Cracking India

Cracking India tells the story of the partition of

India through the eyes of young Lenny, a Parsee girl
growing up in Lahore. Lenny narrates the events of
her family and native Lahore over more than a ten
year period, from before World War II to just after
Indian independence and the partition. The power
of Cracking India stems from Sidwha’s creation of
an idyllic picture of Lenny’s childhood, and the
relative inter-racial harmony of pre-Independence
Lahore. We then watch with horror as the people
around Lenny divide along racial/religious lines and
eventually slaughter one another. Historical fiction
such as Cracking India shows us history in
miniature, making it far more vivid than mere
statistics about the numbers slaughtered during the
tragic events of 1947-48.
Although the story is set against the backdrop of
India independence, it is equally the story of Lenny’s
maturation from a four-year-old limping girl to a
young woman of growing sexual awareness. As a
young girl she sits in the Queen’s garden with her
Ayah, her nanny, who is nubile and the object of
desire for a large circle of young men of many races
and creeds. Young Lenny perceives their eyes
burning for Ayah, their furtive attempts to touch her
with their hands, mouths, even their toes. Her
education about sexuality thus begins early, though
Sidhwa delights in showing us Lenny’s later sexual
discoveries as well, such as her growing aware of
her Cousin’s body.

Much of the novel seems derived from Sidhwa’s

autobiographical experience, and this explains much
of the narrative’s power. Lenny’s perceptiveness
makes her an effective narrator, though it takes
some time to get used to a four-year-old making the
insights that Lenny does. Lenny is already conscious
of people treating her differently because of her
limp. Lenny senses people’s motivations, and spots
their most telling gestures. She describes the mixed
blessings of her own honesty, showing self-
awareness as well. But her honesty, her “cursed
tongue” as she calls it, also betrays her beloved Ayah,
a Hindu, whom Lenny mistakenly betrays to Ice-
Candy Man.

Much of the story’s charm comes from Lenny’s acute

descriptions of her childhood. She experiences the
joys of visiting her family cook’s native town,
savoring stolen bits of chicken giblets in the kitchen
during her parent’s dinner parties, and hiding under
the table and making profound insights about the
guests’ personality based on the movements of their
legs and feet. But her greatest joy is her Ayah, a
sublime being whose attractions ensure that Lenny
herself always has plenty of company.

This motley collection of Ayah’s admirers, suggesting

the diversity of all India in miniature, consists of
around 12 men including at least one Sikh, a Muslim,
a Hindu, and Parsee all with different occupations.
Their peaceful co-existence in their competition for
Ayah’s affections suggests the larger inter-racial
amity in Lahore. While some of this inter-racial co-
operation is based on a common abhorrence of
British rule, it is also based on centuries of living
together, as the characters themselves state outright.

So the ancient city of Lahore is torn asunder by

Western-style nationalism and nation-state building
—one of many lasting wounds from British rule. As
Lenny observes: “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 all-
encompassing Ayah—she is also a token. A Hindu.
…” (101).

As much as the story of Cracking India owes to its

historical setting, its scope is local: Lahore.
Historical events, and personages such as Nehru,
Gandhi, Jinnah are far away (except for a comical
meeting between Gandhi and Lenny and her
mother), and their effect on Lahore is delayed. For
the first third of the novel, the idyll of Lenny’s
childhood is nearly untouched by the gathering
storm. The middle third depicts the outbreak of
violence and the destruction of pre-Pakistani Lahore,
including Ayah’s circle. The novel’s climax is Ice-
Candy’s betrayal of Ayah, by extracting her hiding-
place from the trusting Lenny. From there, events
proceed quickly, for we are as captivated by Ayah as
her circle of admirers.

The last third of the novel showcases the efforts of

Lahore’s women to repair the damage done to the
community by the men. Lenny’s mother leads other
women in smuggling gasoline in order to raise
money to send defamed women back to their
families. Lenny’s Godmother is revealed to be a
matriarch of considerable powers and influence. She
is able to locate the violated Ayah, and rescue her
from Ice-Candy Man’s clutches, and send her back to
her family in India.

Lenny-as-narrator undergirds the novel’s feminine

perspective. While some male characters, such
Masseur, Lenny’s father, and Cousin, are treated
sympathetically, many male characters are seen as
encircling predators of sex or violence. Lenny’s
persepective is formed while she sits next to Ayah in
the middle of her circle of admirers. Ice-Candy
Man’s betrayal is especially shocking, because as a
popsicle salesman he has a rapport with children
that leads to Lenny’s misguided trust in him at the
crucial moment of Ayah’s fate.

Perhaps mindful of her Western audience, Sidhwa

throws in some allusions to Western literature. The
Ice-Candy Man is allusion to Eugene O’Neill’s The
Iceman Cometh, which in turn alluded to Gospels,
wherein Jesus foretold that the “bridegroom [of the
church, i.e., God] cometh.” O’Neill’s play depicted a
group of 13 drunks (deliberately 13 to suggest Christ
and his 12 apostles) revolving around the salesman
Hickey, the Iceman of life-killing cold truths, who
shatters the personal illusions, the “pipe-dreams” of
the other 12 in the circle. Similarly, Ayah, has a circle
of twelve followers. The Ice-Candy Man, the Judas
figure, betrays his beloved Ayah, and shatters the
amicable illusion of Ayah’s circle, revealing the
cauldron of lust that had always inspired it.
Sidhwa succeeds by focusing on the personal level of
events. She offers no novel explanation for the
violence that engulfed the partition. We are shown
only a handful of fully-drawn characters. Lenny’s
child-like eyes are ideal for showing us the horrors of
civil war. And yet it is surprising how dispassionately
Lenny reacts to the madness around her, even years
later as she is narrating the events. It is almost as if
her desire for objectivity as a narrator was stronger
than her emotions to the horrors of war. The beauty
of the language shows the narrator telling us the
Lenny’s story is stronger than the child who
witnessed the atrocities. But without such narrative
strength we might not have this particular
story at all.

"Cracking India" is a deep and complex story, with

themes of sexuality, division, and female strength
weaving throughout.
The main interactions with a diverse group of people in
Lenny's life come from the attentions paid to her beautiful
nanny, Ayah. The novel starts with Lenny as a four-year-
old, already observing the near desperation of the men to
touch Ayah with any part of their body possible, even
their toes. She learns from the power she sees Ayah
holding over men: "I learn of human needs, frailties,
cruelties and joys. I also learn from her the tyranny
magnets exercise over metals" (29). The openness with
which Lenny contemplates her own sexuality is
important, because it is not often that a disabled character
is represented a sexual being. However, in "Cracking
India," the sensual importance of Ayah's interactions with
diverse men on the edge of Indian Partition play a strong
role, and they influence Lenny's own burgeoning
sexuality.
Greater still is the theme of division. "Cracking India" is
really the story of the bloody war between a community
torn apart by religious differences. Lenny narrates, quite
mournfully, this theme: "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 all-encompassing Ayah—she is
also a token. A Hindu" (101). These differences really
impact Lenny's life. Although she is not herself a part of
the warring factions in India, her primary caretaker is, and
through Ayah, Lenny is subject to witness the same
division in her community.
The last theme I want to mention is female strength. The
entire novel is narrated by a female character, so
obviously some feminine influence can be seen
throughout the...
(The entire section is 437 words.)