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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

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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 Sikh-

favoured 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:

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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

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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)

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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

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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

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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 pre-

partition 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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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-

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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

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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)

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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:

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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)

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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 cross-

legged 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

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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 all-

encompassing 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

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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

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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 17th 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

135

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 cheek-

kissing; 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. . . .

136

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

137

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

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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

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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

140

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

141

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

142

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)

143

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

144

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

145

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; Ice-

candy-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, Ice-

candy-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

146

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,

147

loot, rape, murder, abducting, and proselytisation; means to say, almost at

every moment of the story, partition works as the shaping force of the

novel, and makes the whole body of the book. Not only border but the

story is also invested with symbolic mode; the saga of Shanta and Ice-

candy-man is also significant for the angle wherefrom it looks at the

partition: “. . .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” (Singh, Jagdev

175).

Shanta is appointed as a maid-servant to look after Lenny akin to

Padmini, a widow and charwoman, who works as a home-maid in several

households in Chaman Nahal’s Azadi,; if Shanta is shown a ‘dusky

beauty’, Padimini is a ‘faded beauty of a very delicate type’; this is also a

striking similarity in both the woman characters. The tearful sorrow of

such ladies evokes the grievous sense in the readers: “Sometimes her eyes

fill and the tears roll down her cheeks. Once, when I smoothed her hair

back, she suddenly started to weep, and noticing my consternation

explained: ‘When eye is wounded, even a scented breeze hurts” (Ice-

Candy-Man 193). Randhir Pratap Singh gives an apt observation:

Sidhwa’s portrayal of men as perpetrators of dreadful

outrage, and women as sufferers and saviours conforms to

148

her feminine perspective on Partition. Ice-Candy-Man, thus,

presents a fictional account of Partition from three

perspectives—Parsi, Pakistani and feminine, and therein lies

the uniqueness of this novel. (57)

Deirdre Donahue goes into raptures about the novel that “conveys

the human suffering of Partition far more effectively than a dozen history

books.” Shanta aka Mumtaz tries to seek refuge in her family after having

undergone the bitter experience at the hands of Ice-candy-man (her

husband); this is an act of a wife’s refusal to live with her cruel husband

when her prestige, as a woman, is at stake. Her bitter experience through

the zealotry and betrayal of her friend Ice-candy-man helps her learn that

social independence and freedom is essential for a woman to survive in

the so called moralistic society; the idea of freedom is strong in her; that’s

why, when Godmother ventures to divert her from her decision to go to

her parents, Shanta denies to go back to Ice-candy-man and accept him as

her husband. Though, Godmother argues that Shanta had married to Ice-

candy-man and he truly cares for her, she also questions that what if her

family would not accept her back, yet Shanta, rejecting all the arguments

made by Godmother, realizes herself, and comes to the conclusion:

“whether they want me or not, I will go” (Ice-Candy-Man 262); it

suggests that there can never be any forgiveness, never atonement for

such betrayal. The conversation between them discloses that Shanta is

149

self-willed now, and she is firmly decisive about ignoring the social codes

of conduct, limitation of a wife, and other persons including her parents:

Dormant possibilities of the resurgence of human spirit can

also be sensed in Ayah as, taking a bold decision, she

determines to go back to her family. She rejects the

constricting present and decisively wants to face future in all

its tentative probabilities. The resilience of women

characters saves the novel from being a heart-rending

depressing rendition of journalistic reporting. (Gaur 47)

At the same time, not only all the characters look realistic but the

scene of holocaust also seems to be drawn again before the eyes of

readers, which is a matter of the level of Sidhwa’s wherewithal:

Almost all the characters. . .are unpredictable. And they are

convincing as well. The change that the characters undergo

is natural and real. Ayah for instance, at the outset is just a

maid at the Sethi residence. She looks after infant Lenny. All

of a sudden she is swept off her cozy corner into a vortex of

political upheaval. She is forced to change from being an

ordinary domestic help to a public entertainer in a matter of

few months. What shocks and saddens the reader is, the

coarse treatment meted out to her for no faults of hers.

Here’s someone who was now secure, and in the next minute

150

rendered helpless. She becomes just a puppet in the hands of

a fate worse than death. She is just an example of the several

millions of displaced, looted and raped Hindus and Muslims

during one of the harshest political phases in the history of

the subcontinent. (Rao 186)

It is also interesting to show how he (Ice-candy-man) gets a sense

of guilt. This attitude, developed in Shanta, brought adverse effect on the

part of her husband; her return to her family is supposed to be the victory,

which highlights the failure of Ice-candy-man, and makes him depressed.

Sidhwa seems to convey a message through the conversation of

Godmother with Shanta, that one should fight the problems of life; the

only way to overcome the problems is to be bold and face the difficulty.

Author suggests, through the context when Shanta, now Mumtaz,

undergoes the mental and physical ordeal that even total despair can open

up a new spring of elemental self-confidence, which is the way to

ultimate liberation.

151

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Gaur, Rashmi. Ed. Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice-Candy-Man: A Reader’s

Companion. New Delhi: Asia Book Club, 2004.

Gundur, N. S. Partition and Indian English Fiction. New Delhi:

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