Themes of Ice-Candy-Man The novel deals with a monumental and potent slice of Indian history.

Through Ice-Candy-Man, Bapsi Sidhwa has indeed brought to life the spiritual, emotional, and very real
implications of the partition of India. In so doing, she has “cracked” the riddle of India and revealed to us
the cultural difficulties that plagued South Asia before, during, and after its split from the British and
creation of Pakistan. Ice-Candy-Man brings to life the deeply religious, national, social, and economic
tensions marking both historical and current Indo-Pak political dynamics. Ice-Candy-Man is a story in
which individuals and their community identities are inseparable, a story of emerging nations as well as
a story of single characters. Notonly Lenny, but everyone in this novel experiences substantial change in
the context of partition. Theme of partition The story of partition is represented through the eyes of
Lenny, who is lame. This disability of her also signifies the problems that a female writer faces while
representing her views. Lenny, an eight-year-old child is the protagonist of the novel. She is innocent
and unaware of the bitter differences among different communities. This can be judged on the basis of
the fact that she is much attachedto Shanta Devi, who is a Hindu. But as the novel develops, her
innocence withers away and the bloody experienceof the partition takes its place. She gradually
becomes aware of the dark realities of life. She witnesses the city of Lahore burning into the flames. She
also becomes aware of the violence that happens. Males are butchered and women are raped. Such
incidents of violence bother Lenny very much in the beginning, but with the development ofthe novel,
she becomes used to it. Burning flames, fights, slogans, rapes, mass killings etc. becomethe incidents of
every day. In most of the novels dealing with partition, leaders like Master TaraSingh, J.L. Nehru, Jinnah
and Gandhi are represented as heroes. But in Ice-candy Man, we findthem

represented as culprits of this violence in the views of Lenny. This is one of the mostdistinguished
features of this novel. Told from the awakening consciousness of an observant eight-year old Parsi girl,
the violence of the Partition threatens to collapse her previously idyllic world. The issues dealt with in
the books are as numerous as they are horrifying. The thousands of instances of rape, and public’s
subsequent memory loss that characterize the Partition are foremost. Without a doubt, novel provides
more than a compelling story but it also illustrates the pains of an action during a decisive time in India
and Pakistan’s history. When there is a talk of a possible partition in India and the creation of a Muslim
state in Pakistan, the existing harmony between Ayah’s suitors disintegrates. The group of young men,
who are a symbol of India’s multiculturalism, find themselves quarrelling like never before. The most
vociferous of all, Ice Candy-Man, gradually becomes morally bankrupt in the midstof the national
uproar.