Unity Across Time and Space- Cracking India

Unity Across Time and Space

         In the novel, Cracking India, a once unified people (under the British rule) are then divided into religious affiliations. The unity at first shows that when a nation is whole then all the parts of the nation can work together, but when the nation has turmoil or is "cracking" the nation and the parts of the nation crumble apart. The novel, it starts out with everyone sitting together and trading and conversing with each other but then as the idea of who will run the country when it is free “cracks” the people. The cracking of India, separates friends and co-workers so that everyone is seen for their differences. The ununification is the opposite of the migration story Colonel Bharucha tells during the Parsi congregation.  In this story the Parsi people have been kicked out of Persia by the Islamic rulers and now they are trying to find a new place to live. The prince of the Indian land filled up a bottle of milk to the brim to say that the country was full and that they couldn’t accept any outsiders. The unification of religion is seen in the following quote: “Our forefathers carefully stirred a teaspoon of sugar into the milk and sent it back. The prince understood what that meat. The refuges would get absorbed into his country like the sugar in the milk” (47). This really represents how all of the different religions and people have been living all as on unified body but as time went on the differences were noticed. And as the differences of religions were called out and upon the unity of the nation was rocked and then divided. In this section of the book unity is seen as “sameness” and when people’s differences were called out upon and then not appreciated or accepted it divided the nation.

My Opinion: 

I found Cracking India to be a very interesting book. The story is told through a child's eyes and the description of the terror that occurs in the book is almost softened because of Lenny's perspective. To tell the truth I had no idea that India was split into modern India and modern Pakistan... it isn't something discussed in American public schools. The persecution and split of a county that was once so united against a common enemy (Britain) is absolutely shocking. How can religion be such a means of hate?  It has been a means of hate for so long that it seems almost medieval. 

This novel does break some Orientalism stereotypes at the end of the book. At the beginning of the book the female character Ayah is very sexualized and has many suitors but at the end of the novel it is the woman who band together and raise money to send displaced women back to their families. The men in the novel go from nice and caring individuals (almost the image of a feminized male from Orientalism stereotype) to having surges of power and the once nice men turn to murderers. 

The physical location of the town Lahore in the novel shows that the characters are right in the middle of the turmoil and they are in the actual space of the "crack" that divides India and Pakistan. (the map below shows the line between the two countries...a line that today is still being fought over.) 

Christian Allegory in a Islamic- Hindu Fight through Parsi eyes. 

One of the most notable scenes in this novel is the last supper with all of the friends. In this scene Ayah is holding Lenny while all 12 of herfriends (even Ice-candy man) surround her; This can be an allusion to Christ and his 12 apostles In this book it is the young girl, Lenny, who acts as the Judas figure in this Christian allegory. In the days to come among the chaos and death due to religious differences, it is Lenny who tells Ice- Candy man where  Ayah is hiding. She is the one who turns her over to meet her ultimate demise and the Christ-like Ayah character is carried out and away to never be seen again. I found it very interesting that in the middle of the splitting of India (into Pakistan and India) and the religious hate that occurred between Hindu and Islamic groups that there is a Christian Allegory and one that strikes deep; the betrayal of a loved one.