Ice Candy Man

By Bapsi Sidhwa

Biography
Neutrality, Nationalism vs. Love, Race
Relations, and
Women and Children’s Positions
 Bapsi Sidhwa
• Bapsi Sidhwa was born in Karachi, raised in
Lahore, graduated from Kinnaird College for
Women, Lahore , Pakistan.
• She now lives in Houston, Texas.
• Her 5 novels: Ice Candy Man, The Pakistani
Bride, The Crow Eaters, An American Brat, and
Water.
• Doyenne of Pakistani literature in English
 Sidhwa…
• Sidhwa received the Bunting Fellowship at
Radcliffe/Harvard, the Lila Wallace-Reader's
Digest Writer's Award, the Sitara-i-Imtiaz,
Pakistan's highest national honor in the arts,
and the LiBeraturepreis in Germany and the
2007 Primo Mondello Award in Italy.
• Sidhwa, who was on the advisory committee
to Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on Women's
Development has taught at Columbia
University, University of Houston, Mount
Holyoke College, Southampton University and
Brandeis.
 Sidhwa…
• Bapsi is described and recognized as “the
doyenne of Pakistani literature in English”
(Mohsin Siddiqui, 2010, para. 2), “the
grandmother of Pakistani writing in English”
(Sood & Soofi, 2007, para. 1), “folk historian
and mythmaker” (Iyengar, 2011, p. 1),
"Pakistan's finest English-language novelist”
(New York Times as cited in Bill Olive, 2007),
and “the most eminent author who began her
career in Pakistan now writing fiction in
English about Pakistan” (Brians, 2003, p. 99).
 Sidhwa…
• As for her multiple identities, she is
considered variably as “Punjabi-Parsi-
Pakistani writer” (Sonya Choudhary,
2005, para. 3), “Pakistani novelist”
(Malmberg & Zavialova, 2009), and more
appropriately in current days of her life
as “Pakistani-American novelist” (Olive,
2007).
 Ice Candy Man
• The 1947 Partition of India is the
backdrop for this “powerful” novel
• Narrated by a precocious child who
describes the brutal transition with
chilling veracity.
• The narrator, young Lenny Sethi, is
kept out of school because she suffers
from polio. She spends her days with
Ayah, her beautiful nanny, visiting with
the large group of admirers that Ayah
draws.
 Ice Candy Man
• It is in the company of these working class characters that
Lenny learns about religious differences, religious
intolerance, and the blossoming genocidal strife on the
eve of Partition. As she matures, Lenny begins to identify
the differences between the Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs
engaging in political arguments all around her. Lenny
enjoys a happy, privileged life in Lahore, but the
kidnapping of her beloved Ayah signals a dramatic change.
Soon Lenny’s world erupts in religious, ethnic, and racial
violence. By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, the
domestic drama serves as a microcosm for a profound
political upheaval.
 Politics of versions and filming
• Published as Cracking India; while Ice Candy
Man termed as “foreign edition” on her
official website.
• Film Earth was adapted from the novel. Earth
won the Grand Prize at the Deauville Panasian
Film Festival in France. The London magazine
TIMEOUT hails Earth as one of the top ten
films of 1999.
 Partition vs. Independence
• 1947 (Hadsaati Lit.)
• The construct of partition
• Love and Hatred before & during
“Partition” period (“reality” vs. “the
government rhetoric?)
• Characters across the Racial Divide
• The Roles of Women and Children
CONCLUSION