Cracking India takes place between 1943 and 1948 in the city of Lahore and the surrounding countryside. When the novel begins, Lahore is a city in British-ruled India. In 1947, it became part of the new nation of Pakistan. When the British left India they split it up into two countries: India and Pakistan. This event, which led to much violence and bloodshed, is known as “Partition.” The novel tells the story of Partition from the perspective of Lenny Sethi, who is four when the novel begins. She describes both her family and her everyday life, as well as the political events that led to Partition and the violence that followed it.
Lenny is a smart young girl who is sick with polio. Her family is upper-middle-class and lives in a fairly wealthy neighborhood of Lahore. The city is populated by a majority of Muslims but there are also many Hindus and Sikhs. Lenny’s family, however, are Parsi (spelled “Parsee” throughout the novel). This is a small religious minority in India made up of Zoroastrians who fled religious persecution in Persia between 8 and 9 CE. Lenny has a tight-knit family composed of her mom and dad, brother Adi, aunt, cousin, godmother, and her godmother’s sister. There is also a colorful cast of domestic workers including the cook Imam Din, a gardener, a family of Untouchables (part of the lowest caste in Hinduism) who work as sweepers, an odd-job man, and a nanny.
Lenny is very close with her ayah, the local word for “nanny.” Thanks to Ayah, Lenny knows a wide variety of adults from Lahore’s poor and working classes. Most of these are suitors of Ayah, who is known to attract men all over Lahore because of her beauty. These suitors include a cook, a masseur, a zoo attendant, a knife-sharpener and money-lender, and a popsicle seller known as Ice-candy-man. This group includes Muslims, Sikhs, and Hindus. Thanks to them, Lenny gets insight into the different religions and cultures that make up India before Partition. Ayah’s love life also introduces Lenny to sexuality. She begins to understand the sexual power that women can hold but also the many ways that men control and hurt women. Much of the novel describes Lenny’s adventures walking around the city with Ayah or gathering in the park with Ayah’s many suitors and friends. Lenny also describes her problems with polio and the many surgeries and doctor’s visits she must endure. She loves her parents but is always craving more love and attention from them. Lenny enjoys visiting the house of her godmother, who is always arguing with her younger sibling known as Slavesister.
Historical events are constantly influencing Lenny’s private and domestic life. At home, with Ayah’s suitors, and at the Parsi temple, she hears adults constantly talking about politics. When the novel begins, there is the news that World War II is over. India, which was still a British colony, sided with the Allies against Germany, Italy, and Japan. Once the war is over, people begin wondering what will happen to India. Indian leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Muhammad Ali Jinnah have been pushing for Indian independence from the British and self-rule. Gandhi visits Lahore and Lenny gets the chance to meet him. Like the adults, she begins to wonder what will happen to India when and if the British leave. There is talk of a separate Muslim-majority country, Pakistan, being formed. Lenny notices religious differences becoming more and more important. When the novel begins, Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs get along in relative peace. However, as India moves closer to independence in 1948, the groups begin fighting.
Lenny begins to better understand the relations between religious groups when she visits the countryside with her family’s Muslim cook Imam Din. They go to Pir Pindo, a village forty miles from Lahore, to visit his family. There she witnesses Sikhs and Muslims who have been neighbors for centuries. They are all worried due to rumors of violence but promise to protect one another. When she visits again later, however, she sees that the Sikhs have begun threatening the Muslim villagers, and those who can are escaping.
In the city, too, things are changing. Lenny begins seeing the people around her less as individuals and more as people belonging to separate religious communities. Ayah is Hindu, as is the family gardener Hari. Imam Din and the odd-job man Yousef are Muslim. So too are Ice-candy-man and Ayah’s favorite suitor Masseur. The zookeeper Sher Singh is Sikh. Each group has its own way of dressing, eating, and worshiping. As the relations between these communities get worse, Lenny becomes more and more aware of their differences. When a Sikh political and religious leader visits the city and threatens the Muslims there, violence breaks out. People start lighting fires and killing each other.
In 1948, the British officially leave India and split the country up into India and Pakistan. Overnight, Lahore becomes part of the new nation of Pakistan. Lenny is mostly concerned that this is happening on her birthday and that no one is paying attention to her. Yet the political situation begins to be serious. Hindus and Sikhs begin leaving Pakistan for India. Similarly, some of the Muslims in India begin leaving for Pakistan. On both sides, many of these groups are forced out through violence. Others are killed while trying to escape. In three months, seven million Muslims and five million Hindus and Sikhs are part of this exchange of populations. As the groups fight, Lenny sees fires break out all over Lahore. One day, a train comes carrying Muslim refugees from India. Ice-candy-man finds that they have all been murdered and mutilated. In revenge, he joins the mobs attacking Hindus and Sikhs or robbing their abandoned properties. Lenny sees that even former friends, including Ayah’s suitors, have turned on each other. Out of fear, the gardener Hari converts to Islam. Ayah’s favorite suitor, the gentle Masseur, is found hacked in half in a sack in the street. Meanwhile, the action switches perspective for the first time as a section narrates what happens to Imam Din’s great-grandson Ranna in the village of Pir Pindo. Groups of Sikhs came and massacred everyone in his village. Women are raped. Ranna is badly wounded and barely makes it alive into Pakistan.
The story reaches a climax when a mob comes to the Sethi household. From their name, this mob assumes that they are Hindus. Imam Din comes out to protect the house and tells the angry men that this is a Parsi household (being a small minority, the Parsis were mostly exempt from the violence between religious groups). Yet the group wants to know what happened to the Hindu nanny. Ayah goes to hide, knowing that she might be kidnapped and raped. Her suitor Ice-candy-man comes up to Lenny to ask where she is hiding. Lenny, who has a bad habit of always telling the truth whatever the consequences, thinks she can trust Ice-candy-man but he gives her up to the crowd. They carry Ayah away on a cart.
Lenny enters a period of deep regret and sadness. She attempts to find out what happened to Ayah but initially has no luck. With Ayah gone, a Muslim woman named Hamida becomes her new nanny. Hamida was kidnapped during the initial violence following Partition. Because she was raped, her husband and family would not accept her back. She was taken to a Recovered Women’s Camp right next to the Sethi house until she was hired.
Lenny begins to have a romantic interest in Cousin, who she finds nice, and who she assumes she will eventually marry. Cousin is a bit older than her, however, and tries to touch her sexually. Lenny rejects this and they come to an agreement to wait until she is older. These interactions with Cousin continue to teach her about sexuality. She begins to notice the boys and men all around the city.
One day, Cousin spots Ayah in a taxi with two thin men who look like poets. Thanks to Godmother’s help, who has a lot of influence and knows seemingly everyone in the city, they found out that Ayah is living in the city’s red-light district. Ice-candy-man first made her work as a prostitute before marrying her and making her covert to Islam. Godmother wants to help Ayah, who is now being called Mumtaz. First Godmother invites Ice-candy-man over. He is now dressed as a poet and acts like a gentleman, reciting poetry and speaking politely. He claims he loves Ayah and that he married her to protect her. Godmother calls him a pimp and a lowlife. Eventually, Godmother and Lenny are able to visit Ayah in the brothel neighborhood of the city. Ayah begs to leave, saying she will go to India even if her family there won’t accept her. Eventually, Godmother convinces the police to free Ayah and she is taken to the Recovered Women’s Camp near the Sethi house. Ice-candy-man, transformed into the wronged lover, waits outside the camp for her. One day Ayah is finally transferred to India and Ice-candy-man escapes across the border after her.
