CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS

IDENTITIES IN BAPSI
SIDHWA’S ICE CANDYMAN

SUPERVISEE NAME: MANSOOR ALAM KHAN

SUPERVISOR NAME: DR. ABDUL HAMID
DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE
 Introduction
 Post-colonialism is a term used to describe a time when colonies seized independence
from European colonization. Post-colonialism refers to the effects of colonial
oppression on many cultures and societies that historians characterized and detailed
after World war II
 Although many countries gained independence and were no longer considered colonial,
there were various cultural, religious, political, and economic challenges and crises,
and the countries were still unsure of their culture and identity.
 Identity and culture are a contentious issue in Post-colonial thought. The rise of
immigrants, hybrid countries, and nations with diverse cultures has raised this subject
to a new level.
 Introduction
 Post-colonial novels have only worsened such concerns as resistance, nationalism, hybridity,
diaspora, and identity construction and its crisis. Some post-colonial novels also depicted the
difficulties of settlers, which were a result of colonial policies and the post-colonial world.
 Sidhwa’s novel Ice-Candyman analyzes the unyielding rationale of the Partition as an
outgrowth of fundamentalism started by abnormal communal behaviors.
 Partition is shown in almost all of her novels set in the united India. Ice-Candyman is her most
realistic and acclaimed novel on the subject of Partition. The sudden outburst of the socio-
political realities of the united India right before its division are presented very vividly in a
critical manner in this novel. The novelist has done an outstanding job of portraying Partition
and the Hindu-Muslim upheavals from an impartial perspective.
 Introduction
 A Parsee narrator is caught in this division as an Indian, despite the attachment and
amiability to all religious identities belonging to unified India. The study examines a
Parsee child's religious understanding, religious disparities, and means and strategies for
maintaining interaction amongst religious identities of the sub-continent.
 Ice Candyman is a story about a child's relationships with older, diverse friends. Partition
affects their connection since it divides Lenny's nation geographically, but also her friends
socially, psychologically, emotionally as well as religiously. Lenny learns about religious
differences and how this leads to hatred amongst friends. Lenny narrates Partition as an
eight-year-old not belonging to the Muslim, Hindu, or Sikh religions. But she thinks
they're all friends.
 Problem Statement

Writers and researchers have addressed both the positive and negative elements of sub-
continent's Partition. However, disrespect and intolerance resulted from the deliberate infusion
of cultural and religious differences in the name of identity, which was transmitted by the
British colonizer into the heterogeneous communities of the sub-c0ntinent as an outcome
of Partition.
British colonialism might have a significant impact on the sub-continent society and might be
the primary cause of identity crisis in the sub-continent during the time of Partition. The novel
Ice Candyman describes the upheavals of Partition in which the Cultural and Religious
identities of both the Muslims and the Hindus were exploited. This study strives to explore the
aspect of identity issues during Partition in Bapsi Sidwa’s Ice Cndyman.
 Research Questions

 What are the identity issues in the novel Ice Candyman?

 How the cultural and religious dimensions of identity are revealed in the novel
Ice Candyman?
 How the identities of heterogeneous communities of the sub-continent are
affected psychologically and emotionally?
 Significance of the Study

The present work has investigated the idea of subordination and identity crisis
injected by the colonizer when the colonized communities of the sib-continent were
completely unconscious of their cultural and religious differences and they were
living in harmonized manner, and were also giving a comfort zone and respect to one
another’s identity. By analyzing some of the predominant concerns of identity issues
through the novel of Sidhwa’s Ice Candyman , this research has the capacity to give
way to the future researches that would be done in the literature of identity, diaspora
and hybridity etc, under the umbrella of Post-colonialism.
 Limitations

The issue of identity is multifaceted and has been discussed in many different genres of
post-colonial literature. However, it is quite difficult to undertake all the aspects of
identity issue in a single research work. So this research study has focused only on the
two aspects, i.e. Cultural and Religious identity. Due to serious time constraints, the
study is put into restriction to identity issue to only one novel of Bapsi Sidhwa that is Ice
Candyman .
 Delimitations

This research has worked on Sidhwa’s novel Ice Candyman and has explored and
analyzed the two major concepts of identity crisis at the time of Partition of the sub-
continent, i.e. culture and religion. Identity as a part of post-colonial theory is such a vast
concept that it can’t be reached to its extent. This research study has delimit the approach
of identity crisis for the future researches and it might help in fulfilling the gaps on the
same content of identity and its issues.
 Literature Review

 Post-colonial Theory and Identity Issue

 Identity

 Types of Identity

 The problems of Identity

 Sidhwa as a Post Colonial Novelist

 Cultural Confusions as Identity Issues in Bapsi Sidhwa’s Novels

 Research Methodology

Research Design & Type

A qualitative research design has been used in this study. This study is exploratory and
descriptive in its nature. The study merely intends to probe for the Cultural and Religious
identities in Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice Cndyman (1988). It highlights issues relating to identity as
culture, religion, their consciousness for identity and their shared feelings on Partition living
under a single roof in the sub-continent.

Data Source
Primary data for this study has been taken from the text of Bapsi Sidhwa’s masterpiece novel on
the theme of Partition, Ice Candyman. Secondary data sources used in this study comprises of
digital library usage, research papers and scholarly articles, literary essays, books and magazines
having relevance to the nature and topic of the study.
 Techniques of Data Collection

In order to collect primary data, the novel was given a thorough read and then for
further deeper understanding selected texts from the novel has been extensively
taken again and again to grab relevant passages and paragraphs for analysis.
Techniques of data collection for this study also comprises of library findings,
developing notes and relevant information from both primary and secondary data
sources, and categorization of data inductively concluded in different forms in
accordance with the nature of the problem of this study. A descriptive and
exploratory mode of inquiry is employed to formulate this study.
 Theoretical Framework

 The present study is guided by Post-colonial theory. As a literary theory, post-colonialism is

concerned with literatures produced by those nations who have once been colonies of the
European imperial powers, such as Britain, Spain and France.

 Post-colonialism deals with issues such as culture and identity of the (once) colonized
peoples. In order to highlight cultural and religious identities in Bapsi Sidwa’s Ice
Candyman, Postcolonial theory has been applied with respect to its one of the major
concepts of identity crisis and valorization of cultural identity that are much exposed by
Edward Said and Franz Fanon in their writings, the renowned voices of postcolonial
literature as to unveil the hidden possibilities of this issue.
 Analysis & Discussion

 Portrayal of the Peaceful Co-existence

The partition of India in 1947 has leftover an immense effect on the identities and
personalities of the peoples of sub-continent. As multiple cultural, religious, and social
communities were living harmoniously before the arrival of the British Empire and they all
were allowing each other for their cultural and religious co existence.
 Portrayal of Partition
Sidhwa in Ice Candyman has depicted a true picture of a humanly created socio political
and religious catastrophe in the form of the division of United India with an impartial eye,
which is considered the most awful violent collapse of the 20 th century.
 Analysis & Discussion

 LENNY: The Girl and Crippled child as Narrator of the Novel

Sidhwa and Ice Candyman has skillfully dealt with the subject of partition issue with a
Parsee perspective that is considered as a neutral voice in the character of Lenny. Who
is an eight years old physically disabled girl. Sidhwa has associated the Partition story
with the experiences of Lenny from an affiliate point of view as compare to the
feminine perspective.
 Text Analysis of the Novel Ice Candyman
 Conclusion

 Today's world is saturated with immigrants and refugees, and people are moving about,
leaving one location to find another. western countries have become cultural, religious, and
ethnic tenets. In such circumstances, a new sense of cultural and religious identities,
rootlessness, and homelessness have become the norm. Post-colonial writers' main themes
were exile and displacement of home, which gave an open idea to the issues colonized
communities have faced in terms of cultural and religious identities. By analyzing Bapsi
Sidhwa's novel, Ice Candyman, the researcher tries to justify the research gap of exploring
the narrative of Cultural and Religious Issues of Identity.
 Conclusion

 The researcher in this study effectively answers the question of identity issues in the novel
Ice Candyman. The colonial masters purposely harmed the sub-continent's atmosphere to
extend their authority and suppress Guerrilla warfare. The most destructive approach they
used was religious divisions. They were quite successful in propagating religious prejudice
and hatred. Contrary to religious belief, the cultural communities coexisted harmoniously for
generations, developing a distinct Indian identity via mutual exchange. Despite cultural and
religious differences, all people on the sub-continent associated with India and were proud to
be called as Indians.
 Conclusion

 Then further, the researcher has addressed another research question, that is, how the novel
Ice Candyman reveals cultural and religious dimensions of identity. It was a strong emotional
and psychological bond that made the sub-continent communities believe they were one India.
Their greater identity was Indian, which binded all the disparate peoples together in mutual
trust and harmony. However, the loss of identity caused the Indians to be completely
confused. The loss of this identity brought the Indians to a historical crossroads where they
struggled to reclaim a true and strong identity.
 Finally, the researcher's research gap of exploring Cultural and Religious issues of identity in
Bapsi Sidhwa's Ice Candyman is justified by textual references and analysis. To disperse
people into smaller and narrower antagonistic identities, Sidhwa, as a writer, promotes this
fact.
 Conclusion

 The loss of India was not only the loss of innocence but the loss of identity as
well. Sidhwa, in Ice Candyman, brilliantly highlighted the Partition narrative's thin
spectrum. Partition liberated the sub-continent people from oppressive foreign rule but
harmed their most cherished identities, cultures, and values. Sidhwa endorses this fact to
reinterpret the narrative of Partition as a necessary measure for the people of sub-
continent that  Partition has emotionally and psychologically harmed and imbalanced the
characters in the novel. It shocked everyone, Muslims and Hindus alike. Also, it robbed
the people of their innocence and turned them into thugs and murderers.
THANK YOU!