“Ice Candy Man”: the forgotten history disclosed

Partition History is one of the most debatable questions in Pakistan. A lot of literature has also been published on the subject matter. Our Pakistan Studies books also deal out with this topic. But one thing that remains almost untouched is the sufferings of the people across the borders. The Indian narrative blames the Muslims; The Pakistani narrative to the Hindus. Yet hardly is there any attempt to bring forth the misery that the people of the subcontinent had to undergo. The partition line that was drawn by the British caused havoc devastation on both sides: women were raped, children were butchered; men were lynched; homes were looted.

 

Bapsi Sidhwa’s novel, “Ice Candy Man” presents the same story of humans’ sufferings caused by the British imperial design. She through the character of Ice Candy Man tells how a man transformed from an ardent lover to a wild animal. She explores the character of the Hindu Ayah who just like India was looted, raped, and disgraced in the hands of the colonizers. She talks about the village Pir Pindu where humanity outweighed all the differences of religion, family, sect, or creed. But the same harmony of the village turned into communal violence when the British entered the land and deprived the natives of their ancestral lands.

 

The novel is written in the narrative of a four years old girl Lenny. She belongs to a Parsee family who is living in the “affluent fringes” of pre-partition Lahore. Her physicist has warned her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Sethi, to let her go to school. That’s why; she is attending Godmother regularly as an alternative. Her little world, being caged in pram due to Polio infection, allows her to have a brilliant observation.

 

The novel, as the author herself narrates, is an autobiographical work as Bapsi Sidhwa like Lenny hailed from a Parsee community, had polio as a child, and witnessed the holocaust of partition with her own eyes.

 

The Ayah is a “chocolate brown” Hindu girl who has such a magnetic charm that attracts people from beggars to holy men including hawkers, cart drivers, cooks, coolies, and cyclists. Lenny often goes to the Queen’s Garden with Shanta, the Ayah, where admirers of the latter cluster around her without being infected with segregations of religion or caste looking as though Indians had gathered together in harmony and love. Lenny observes that Masseur and Ice Candy Man, among the admirers, have a subtle exchange of signals with Ayah, but the latter diverts other audience attention by reciting Urdu Shayari. Lenny detects, “Where Masseur is, Ayah is. And where Ayah is, is Ice Candy Man.”

 

One day, Lenny visits Pir Pindu, the native village of her cook Imam Din. Having stayed there for some days, and observing the cultural harmony there, she grows love and affection for the villagers. She keenly observes how the villagers dwell close to the earth; eat off clay plates with fingers while sitting on the floor; sleep on mats spread on the ground; assembled in a thick circle beneath a huge Sheesham in a patch of wild grass. She discovers, unlike the cities, clashes have not crept into the village.

 

When Lenny returns to the “elevated world of chairs, tables, and toilet seats”, she comes to know about the clashes among different communities through the gossips of Ayah’s admirers in the garden. And the trouble surges when a mutilated dead body of Inspector General Roger is discovered in a gutter. The British are now ramping up their efforts to withdraw from the subcontinent. Meanwhile news filters in of attacks of the Muslims, Sikhs, and the Hindus. Mob protests start erupting. Even the admirers of Shanta are decreasing day by day as they have left coming to the garden.

The Muslims are aligning themselves to Jinnah, the Hindus to Gandhi, and Sikhs to Master Tara Singh. But the Parsee community stands neutral as they believe, “We are to run with the hounds and hunt with the hare.”

 

Amid this chaos, The Partition of India becomes a reality when “the Radcliffe Commission deals out Indian cities like a pack of cards.” Lenny’s eighth birthday matches with the day of Pakistan’s creation when she becomes aware, “I am Pakistani.”

 

Things get worse in the post-partition scenario. There is a mass migration of more than twelve million people. The familiar faces are fleeing from Lahore. Meantime the radio breaks the news that a train from Gurdaspur has reached the station which is filled with dead bodies burnt to ashes and carrying, “two gunny bags full of women breasts.” Ice Candy Man who has been waiting for his relatives for more than three days stands shocked, lost, and mad. This incident changed him entirely into a new man who is brimming with hatred and ready to kill anyone to take revenge.

 

Suddenly, a fanatic Muslim mob appears in the home of Lenny and starts demanding the Hindu Ayah. Imam Din dispels the mob by telling a lie that she has gone to Amritsar. But Ice Candyman plays tricks with Lenny who out of innocence gets into the trap and reveals the secret. But she screams, repents, and hurts herself when she looks at her Ayah being dragged away from her. Later she comes to know that the Ice Candy Man, who used to be an innate lover of Shanta, has taken his beloved to Hira Mandi, the red zone area of prostitutes, and has become a pimp. Lenny gets disillusioned and starts searching for Shanta.

 

Then Godmother along with Lenny’s mother and Slavesister manages to meet her and takes her back to “The camp” which they are running to protect “The Fallen Women”. Ice Candy Man becomes a lunatic and wanders around the walls of the camp days and nights, reciting Urdu Shayari. The novel ends when Ayah has gone her family in Amritsar and the moonstruck fakir, the Ice Candy Man, has also disappeared.

 

The repercussions of the Partition are a reality even today. In one of her interviews, Bapsi Sidhwa exclaimed, “We are undergoing the partition and the independence movement still. It is not in the past, it is happening in the present too.” Out national ignorance towards the traumatic event has caused severe damage as we had been unable to understand the roots of contemporary problems which were ingrained in colonial India. There is a need to look closely at the other side of history to decipher what we have lost and how we could regain that. The biased version of history would not instill any accurate lens towards so many challenges that we are facing today.

_Muhammad Abrar