Cracking India\" by Bapsi Sidhwa

¶ … Cracking India" by Bapsi Sidhwa revolves around Indian society before and during the implementation of the Partition, wherein India as a country was divided into two: the Hindu- and Muslim-dominated areas. India became the Hindu- dominated territory while the Muslim-dominated area is now called Pakistan. Further divisions generated the nations Punjab and Bengal, which are predominantly Muslim nations.

This was the socio-political landscape in which Sidhwa's characters found themselves in "Cracking." Through the main characters Lenny and Ayah, we, the readers, were able to witness how the Partition was perceived and interpreted by people within the Indian society. Sidhwa's characters were evidently not able to grasp the gravity of the political condition their country was in. As India entered into the agreement called the Partition, glaring and antagonistic diversity emerged, creating disunity and inciting violence among people of various cultures and religious beliefs.

The following passage from the novel served as the key towards understanding how the author was able to integrate the issue of religious nationalism and create meaning for its title, "Cracking India":

There is much disturbing talk. India is going to be broken. Can one break a country? And what happens if they break it where our house is? Or crack it up further up...

A no one's going to break India. It's not made of glass!"

And I become aware of religious differences.

It is sudden. One day everybody is themselves -- and the next day they are Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian. People shrink, dwindling into symbols

In this passage, Sidhwa effectively conveyed the primary message of the novel: religious nationalism had become India's gift and curse. Prior to the Partition, India enjoyed its diversity, being a society of different cultural identities. This rich Indian culture made people tolerant of each other's differences, and create a 'hybrid culture' in which, despite their differences, people identify themselves as part of the Indian nation. United by their strong subsistence to religion, India as a nation had a strong socio-cultural cohesion, a characteristic that was reflected in the exclamation that "(India is) not made of glass."

However, this diversity was also the reason why India was easily divided: because of the strong affiliation that people have with their respective religions, a chance to gain autonomy had been one of the reasons why the Partition was supported and implemented immediately. Lenny's character recognized what had been lost when she reflected, "[o]ne day everybody is themselves...People shrink, dwindling into symbols." This statement demonstrated how, in their preoccupation and belief in their religions, Indians have lost their vision -- that they are, first and foremost, people of the same nation rather than individuals with different religious beliefs.

The novel, in effect, was a testament of Sidhwa's defiance and disagreement to the Partition, which the author believed was a political action implemented in order to induce disunity among the Indians. The title "Cracking India" was an assertion of the 'invincibility' of India as a nation; that despite the Parition, India as a nation can never be separated and invaded by foreign control.

The dominant and rigidly structured caste system in India had been a source of social oppression and discrimination in Indian society through the years. Aside from being a detriment towards achieving social progress in the society, the caste system had also been a source of confusion for colonizers such as Britain. This is because the Indian caste system is a two-dimensional concept, possessing both religious and social aspects that made the nation's socio-political divisions complicated to create, develop, and implement.

This was the challenge that the British had encountered when they set foot in India to colonize the nation. In order to fully control it, the British deemed it important to know its social, political, economic, and geographic divisions and structures. Inevitably, knowing the structures and divisions in the social order meant knowing the caste system popularly associated with Hinduism.

Confusion emerged when the British failed to distinguish the social caste system from its religious counterpart. Basically, both religious and social caste systems are composed of the four main castes: Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaisya, and Sudra. The Brahman is the highest caste level, and is assigned to the earthly gods as heads of the caste system. Kshatriyas serve as warriors while the Vaisyas are the farmers and merchants. The Sudra caste is the lowest in the system, and people in this caste serve as servants and laborers to the three higher castes.

However, one important distinction between the social and religious caste systems is the latter's exclusivity and higher indivisibility. The religious caste system is organized in its original structure and strictly subsists to the divisions and exclusivity of each caste from each other. The social caste system, however, was created and developed in the opposite manner the religious caste system did. Unlike the religious caste system, the social caste system tended to be non-exclusive and is susceptible to further divisions or stratifications.

The castes in the social caste system, like the religious caste system, are divided into Jats or communities. However, social castes have a less rigid hierarchy, that is why within the Jats of each caste exists sub-communities wherein members of the caste (a particular caste) can claim greater superiority than the other Jat or sub-community. Thus, in the social caste system, political leadership is autonomous not only at each caste, but also at every community and sub-community contained within a caste.

Because there is no definite division and assignation of leadership for each caste, Jat, and sub-community, the British had a difficult time identifying the leaders of each community. This made colonization harder for them, for they did not know whom to approach and what alliances they should form in order to make their entry in the country easier and more receptive for the natives (Indians). Thus, because of their insufficient knowledge about the existence of two kinds of caste systems in India, disunity occurred as a result of the British's resorting to geographical divisions as their basis for establishing socio-political territories for India as their new colony.

Varna" is the term used to refer to the four castes in the Indian caste system. The four Varnas are the Brahmans, Kshatriya, Vaisyas, and Sudras. Brahmans are considered the heads of the caste system, and is a title entitled to all earthly gods that Hindus worship. Kshatriyas, the second highest caste, are assigned the role of the warriors. Vaisyas are people who belong to the third caste and occupy the roles of merchants and farmers. Lastly, the Sudras are the lowest-level members of the caste system, serving as laborers for the members of the three higher castes. Each caste or Varna contains communities or sub-divisions called Jats. These sub-divisions still rigidly subsist to the caste which they were born from, but claim different levels of superiority among members of their caste. At the lowest level of the Indian social status structure are the Untouchables. Apart from being slaves and workers for the Indian public, the Untouchables do not have social and economic rights in their society. Thus, they are society's 'ownership,' and their fate in life is ultimately determined by other members of Indian society who are not considered Untouchables.

Darshan refers to the religious philosophies in Hinduism. In this religion, there are six darshans or classical philosophies that influence Hindus' everyday lifestyle, traditions, and beliefs. Karma Mimamsa is identified as "action investigation; Vedanta marks the end of the Vedas; Sankhya system, which is the composition of two principles (purusha or male spiritual principle and prakriti or female spiritual principle); Yoga system; and metaphysical systems of atomic realism and theistic logic. These darshans balance out the physical and metaphysical elements in the world. Because of these darshans, Hindus are able to practice their religion through material symbolisms (physical) and traditions (metaphysical).

Sufism is the term used for Islam mysticism, which promotes the practice of ascetism and refusal to live life dependent on material things. For the Sufis, believe in a the concept of a god cannot be equated and defined by any form -- be it written, oral, or symbolic. The Sufis believe that since the concept of a god is a metaphysical occurrence, experiencing God can only be felt, and this experience cannot be expressed to another person. This means that experiencing God is experienced intrapersonally and remains contained within the self only; that is, anyone, whether educated/learned or not, can experience and claim the privilege of experiencing God. Since the experience do not require any form of explanation, it remains unique, enigmatic, and unexplainable -- that is, mystic. Any expression of this experience is considered an unorthodox practice of someone's belief in a god/God.

The concepts of Karma and Reincarnation have important repercussions and significance to the Hindus, particularly those belonging to the three higher castes in the caste system. As a member of either the Brahman, Kshatriya, or Vaisya caste, an individual receives social and economic rights. Moreover, members of these castes are considered born twice -- the first being the natural birth and the second being the birth of the individual "socially" at a later age. Thus, these castes being born twice in Hinduism, the principles behind Karma and Reincarnation applies to them. Karma refers to the corresponding reaction to an action or deed that an individual had done to another living thing/s. This means that if the deed was bad or considered evil, the corresponding reaction or karma will also be bad or evil. A similar analogy is applied to goodness/good deeds. Reincarnation is the return of some metaphysical part of the self into a new body -- a process of rebirth for the individual, characteristic of the concept of two births exclusively only to members of the three higher castes.

Jainism is an old religion prevalent in India and other nations in the Asian region. Originally a part of the Buddhist religion, Jainism believes not in the concept of a God, but the authority of the saints or prophets. Its religious principles are simple and deterministic: Jainism posits that the world is made up of two independent categories. These categories are the living soul or the "enjoyer" and the non-living object or the "enjoyed." Though it does not believe in the concept of one divine authority, Jainists subsist to the same caste system dominant in Hinduism. Thus, Jainism also has the same castes or social divisions as is found in the Hindu caste system.