Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice-Candy Man: A Gendered Perspective of Partition
Abstract:
In their narratives, women novelists keep their eyes centrally focused on the female protagonists. The heroine is the centre of the novel and women's problems abound in the novels. They express the inner reality in the patriarchal paradigm of women who are normally made invisible. Female writers' partition discourses are accounts of feminine triumph that illustrate the power, resilience, adaptability and spirit of women against all odds. These writers express the female body 's strength and present the sexuality of women as a source of empowerment. A study by female novelists of partition novels reveals many facets of Partition's trauma, especially on women-physical, mental, emotional and psychological. Bapsi Sidhwa sheds light on the atrocious victimisation of women by men in Ice-Candy Man through the depiction of characters like Ayah and Hamida. These women gather their courage and dive into their practical roles, while suffering the physical and emotional trauma of being raped. They are not taking the simpler path of suicide. The social stigma of 'fallen woman' is exposed through Ayah and how the evil of prostitution gained traction after Partition.
Key-Words: Partition, Women Novelists, trauma, atrocities
Female authors' partition fiction shows the immense suffering created by the tumultuous event and how it transformed ordinary people's private lives in such damaging ways that they will never be their internal feeling again. In addition to depicting the condition of Partition in general, women writers often explicitly document the perspective of the woman, hence providing a gendered perspective of Partition. In addition to adding a crucial, subjective aspect to the effect of partition on men and women, they also shed significant light on the nature of the relationship between gender and socio-historical systems. This disaster was more lasting for females. The word Partition is insufficient to cover the various meanings for women that this incident has or even to estimate the multiple degrees of misery they endured. The woman became the vessel of the history of a society. She was not simply an individual, but a transporter of the honour of her group, which had to be maintained at all costs.
Because in the conservative patriarchal narratives, these issues do not get sufficient consideration, women novelists carefully deal with them at their crucial points in their Partition novels. These writers seem to be driven by an internal manifestation to express the traumatic experiences of women during partition, regardless of their ethnic and demographic colours and skin tones. They seem to claim that the historical experiences of women are not exactly the same as that of men, urging a particular reading of Partition, and therefore their experiences / history should not always be swallowed up in the general history of mankind. Women writers portray women who are true to themselves, who choose body chastity to chastity of mind and in them there really is no inkling of soul-guilt. Within the text, these writers create opposing narrative structures that serve as a resistance to the male dominant ideals and perceptions of gender. Women do not restrict their female characters to the self-sacrificing womanhood viewpoint of the traditional model. While women were constantly traumatised by their experience of partition, they did not succumb to it. They were defeated, but they survived, drawing from their internal powers, to tell the storey. "The way a novel end in is a statement on the self- on its ability or inability to survive, especially when the self is woman." (Kaur 53)
There is a clear appeal to see women as human beings, as individuals who have their own identities and not simply as sexual artefacts. Partition narratives are thus accounts of feminine achievement, illustrating against all odds the power, endurance, enforcement, pursuit for identity and spirit of women. From a psychological as well as socio-cultural point of view, they express women's opinions. The goal of female authors such as Attia Hossain, Shauna Singh Baldwin, Manju Kapoor, Bapsi Sidhwa, Mehr Nigar Masroor and Anita Kumar is to portray in their novels these fears, the search for identity, violence towards women and the plight of female sexuality.
Bapsi Sidhwa provided a very realistic and powerful image of chaos in her novel Ice-Candy – Man during the Hindu Muslim revolts in 1947. On the basis of their religion, the novel depicts men being rivals and also reflects the country's shifting political paradigm. In this period of brutal and group hysteria, the novelist has objectively predicted emotional chaos, human weakness, atrocities of social disturbances and the brutalities imposed on women. The story opens with 'Complaint to God' by the Urdu poet Iqbal:
Shall I hear the lament of the nightingale, submissively lending my ear? Am I the rose to suffer its cry in silence year after year? The fire of verse gives me courage and bids me no more to be faint. With dust in my mouth, I am abject: to God I make my complaint. (Sidhwa 1)
Bapsi Sidhwa selects eight-year - old Lenny as the narrator for her novel to voice the fears and concerns of the disadvantaged during the partition of India. Lenny is not only oppressed as a child in the book, but also as a female, as a Parsi, and as a representative of her community who is physically disabled. This makes her, both in the genre of Partition novels and in Bildungsroman writings, a very powerful and distinctive narrative voice. Lenny 's statements resound with concerns and suspicions, spoken from the periphery of the dominant discourses of hegemony, race, religion and art.
The horrors of abuse and her personal experiences and responses are linked to Lenny. Not only does the protagonist witness, but also examine the lustful and humiliating devotion of men to women, the voraciousness of man's sexual impulses, the condition of women as they are degraded to the status of sexual objects, and the specific social and civil weaknesses to which they are exposed. Lenny shifts from one period of her life as a narrator, i.e., from childhood to adolescence. She recognises the shifts taking place in society and the behaviours of men towards women throughout this journey. She is increasingly forming a more realistic vision for life. She looks at the relations between men and women more closely, which woke up her young brain.
We notice that the speaker tells Lenny's life at the beginning of the novel as "compressed." As a physically disabled child, her life is confined to the house 's four walls. She spent much of her time as a kid with her godmother, Rodabai. Godmother lives with her husband and her slave sister. Lenny is called the one-and-a-half space dwelling of her godmother, as her "refuge from the perplexing unrealities of my home on Warris Road." (Sidhwa 1) In a mutually satisfying relation, Godmother also has a surrogate mother for Lenny. Lenny depicts her as a mysterious individual, as if she was an adored entity. She is an old lady, simply dressed in Khaddar sarees, wrapping herself from head to toe, with a knack for sharp humour, precise repatriation and a deep knowledge of the human psyche. As a kid, Lenny had no desire for girlish stuffs, but she was encouraged to have one by her family's women occasionally. She remembers: "I can't remember a time when I ever played with dolls though relatives and acquaintances have persisted in giving them to me." (Sidhwa 138)
It demonstrates the gender identity imposed on her over and again. As Colonel Barucha, her doctor, mentioned, her schooling was interrupted because she was suffering from polio. Her existence is foretold by Colonel Barucha: “She'll marry, have children - lead a carefree, happy life. No need to strain her with studies and exams.” (Sidhwa 15) This shows the restrictions associated with the life of a girl. The cultivation of feminine values and the fulfilment of domestic duties are considered by many women because they are mentally too frail to move into the world beyond the four walls of their homes and too frail to make important decisions. Women are thus confined to the domestic domain, where they have to accept a male partner 's superiority. It has been assumed for centuries that it is the responsibility of a woman to look after a home, raise kids and give her family comfort. A contemporary novelist, Shashi Deshpande, indicates that enough room should be given to women to understand their real personality. In Geetha Gangadharan's interview, she figures out:
The stress laid on the feminine functions, at the cost of all your potentials as an individual enraged me. I knew I was very intelligent person, but for a woman, intelligence is always a handicap. If you are intelligent, you keep asking, "why, why, why, and this becomes a burden. (Deshpande 253)
The desires are the awakening of an individuality that is present in Lenny and other female characters amid the stresses of socially established gender roles.
Lenny 's mother belongs to society's affluent socioeconomic classes. To look after the kids and do other regular duties, she can recruit many servants. She stayed busy with her social duties that waste her time in hosting guests and partying. The physical handicap of Lenny has created in her a feeling of shame that often emerges in her exchanges. She informs Colonel Barucha that, "It's my fault; I neglected her - left her to the care of Ayah." (Sidhwa 16) Lenny praises her elegant elegance, but hates her moods that are shifting. Initially, she is protective of her mother, but soon learns to deal with it. The curvaceous beauty of her mother often creates in her subconscious a hidden resentment:
“The motherliness of Mother ... How can I describe it? While it is there it is all-encompassing, voluptuous. Hurt, heartache and fear vanish ... The world is wonderful, wondrous - and I perfectly fit in it. But it switches off, this motherliness ... I begin to understand its on-off pattern. It is treacherous." (Sidhwa 42)
Her mother gives Lenny enough personal space. While guiding and integrating the lives of her children firmly, Lenny 's mother enables them to frolic about and experience life from their own perspectives. Lenny is permitted to join Imam Din to the village of Pir Pando twice, and her visits to parks and Ayah restaurants are also uncontrolled. Lenny 's mother can handle the entourage of servants easily and run her household effortlessly. She is very much a conventional woman, playfully teasing her husband's wishes, despite her relaxed management of children and a modern life-style. In her conduct towards her husband, she is almost submissive, seductively trying to please him and attempting to build an environment of pleasant joy around him. Lenny looks warily as her mother talks in sweet voices to fill "infernal time of father's mute meals." (Sidhwa 80) Although Lenny is unable to decode it, her assertions suggest the existence in the personality of her mother of an internal gap.
The subject of a large part of the novel is on Lenny's Ayah, Shanta. She is an 18-year-old Hindu girl. Even if her employers are compassionate, she is a vulnerable girl who is just viewed as a sex object by all. Looking at Ayah, Lenny gets aware of her sexuality too:
The covetous glances Ayah draws educate me. Up and down, they look at her. Stub ended twisted beggars and dusty old beggars on crutches drop their poses and stare at her with hard, alert eyes. Holy men, marked in piety, shove aside their pretences to ogle her with lust. Hawkers, cart-drivers, cooks, coolies and cyclists turn heads as she passes, pushing my pram with the unconcern of the Hindu goddess she worships. (Sidhwa 3)
Lenny's Ayah is well aware of her sex appeal and exploits it to satisfy her needs without any hindrance. The Ice-Candy-Man, the Masseur, the Government House Gardener, the restaurant owner, the Zoo-attendant, and a knife sharpening Pathan are her frequent admirers - she has accumulated a good number of admirers who regularly gather in the Victoria Garden. Even, Lenny learns to classify "human needs, frailties, cruelties and joys" (Sidhwa 20) seeing at these people during their trips:
I learn also to detect the subtle exchange of signals and some of the complex rites by which Ayah's admirers co-exist. Dusting the grass from their clothes they slip away before dark, leaving the one luck or the lady, favours ... I escape into daydreams in which my father turns loquacious and my mother playful. (Sidhwa 19)
Ayah utilizes her charisma to achieve basic gains-inexpensive doilies, cashew nuts, extra food service, etc. She effectively uses her beauty as a survival and exploitation tactic before her familiar life is shattered by the brutality of Partition. The male abuse of female sexuality is also reflected by her depiction. With the aid of some violent thugs, Ice-candy-man succeeds to abduct her and deceives Lenny into disclosing her location. Ayah's kidnapping is presented in vivid details:
They drag Ayah out. They drag her by her arms stretched taut, and her bare feet - that want to move backwards - are forced forward instead. Her lips are drawn away from her teeth, and the resisting curve of her throat opens her mouth like the dead child 's scream less mouth. Her violet Sari slips off her shoulder and her breasts strain at her sari-blouse stretching the cloth so that the white stitching at the seams shows. A sleeve tears under her arm… The last thing I noticed was Ayah, her mouth slack and piteously gasping her dishevelled hair flying into her kidnapper's faces, staring at us if she wanted to leave behind her wide-open and terrified eyes. (Sidhwa 183-84)
Further Sidhwa portrays women who have submitted completely and surrendered to their identified gender roles. Via a very minor event, Lenny discovers how a woman has to address the welfare of her child with her husband at Colonel Barucha 's clinic. During her visit to Pir Pindo, she observes how, like the other girls in the village, Khatija and Parveen, Ranna 's teenage sisters, already bear the mature tone of far older women "affecting the mannerisms of their mothers and aunts ... Painfully shy of me, they are distressed - and perplexed - by the display of my twig-like legs beneath my short dress." (Sidhwa 54)
As a girl, Lenny discovers that girls' marriage is of the highest value to their parents. For men, freedom and self-identity are expected. Even in her infancy, the deep worry for her marriage places Lenny in grief. She asserts: Drinking tea, I am told, makes one darker. I'm dark enough. Everyone says, 'It's a pity Adi's fair and Lenny so dark. He's a boy. Anyone will marry him. (Sidhwa 81) Several problems, such as appearance and complexion, affect the girls' marriage. Sidhwa discusses these problems and demonstrates the contemptible image of social behaviours.
Sidhwa brings us a glimpse into the complexities of the mother-daughter relationship through the characters of Muccho and Papoo. At Lenny 's place, Muccho is a sweeper. She is depicted as an unfair mother who shows her daughter, Papoo, neither love nor compassion. Muccho, on the slightest excuse, mounts her with all the household duties, beats and assaults her. Ayah and other servants continuously attempt to rescue her from this violence, but their attempts are typically futile.
Sidhwa presents Sethis, Rogers, and Singhs, Lenny's neighbours. Social beauty is not merely a privilege for women like Mrs. Sethi; it is also slavery, since they are compelled to acknowledge their position as women there. The debate arranged by the Sethis for the Rogers and the Singhs during the party specifically indicates that it is the sexual skill of a woman, not her scholarly excellence, which matters in the world of men. The pushing spears of Lenny 's mother along with the Electric Aunt to lure fuel to assist their distressed Hindu and Sikh families, and Hamida 's recovery reflects her charitable awareness of others, and a willingness to do something positive as well.
During the riots, the sight of Hindu and Muslim women being raped scares Lenny. She sees men transform into animals, leaving no room for ideals that are moral and human. Other women, including Ayah, have become men's victim. Lenny was surprised to see the human mind capable of being so quickly manipulated by nobler deeds. The Ice-Candy-Man becomes a vicious avenger. In the wake of this phase of study, Sidhwa wins by addressing not only the problem of women but also of men. Men could not rise above their animal instincts that emerged with revenge. By sexually exploiting women, they have proclaimed dominance over each other. their favour, women had none. Greed, hatred, resentment, thirst for personal power and influence led violence and harm. Shashi Deshpande remarks:
Rape is for me the grossest violation of trust between two people. Whether it is someone in the family or your husband or any other man who commits a rape, it destroys the trust between men and women. It is also the greatest violence because it is not only the women's body but it is her mind and feeling of her right to have a control on her body which is gone. (Pallavi)
The surprising event of Papoo 's marriage further disturbs Lenny's life soon after Ayah's kidnapping. Crouched in bunches, families come and cajole Papoo into a timid silence for the event. But once Papoo recovers some confidence, her eyes retrieve their roguish glow, especially during Lenny 's presence.
The day of the wedding comes, women in vivid satin enter the courtyard and the air is encompassed by the scent of delicious dishes. Decorated in the finery of Papoo, curled up in a corner, he sleeps fast. She opens her eyes sleepily as Lenny shakes her, as if she's intoxicated. Lenny runs out of the room to collect the baraat, and determines the groom to be a young boy of eleven or twelve, on the basis of his height. She is surprised to see the pimple-pitted face of a dark, middle-aged man as the Sehra swings out. He is a small and the smirk creeping around his thin, dry lips gives him an "impression of cruelty." The horrific possibilities awaiting Papoo shock Lenny. The contentious grin on Maccho 's face further mystifies her — her arrogant and justified grin implies that she already had the advantage! Lenny discovers belatedly that Papoo had been drugged purposefully so that the marriage ceremonies could go ahead comfortably.
Independence is eventually proclaimed and Sidhwa sheds light on the plight of the women kidnapped and abused during Partition. As Bhaskar Rao commented on the troubling rise in the length of the lists, both governments were forced to respond. The Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan met in Lahore as early as September 1947 and took a decision on the issue of the return of kidnapped women. It was at that meeting that they released a joint statement stating that:
Both the Central Governments and the Governments of East and West Punjab wish to make it clear that forced conversions and marriages will not be recognized. Further, that women and girls who have been abducted must be restored to their families, and every effort must be made by the Governments and their officers concerned to trace and recover such women and girls. (Rao 30)
The servants' rooms behind the home of the Hindu doctor now accommodate some women. They are being guarded by a tall and bearded Sikh. Lenny and other kids creep up a ladder and peer into the sealed courtyard, unable to get any response from the servants. Multiple women hiding between beds are able to create dark patterns. These are referred to as "fallen women" by Sidhwa. She figures out that the women who were kidnapped during the violence have now been released, and that they have declined to be recognised by their families. In his survey of the events during Partition, G.D. Khosla notes the appeal made by Nehru:
I am told that there is an unwillingness on the part of their relatives to accept those girls and women back in their homes. This is a most objectionable and wrong attitude to take and any social custom that supports this attitude must be condemned. These girls and women require our tender loving care and their relatives should be proud to take them back and give them every help. (Khosla 75)
Sidhwa introduces Hamida after this explanation, who is brought in as a replacement for Ayah for Lenny. Lenny identifies her barren and pale face instantly as one that belongs to the women's group, but continues to stay silent. Hamida discovers that everyone in the house is searching for Ayah. Lenny's cook throws on a tip about Ayah's where-abouts, but reveals no crucial information. Lenny also thinks that Godmother is ready to find Ayah, although she specifically does not say anything. She also observes the wars of her parents and is also fascinated in the adjacent courtyard by the women. In the women's camp, Lenny tells Hamida that she saw her and wants to find out more about these women. Hamida informs her that it's a fallen women's camp. Lenny is incapable of knowing this. She asks the godmother about the significance of the point. In the expectation that one day she will be able to reach her Ayah there, Lenny holds a watch on the rooms of the "fallen women." She asks Hamida privately if she misses her kids. Hamida warns her that if she wants to reach her children in a sneaky way, her husband will torture them. Sidhwa reveals Hamida 's difficulties. She is denied of the rights of a mother and a wife as a survivor of the disaster of partition. But she is released from the women's camp because of the support offered by Lenny 's family and is permitted to live a normal life. The only chance in the centre of all the chaos is her recovery as Lenny's Ayah.
One day, Adi, a cousin of Lenny, unexpectedly declares that he's seen Ayah walk away at a Charing Cross in taxi, dressed up like a film star. After this Lenny also sees Ayah, exaggeratedly made up and accompanied by two slim poets, moving away in a taxi at Mozang Chowk. She and Adi are going to her godmother 's house to stay overnight with her. Lenny tells his godmother about seeing Ayah. Godmother attempts to stop her concern and informs her that Ayah had been planned by her mother for her relatives to be sent. Lenny is surprised and terrified. Godmother also notices that Ice-candy-man hasn't been seen for a long time. Eventually, Adi informs her that Ayah is a dancing girl who lives in Hira Mandi. Lenny approaches his mother with this information. But she can only get herself to ask about the petrol cans in the car dicky. Her mother informs her that her Hindu and Sikh friends are stealing rationed petrol to help them run away. Lenny argues that she may have supported her as well, but distrusts herself for having lost the faith of Ayah.
Ice-Candy-man meets Godmother and Lenny at Hira Mandi. Lenny discovers that Ayah is married to Ice-Candy - Man. The Ice Candy-Man blames the Godmother for dishonouring Ayah, "oh? What kind of man? A royal Pimp. What kind of man would allow his wife to dance like a performing monkey before other men? You're not a man; you're a low - born, two-bit evil little mouse! " (Sidhwa 248) The ice-candy man is frightened, but Godmother 's assault is persistent. She figures out that in February Ayah was lifted, but in May the marriage took place only when Lenny 's mother arranged for her to be sent to Amritsar. Ice-candy-man is heartbroken; sorrow and outrage are squeezed into his mask with remorse. Suddenly, Lenny's safe world destroys and the emotional storm swirling around her brings her to the "demands of gratification- and the unscrupulous nature of desire." (Sidhwa 254)
The godmother is preparing to meet Ayah. Lenny wants to join her, but she's obstinate, saying kids shouldn't visit places like that. Lenny says she needs to reassure Ayah that she is still a friend and does not think poorly of her because when she was abducted, she was sorry for disclosing Ayah's whereabouts to Ice-Candy - Man. The godmother decides to take Lenny with her. They also find out that Ayah 's name has been changed to Mumtaz by Ice-candy - man. They discover Ayah covered in bridal frocks - Silk and gold made her presence appealing, but her eyes are so hollow that Lenny doubts "where have the radiance and the animation gone? Can the soul be extracted from its living body" (Sidhwa 260) Conveying her hate for Ice-candy - man, Ayah tells godmother that she wants to go to her home.
With the aid of his godmother, Ayah is saved from Hira Mandi. Despite tracking her in three rampaging carts, Ice-Candyman and his friends could do nothing. The character of Godmother is seen to be nuanced as she appears as a commanding force on the one side, able to fulfil her wishes. In female characters she embodies the ideal of dominance. But on the other hand, the behaviour of Godmother to Mini Aunty, whom Sidhwa has very appropriately called the slave sister, attracts the reader's attention for its incomprehensible strangeness. Godmother shows sympathy and care in her dealing with those outside her close family circle, but her behaviour towards her husband and her sister is cleansed of such feelings. In her home, in which her husband is just a secondary presence, she completely rules. To her girlfriend, she is rude, childish and abusive and constantly rules her over. Her sister does all the household work, while she just hatefully criticises her: "If you think you have too much to cope with you can live someplace else." (Sidhwa 244) “Don't think I've not been observing your tongue of late! If you're not careful, I'll snip it off ... God knows, you've grown older - and fatter - but not up! This child here has more sense than you.” (Sidhwa 164) While she cannot excuse the abuse of the slave child, Lenny adores her godmother as she fights her battles for her. After Ayah is held in the women's relief camp, Ice-candy-man is consistently patrolling the route. As Lenny argues, "When we walk past the Ice-candy-man, he greets us courteously and does not stare at Ayah, but casts his eyes down. Ayah behaves as if he is invisible." (Sidhwa 277) He got the air of a fakir who, for his wife, relinquished the world.
The novel ends with the marriage of Ayah with her family and the disappearance of Ice-Candy - man across the border of Wagah into India. Sidhwa leaves the readers with the possibility that Ayah may be returned to a life of normalcy and happiness by liberating Ayah from her troubled past.
During the disturbing and crippling days of Partition, the novel Ice-Candy-Man documents the multidimensional trauma women experienced. A girl-child 's narration of the tale means that the outer world can be seen through feminine eyes. Women are portrayed in the novel as a "twice oppressed category on stage: firstly, as human beings suffocated by violence and secondly, as women burdened by the bonds and impositions of a patriarchal society." (Piciucco 208-209)
The harsh realities of the Partition are portrayed with candour in Ice-Candy - Man. The bravery of spirit displayed by many characters in the novel is not overshadowed. Ayah, Papoo, Hamida, Lenny 's mother, the female characters of the novel, draw our attention to the reality of women's victimisation and the urge to describe their lives according to pre-fixed gender stereotypes. They also reveal conventional social views of patriarchalism. The Godmother, Rodabai, arranges free education for Ranna. In order to encourage the escape of their mates, Lenny's mother and Electric-Aunt stock petrol. Hamida is being refurbished. In Ayah, latent possibilities of the revival of the human spirit can be sensed as she chooses to go back to her home, taking a bold decision. In all its tentative probabilities, she dismisses the constricting present and decisively wants to face the future.
Works Cited
Dr. Hasmukh Patel, Principal, Government Science College, Gariyadhar, Dist. Bhavnagar Cell No: 9426842501 Email: hjpatel@gujgov.edu.in ORCID ID: 0000-0002-4171-9332