The Transformation of Ice-Candy-Man: Account of Partition Trauma in Cracking India

Abstract

This article aims to unveil the capricious transformation of the key figure, Ice-Candy-Man (named Dilnawaz) and the riotous traumatic impact of the Partition of India on his personality in Cracking India. The most arousing, poignant, efficacious figure Ice-Candy-Man of Bapsi Sidhwa’s magnum opus Cracking India traps the mind of the readers. Sidhwa, the original mark and a victim of the Partition in 1947, had sensed the brutal incidents which impaled her heart with pathos and enforced her to pen it down by presenting vivacious, colorful characters with autobiographical touches. The Ice-Candy-Man appears with a different disguise each time. Why did Sidhwa characterize him in such a specific and dynamic manner? His gestures, speech and even his transition stages and his every next footstep are the symbols and metaphors of the changing society during the traumatic events of Partition—they denote how an individual turns his course of life. His act of transformation is the core to unlocking Sidhwa’s magical world. Without analyzing the Ice-Candy-Man, all endeavors to interpret Sidhwa’s messages are futile.