Sikhs and Parsis.Thus a multiple perspective of partition as viewed by affected
people. However what really distinguishes Baspi Sidhwa’s Ice-Candy Man is the prism
of Parsi sensitivity in which she depicts cataclysmic event.
Another fascinating aspect of this novelist the use of the child narrator, the
precocious Parsi girl, “Lenny”. The impact of violence on the girl child narrator
Lenny, who depicts the horrors of partition, the role of rumor, the dangers
of communal frenzy and the rise of obscurantism are all aspects of the
partition, which reflects in Ice-Candy Man. And it is the subsequent sub-divisions
how the novelist employs witty banter, irony and parody in her sensitive handling
of the impact of the partition on the Parsi community, the girl narrator and
deteriorating human relationship. It is these aspects that makethe novel the
cruelty, the horrors, the human toll and dislocation of partition, and sense of
loss.

INTRODUCTION...!!!
Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice-candyman published in America under the title of ‘Cracking
India’ in 1991 and in 1998. Indo-Canadian filmmaker “Deepa Mahta” adapted story
of Ice-candy man and produced film named “1947: Earth”. Lenny the narrator of the
novel is a little Parsi girl. Due to lameness caused by polio, her world is small and
full of colors. Ayah, eighteen years old, who is always with her friends and admirers
of all races and faiths. Ayah keeps them united but as the communal tension mounts,
the group disintegrates.
They get polarized along communal lines. Riots(violence) start and the worst victims are
women. Here, Sidhwa is an eye witness to the communal violence and frenzy during
1947 partition. Sidhwa presents the disaster of partition of Indian subcontinent
through the eyes of both Hindus and Muslim communities.About cracking India she
says....

“i was just attempting to write the stories of what religious hatred and
violence can do to people and how close evil is to the nature of man.
Under normal circumtances people can be quite ordinary and
harmless, but once the mob mentality takes over, evil surfaces. Evil is
very close to the surface of man”
The novel highlights the issues of women’s and children’s painful sufferings, easy
victims in communal riots through the bloody partition. Sidhwa exposes the issues
of murdered, raped, exploited, enslaved, homelessness, blood flooded series
in her novel.

“ The Partition was poorly represented because the memories were

too painful , and people were too busy setting up new lives . but story
tellers will tell their tales, and very little will be lost. Writers in Indian
and Pakistani languages are chronicling the old tradition. As long as
their are writers and story tellers most of what is important will be
retained. Writers are the new myth makers” (Bapsi Sidhwa).

THE HUMAN TOLL...!!

Bapsi Sidhwa aptly explains the unstoppable logic of partition that is never ending left
even sane people and friends helpless and in effective. Sidhwa shows her own
technique of reportage. Bare facts present the horror of the greatest communal divide in
history of both countries.
The Parsee paradox of whether to support „Swaraj‟ or to maintain their loyalty to the
British Raj is also humorously delineated. A piquant touch is given to his dilemma. The
Parsees in Lahore at a special meeting at their temple hall in Warris Road have an
acrimonious debate on the political system. If India is divided and independence is
achieved, political glory, fame and fortune will be acquired by the two major communities,
Hindus and Muslims. Col. Bharucha says:

“ Hindus, Muslims and even Sikhs are going to jockey for power and if
you jokers jump into the middle you will be mangled into chutney.
(p.36)”
The neighbours of the Semi, Mr. and Mrs. Singh humedly leave Lahore with their two
children and a few belongings. Other goods are left behind with Lenny's parents. Sher
Singh the zoo attendant flees from Lahore due to insecurity after his brother-in-law is
killed. Similarly the students fraternity of King Edward's Medical College is disrupted.
Prakash and his family migrate to Delhi and Rahool Singh and his pretty sisters are
escorted to a convoy to Amritsar. In Lenny's household, the gardener Hari is circumcised
and becomes Himmat Ali and Moti becomes David Massih, showing the politics of
compromise and survival. Ayah's lover the masseur's damage dead body is found in a
gunny sack. The money lender Kirpa Ram flees leaving guineas and other wealth behind
Communal disorder and riots cross the class divide. Even middle-class families like the
Shankers flee in haste.
In rural areas the Muslim village of Pir Pindo forty miles east of lahore,the muslims or
Pir Pindo and the Sikhs from the neighbouring village of Dera Tek Singh sit together
and share their concern over the failure communal situation , and the outbreak of
hostilities in the cites. When Lenny,s family cook and a townman Imam Din broaches
the subject of Sikhs and Muslims trouble, the villagers both Sikhs and Muslim erupt in
protest. After the tumult subsides, the Sikh Granthi, Gagjeet Singh says...

“Brother our village come from the same racial stock. Muslims or
Sikhs, we are basically jats, we are brothers. How can we fight each
other??”
Seconding the veiws of the Sikh Granthi the muslim Chaudary of Pir Pindo tells Imam
Din..

“Our relationship with the hindus are bound by strong ties. The cities
folk can afford to fight...we can’t, we are dependent on each other ;
bound 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 Peasant is a Hindu , or a Muslim, or a Sikh.???”
Seven year old Lenny senses a subtle change in the Queen garden. The people of
different communities are sitting apart ,

“Only the group around Ayah remaines unchanged, Hindu, Muslim,

Sikh, and Parsee are, as always, unified around her.”
 Bapsi Sidhwa as a sensitive novelist shows that humanitarian deeds are performed by
individuals like Rodabai, known as Godmother, Lenny's mother and Jagjeet who with a
secret group of Sikhs visit the Muslim village of Pir Pindo under cover of darkness to warn
them of an impending Akali attack. The novelist is also very practical and wordly wise.
She shows that individual acts of kindness and bravery can only help some victims and
reduce their misery but not stem the tide of organised violence.
Partition is shown as a series of images and events depicting human loss and agony. The
dislocation of settled life is revealed by Lenny's understanding of the demographic change
in Lahore. In awe she observes that Lahore is no more cosmopolitan. The Sikhs and
Hindus have fled.

“Lahore is suddenly emptied of yet sother hoary dimension: there are

no Brahmins with caste marks - or Hindus in dhotis with bodhis. Only
hordes of Muslim refugees. (Ice-Candy-Man p. 175)”
The child narrator senses the difference and pain caused by the huge exchange of
populations.The dislocation and uprootedness of Partition is experienced by Lenny and
her brother Adi as they drift through Queen's Gardens searching in vain for familiar Faces
and acquaintances.

“Adi and I wander from group to group peering into faces beneath
white skull- caps and above ascetic beards. - . .. I feel uneasy.
LikeHarnida I do not fit. I know we will not find hiliar fsces here. (Ice-
Candy-Man p.237) “
The dislocation of life during Partition caused emotional upheavels. This is best
exemplified by the attitude of Lenny when she learns that Masseur one of Ayah's several
admirers has proposed marriage. Even in the child there is a feeling of insecurity as she
clings to Ayah's hands and cajoles her not to marry the masseur as it would entail
separation.for Lenny the domestic manifestation of partition is sudden and menacing.

“one day everybody is themselves , and the next day they are Hindu,
Muslim, Sikh, Christian. Poeple shrink, dwindling into symbols.”

Parody and Brutalisation...!!

Ice-Candy-Man the pointless brutality of communal frenzy is parodied as it is presented
and narrated by the child narrator Lenny. The properties of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs
are destroyed as the author implies that are knows no religion.
The terror of the fight for Lahore between Muslims and Sikhs is palpable. For the child
narrator it is a spectacle, a variation from routine life, but mingled with terror and horror.

“The shrieks of "Pakistan Murdabad! Sat Sri Akaal! Bolay so nihaal!"

of the Sikh mobs when listening to Master Tara Singh at Queen's Garden and

"Allah-o- Akbar! Yaaa Ali! And Pakistan Zindabad" of the rampaging.

Muslim mobs give Lenny as many nightmares...that the zoo Lion breaking loose and
sinking his fangs into her stomach...

“the hungry Lion , cutting across Lawrance Road to Birdwood Road

prowls from the rear of the house to the bedroom door, and sinking his
fangs into her stomach”
when she recollects the roaring of the lions in -the zoo. With such subtle comparisons
and ironic exposures, Sidhwa shows the brutalisation which communal frenzy causes.
Even lovers turn the hostile.
The Ice-candy-man, the Muslim lover of the Hindu Ayah watches Shalmi and Mozang
Chowk bum with,

"the muscles in his face tight with a strange exhilaration I never want
to see" (p. 136).
The scenes of violence have a baleful influence on children. When Lenny reaches home
she picks out a big, bloated celluloid doll and pulls its legs apart. As they comeoff easily,
she doesnot feel satisfied. She takes another doll with,

“A sturdy, will stuffed cloth body and a substantial feel”

She pulls its legs apart. Holding the doll,s spilled insides in her hands Lenny collapses on
the bed sobbing, infuriated by her pointless brutality. The transformation of a fun loving
man who frolicked and acted the buffoon in the park, into an ogre is conveyed by Lenny's
horror at the sadism in his face. It is a vivid image which is a stark reminder of the brutality
of the times. Subtle insinuations, images and gestures enable
Bapsi Sidhwa handle the delicate and sensitive theme of Partition without verbosity and
sensationalism. The horror of human loss, bloodshed and separation is portrayed
without lurid details and maudlin sentimentality.