Cracking India Essay Questions

How does Cracking India show the relationship among members of different religions change as India heads towards Partition?

At the beginning of the novel, members of different religious groups get along relatively well. Ayah's group of suitors is a miniature version of India's diverse society as it includes Sikhs, Muslims, and Hindus. While there is talk of what will happen if India is split into two countries, there is very little violence between communities. However, as Partition comes closer, the tensions increase. In the city, people are found murdered occasionally. In the countryside, Sikh and Muslim villagers swear to protect each other no matter what happens. Cracks appear even between friends. For example, earlier in the novel, Ayah's group of suitors used to all meet in the park among people of every religious group. As violence and tensions continue, they stop going to the park. Eventually, even former friends began teasing and stereotyping each other based on their religion. As the violence gets worse and the cycle of revenge continues, mobs hunt down former neighbors who are from different religious groups. Ice-candy-man, for example, is part of the Muslim mob looking for the Hindu Ayah. He takes advantage of the anti-Hindu sentiment to kidnap Ayah and force her into prostitution and then marry her. In this way, he goes from being one of her many suitors of different religions to her captor and abuser. This shows how the relationship among different religious groups changes because of Partition.

What is the significance of Lenny's inability to tell a lie?

Lenny often complains that she is incapable of lying. This begins rather innocently. For example, when she steals Rosy's jars she is immediately found out because she is a bad liar. She complains then that she has been given a "life sentence" of telling the truth. However, when the angry mob comes after Ayah because she is Hindu, Lenny's honesty has more serious consequences. She tells Ice-candy-man where Ayah is hiding in the house and then the mob takes her away. Lenny curses her tongue after this and blames her inability to lie on Ayah's kidnapping.

How does Lenny's particular perspective (as a child, a girl, and a Parsi) affect how the novel narrates the history of Partition?

In Cracking India, the story of India's Partition is told through the perspective of a little girl. While serious historical events go on, they are all filtered through this child's perspective. She is concerned about what will happen to her country, but she is only partly aware of the details of the events going on outside. She is just as concerned with winning her mom and dad's affection, growing up enough to learn about love, and playing with her friends. At the same time, as a girl she is privy to aspects of her nanny Ayah's life, as well as her mom and other female relatives. This offers a perspective on women's issues, particularly when Ayah is kidnapped and sexual violence becomes one of the weapons used against different communities during Partition. Finally, as a Parsi, Lenny is partly outside of the Hindu-Muslim-Sikh violence. This gives her a slightly safer and more objective view of the situation.

How is the power that men in society have over women portrayed in the novel?

Lenny becomes increasingly aware that women are treated unequally in Indian society and indeed all over the world. Her awareness of this increases as the violence of Partition increases. When she learns that her new nanny Hamida was a kidnapped woman, Lenny is angry. She cannot believe that her family and husband do not want her back, though her rape was no fault of her own. Similarly, Lenny is very upset about what happens to Papoo. This spunky sweeper girl is forced to marry a man much older than her. Even worse, Papoo's marriage reveals how women are sometimes complicit in patriarchy. Papoo's mother is the one who beats her and then drugs her so she does not raise a fuss about being forced to marry. Finally, the fate of Ayah and all the other kidnapped women reveal how women's bodies are used as symbols in men's fights over religious identity and nationalism.

What is the significance of sickness in the novel?

Sickness is an important motif in the novel. Lenny struggles with polio and has been partly disabled by it. Her sickness both makes her sad and makes her feel like she is a little different than everyone else. At the same time, the presence of polio in India has political causes, as it was brought by the British when they colonized the country. The same thing happened with syphilis. In this way, sickness represents the way British colonialism not only hurt the health of Indians but damaged the fabric of their society.