Analysing Reasons for the Communal Anguish and Violence Represented in Bapsi Sidhwa’s Novel Ice-Candy Man: A New Historical StudyAnalysing Reasons for the Communal Anguish and Violence Represented in Bapsi Sidhwa’s Novel Ice-Candy Man: A New Historical Study
Abstract
Abstract
This research paper critically analyses the underlying factors behind the estrangement, maladjustment, and communal violence represented in Bapsi Sidhwa’s novel Ice-Candy Man (1988) from the perspective of Neo Historicism. It delves deep into the critical study of the pre-partitioned people of various religious communities i.e. the Muslims, the Hindus, and the Sikhs of the Indian subcontinent. British rule in the Indian subcontinent ended in 1947; consequently, two independent countries appeared on the map of the world. The partition caused various religious and political conflicts, which degenerated into bloody riots and violence ripping apart the amicably co-existing pluralistic phenomenon into religious bigotry. This study critically analyses the main reasons for the attitudinal shift in the relationship of the various religious communities leading to communal violence in the name of religion during and after the partition. The qualitative data reviewed from the text of the novel has been analyzed by employing textual analysis techniques. This paper draws the conclusion based on the findings that religion is not the central cause of communal riots or may not be held solely responsible for the communal violence, but it may be the land issue and the geographical division, which augmented the communal violence and estrangement during the partition. The study reveals that political polemics and maladjustments, partition and inequitable division of Punjab remain the leading causes of communal violence. It is further found that the amicable peaceful religious coexistence also got distorted and antagonized because of political polemics and the division of agricultural land. Hence, communal violence – generally known as religious violence – may be revisited and re-termed as ‘religio-political violence’ in the Indian subcontinent perspective.
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