1

the Predicament of Parsis in the Selected Novels of

Bapsi Sidhwa and Rohinton Mistry

Thesis submitted to Bharathidasan University in partial fulfillment of

the requirements for the award of the Degree of

Doctor of Philosophy in English

by S.MARY HEMALATHA

Under the Supervision of Dr.S.GANESAN

P.G. AND RESEARCH DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

H.H.THE RAJAH’S COLLEGE (AUTONOMOUS - B+) (Affiliated to Bharathidasan University)

PUDUKKOTTAI -622 001.

April – 2014

2

Dr.S.GANESAN M.A., M.Ed., Ph.D., P.G.D.C.E., P.G.D.J.M.C.,

Associate Professor,

Department of English,

H.H. The Rajah’s College(Autonomous -B+)

Pudukkottai – 622 001.

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the thesis entitled “A Study on the

Predicament of Parsis in the selected Novels of Bapsi sidhwa

and Rohinton Mistry” Submitted to Bharathidasan University in

Partial fulfillment for the requirements for the award of the Degree of

Doctor of Philosophy in English is a record of original work done by

Mrs.S.Mary Hemalatha during the period 2011-2014 of her research in

H.H.The Rajah’s College (Autonomous) Pudukkottai under my

supervision and guidance and the thesis has not formed the basis for

the award of any Degree/ Diploma / Associateship / Fellowship or

other similar title of any candidate of any university.

Countersigned Signature of the Guide

Head of the Department Principal

3

DECLARATION

I, S.Mary Hemalatha hereby declare that the thesis entitled

“A Study on the Predicament of Parsis in the Selected novels

of Bapsi Sidhwa and Rohinton Mistry” submitted to

Bharathidasan University in Partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the award of the Degree of Doctor of philosophy in English, is

a record of original and independent research work done by me

during 2011-2014 under the supervision and guidance of

Dr.S.Ganesan, Associate professor, P.G and Research Department

of English, (Autonomous B+) Pudukkottai and it has not formed

the basis for the award of any Degree / Diploma / Associate ship /

Fellowship or other similar title to any candidate of any

university.

Signature of the candidate

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and Foremost, I humbly Surrender my will to God, the

Almighty for granting me grace and blessings to submit this thesis. I have immense pleasure to convey my heartfelt gratitude to

Dr.S.Manoharan Principal, H.H. The Rajah’s college (Autonomous) Pudukkottai for permitting me to carry out my research.

I am indebted to my Research supervisor Dr.S.Ganesan for his tireless, timely counselling, guidance, and continuous efforts in accomplishing the task. My Research Supervisor’s encouragement, motivation, inspiration, and thought provoking discussions helped me a lot in fulfilling my ambition of completing this thesis.

I have great pleasure to record my gratitude to Prof.S.Navaneethan (Formerly H.O.D., of English, H.H.The Rajah’s College (Aut), Pudukkottai) for his encouragement and inspiration.

I feel glad in thanking the members of the SCILET Library for providing me with reference sources and secondary material.

I am also grateful to the library, Dept. of English, H.H.The Rajah’s College, Pudukkottai for the help rendered.

My sincere and humble thanks goes to my husband C.Maraimani Mudiarasan. He encouraged and motivated me in all my endeavours towards this research work. I am very much indebted to him for his intellectual ideas and discussions.

I feel happy and I surrender myself to my loving mother, since her dream has come true in my educational career. My mother’s endless prayer and blessings only supported me in all my efforts.

Last, but not the least, I remember my Grandfather whose desire has attained success. My Grandfather was a source of inspiration to me for becoming a Professor of English. His soul would really bless me on this occasion.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter Title Page

I. Introduction 1

II. Parsi Nostalgia 48

III. The Predicament of the Parsis in

Multi-cultural Societies

64

IV. The Parsis’ Response to Socio-

Political Upheavals

127

V. Family Relationships 167

VI. Summing up 199

Works cited 207

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ABBREVIATIONS OF THE NOVELS USED

TCE : The Crow Eaters

ICM : Ice-Candy-Man

PB : The Pakistani Bride

AB : American Brat

SLJ : Such a Long Journey

AFB : A Fine Balance

FM : Family Matters

1

Chapter – I

Introduction

The colourful Parsi community has had a tumultuous history.

The Parsis originally hailed from a place called ‘Pars’ in ancient Persia

(the modern Iran). The community boasts of great teachers like

Zarathustra who gave the sacred text of Zend-Avesta, to the community.

The mighty Persian Empire had its salad days with great emperors like

Darius I, II and III. Darius the III was humbled by Alexander the Great,

marking the end of the Persian Empire. To make matters worse, the

Islamic conquest of Persia during the 8th century resulted in a Parsi

diaspora. A great number of Parsis reached the West Coast of India

and were given asylum by Yadav Rana, the native ruler of a Gujarati

Province on conditions like: they have to explain their religion to the King;

they have to give up their native Persian language, and take on the

languages of India; their women should wear the traditional dress of India;

the men should lay down their weapons, and they should hold their

wedding processions only in the dark (Kulke,28).

The Parsis accepted these conditions and settled on Indian soil.

They later moved to cities like Bombay and Lahore.

During the British reign, the Parsis enjoyed good rapport with

their English Masters. Apart from maintaining their religious practices

intact, they readily imitated the western ways of living and built up

their fortunes.

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When India got independence, the Parsis were on the cross

roads. They got trapped in both the Indian and Pakistan territories during

the Partition. But they took the pragmatic decision of settling

where they were.

For a minority community, the Parsis have made impressive

contributions in all walks of Indian life. Jamshedji Tata built up an

industrial Empire. Homi Jehangir Babha headed Indian Nuclear

research. Sam Maneckshaw went on to become one of the celebrated

generals of the Indian Army. Madam Bikaji Cama and Dadabhai

Naoroji are celebrated Indian patriots. Zubin Metha has become a

world-famous conductor of Orchestras ; Freddie Mercury is a celebrated

Western Singer. Homy K.Babha is a noted theoretician on cultural

issues and a scholarly analyst of diasporic consciousness.

On the negative side, the Parsi community suffers from

various issues like: late marriages, low birth rate, increasing divorce rate,

illness, ageing, growing inter-community marriages etc., More

importantly, the community has numerically remained a minority in

both India and Pakistan a fact which has put them under a lot of

psychological pressure.

The Parsis are a self-obsessed minority community. Due to the rise

of communal forces, the minority communities have become self-

conscious. This determines the quality of their association with other

communities in the country. In moments of national crises, these

communities transcend their community consciousness and this awareness

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of being a minority never has come into conflict with their national

consciousness.

In the changing scenario, the relationships within the family and

community have also been marked by cordiality. The younger generation

of Parsis are often against the old generation’s ideas of ethnic purity.

Nilufer E.Bharucha in her essay “Resisting Colonial and

Postcolonial Hegemonies, Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ethno – Religious Discourse”

describes ethnic identity and ethnicity. Generally ethnicity is defined as a

condition of belonging to a particular group often with the feeling of pride

that is engendered by such belonging.

“Western sociologists have viewed ethnicity not just as a categoric

marker but as a pejorative construct” (Connor, 319). Ethnic identity cannot

be subordinated to secular modernity. Most human beings finally live in

tribal mansions. Ethnic identity has its own merits though western theorists

consider ethnocentricism as a form of bias. They interpret cultures and

histories in terms of the values of Western modernism. In fact, the greater

the opposition faced by ethnic identities, the greater is their growth and

intensity.

Parsi Zoroastrians have rediscovered their ethnic identity only in

hegemonic forces. These hegemonic forces are western and of external

origin. When one group identity clashes with that of another, the politics

and history of ethnic clashes is born.

The vast majority of Parsi literature is concerned with

ethnocentricism. The Parsis are distinguished by race and religion.

Generally ethnicity includes race, religion, language, nationality and state.

4

The Parsis gain self–esteem and self–respect from an awareness of

their glorious historical past from the great Persian Empire and pride from

their own religion. They have contributed significantly to the texture of

socio-economic fabric of colonial and post-colonial India.

Parsis established themselves in trade and business, and rose to

social eminence and economic prosperity. They were also elevated to fame

among the colonists by just ‘being a Parsi’.

The sociologist Kulke has described Parsiness “as being composed

of we-consciousness that encompasses religion, ethnicity history and an

elite status” ( Kulke,2 ).

Bapsi Sidhwa in her novels probes the Indian and colonial

identities and their ultimate impact on the Parsi minority

community.Unlike the Muslims, the Parsis didn’t have the numerical

strength to visualize a homeland separate from the Hindu majority

territories. By the end of the 1930’s the Parsis had adopted the neutrality

principle. In Sidhwa’s The Crow Eaters, Freddy puts it: “Let Hindus,

Muslims, Sikhs or whoever rule. What does it matter? The sun will

continue to rise and to set in their arses”(283).

The identity of the Parsis was threatened by the end of the British

Empire. They were also apprehensive of their future in decolonized India.

Bapsi Sidhwa’s The Ice – Candy Man and The Crow Eaters deal with

ethnicity and identity crisis.

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The Lahore Parsis withdrew themselves into self-defensive

isolation, since they were unable to ignore the holocaust that followed the

forced tearing out of Pakistan from the rib of India.

Generally Parsis were threatened by decolonization. A fund of good

will was created by the Parsi Nationalists. In Pakistan, Parsi neutrality in

the Partition riots stood them in good stead. The Parsis became a respected

minority community. The body politic of Pakistan had an impact on most

Parsis especially the women.

The Parsi predicament is well-documented by creative writers. In

fact, the Parsi community has thrown up quite a few creative writers

who have chronicled the Parsi destiny in varied hues. Bapsi Sidhwa,

Rohinton Mistry, Firdaus Kanga, Faruk Dhondy, Ardhashir Vakil, Boman

Desai and other Parsi writers have attained global acclaim. Kanga's

Trying to Grow (1990), Farukh Dhondy's Bombay Duck (1990), Bapsi

Sidhwa's The Crow Eaters (1990), Rohinton Mistry's Tales from Firozsha

Baag (1977), Such a Long Journey (1991), A Fine Balance (1996) and

Family Matters (2002) are all Parsi classics. These Parsi writers have

articulated in their works their community's anxieties and aspirations,

identity crisis, moments of agony and ecstasy, and its struggle for

survival.

This thesis focusses on the novels of Bapsi Sidhwa and

Rohinton Mistry.

Bapsi Sidhwa is a Pakistani writer and is settled at present in the

USA. She was born in Karachi in 1939. She was brought up and educated

in Lahore. She grauated in Kinnaird’s College for Women in Lahore. Her

6

marriage with a Bombay business man did not last long. So she settled with

her daughter, and was compelled to leave India. At the age of twenty five,

she married Noshir, twelve years her senior.

Sidhwa started writing only at the age of twenty eight, after the

birth of her three children, two girls and a boy. Altogether, she has written

four novels. These are The Crow Eaters (1980), The Pakistani Bride (1982)

Ice – Candy Man (1988) (published as Cracking India in the USA) and An

American Brat. (1993).

Bapsi Sidhwa has won international acclaim for her work. Her

works have been translated into French and German. In American

Universities, her works are taught as part of the curriculum. Pakistan and

America have honoured her for her writings. She received in 1991, the

Sitare-I-Imtiaz award. This is the highest honour in the arts bestowed on a

citizen in Pakistan.

Cracking India was named one of the notable books of 1991 by

The New York Times and won the Literature Prize in the Frankfurt Book

Fair. Bapsi Sidhwa received the Lila Wallace Readers Digest Fund, an

award of US $ 105,000 in 1993. This is one of the largest grants in the U.S.,

for writers..

As a social worker, Sidhwa represented Pakistan at the Asian

Women’s congress in 1975. She also taught creative writing at Rice

university in Texas and the University of Houston.

When she was at Radcliffe College-Harvard, she wrote her novel

Ice – Candy Man (also known as Cracking India). In the early nineteen

eighties, she and her husband Noshir went to the US and settled in Houston

7

in 1984. The theme of immigration is quite prominent in Bapsi Sidhwa’s

An American Brat. In an interview to Naila Hussain, Sidhwa says: “The

book deals with the subject of the culture shock young people have to

contend with when they choose to study abroad”(19).

The first three novels of Bapsi Sidhwa are works set in the Indian

sub- continent. But her fourth novel, The American Brat is set partly in

Pakistan and partly in the USA. Sidhwa is considered Pakistan’s best

known and the most successful English language novelist. She is unique

because of her humour and wit.

Sidhwa first published The Crow Eaters in Pakistan, where

English language publications are highly restricted. Thanks to its

unflattering portrayal of the Parsi community, this novel made her the

Parsi whom other Parsis loved to hate.

The Crow Eaters is a controversial novel and it describes the

hilarious saga of a Parsi family. In the novel, Bapsi Sidhwa revealed the

community’s secrets to the whole world. She decided to write on her own

community having been advised to do so instead of picking up dark and

sombre themes. The book was self-published and Sidhwa found it difficult

to take it to audience. To quote her own words: “It was very frustrating to

peddle your own books. . . I would go from book store to book store,

saying, “Please read the Crow Eaters”(Kazmi, net article).

The Crow Eaters is a fictional saga of a Parsi family and represents

the social milieu. The novel presents the workings of the Parsi mind, their

social behaviour, value systems and customs. Within one generation, the

Jungle Wallah family increased their business from a single General

8

Merchant store in Lahore to a chain of stores in several North Indian cities.

This novel also traces clearly the Parsis’ migration from the west coast and

their settlement in North Indian cities.

The authenticity of Bapsi Sidhwa’s work is evident. Sidhwa turns

autobiography into art by her clever use of irony. The author writes about

her own community, both its shortcomings and achievements. Irony is also

a mode of acceptance, a type of philosophy. The Crow Eaters is a very

compact novel and though it shows a network of human relationships and

the reality of a whole family, there are no loose ends in the plot.

In the novel, Freddy takes every opportunity to demonstrate his

loyalty to the British. Self preservation is of primary concern to the Parsis.

The Parsi psyche with a curious attitude towards their women, codifies

female behaviour through a characteristic paradox.

The novel aptly reveals the Parsi milieu in the throes of change.

Still, this is not a novel particularly about Parsis; instead, it is a novel where

characters happen to be Parsis. The characters could well have been Hindu

or Muslims and a good deal of satire would still have carried. Each ethnic

group after all, has its peculiarities and absurdities.

The foreign edition of the novel was published in September 1980.

It was published by Jonathan cape. This novel has received rave reviews

and also pleasant accolades from the critical British media.

The great Urdu poet of the sub –continent, Faiz Ahmed praised her

racy style, genial comedy and shrewd observations on human behaviour.

Faiz compared her to V.S. Naipaul and R.K. Narayan(Review, Net).

9

Sidhwa’s works have aroused a variety of reactions. She cannot be

easily categorised as just a comic writer or a Parsi novelist. In her novels,

she presents various issues prevailing in the Parsi milieu like the Partition

crises, expatriate experience, social idiosyncrasies, the themes of marriage,

women’s problems and patterns of migration. Sidhwa is undoubtedly

Pakistan’s finest English language novelist. Ahmed Ali and Zulifkar Ghose

are the only other Pakistani novelists of International repute.

The depiction of the fluid state in Parsi community lies at the heart

of Bapsi Sidhwa’s four novels. Although Sidhwa is not the only Pakistani

to write fiction in English she has maintained a consistent publication

record and gained the widest reputation abroad.

Bapsi Sidhwa has been largely responsible for the invention of

Pakistani fiction in English. When she started writing in the late 1970’s

there was no established national tradition on which she could draw unlike

her counterparts in India and Africa. After all, Pakistan is a rare post-

colonial nation with no colonial past.

Sidhwa’s novels are grounded in Pakistan in the larger community

than in the smaller communities that form the entirety. Her most recent

novel, The American Brat moves back and forth between Pakistan and the

United States. By placing Pakistan on the international literary map,

Sidhwa has explored another way of saving her community.

Sidhwa spent her first few years in India. Later, she found her

larger community called Pakistan, a nation created amidst the storm of

Partition. Her native city of Lahore was transformed over night, when

millions were uprooted and their lives destroyed. As a child, she witnessed

10

great historical movements, the elation over independence followed by the

bloodshed of the Partition. It can also be argued that Sidhwa’s position as

an outsider, as a Parsi woman in the Islamic world worked in her favour.

Sidhwa has drawn extensively on her communal heritage. She has once

again enlarged her community and this expansion serves her well in her

novel An American Brat.

The community is shown disintegrated in her novels, The Bride

and Ice Candy Man. Her fiction speaks much less specifically about

patriarchy and the traditions governing male-female relationships.

Ice Candy Man in its opening passages draws a picture of

variegated Asian life and takes the same delight in the comic spectacle of

human kind. It also stresses the inter-play of several communities.

As the novel opens, each group is affected by the Partition. The

historical change encroaches on the lives of men. They have no control

over their development. Lenny’s family moves apart. Ayah’s circle of

admirers also disintegrates. The Hindu neighbours flee to India. The

Muslim villagers are massacred. The tearing apart of each community is

depicted in the novel.

In The Crow Eaters, life goes on simply because community is fluid

and it can be re-formed again. In Ice-CandyMan, Lenny’s household

resumes its routine activities. Ayah, the innocent is possibly restored. In

Sidhwa’s quest for community, even the destroyers are spared. The narrator

watches Ice Candy man in his disgraceful avtar as an opportunist.

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History stems from the people and its pieces come from the

communities they form. The circle enlarges with the Hindus, Christians

Jews, Black, White, Male, Female, indeed all the polarities that divide and

destroy. The larger community will attain the oneness of the smaller

community. This is the vision of Ice Candy man. This vision emerges from

Sidhwa’s skill as a novelist. She enlarges and interprets the moral vision of

the community that permeates the novel.

Sidhwa’s An American Brat describes clearly another aspect of

community, the immigrant experience. With the novel, Sidhwa has

created an admirable contribution to the literature of the Diaspora that

seems to expand in the years ahead. The immigrant being pulled by the past

and present faces a conflict. This conflict forms ready made fiction, Sidhwa

follows the family Saga she started in The Crow Eaters on the eve of

Partition. This flowed through Ice Candy Man also. An American Brat

succeeds in explaining the American experience first as the character

Feroza views it, then as her mother reacts to it. Sidhwa also admits that it is

not easy to portray the nuances of a culture one is not born into.

The novel gains richness of texture linking with the outward

differences that the characters face in their old and new worlds. The comic

streak visible in Sidhwa’s previous accounts of the Parsis is evident here

too.

Sidhwa in all her four novels has charted a course that will lead to

the certainties for which the narrator of V.S. Napaul’s A Bend in the River

longs. Her characters will find solidity in a personal vision of community,

a vision that remains certain.

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In the novels of Sidhwa, the Partition figures as a broiling

background. It forms the tail of The Crow Eaters, the head of the Pakistani

Bride and the main body of the Ice –Candy Man. The majority of the Parsis

adopted a discreet politically naïve profile. They directed all their efforts

towards achieving success in their personal lives. But within the next four

years, the Freedom Movement gathered such momentum that some Parsis

like Dr.Manek Mody of the Ice –Candy Man found it difficult to remain

uninvolved.

In fact, Sidhwa was not happy with the literature on the theme of

Partition written by British and Indian writers. She was also not happy

with the film ‘Gandhi’ because she thought they had glorified Gandhi,

Nehru and Mountbatten. Jinnah was portrayed as a monster. In the Ice-

Candy Man, she tries to balance the account of the Partition riots by

showing both Muslims and Sikhs indulging in violence.

Most of the political heavy weights of the time-Gandhi, Nehru,

Jinnah, Iqbal, Patel, Bose, Master Tare Singh, Lord Mountbatten – figure in

Ice –Candy Man in some context or the other. The Hindu leaders have been

presented in an unfavorable manner. The portrayal of Jinnah evokes

admiration and sympathy.

Gandhi is venerated throughout the world but in Ice – Candy Man,

he has been described as a cunning politician. A police man describes him ,

“ as an expert on fasting unto death without dying. . . . .”(62).

Every country or community has a distinct culture and often within

it there are divergent cultural mores. Cultural diversity becomes vital to the

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human world. It also divides people into numerous groups and subgroups

having little in common with one another. This proves a great barrier to

human relationships. Bapsi Sidhwa treates issues of cultural difference and

the problems arising out of it.

Like her favourite author Charles Dickens, Bapsi Sidhwa had an

unhappy childhood. Whereas Dickens was hit hard by penury, Sidhwa was

afflicted with polio. Her sensitivity found solace in the company of books.

She started writing since she read avidly and this extensive reading was a

great help to her.

Her novels can be regarded in the picaresque tradition. Journey

provides the framework to her plots. Characters like Faredoon, Zaitoon,

Carol, Lenny and Feroza move from one place to another. They also have

diverse experiences and gain self – knowledge.

In her novels, she tells stories in a natural manner and in a way

creates the maximum amount of interest at every stage. The reader’s

curiosity is kept alive throughout and even at the end of the novel.

Sidhwa seems to follow the course of real life but like Jane Austen,

she confines herself within the field of her own first hand intercourse with

the world.

Being a Parsi herself, she depicts Parsi life in all her novels except

The Pakistani Bride, where there is only a casual mention of a Parsi doctor

in the novel. The Crow Eaters has influenced not only new generation of

Parsi writers but also many Indian and Pakistan writers who are introducing

Parsi characters in their works more freely. Sidhwa’s novel has made the

non-Parsi world familiar with the Parsis.

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In this context, Faiz Ahmed Faiz has rightly observed:“The Parsees

have always been flamboyantly prominent in public life. What goes on

behind this facade has been, for most of us as remote and mysterious as the

under world. Bapsi Sidhwa has opened for us all the doors and all the

windows of this world’s inmost recesses”(Review, Net).

Sidhwa’s novels have been translated into several languages and

published in numerous European and Asian countries. That shows her

popularity across the world and also the adaptability of her art. In spite of

her meagre literary output, her place as an English language novelist in the

history of the Commonwealth fiction is assured. She is leading an active

life. Many more novels are expected from her.

Sidhwa’s narratives are fresh and remarkable for their characters.

She has presented men, women, and children of many different times. Her

male characters are mostly tall, handsome, domineering and possessive.

Her women characters are intelligent, beautiful, curvaceous and strong

willed. Her child characters are highly sensitive. Foreign nationals too

figure in her novels. Sidhwa is essentially a comprehensive novelist. She

portrays all classes of society. The World she creates is a world with all

the variety of the actual world.

Though she stands by women she is never anti male. The Ice-Candy

Man and Sakhi do villainous things but Sidhwa does not portray them as

villains. There is always an element of sympathy in her portrayal of

characters. Her characterisation is indirect and dramatic. Her characters

reveal themselves through their dialogue and actions.

15

She refrains from giving unnecessary details. She also avoids

passing judgements on her characters. Her characters become real living

beings due to keen observation of the workings of the human heart.

The dialogue in Sidhwa’s novel is precise and dramatic. It is always

in keeping with the personality of the speaker. Her novels excel in verbal

and physical humour. Sidhwa is strong in evolving pathos. Sidhwa’s view

of life is optimistic. She likes life in spite of all its ugliness, brutality and

horror. In the original story on which The Pakistani Bride is based, the girl

is murdered. But Sidhwa makes Zaitoon survive, she seems to give a

message to women that life must be preserved at all costs. One can fight

oppression only when one is alive. It is to be observed that no woman

character dies in any of Sidhwa’s novels.

Sidhwa indirectly tells women to fight against injustice, exploitation

and oppression with full force. She is not a didactic writer. She does not

preach anything, but she is a great moralist. Sidhwa is preoccupied with the

future of the Parsi religion and is concerned with the constant fear of

extinction that Parsis suffer due to religion and its high - priests.

The theme of immigration is quite prominent in Bapsi Sidhwa’s An

American Brat. According to Bapsi Sidhwa, the book deals with the

subject of the culture shock. Young people from the sub-continent have to

contend with when they choose to study abroad. It also delineates the

clashes the divergent cultures generate between the families back home and

their transformed and transgressing progeny bravely groping their way in

the New World.

16

In An American Brat, the heroine of the novel Feroza, a sixteen year

old girl has been carefully brought up in the small but prosperous Parsi

community in Lahore. Her parents feel that she is ruined by the

conservatisve air in Pakistan and send her for a short trip to America, the

land of freedom.

Through Feroza, Sidhwa describes clearly the impressions, a new

arrival has of the modern America. Adem L.Penenberg rightly calls the

novel, “ a sensitive, portrait of how America appears to a new

arrival”(Review, NYT).

Sidhwa is a keen observer of the differences in the life style of the

Americans and Pakistanis. Most Parsi writers feel helpless or isolated and

over - conscious of their identity. During the British Raj, they identified

themselves with the Britishers and considered themselves as different from

Indians. Both the Parsis who went west and the stay-at-home Parsis

experienced severe identity confusion. In the west, the Parsis found

themselves being lumped together with other sub continental Asians – an

identity they were trying to escape in India. In Pakistan too they came up

against the hegemonic community.

The Changing social milieu and identity crisis which Sidhwa

accordingly depicts was visible among Parsees in British India. It is a

social problem for many of the community even in contemporary India and

Pakistan.

The Parsees owed their secured status as a minority, their economic

and social prosperity to British Rule. The paranoid feeling of being a

minority is the motivating factor for the behavioural pattern of the Parsees

17

ranging from quest for excellence to eccentricity. A perusal of Social

History reveals the causes for this insecurity especially the alienation of

many members of the community. For purposes of trade and business, the

British granted the Parsees a special status as brokers and reliable trading

partners. The quick social mobility among the Parsee community led to a

conscious group desire. The also identified themselves with the English

themselves. The English denied to consider Parsees as their own kind

even if they were equally educated and extensively anglicized.

In the prevailing social milieu, Parsis developed an aversion to

identity themselves with other Indian communities. Mental estrangement

forms the crisis for many Parsees. Many Parsees find an identity of their

own free of both the English and other Indian identities. As a keen observer

of human fallibility, Bapsi Sidhwa reflects this identity search in several

situations and aspects in her novels.

Most Parsees in the move are considered as cultural hybrids. Many

of them, also live and share intimately in the cultural life, traditions,

languages, moral codes and political loyalties of two distinct peoples that

never completely penetrated and fused.

Through literary devices like allegory, Bapsi Sidhwa reflects the

trauma of Partition. The child narrator Lenny is affected by the violence at

Lahore. “The whole world is burning. The air on my face is so hot. I think

my flesh and clothes will catch fire. I start screaming hysterically

sobbing”(ICM,137).

Lenny’s experience is an apt allegory on the mindless violence of

the Partition. Sidhwa reveals how the violence of the Partition has

18

segregated people of different communities irrespective of ideology,

friendship and rational ideas. Sidhwa’s depiction of the horror is evocative

of the gloom in William Golding’s The Lord of the Flies.

Sidhwa explains that there are no winners in the communal

holocausts of the Partition. In the vitiaed communal atmosphere, insanity is

rampant, since ordinary men lose their identity. Such a degradation is best

exemplified in the rage of the Ice – Candy – Man who says: “I’ll tell you to

your face – I lose my senses when I think of the mutilated bodies on that

train from Gurdaspur…. that night I went mad. I tell you. I lobbed grenades

though the windows of Hindus and Sikhs I’d known all my life. I hated

their guts”(156).

Rohinton Mistry is another prominent writer who has captured

Parsi-life in all its hues. Born in India in 1952, Mistry grew up in Bombay

and received a Degree from the University of Bombay in Mathematics and

Economics. Only in 1975, he immigrated to Canada, working in a bank.

This helped him to study English and Philosophy at the University of

Toronto.

Mistry was an immigrant, an outsider in Canadian society and he

realised that he belonged to the Parsi Community. He started writing stories

and gained attention, receiving two Hart House literary prizes and

Canadian fiction Magazine’s annual contributor’s prize in 1985.

Post – Independence Parsi writing in English is highly

ethnocentric. According to Nilufer E.Bharucha, “The Parsis are the single

largest group of ethno-religious / Minority discourse practitioners among

Indian English Writers.” Obviously then, their literature is characterised by

19

both ethnocentric and minority discourse features. As a chronicler of Parsi

community, Mistry observes keenly and very much conscious of his

community’s predicament that is referred to as ethnicity or ethnic atrophy.

His fiction is culture specific.

The factors that are responsible for ethnic atrophy are the Parsi’s

single – minded pursuit of prosperity, extreme individualism, craze for

urbanization, late marriages, low birth rate, etc.

In Mistry’s novels all these ethnic atrophy syndromes are clearly

depicted. They are rightly regarded as a domestic, social and political

commentary concerning the Parsis. They throw a clear vision on the

dwindling community in India to which Mistry himself belongs. They

depict authentic accounts of the life styles, customs and traditions of the

Parsis.

Tales from Firozsha Baag is Mistry’s first collection of short

stories. The stories are ethnocentric and they present the idiosyncrasies of

the Parsi community in Bombay. Mistry explains the sense of religious

superiority compelx when he exposes a common belief among the rigid

Parsi traditionalists in the words. “Parsi Prayers are so powerful. Only a

Parsi can listen to them. Every one else can be badly damaged inside their

soul if they listen” (AFB, 354).

Such a Long Journey, Mistry’s first novel is a moving domestic

tragi-comedy that introduces the readers to Gustad Noble, a devout Parsi

and a dedicated family man who becomes enmeshed especially in the

political turmoils of Parsi and Indian culture. Mistry creates a middle class

Parsi Man in Gustad Noble.

20

A Fine Balance, the second novel of Mistry highlights the

sufferings of outcasts and innocents, trying to survive in the state of

Internal emergency of the 1970’s. Mistry is considered to be an

accomplished fictionist. In his fiction, he deals with the life of the Indian

middle class in Bombay comprising several communities. Mistry’s novels

portray the interaction of the Parsis with the other communities. Given to

nostalgia, Gustad Noble in Such a Long Journey expresses his desire to get

back to Iran, the Parsis’s primary space. Commenting on the Predicament

of the Parsis in Bombay, he says: “No future for minorities, with all these

fascist Shiv Sena politics and Marathi language nonsense. It was going to

be like the Black people in America –twice as good as the white men to get

half as much”. (SLJ, 73)

Mistry’s fame as an outstanding story – teller rests on his appeal to

a world –wide readership. Mistry is sensitive to the threats to his society.

The fate of his characters is interwoven with the fate of his community.

Mistry in his literary works makes an effort to revision the history of his

homeland. He also defines his ethnic identity and sense of self.

Mistry is an expatriate Indian – Parsi writer living in Canada. As a

Parsi and then as an immigrant in Canada, he considers himself as a symbol

of double displacement. This sense of displacement becomes the major

theme in his literary works. His historical background involves with the

new identity in the nation that he has migrated especially with the political

and cultural history of the nation. Mistry when asked in an interview why

India persistently occurs in his works, said: “It’s very naïve to assume that

you go to a new country and you start a new life and its new chapter. It’s

21

not. Canada is the middle of the book. At some point you have to write the

beginning”. And the beginning for Mistry has been India.(Mistry, Sunday

Times of India, 1996).

Mistry’s diasporic consciousness and sense of displacement is

cleary explained in A Fine Balance and three stories from Tales from

Firozsha Baag. Mistry expresses the ambivalent space between the old

culture of India and the new Canada. His characters are engaged in defining

their own hybridity.

Mistry presents a parallel between the Indian and Canadian cultures

where old people are respected and cared for. For example,In Family

Matters, the old man’s daughter does not mingle and talk with anyone in

the building. But she takes great care of his grandfather. She feels that the

blessings of the old are the most valuable and potent of all.

Mistry’s presentation of oppositions and parallels between cultures,

forms and geographical locales construct an identity that centres on the

ambivalent position of the victims of diaspora.

All the stories of Mistry are about Bombay. He also remembers

every little thing about his childhood, he is thinking about it all the time

though he is miles away. He does not write any stories from Canada,

because he has not been able to assimilate in the new atmosphere.

In the depiction of the Parsis, Mistry shows that all the Parsi

families are poor or middle class. His description of the Parsis is authentic.

He achieves this authenticity by emigrating to Canada. Mistry also explains

the Canadian weather. He points out that the expatriates are quite sensitive

to it.

22

Mistry describes the socio – economic conditions of the two

countries. He presents the wealthy condition of Canada and comments on

the poverty and corruption in India, the black market and people who wait

at the ration shops. A Fine Balance gives a vivid picture of India during

the colonial and postcolonial period and it appears that geographical

distance is cancelled in the cartography of his mind. Moreover his

migration to a foreign land is at certain level, more a home coming than

an act of expatriation.

Mistry’s Such a Long Journey is a significant contribution

especially to the corpus of the Parsee novel in English. The narrative is

significantly set against the milieu of India during the seventies, mainly at

the time of the birth of Bangladesh. He demonstrates the crisis of the Indian

mind in general and of the Parsee mind in particular.

Mistry analyses the Indian society from the perspective of an ethnic

community. He places his protagonist in a marginalized community in

Bombay in the tradition of postcolonial literature. Arun Mukherjee argues

that “Such A Long Journey attempts to ‘make sense of actual historical

events by narrativising them”. According to her, Mistry’s choice of an

event from the contemporary Indian history is deliberate (83). In Such a

Long Journey, the Zoroastrian world view constitutes the controlling point.

The progression of the Parsee mind in Gustad becomes central to the

narrative.

Mistry’s narrative is a blend of history and fabulation. It examines

Indian society from the perspective of an ethnic community. Mistry

23

presents his protagonist as one from a marginalised community in

Bombay, true to the tradition of postcolonial literature.

Meenakshi Mukherjee in her study of the major themes and

techniques in Indian novel in English observes that Indian novelists in

English employ myths in two ways, conscious and unconscious”(132-33).

Mistry makes a judicious use of the same. His putting a scene of

metaphysical speculation from Firdausi’s Shah Nama as an epigraph to

Such a Long Journey is an example for this.

A significant feature of Mistry’s narrative is his use of images and

symbols. The image of the book-case becomes a metaphor for Gustad’s

unfulfilled aspiration in life as revealed in his outburst. “And my pleas for

the book case turned to dust like everything else”(SLJ,129).

Some of the situations and events have really symbolic significance.

The central symbol employed by Mistry is the ‘Journey’. Gustad’s visit to

Delhi is an act that is invested with symbolic significance. He is a little

apprehensive and so he sets out: “Would this journey be worth it? Was any

journey ever worth the trouble?”(SLJ,259).

The Zorastrian world view constitutes itself the nucleus of the

narrative. Gustad selects the path of Asha that requires a life of strict

discipline and self-control. Speaking of the dualism inherent in man,

Dr.S.Radhakrishnan writes:“The dualism is within one’s own nature. The

evil forces are within men and not outside…. That Zarathustra overcame

the evil one means that he did not succumb to these forces. His conduct

demonstrates that man’s own self determines his destiny”( 112).

24

For a minority community, the Parsis contributed to the well-being

of the Indian Nation in myriad ways. To quote Mistry:

The great Tatas and their contribution to the steel Industry, the role of Sir Dinshaw Petit in the Textile Industry who made Bombay the Manchester of the East or the role played by Dadabhai Naoroji in the Freedom movement; where he was the first to use the word ‘Swaraj’ ; the first to be elected to the British parliament where he carried on his campaign…. In reality it was the richest Parsis who had –reputation for being generous and family oriented’(SLJ,245)

Mistry gives an ironic portrayal of Parsi customs and traditions. At

one stage Mistry explains the experience of being a Parsi in India. But in

some other stages, he deals clearly and stresses the class hierarchies,

patriarchal power and also other patterns of empowerment within this Parsi

world.

Salman Rushdie has made some insightful remarks on the pictures

of the homeland offered by the diasporic writers and artists. These pictures

are a fusion of fact and fiction. They are simply the traces of the writer’s

consciousness. The homeland that is created by him in his works is not

actual places but fictional ones. The Khodadad building in Such a Long

Journey or The Tales from Firozha Baag are nothing but only considered to

be the imaginary locations reflecting the factual Parsi ethos.

Mistry evokes a sense of loss and nostalgia in the immigrant’s

experience and also the alienation of Parsis in India. He also depicts the

hope of a Diaspora person of merging in the culture of the adopted land.

He longs to express his concealed desires to go back to the native land.

The post colonial concern for Parsi writers like Mistry is not only to

fight for a cultural territory but also to create a distinct identity of their

own. Mistry’s characters are chosen only from the middle class Parsi

25

background and are shown as resisting their own power in idiosyncratic

ways.

Terms like ‘power’ and ‘Resistance’ are main and central to the

study of any issue in the postcolonial context. They are operative in all

fields especially in social, economic and cultural situations. Mistry deploys

some of the categories in this novel not only to reveal their operation in

hierarchical structures, but also to expose established hegemonies.

Political power and corruption form the third most vital pattern of

empowerment in Mistry’s Such a Long Journey.

Mistry’s use of typical Parsi idioms in addition to the other Indian

ones differentiates his discourse from those of other writers of the

community. Nilufer E. Bharucha points out, “In common with other post –

colonial writing, Mistry’s fiction is fashioned in the form of alternative

narrative and employs antirealist mode of narration. This not only

challenges elitist Master-narrative but privileges the marginal and provides

resistance to the Western hegemony”(Old Tracks, 59)

Mistry being an ethnically conscious writer, has focussed on the

Parsi life, religious ceremonies and rituals in much of his fiction. The

permanent link between man and nature is assured and renewed each day.

This is really a archetypal myth ; it is essential for human beings to

remember their origins through such devices.

Mistry’s assertion of ethnicity is to be analysed in the context of

multicultural nation states. Mistry is infact celebrating multiculturalism by

virtue of which Family Matters transcends the label of ethnocentrism. It is

considered to be an example of world literature.

26

Living in diaspora means living in forced or voluntary exile. Living

in exile leads to severe identity crises, living simultaneously alienated

from the old and new cultures and homelands.

Mistry as a writer has enjoyed his craft very well, that is to say, an

exceptional start. When he was asked by Geoff Hancock in 1989, on how

he reacted to reviews, he replied, “In all modesty, I must admit that so far, I

have only received positive review”(47).

Hancock stresses the fact that Mistry has established himself as a

creative artist in a short time and proposes, “Is writing a gift, you have?”

Mistry counters the question by asking “Is it a gift?”. When Mistry is asked

about his sense of audience’ Mistry answers very grandly by responding “I

suppose the world is my audience” then qualifies the claim by adding, “At

least I wish it”(ibid). To Mistry, the English speaking world has become his

audience. Mistry’s fiction is set in the milieu of a minority religious

community. It focused on Indian political events and also raise some

questions.

The Parsi people as a minority group have found the

economy and also the living conditions in India not favourable to them.

They emigrate to other countries thinking that their new country might be

more favourable to them. Due to sudden emigration to an alien land, it

leads to a conflict in their identity. Mistry left for Canada to seek good

fortune. Savita Goel comments on this:

As a Parsi and then as an immigrant in Canada, he (Mistry) sees himself as a symbol of double displacement and this sense of double displacement is a recurrent theme in his literary works. His historical situation involves construction of a new identity in

27

the nation to which he has migrated and a complex relationship with the political and cultural history of the nation, he has left behind. (119)

Mistry narrates the day-to-day joys and sorrows, trials and

tribulations of the Parsis. Commenting on his short stories, Silvia

Albertazzi says:

A born story teller, in his tales Mistry depicts middle

class life among the Parsi community as he sees it

from abroad. All his eleven intersecting stories are set

in an apartment block in Bombay where a number of

Parsi families live, all the people who live there are in

turn, the protagonists of one or more short stories.

The author himself tells the last one, thus revealing

that he comes from Firozsha Baag, too. In this way,

Mistry can describe daily life among the Parsis of

Bombay, touching at the sametime, meaningful

themes and significant issues of contemporary

multicultural and migrant realities(276).

Mistry’s soulful blending of the characters’ personal affair with

communal concerns situates them significant as social beings. Mistry’s

strategy aims at creating characters ex masse, that is the tone and texture of

the narrative expresses a design. The discourse can evolve effortlessly and

interchangeably. The vehicle also moves from ethnic to national, and local

to universal.

28

Exaggeration has been used as a comic device by Mistry. He

believed in situations and facts beyond all reason. For mirth sake, Mistry

employs ambiguous speech and word play, especially towards using puns.

His language is mixed and makes liberal use of Hindi words and

Indian expressions. In discussing the Emergency and oppression, Mistry’s

language is far from being oppressive. Mistry’s use of such a language

serves many fictional purposes. Mistry too makes use of many clichés in

his novel. He has moreover rejuvenated worn-out expressions in order to

fashion new phases.

There is a great amount of pure good –natured comedy in Mistry.

There is the lightness of his touch, and urbanity. Mistry can be said to be a

spiritual relative of the eminent comic masters like R.K.Narayan,

P.G.Woodhouse and A.P Herbert.

Mistry’s creative writing has gained a large number of awards and

media recognition. Each new novel by the reclusive writer is consumed by

its readers. Mistry’s texts who focus on the Bombay- Parsis and their ethnic

selves are also books that have a wider appeal.

Above all, Mistry is a humanist. In fact, a display of existential

humanism is found in his fiction. His realistic pictures of life “widen our

sympathies, our sense of proportion and educated our moral judgment’.

Mistry’s representation of community and social balance in Indian society

raise his novels to a higher literary status.

Mistry’s novels depict the patterns of empowerment operating in a

world which deny individual voices. Moreover his novels treat themes such

as parental authority, class hierarchies, personal betrayal, political

29

machinations and corruption. His fiction presents superstition and physical

as well as mental limitations. Mistry deals with the major problems of the

untouchables, the poor people who are at the bottom of the society and

their suppression by the privileged classes.

Mistry as a post-independent Parsi writer in English, is ethnocentric

and community specific. His text is ethnic but the content and ambience is

a multicultural one. Mistry expresses ethnic anxieties and is deeply

concerned about the decline of the Parsi population. He foregrounds the

marginalization of the Parsis. Mistry’s views are, however revealed as a

shared space in his initial work especially in his short stories.

Many readers like Mistry’s books for their realistic and humorous

portrayal of Parsi life in Bombay. A search for the social identity is seen in

Mistry, even amidst their Indianness. Mistry’s writings clearly hold a

mirror up to Indian society and culture.

The difference between Mistry’s locales and his location in Canada

and his fictional engagement with the Parsi community make us consider

him as both Parsi and Canadian.

Meenakshi Mukherjee while speaking of immigrant writers,

remarks:”These novelists cannot be discussed in terms of one nationality

alone. Whether they are ‘peregrine’ writers stationary, their apprehension

of reality has been affected by the experience of more than one country and

conditioned by exposure to more than one culture”(Inside the Outsider,86).

But Mistry’s reality is based on his Indian heritage. As in Mulk Raj

Anand. Mistry’s theme, language, style and characters suggest that he is a

realist in his craft. The major theme of his fiction lies in the search for

30

individual identity that is advocated by factors such as casteism, ethnic

conflicts social and cultural anarchy etc., The theme of quest for identity

acquries a global dimension in the novels of Mistry. Mistry’s works have

become a tool after Mulk Raj Anand to advance the cause of democratic

revolution led by the Bourgeoisie.

Mistry emerges only as an Indian writer, since his characters,

language, and locales reflect the typical Indian culture. He narrates the

miseries of the Parsi community through his characters. The individual’s

fate is bound up with the fate of his community; their stories naturally tend

to be the stories of their community.

Mistry’s focus also centres on ethnic or racial diversity. Linguistic

diversity, cultural diversity and religious diversity become significant in his

novels. Mistry’s characters move slowly from ‘distress to friendship’ and

from ‘friendship to love’.

He do stresses the tension between modernity and tradition. He is a

conscientious writer who analyses vividly on social identities, anonymities

and also social imbalances created by tilting forces like casteism, class,

cultural anarchy and ethnic conflict.

To Mistry, a society can reconstruct and restructure itself on the

basis of humanism. Rohinton Mistry’s text is ethnic in a multicultural

context. The cultural difference makes ethnicity an issue. The acceptance of

differences is multiculturalism.

Like Mulk Raj Anand, Mistry’s art poses fundamental social

questions. Mistry rejects the bitterness of strife. His stress is on the

31

projections of the human predicament and the eccentricities of individual

characters.

There are only a few Indian English novelists who have projected

the post –independence dilemma of minorities like the Parsis as

authentically as Mistry. Mistry portrays human elements in their pristine

forms and raises the novel to classical standards. The universal principles

of liberty, equality and fraternity are strictly followed.

Mistry’s characters are also mentally aggressive like Anand’s

characters. Some characters are humiliated. Mistry also discusses on gender

discrimination with gusto. He portrays the injustices done to women and

also interrogates the marginalization of women in the male –dominated

society.

Mistry handles his material with confidence and dexterity. Mistry’s

secret success as the best story-teller relates to his intimate relationships,

experiences and situations he handles in his works. ‘To write well ‘Mistry

says to Geoff Hancock, ‘ I must write about what I know best. In that way,

I automatically speak for my tribe” (26)

Mistry makes use of characters and environment productively to

introduce the important themes of the nature of faith. Mistry’s

representation of the Parsi community and also their rituals is far from

idealistic. Mistry’s socialist sympathy with the poor, the down trodden and

the out cast finds larger place in A Fine Balance. Mistry denies to limit

his canvas to the middle class.

Nostalgia is a recurrent theme in Mistry’s fiction. This nostalgia is

generally for a past way of life forever lost to the main characters. It is

32

occasionally manifest in the idealization of some religious rituals. The

nostalgia is echoed by many characters in the novels of Mistry.

The nostalgia for the bygone days has an echoe in the presentation

of many characters in the novels. Most of Mistry’s heroes such as Gustad

and Yezad inhabit the two realms simultaneously. Age becomes a central

theme in Mistry’s fiction and so are the relationships across generations.

They become major concern in the discussion of private realm of the

family and the household.

Mistry presents the Indian Parsis in the process of redefining the

limitations of nationhood especially in the representation of the nation.

Mistry’s works clearly exhibit multiple histories of the nation. He tries to

redefine the role of the Parsi community in his. Tales From Firozsha Baag

and Such a Long Journey.

Mistry’s fiction centres around the resilience of tradition against the

powerful forces of modernity and change. The Parsi identity could be

observed as ‘otherness’. Mistry highlights his familiar characters such as

Mehroo in Auspicious Occasions and Roxana in Family Matters especially

to traditional rituals. The embracing of ethnic identity is considered to be a

weapon to protest against the universal identity that has been forced upon

them in the Indian context.

Religious beliefs exist as a social reality. Mistry’s representation of

the Parsi community and their rituals become highly idealistic. Mistry

stresses on various aspects of Parsi belief. Mistry’s fictions depict a record

of Parsi culture too in view of the diminishing Parsi population.

33

A concern for a progressive community in dealing with the Parsi

culture and lifestyle finds a place in Mistry’s fiction. His characters

represent the Parsi community whose identity has been historically

problematised. The Parsis are living in the world that is different from the

common Indian way of life. The Babri demolition episode has unnerved

many Parsis too. Nilufer Bharucha aptly remarks: “In decolonised India,

the exalted position enjoyed by the Parsis during the Raj has been eroded

and increasing dominance by the majority Hindu community has

marginalised them. Parsis today are trying to reorient themselves to this

new much reduced role”(Bharucha,Mistry:Ethnic Enclosures,42) One of

the major issues in Mistry is self - representation. As a post modern writer,

Mistry’s imagination has taken new connotations. One hears of voluntary

immigration, diaspora and mixed identities. The post-modernist identity

dislocates a ‘mature modernist identity’.

The Parsis left the shores of ancient Persia for the sake of religion.

They also maintained and sustained their individual identity on that basis.

Mistry’s total engagement with the identity problem is explained

only by the historical experience of his community. The Parsi exodus from

Iran and the settlement of Parsis in Gujarat established their cultural

identity. The portrayal of Parsis by Mistry reveals a feeling of insecurity as

far as their identity is concerned.

Mistry lays emphasis on the relationship of the Indian Parsis with

the outside world. Mistry widens his area of sociological study in insisting

of a Parsi diaspora in Canada.

34

The story ‘Auspicious Occasion’ presents the relationship between

the Parsi community and other communities.

Exaggeration is employed as a special comic device by Mistry. He

relies on augmenting exaggerating situations. He lays stress on facts

beyond all reason until the results are ridiculously comic. Mistry makes use

of various forms of ambiguous speech. Word play becomes a source of

mirth. He makes use of Puns in abundance.

Mistry is friendly and mischievous with the reader while talking

about the Emergency and oppression. His language is far from being

oppressive. Some expressions like ‘a cup of chai’ creates the ambience

whereas ‘a cup of tea’ creates distance. Mistry makes use of his language

for two purposes : English was a sign of linguistic imperialism. Hinglish

has to survive in India. Hinglish is a marriage of Indian culture and a

Western language. Mistry has made use of this language in A Fine Balance.

One of the most promising aspects of Mistry’s fiction is its

ethnocentric social matrix. It is the Parsi community in which he locates his

tales of human survival. Mistry has written exclusively about Indian life.

He does so realistically with considerable feeling. Mistry said: “Writers

write best about what they know. All fiction is autobiographical

imagination ground through the mill of memory. It is impossible to

separate the two ingredients (The Guardian profile. Rohinton Mistry

Online).

Mistry chooses to write about humble anonymous folk who like

most average Indians must struggle to survive in the difficult environs of

the metropolis. It would be wrong to assume the fact that the concerns of

35

Parsi diaspora or alienation are central to Mistry’s writing. Mistry’s fiction

will be side of the mark. His fiction is almost exclusively of Parsis in

Mumbai. Many are of the opinion that the fiction of Mistry lays emphasis

on his own community.

Mistry’s essential concern in his fiction is with the archetypal

human problems which are common to other communities also.

The recurring patterns of Mistry’s fictions especially in images,

situations and characters have led critics to consider Mistry’s three novels

as a trilogy, as a coherent whole. Nilanjana Roy for instance said:

“… it was impossible to read Family Matters without being reminded repeatedly of the two novels, that preceded it and I found it hard not to think of Mistry’s three novels as a coherent entity… In brief even though Mistry may not have intended to write his three novels this way they form a Bombay Trilogy (Such a Long Book. Family Matters Bibilio: A Review of Books, 2002,).

The three novels, however cannot be regarded a trilogy, inspite of

several recurring themes. Each novel, focuses on varying themes.

Moreover, the continuities that are normal to trilogies are not visible here.

Mistry’s essential concern in his fiction is with the archetypal

human problems that are common to other communities also. The Parsi

community as well as the ‘historical context’ in Mistry’s fiction furnishes

the setting, the time and the place.

He wrote mainly about common anonymous middle class Parsis and

also avoided glorifying the achievements of the community since they

represented the microcosmic LCD man in India.

In his review of Family Matters Prasanna Rajan rightly observes:

“… the social is a non –intrusive adjective to the human in which Mistry

36

nascerates the mundane to achieve slow fission on the page. In the

lengthening narrative of India Anagrammatised he is the old fashioned

story teller, a loner, never astonishing but always engaging (India Today,

69)

One of the important aspects that stands out in Mistry’s fiction is

the urban setting. Mistry’s novels are ‘literary constructs’. .. part wishful

thinking, part imagination and part truth (Guardian profile, Rohinton

Mistry, online). Mistry’s Mumbai is the familiar Indian urban reality, a

kind of sordid, dreary reality, Mistry displays an uncommon insight into the

complex factors that condition life in India. Critics like Bharucha look

upon Mistry’s characters as mere card board figures and regard their

experience as the urban, westernized Indian’s constructs.

As a member of the Parsi minority community, Mistry is accorded

the unique position of offering a perspective on the multiple

accommodations involved in the constitution of identities. There lies the

collective Parsi identity that had been transposed from Iran to India.

Mistry’s narratives are structured upon a search by his characters

for a pattern in the chaos of a dislocated life and this is a characteristic of

diaspora writing. Mistry’s work provides a perspective on the postcolonial

nation of India from the margins so to speak. His technique of story telling

offers examples on his skill at manipulating language. This often brings out

the fundamental gap between appearance and reality.

As per Psychological wisdom, a person who pretends to an identity

that he does not possess becomes neurotic even schizophrenic.

Postmodernism dislocates the so-called mature modernist identity. Multiple

37

identities in post-modern times lead to more internal conflicts and divided

loyalties.

The religious components of identity are significant for the Parsis.

One of the standard sociological definitions of ethnicity is a collectivity

within a larger society that deals with the group’s identity. Ethnic identity

is fundamental. All other identities are obtained only later. It is an identity

that of religion or nationality that can be changed. The politics of ethnicity

also operates within postcolonial spaces.

Identities should normally and ideally operate in ever –widening

circles of belonging. The fact of being a Parsi Zorastrian is a racial and

religious identity. Apart from offering ethnic discourse, Mistry’s novels

address racial and subaltern issues too.

Mistry, when asked in an interview about racism replied that he

found racism in Bombay. Mistry is a Parsi writer who writes from the west.

He went into a Canadian diaspora in the 1970’s when he was in his 20’s.

What agitates Mistry is nothing but only the genesis of the modern Indian

Nation. Moreover the rise of dictatorship and the flowering of power

politics, and India’s declaration of emergency profoundly affected

Mistry. For the government, the situation was a threat to the security of the

nation but for Mistry, there is a real threat to the liberal traditions of the

country.

The ethno- religious details of the novels of Mistry would really put

them in the ‘last witness category.’ As Mistry has said, when the Parsis

have disappeared from the face of the earth, his writing will present and

maintain a record of how they lived.

38

Mistry pictures racial and religious characteristics through the

protagonists. Some of his protagonists are prisoners of their ethnicities or

religion. Mistry bears a witness to the last grand stand of the Parsi

Zorastrians in India. He observes their rites, rituals and their eccentricies.

He also extends his writings to the old myths and legends of ancient Iran.

Nariman Vakeel, his hero in A Fine Balance becomes the story teller and

he tells his tales about ancient Iran.

Mistry lays emphasis on the link between Man and Nature that is

renewed everyday. This is generally an archetypal myth-making. Mistry

makes it very clear that it is significant for humen beings to remember their

origins through such devices.

The novels of Bapsi Sidhwa have elicited an impressive range of

critical responses. Makarand.R Paranjpe in his article “The Early Novels

of Bapsi Sidhwa” depicts Sidhwa’s as an important voice in the world of

Commonwealth fiction. With the publication of The Crow Eaters (1978),

The Bride (1983) and The Ice-Candy man, she has shown considerable

accomplishment as well as promise.

The first striking feature of Sidhwa’s art is its breadth and diversity.

Her novels are remarkably different from each other in both subject and

treatment. Bapsi Sidhwa’s range of settings, plots, themes and characters

makes her one of the most exciting of the recent Commonwealth novelists.

Bapsi Sidhwa in her article “Why Do I Write?” discusses on her

novel The Bride.” She says:

The girl’s story haunted me. It reflected the hapless condition of many women not only in Pakistan but in the Indian subcontinent. In The Bride, I wrote about the harsh

39

lives of handsome people hidden away in the granite folds of the Karakoroms. In The Crow Eaters, a novel about my own community, the Parsis, I wanted to tell the story of a resourceful and accommodating community tucked away in the forgotten crevices of history. The quintessentially Parsi humour served me well in Ice-Candy Man. Without it, the horror of what people did to each other during the Partition riots would have been almost intolerable(Dhawan, 27-34).

Robert L.Ross in his article, “The Search for Community in Bapsi

Sidhwa’s Novels” depicts the community in its fluid state that lies at the

heart of Bapsi Sidhwa’s four novels, The Crow Eaters, The Bride, Ice-

Candy Man and An American Brat.

Sidhwa’s first three novels are firmly grounded in Pakistan in the

larger community than in the smaller communities that form the entirety.

By focusing Pakistan on the international literary map, Sidhwa has

made her Parish (another way of saying community) better known indeed,

made it universal. The inhabitants of this cozy Parsi world, anglicised to a

greater degree than most of their neighbours, fear that Independence and

the subsequent departure of the British might leave them stranded in a line

selling their community in tatters. In Sidhwa’s world, the instinct for

community remains so strong that they appreciate its fluidity.

Inspite of their fluid lives and the fluidity of the communities in

which they live, Sidhwa’s characters still find solidity in a personal vision

of community, a vision that remains certain.

Novy Kapadia in his article “The Parsi Paradox in The Crow

Eaters” portrays the Parsis as an ethno –religious minority in India, living

mostly on the West coast of the subcontinent especially in Bombay.

Sidhwa turns autobiography into art by her clever use of irony. The view of

40

life of Sidhwa is expansive. Sidhwa presents the hilarious saga of a Parsi

family which is not just the social mobility and value system of a man and

his family but the movement of the times. Sidhwa’s perceptive insights are

in presenting the marginal personality aspect within the Parsi milieu.

Parsis in her novels are cultural hybrids, living and sharing closely

in the cultural lift, traditions, languages, moral codes and political loyalties

of two distinct peoples, that never completely interpenetrated and fused.

Novy Kapadia in his article ”Ethnic Identity in Bapsi Sidhwa’s The

Crow Eaters” discusses the role of marginal ethnic groups in developing

multi-racial societies.

The Parsis, an ethnic minority in undivided India had acquired

economic and social prosperity during the British rule. In the changing

political milieu, the Junglewalla family in The Crow Eaters has to face an

identity crisis. They also adapt to a new socio-cultural and political

environment. The Parsis are an ethno –religious minority living in India

mostly on the west coast. Bapsi Sidhwa clearly explains some of the

motivating factors that makes this smallest religious minority in the world,

strive for excellence.

Nilufer E. Bharucha in her article “A Feminist Reading of Three

Novels” deals with the Parsi traditions that are rooted in the patriarchal

society of ancient Iran.

Novy Kapadia in his article “Communal Frenzy and Partition”

explains the ambivalent attitude towards Partition and Independence

emerged as an anti – colonial movement and nationalist agitation. The

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Parsees also traced their secured status as a prosperous minority to British

Rule.

Bapsi Sidhwa clearly shows how the Parsees are captives of

circumstances in the upheaval of Partition. She presents the sensitive theme

of the Partition through subtle insinuations, images and gestures.

Feroza Jussawalla’s article about Bapsi Sidhwa presents Sidwa’s

contribution to literature. Sidhwa has become a canonical writer within the

canon of multicultural writers from different parts of the world writing in

English.

The Major theme of Sidhwa’s work concentrates on the Parsis

interact with the rest of the populace around them whether in India, in

Britain or as in the case of American Brat in the United States.

Post coloniality is a major theme and preoccupation in Bapsi

Sidhwa’s novels. G.D.Barche in “Bapsi Sdihwa’s An American Brat: A

Psychological Study” stresses Feroza’s vision of life. The process of

expansion and transformation reaches its climax in the fourth phase in

Feroza’s character.

Chelva kanakanayakam is his article “Allegory and Ambivalence in

Bapsi Sidhwa’s Cracking India” has explored the allegorical and

ambivalent nature of the work.

Apart from being a much-decorated author, Rohinton Mistry has

garnered much critical attention. A.K.Singh discusses Mistry’s Such a

Long Journey as a major departure in the literary tradition of Indian fiction

in English. It is also a special attempt at fiction based on fact. Such a Long

Journey denies many existing narratives about post – Independence

42

historical protagonists. The events also form a fusion of fact and fiction,

humour and gossip, myth and fantasy.

Mistry’s fiction centres on the Parsi community and its identity with

its national consciousness and with its identity with the world. Mistry’s

fiction concentrates on the fears and anxieties of a passive community that

is active in articulation. Individual traits of the Parsi community and the

individuals are given an authentic expression with their characteristics and

idiosyncrasies.

Amin Malak (in the Journal of Commonwealth Literature) in his “A

Critical Response to Mistry’s Art of Story – Telling” opines that Mistry’s

handling of characters’ personal affairs with communal concern lends them

significance as social beings.

M.Mani Meitei singles out Such a Long Journey for its critical

realism. This novel derives its form from the classical literary tradition. The

novelist’s predilection for the great tradition deals with the modernist

method of fictional experimentation. Mistry desires to emphasise the

problem of human loneliness in the modern world. Mistry as a critical

realist considers the social reality. His ideology stresses the social and

political aspects of a particular historical period. He achieves success with

the predicament of modern life and variety of values generating a classical

structure.

Pratibha Nagpal in her article presents a critical report on Mistry’s

A Fine Balance. Mistry has earned critical appreciation for his clear

portrayal of Indian society and its Parsi community. Mistry himself is

committed towards the cultural roots. It provides him great sensitivity and

43

truthfulness. This novel too focuses on the socio- cultural aspects of India.

Ultimately, the novel is the exploration of the Indian experience through

the eyes of a diaspora writer.

Nilufer E.Bharucha in her article “When old tracks are lost”

discusses Mistry’s fiction as Diasporic Discourse. As a Parsi, Mistry is in

yet another Diaspora, a much older one. In pre-colonial India, Parsis were

allowed to practise their ancient monotheistic religion. Mistry’s discourse

does revolve around the detailing of Parsi identiy. As a Parsi, Mistry is on

the periphery even in India ; so his discourse also challenges and resists the

totalisation of the dominant culture within India itself.

Jagroop S.Biring in his article “Mistry’s Family matters: A Critique

of Ethnic Discourse” focuses on ethnic studies. Mistry’s texts articulate the

ethno – religious commonalities and differences. His Family Matters is a

bold attempt to secure a distinct space for the Parsi Zorastrians within the

dominant Indian cultural space. Mistry as a conscious writer has discoursed

on Parsi life, religious ceremonies and rituals in many of his works.

Ragini Ramachandra in her article “Mistry’s Such a Long Journey:

Some First Impressions” describes Mistry’s distinction in making his hero’s

long journey finally worthwhile for the character and the reader. Rohinton

Mistry uses the language of the urban middle and lower middle class as

well as that of the poor and the working class.

Avadesh Kumar Singh in his article “The Sense of Community in

the Parsi Novels” deals with Mistry’s portrayal of the existing threats to the

Parsi family, the immense ability to respond to the community through

different narratives of his characters that invariably express their concern

44

for their community and the changes that will affect their community as

well as themselves.

N.S.Dharan in “Ethnic Atrophy Syndrome in Rohinton Mistry’s

Fiction” stresses issues that find expression in the post – independence

Parsi Writing in English.

As a chronicler of the Parsi community, Mistry is keenly aware of

his community’s predicament. The factors that contribute to this ethnic

atrophy are the Parsis’s single – minded pursuit of prosperity, extreme

individualism etc., Mistry records in his fiction the ethnic atrophy that has

set in his community.

Savita Goel in her article “Diasporic Consciousness and Sense of

Displacement in the Selected Works of Rohinton Mistry” discusses Mistry

as an expatriate Indian Parsi writer living in Canada.

Mistry intermingles history with the personal lives of the characters

which is characteristic of an immigrant writer. Charuchandra Mishra in

“Modes of Resistance in Mistry’s Such a Long Journey” explains the post-

colonial concern for Parsi writers like Rohinton Mistry. The power and

Resistance are central to the study of any race in the post colonial context.

Twinkle Manavar in his article “Mistry’s Such a Long Journey: A

Thematic Study” emphasises on the series of political events touching on

various issues such as corruption in high places, minority complexes etc.,

Puri V. Upadhyay in his article “Such a Long Journey: the journey

as Motif and Metaphor” points out the presentation of the communal life of

the Parsis in post-Independent India. The Journey of Gustad is in fact the

45

human one from past to present, from innocence to experience, a universal

journey.

Sudha P.Pandya in her article on Mistry’s A Fine Balance deals

with postcolonial engagements with nationalism and national history.

Ramesh Misra in his article “Mistry’s A Fine Balance : India

during emergency” makes a survey on Mistry’s deft handling of Internal

Emergency during 1975-77. It provides a vivid and graphic picture of the

turbulent times also.

Jaydipsinh Dodiya in his article “Mistry’s A Fine Balance as a

Diasporic novel” explains the lives of four unlikely people. The article

reveals Mistry’s sound knowledge of India’s history.

“Mistry’s A Fine Balance: An Overview” by Pradeep Trikha deals

with the self – esteem, images, their sufferings and national pride of

common people in India.

Caroline Herbert in the article “Dishonorably Post-national: The

Politics of Migrancy and Cosmopolitanism in Mistry’s A Fine Balance”

explores the tensions between the politically distanced cosmopolitan

migrant and the socially committed local activist.

Mistry also establishes a tension between his representation of the

migrant and his negotiation of his own migrant position through his fiction.

In A Fine Balance Mistry recognises and engages with a political and

imaginative responsibility towards his homeland.

K.Damodar Rao in his article “Ordinariness of Dreams, longevity of

the journey, story statement and allegory in Mistry’s Such a Long Journey”

discusses on the communal life of the Parsis in Post – Independent India.

46

This research has been conducted to make an indepth study of the

variegated predicament of Parsis as portrayed in the selected novels of

Bapsi Sidhwa and Rohinton Mistry. Both these creative writers are Parsis;

as ‘insiders’, they have a thorough knowledge of the Parsi-life. While

Sidhwa deals with the fortunes of the Parsis in Pakistan and elsewhere,

Mistry deals with the Parsis of Bombay. To get a comprehensive picture

of the predicament of the Parsis is the objective of this research.

Apart from the Introductory and Conclusive chapters, this research

work has four more chapters.

The Introductory chapter starts introducing the Parsi Community

; the exodus of the Parsis to the Indian subcontinent and the watershed

moments of the Parsi fortunes there are described. Critical Biographies of

Bapsi Sidhwa and Rohinton Mistry, the critically acclaimed Parsi writers

have been offered. The chapter introduces the Research Topic and a review

of literature .

The second chapter entitled “The Parsi Nostalgia” deals with the

community’s memories of the past. The nostalgia surrounding a bygone

community fills the novels that offer a rich tapestry of Asian life through

recreation of the smell and taste of food, the colours and textures of

clothing. Moreover, the sights of crowded streets and over-peopled houses

also gain significance.

The third chapter entitled, “The Predicament of the Parsis in the

multicultural societies”, focuses on the quest for identity by the Parsis and

other marginal ethnic groups in multicultural societies.

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The fourth chapter entitled, “The Parsis’ Response to Socio-

Political Upheavals”highlights on political upheavals like the Partition of

the Indian Sub-continent, the Emergency Years in India ; how they

affected the common citizens and the Parsis’ response to these catastrophic

events.

In the fifth chapter entitled “Family Relationships”, a study has

been made on the relationships between husband-wife, parents – children

and among siblings. This relationship also suggests the humanistic

premise that “the universal lies in the ordinary”.

The sixth chapter sums up the various issues related to the Parsi-

predicament discussed in previous chapters. Avenues for further research

have been suggested.

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Chapter – II

The Parsi Nostalgia

The term ‘nostalgia’describes a sentimentality for the past, typically

for a period or place with happy personal associations(http://en.wikipedia.

org/ wiki/ Nostalgia). The term denotes a bitter-sweet longing for the

unclaimable pleasant past, often bordering on melancholy. In fiction,

nostalgia is a recurrent theme, a wishful/wistful recollection of a past way

of life for ever lost to the main characters. This concept is manifested in the

idealization of religious rituals. These rituals are significant factors in

preserving the past and they prevent the disintegration of family and

society.

Nostalgic reminiscences are presented in the stories of many

characters in the works of Sidhwa and Mistry. These are connected to the

changed circumstances of the Parsi community following Independence.

This politico-cultural nostalgia really helps to create a sense of loss among

the characters, both in domestic and public spheres.

Bapsi Sidhwa in her novels elaborately deals with the theme of

nostalgia. By placing Pakistan on the international literary front, Sidhwa

has helped to correct what she considers a slanted view towards Pakistan

on the part of the Western World.

Sidhwa has drawn extensively on her own communal heritage and

benefitted as a budding writer from the privileged environment and

cosmopolitan background typical of a wealthy Parsi home. Now a citizen

49

of the United States, she has once again enlarged her community and this

expansion serves her well in An American Brat.

The nostalgia surrounding a bygone community fills the novels

which weave the rich tapestry of Asian life through a recreation of the

smell and taste of food, the colours and textures of clothing, the sounds and

odours and sights of crowded streets and over –peopled houses. But

Sidhwa’s sometimes raucous and often earthly humour waylays the

sentimental impulse (too often the result of nostalgia) and stresses instead

the comedy and humanity that lie behind day-to-day life. The Crow Eaters

in particular exemplifies this quality. Although many Parsis did not at first

appreciate Sidhwa’s boisterous portrayal of a fictional group of their

community in colonial Lahore, the outsider could not help but love these

people and identify with them as they faced life’s most rewarding yet most

difficult tasks: the formation of relationships, that is, the maintenance of

community inspite of the human proclivity towards stubbornness,

pretentiousness, Jealousy, domination and all the other imperfections that

comprise character. Far from ridiculing the Parsis, the novel celebrates

their community and in turn celebrates the all encompassing idea of

community.

As The Crow Eaters closes, the powerful destroyer of community,

the Partition remains on the sidelines ready to work its wreckage. The

inhabitants of this cozy Parsi World have been anglicised to a greater

degree than most of their neighbours and they fear that Independence and

the subsequent departure of the British might leave them only in alien

setting, their community will be shattered. In Sidhwa’s world, the instinct

50

for community remains so powerful that the characters appreciate its

fluidity.

In Sidhwa’s novel The Pakistani Bride, she explains how Zaitoon

grows up in Lahore almost as Qasim’s daughter and she is also trained to

be an obedient Muslim girl. Unfortunately she revels in fantasies about her

protector’s lost mountain paradise. This community has been romanticized.

After living for years on the plains, Zaitoon, is married to tribal man in the

North-West region of Pakistan and discovers the flimsiness of her dreams,

and rebels once the ideal community she had imagined evolves into a

nightmare.

For in reality, it was no longer what she had imagined “a region

where men were heroic, proud and incorruptible, ruled by a code of honour

that banned all injustice and evil… their women, beautiful as Lories and

their bright rose-cheeked children lived beside crystal torrents of matted

snow”(PB,90). Zaitoon’s escaping from the corrupted community where

she is treated brutally amounts to Afzal Khan a challenge to the strictures

of Patriarchy .

In Sidhwa’s fourth novel, An American Brat she addresses another

aspect of community, the immigrant experience which includes a good deal

of nostalgia. As people move from one part of the world, to another,

seeming to dissolve national boundaries, the formation and the

maintenance of the community involves many dimensions even as the

community becomes more fluid.

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The novel focuses on the search for community that has turned

fluid. There arises a quest that preoccupies the immigrant—caught

between the world left behind and the new one he or she faces.

Feroza’s nostalgia with the passage of time, only refers to an exile.

She is caught between the two worlds, the one she had forsaken. It offers

no hope or prosperity. Feroza finds it difficult to feel comfort in the chosen

land.

An American Brat records the doings of the probable descendants of

the Crow Eaters, that bewildered community of Parsis. Set in the

contemporary period, the story is that of a wealthy Parsi family living in

Lahore in peaceful times.

The outer world has completely changed since the days of The

Crow Eaters and Ice Candy Man. A community forever fluid has been re-

established in order to satisfy present demands.

Zareen in The American Brat, fears that her daughter Feroza is

succumbing to the influence of the Islamic fundamentalism that is

sweeping in Pakistan. For, Feroza critisises her mother for dressing

immodestly.

Later, Feroza adjusts to the new community in America. Certainly

An American Brat succeeds in defining the American experience first as

Feroza views it. Feroza discovers her Parsi roots, her religion and her Kusti

(the string that Parsis Wear as Protection) and decides that she is not going

to marry an American. She grows into her Indianness. As a post-colonial

novel, this novel speaks about a female character who comes into an

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awareness of herself as an Indian. In some ways the story is about Sidhwa

herself, her encounter with America and her Westernised ways.

In the novel, the writing of history becomes a part of the effort

towards historical narrative. It goes over the past to understand the present

and tries to explain events and characters. But when it fails to explain, it

raises certain questions. The women writers see history not only as

structured by Wars and conquests and the actions of men, but also as

identified in the interaction of women and in the cultural traditions of

society. But they fail to evoke nostalgia as the major constituent of their

concern with the past and do not aim at a revival of the past. Instead, they

analyse and interpret history and politics and free them from any form of

stereotyping.

Sidhwa in her novels deals with history, past and present and seeks

to feminize it in the above fashion with an active interrogation of the

woman’s position in the historical, political situations.

Again, in Sidhwa’s work there is no migration or Partition without

loss. Even Freddy’s jovial rise extorts its price. The prevalent comedy of

her work suggests that migration becomes one of life’s essential rhythms as

in An American Brat .

Sidhwa also enriches her narratives by using a variety of narrative

positions and persona. Thus, the nostalgia gets variegated into a wide

spectrum of attitudes to self, society and race. There is an effort of multiple

seeing of all Brechtian types, though the epic sweep is beyond Sidhwa. She

remains a private voice interested in macro-issues only as they impact the

53

microcosm of family and self. Her public comments have an off-the-cuff

informality that suggest an individual view of history and culture.

The Crow Eaters is a closely constructed narrative that begins with

an extended flash back. Freddy, a middle –aged man tells the story of his

early years to a captive audience consisting of his seven children and some

neighbouring kids. He narrates his journey to Punjab with his wife and

mother-in law for control over his household.

Through a fraudulent Insurance scheme in which he sets fire to his

shop and frightens his mother–in-law, he becomes both rich and the master

of his house. He rises to power and eminence in the community through

hard work and craft. This flash back dominates the first seventeen chapters.

The Crow Eaters also explores both the superficial and deep

dimensions of the comic mode. It embodies a larger vision of the world.

This vision is also comic and described as broad, tolerant and sympathetic.

Here, Sidhwa provides insights about the Parsi faith’s antiquity, their

culture, tolerance and other beliefs.

But as a Pakistani, she writes against Indian views of the past,

against predominantly Indian versions of the Partition that have

increasingly been challenging British interpretations of those events.

Rohinton Mistry’s fiction foregrounds numerous themes such as

tradition and memory, the public realm, age, women, family and society in

almost recurrent fashion.

Mistry in his A Fine Balance, deals with a clean picture of India

during the colonial and post-colonial period. It also seems that geographical

distance is cancelled out only in the cartography of his mind. His migration

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to a foreign land is considered to be more a homecoming than an act of

expatriation. The novel like the literary works of other exiles, reflects to

quote Pasternak, “[an]obsessive concern with roots, nostalgia and finally a

mythicization of a lost country.”(Qtd., by Mukherjee, Exile of the Mind,

989).

The story in A Fine Balance is concerned with the middle classes.

They struggle with their ambitious wishes to higher respectability. Here,

Mistry inter-mingles history with the personal lives of the characters. The

novel deals with socio-political turmoil. In the novel, Dina Dalal, a pretty

widow in her forties represents the urban world. Maneck Kohalah, a

sensitive Parsi boy represents another world. Ishver Darji and Om Prakash

are two rural untouchables from a family of tanners. They also struggle to

rise above their designated caste roles by becoming tailors.

A Fine Balance is a humane novel. The novel deals with the values

of a society that deny one, the value of growing old with dignity. The

novel clearly pictures the dwindling Parsi community in India to which

Mistry himself belongs.

Dina Dalal in the beginning resists the intimacy between Maneck

and the tailors. The mutal dependence between them finally makes her

agree to let the tailors sleep in her Verandah for she could not afford to lose

their services.

But how firm to stand how much to bend? Where was the line between compassion and foolishness. Kindness and weakness? And that was from her position. From this, it might be a line between mercy and cruelty, consideration and callousness, she could draw it on this side but they might see it on that side. (AFB,382)

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In the novel, Maneck is a victim of displacement. He got this sense

of displacement while moving from the secluded environment of his home

in the hills to the college in the city. He is humiliated by his seniors. He

tries his level best to adapt himself to the political atmosphere of the

college, but cannot help feeling alienated. He becomes nostalgic and is

constantly reminded of his home. In the end, Maneck commits suicide.

Moreover in the name of poverty alleviation and civic beautification

beggars are carried away and dumped in labour camps. Along with the

beggars, poor people are also taken away.

So in the presentation of the major characters in the novel, their

loneliness and struggle for identity and survival in a cruel world gain

significance. It is social circumstances, sense of isolation and rootlessness,

there arises a bond of understanding as they struggle to survive. A Fine

Balance has established Mistry firmly as a significant literary figure in the

Indian and Indo – Canadian traditions of fiction writing.

The ending of A Fine Balance is unconventional. Maneck, the

boarding Parsi young man, is deeply upset at the misfortunes that befall on

his family. His sorrows multiply when he visits Bombay. He finds that

Dina has been evicted from her house.

Maneck’s dejection and extreme despair make him commit suicide.

Mistry’s portrayal of Maneck as a sensitive man brings out clearly the

struggles Maneck faces in his life. Finally he is lost in a struggle of despair

and hope.

A Fine Balance opens with a train journey and concludes with an

‘Epilogue’ 1984 after Dina completes her journey of emancipation and

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slef- realisation. Ishvar and Om, now beggars too have their ambitions and

they have their own odysseys.

Mistry is considered an accomplished fictionist. In his fiction, he

deals with the life of the Indian middle class in Bombay comprising several

communities. In his portrayal of urban community life, he focuses on the

interaction of the Parsis with other communities.

Mistry’s fame as an outstanding story teller rests on his appeal to

femininity. Parsis all over the world consider him a spokesperson of their

own anxieties, problems and frustrations. Mistry offers them a glimpse of

their own culture. Readers from the Parsi community appreciated his

honest portrayal of things ; his wonderfully layered characters and his

knowledge of customs of the community. Ultimately the book became a hit

among non –Parsis too.

Given to nostalgia. Gustad Noble in Such a Long Journey

expresses his desire to get back to Iran, the Parsis’ Primary space.

Commenting on the predicament of the Parsis in Bombay he says: “No

future for minorities with all these fascist Shivsena politics and Marathi

language nonsense. It was going to be like the black people in America –

twice as good as the white man to get half as much”(SLJ,55).

The Parsis’ longing to return to Iran, which they know is closed to

them for ever. In the novel, there are only three non- Parsi characters

namely Malcolm Saldena, Gulam Mohammed and the pavement artist. In A

Fine Balance, there are Ishvar and Om the two non –Parsi Dalits in

addition to the Parsi characters.

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Parsis and poverty are in contradictory pain. Cowasjee in the novel

cries out in anguish to God: “Your floods are washing away poor people’s

huts… where is your fairness? Have you got any brains or not? Flood the

Tatas this year! Flood the Birlas, flood the Mafatlals”(SLJ,127).

The significant ethnic-atrophy syndrome lies in the high rate of

divorce among the Parsis. Mistry records in his fiction the ethnic atrophy

that has set in his community. The fates of his characters are interwoven.

The story ‘Swimming Lessons’ also deals with Mistry’s personal identity,

his desire for recollections of his homeland and his adjustment in a new

environment.

The story also evokes the issue of identity ranging from a

reconciled sense of self-belonging to two geographical areas. In this story,

Mistry emphasises on both his created home and community in Canada. He

also employs a variety of tones and attitudes: nostalgic, ironic and also

humorous.

The story that is set in Canada is completely structured to

accommodate the narrative. The shift between the Indian past and Canadian

present dramatises the clash that occurs between Oriental and Western

culture. Mistry’s life in Canada is juxtaposed with his Indian past. This

occurs only in the processes of memory. In Canada everything changes and

this transfers his mind to India. So he becomes nostalgic.

Mistry’s apartment in Canada reminds him very well of his home in

Firozsha Baag. The swimming pool draws a portrait of Chowpatty Beach in

his mind. Even the character of the old man makes him remember of his

grandpa. He used to sit on the veranda and stare at the traffic outside

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Firozsha Baag. He was unable to read the Bombay Samachar. So he waved

to any one who passed by in the compound like Rustomji, Nariman

Hansotia in his 1932 Mercedez – Benz, the fat ayah Jaakaylee with her

shopping bag and the kuchrawalli with her basket and long bamboo

broom.

There is a Portuguese woman who gathers and disseminates

information. She is also the communicator for the apartment building. She

seems so life-like and is like a woman in any Indian neighbourhood.

The parents too feel that the son (the narrator of the story) is

alienated and estranged from them. He does not present any ideas about his

personal life. They express their surprise by asking why ‘every thing about

his life is locked in silence and secrecy’ and why he bothered to visit them

last year if he had nothing to say. In every letter of his, he mentions just the

Canadian weather. They feel that he is not happy. He doesn’t desire to

communicate this to his parents.

The son like Mistry is another diasporic writer. He becomes

nostalgic and returns through his writings to Bombay where he spent his

childhood. He writes stories about his homeland only on the basis of

memory. He likes to preserve his stories before they fade away altogether.

The question of identity both metaphoric and literal depicted through

literary and artistic tools are used as strategies for survival in a world that is

alien and often hostile. This is explored clearly in Mistry’s stories. In

‘Swimming lessons’ there lies an oscillation between personal constructs of

home and away. The protagonist is skeptical of the Western culture he has

joined.

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Mistry’s use of oppositions and contrasts, parallels between cultures

to construct an identity focus on the ambivalent position of the victim of

diaspora. He remembers every little thing about his childhood. Even though

he is miles away, he is always thinking about Bombay.

Mistry’s portrayal of the Parsi families is totally authentic He

achieves this authenticity only by distancing himself by his emigration to

Canada. Mistry also asserts that the Parsi community is the richest and

most advanced, philanthropic community in India.

The ‘Swimming Lessons’ gives an insight into Parsi culture. It also

presents Parsi religious ceremonies and the belief in Avan Yazad, as the

guardian. In the story, although the son lives in Canada, his parents do not

like him to forget Parsi values, culture, rituals and ceremonies

accompanying religious festivals like Ganesh chaturthi.

Mistry points to the expatriate’s sensitivity to the Canadian

weather. The narrator describes the extremely cold winter. He is conscious

that immigrants from hot countries enjoy the snow only in the first year or

for a couple of years more. But inevitably the dread sets in and the

approach of winter gets them fretting and moping.

In the story, the father tells his wife to write to their son, “remind

him he is a Zorastrian, menashi gavashni, Kunshani, better write the

translation also, good thoughts, good words, good deeds. He must have

forgotten what it means and tell him to say prayers and do kusti at least

twice a day”(237). The mother also wonders whether he still wears his

Sudra and Kusti.

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‘Swimming Lessons’ is mostly about Canada. Mistry employs

water imagery here. The initial inability of the son to swim smoothly in the

waters of Chowpatty Beach in Bombay and also in the swimming pool in

Canada simply portrays his inability to assimilate into either society. Water

becomes the medium through which he is reborn. He also perceives life in

dual perspective or the ‘stereoscopic’ vision of life.

The protagonist in Canada really misses the rich cultural and

religious life of India. He thinks of its significance. Gustad in Such a Long

Journey is nostalgic about the past, the happy carefree days of his

childhood, the family gatherings, the holidays and the rich smells of his

father’s carpentry business. It is only a nostalgia that is private and silent.

In the novel, Jamshed’s alienation is a consequence of his material

well – being in childhood. This material well-being has served to alienate

the Parsis from the ground realities of the nation they live in. Percy risks

his life in order to uplift the conditions of the rural villagers. This implies a

criticism of alienation.

Gustad is involved in surviving hardships. This improves the

circular stances of those around him. His private grief and nostalgia help to

deepen his character, giving it multi-layered intensity.

The fiction of Rohinton Mistry could be read as a nostalgic look at

the community he has left behind. Mistry is acutely realistic and he stresses

the contradictions within the Parsi experience in the country (India) of their

residence.

Mistry recognises the importance of religion and ritual in the

construction of human identity. His fiction can be read as the predicament

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of an individual who seeks to cope and adjust with the contradictions

between the past and the present of the community. Mistry as a Parsi

writer, tackles religion and rituals with fervor since these are the

significant elements of Parsi identity.

The conclusion of the novel shows Gustad, ready to accept the

imperfections of existence. He controls his desire for better times. He

removes the dark paper that had been on the windows since the last war,

waiting for calmer days, an act that indicates the readiness to accept things

as they are.

In Such a Long Journey, Mistry’s exploration of the way of life of

a community becomes more penetrative. The life of Gustad Noble, the

main protagonist of the novel, is an attempt to link family, friends,

community work and India itself. It is a parable on the nobility of

ordinariness.

Rohinton Mistry’s Family Matters, is in many ways a rites of -

passage book in which the child is the witness—one can very well say—it

is a kind of ‘the child is the father of the man’ text.

Family Matters deals with the larger issues of religious zealotry,

and bigotry. Mistry has emphasized current issues, the glorious Parsi-past,

the Indian connection and ways and mores of the Parsi Zoroastrians. He

discourses not only on the problems of Nariman Vakeel, an aged Parsi of

seventy nine years, suffering from Parkinson and Osteoporosis but through

him, on the ageing Parsi community on the verge of extinction.

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At the time of discoursing on the various issues facing the Parsi

community, through the paradigmatic shift to Nariman’s love affair in the

flash back scenes, Nariman’s past life history is unfolded.

The first flash back provides only the initial piece of the jigsaw

puzzles that completely express the entire story of Nariman’s unhappiness.

It describes how one evening thirty-six years ago Nariman finally

capitulated to his parents’ insistent demand that he end his liaison with that

Goan woman and agree to settle down (FM,11). The same evening had

been preceded by the evening at the Breachcandy Beach when he had told

Lucy Braganza that he was ending their long relationship. The flashback

over the text moves into contemporary times again since the family

celebrates Nariman’s seventy ninth birth day.

As for Nariman, inspite of the hardships of his cheek-by-jowl

existence in the tiny flat and his son-in-law’s at times justified grumpiness,

life becomes better than it was in his spacious flat, where he had to contend

with Coomy’s sourness and Jal’s helplessness. Nariman had his grandson’s

company and when he talked in his sleep, Roxana and Yezad rushed out of

their bedroom to standby and watch till he settled back into sleep. The

talking in his sleep is again a part of flashback episode.

These flashbacks of Nariman reveal his painful past. The next

flashback explains the tragedy that ultimately blights Nariman’s life and

those of his step-children forever.

As the text weaves in and out of times past and present, it also

pauses for a while to take in concerns dear to Mistry’s heart and after this

flashback it is the turn of immigration to be discussed.

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In the novel, Mistry’s own problems with a time—warp, common to

most Diasporic writers and occasional lapses into nostalgia surface in the

chapters dealing with Jehangir’s school-St.Xavier’s—not coincidentally

also Mistry’s alma mater. There lies plenty of scope to remember old-

school-teachers, pretty females as well as those who were male and priests.

Mr.Kapur’s nostalgic praise of Bombay is also offset by Yezad’s

own memories, especially regarding the Bombay Docks explosion in 1944.

This particular story gains importance when it is retold to his sons in the

context of the clock at home, which only Yezad winds. Yezad as a story

teller tells his sons how their grandfather who had been a cashier in a bank

had safeguarded the bank’s money in the midst of the chaos and destruction

that had overtaken the city when a ship in the docks had exploded.

Thus the sentimental longing for the happy past, both in the

personal and social fronts gains significance in the novels of Bapsi Sidhwa

and Rohinton Mistry. A close analysis reveals that these sentimental

recollections on Parsi festivities and the nostalgic moments on the very

entity called ‘Bombay’ nourish the fragile Parsi-psyche in a fusion of past,

present and possibly the future.

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Chapter – III

The Predicament of the Parsis in Multi-cultural Societies

There are many multi-cultural nations in the world today. India, the

United States, Canada, England and Australia are the immediate examples.

Apart from the historical waves of migration of people of different

ethnicity and religion, political turmoil has sent waves of refugees from

country to country seeking asylum, paving way to more multicultural

nations in the process. The exodus of the Srilankan Tamils is an example

for this.

The arrival of these new people often results in socio-political

turmoil. For example, According to The Hindu,a prominent Indian English

Daily (October 18th,1999), the German authorities were offering an

equivalent of Rs.50,000 per person as “inducement money” to each of the

over 3,50,000 Bosnian and Balkan refugees in Germany living as either

“asylum seekers” or “displaced persons.” It is also mentioned that these

refugees were reluctant to go back. This act of the German authorities

clearly reveals a racist attitude and the complex nature of the issue faced

by Germany as a multicultural nation.

Traditionally, India has had remained a nation of minorities. It

has even received waves of foreign invaders and got assimilated them as

Indians. Apart from the Hindu majority, there are Muslims, Christians,

Buddhists, Jains, Bahais etc., in India with each offering a cultural fabric to

the multicultural fabric of India.

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Persia (modern Iran) was conquered by Muslims during the 8th

Century and this resulted in the mass migration of the Parsis to the West

Coast of India. True, they were allowed by the king of Sanjan, Jadi Rana

to settle in Sanjan, on certain conditions like they have to explain their

religion to the king; they have to give up their native Persian language, and

take on the languages of India; their women should wear traditional dress

of India; the men should lay down their weapons, and they should hold

their wedding processions only in the dark (Kulke 28)

The Parsis accepted these conditions and gradually settled down in

India and later moved to other multicultural cities like Lahore and Mumbai.

There what kind of life was led by them? Were they able to assimilate

themselves with the ways of the majority? Were they able to acculturate

themselves in these multicultural societies, especially after the Partition?

The fiction of Sidhwa and Mistry strive to find artistic answers to

these sociological queries.

In Ice – Candy Man, Sidhwa turns her attention to a terrible period

of her country’s history as she dramatically recreates Lahore (the

predominant setting of her novels) during the months of the Partition.

To realise Pakistan, Sidhwa appears to suggest, it is necessary to

understand the events that led to its emergence as a new nation in 1947.

The novel begins at the end of the 19th Century. It is really an unusual

passage to India that transports the reader to the heart of the Parsi

community. Lahore is clearly brought to life through a wealth of local

detail.

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The hero of the novel is Freddy, a Parsi and through him, his family

and their Parsi friends, the culture of this minority community is recreated

as an apt setting to the story. The focus on Parsi customs and beliefs is

interesting itself. This decision to set the story among the Parsi community

is sound on literary grounds too.

Sidhwa as a Pakistani, writes against the Indian views of the past.

As a Parsi, she appears on occasions to write against Pakistani

interpretations of history too.

In Ice-Candy Man Lenny’s unreliable narration proves to be reliable

in its own way, at least as reliable as the British and Indian versions on

events and personages. The Ice Candy Man is both a Pakistani version of

Partition and a major contribution to the list of Partition novels that

continue to emerge from the Indian sub-continent.

The novel examines the inexorable logic of the Partition. It is an

offshoot of the fundamentalism that is sparked off by communal attitudes.

This novel includes a bevy of characters from all communities. There are

Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and Parsis. This enables the writer to

present multiple perspectives of Partition.

In the novel, Lenny, a precocious, handicapped Parsi girl who is

eight year old, narrates the story of her changing world with a sense of

wonder.

Lenny is observing a social change and human behaviour, noting

interesting sidelights and listening to opinions in making judgements. Her

childish innocence can be compared to Chaucer’s persona, a source of

sharp irony. The device of the child narrator enables Bapsi Sidhwa to treat

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a historical moment as horrifying as the Partition. The author maintains a

masterful balance between laughter and despair sensitively. She shows the

human toll of the Partition when a concerned Lenny asks: “Can one break a

country? And what happens if they break it where our house is?” (ICM,92).

The Parsi dilemma in whether to support ‘Swaraj’ or to maintain

loyalty to the British Raj is also humorously delineated. With the arrival of

Independence, the paranoid feelings of the Parsis as a minority get

accentuated. The Parsis in Lahore attend a special meeting in a temple hall

on Warris Road, especially to debate on the political situation. The meeting

expresses the insecurity of the Parsis not due to communal antagonism but

because of their changed status at the departure of the British. Col.

Bharucha and Lenny’s father blame the British for bringing polio to India.

At the meeting, India’s smallest minority is trying to redefine their strategy

which Colonel Bharucha sums up as, “We must hunt with the hounds and

run with the hare” (ICM,16).

Colonel Bharucha, the President of the community advocates the

statusquo. He also warns fellow Parsis to shun the anti-colonial

movements. He says if there is ‘Home Rule’ political glory, fame and

fortune will be obtained by the two major communities. Moreover the

Parsis traced their secured status as a prosperous minority community to

British Rule. Parsis considered loyalty as a self–evident precept.

Col.Bharucha advises Parsis not to offend British sensibilities by espousing

nationalist causes in a tone of admonition: “I hope no Lahore Parsi will be

stupid enough to court trouble. I strongly advise all of you. Do stay at home

and out of trouble” (ICM,37)

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Some Parsis express apprehensions about remaining in Lahore after

independence. They desire to migrate either to London or Bombay. The

president of the Lahore Parsis, Col.Bharucha says, “As long as we conduct

our lives quietly, as long as we present no threat to anybody we will

prosper right here” (ICM,40).

The Parsis remained in the urban areas of India and Pakistan, trying

to preserve their identity by not meddling in political matters. Bapsi

Sidhwa presents the underlying fears of the Parsis about the Partition and

independence.

Sidhwa portrays the Parsis as captives of circumstances in the

upheaval of the Partition. Adaptability becomes part of their social code

and the Parsis adjust to the changing situations. Col. Bharucha and

Lenny’s father curse the British for bringing polio to India(ICM,61). Even

Lenny suffers from polio and the disease is treated as another example of

British treachery. Lenny’s mother Mrs.Sethi and other Parsi women help

Hindu and Sikh families to escape in safe convoys to India. They also assist

in the rehabilitation of destitute and kidnapped women. It is Lenny’s God

mother who rescues the Hindu Ayah who is forcibly married to her former

Muslim friend the seller of Ice- Candies.

The God mother is responsible for sending the Ayah to Amritsar

under police escort. There arises a sense of involvement with the new

reality. Lenny’s parents, God mother and Parsi friends try to bring some

semblance of sanity into frenzied Lahore.

Charity and social usefulness form the major duo in the Parsi moral

code. This code is based on the teachings of the prophet Zarathushtra. This

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is amply revealed in Eckehard Kulke’s scholarly book,The Parsis in India

: A minority as Agent of social change. Parsi charities are cosmopolitan.

They venerate the ancient scriptures and daily prayers extol philanthropy.

This charity system was made possible and furthered by the basic

philanthropic attitude of the Parsis, motivated by their religion.

The innocence and disbelief of the children—Lenny,her brother

Adi, cousin Ranna together with the humanity of people like Lenny’s

mother who smuggles rationed petrol at great personal risk to help her

Hindu and Sikh friends to escape Lahore are expressions of their humane

attitude.

The dinner party in Lenny’s parents’ house during which Lenny and

her brother hide under the large table and eavesdrop on the conversation

overhead allows Sidhwa to introduce a discussion on the major political

issues of the day –Swaraj. Lenny only overhears much about the current

political situation when he sits with Ayah and her followers.

Lenny also becomes aware of the different religions around her and

understands that in the Lahore of 1947 people are not simply themselves “It

is sudden. One day everybody is themselves and the next day they are

Hindus, Muslim, Sikh, Christian People shrink, dwindling into symbols.

Ayah is no longer just my all-encompassing Ayah-she is also a token. A

Hindu” (ICM, 93).

The Ice –Candy Man is concerned with the events of the Partition,

and is more interesting for its characterisation and narrative techniques.

The novel is deeply political in retelling of the events of Partition from a

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Pakistani rather than an Indian perspective. The novel is laden with

historical references.

Lenny is told of her childhood and receives historical news of

Gandhi out of time. It has all become a part of the ethos of the age. The

burning of Lahore is compared with the celebration of Holy, a spring

festival that would have taken place some months earlier.

Gandhi’s visit to Lahore allows Bapsi Sidhwa to reassess his place

in history. To quote from the novel : “ Gandhijee certainly was ahead of

his times. . . He has starved his way into the news and made headlines all

over the world”(ICM,86). He is a man who loves women and lame children

and the untouchable sweeper.

Bapsi Sidhwa’s treatment of the Parsi Community in Ice – Candy

Man provides the reader with an intimate view of the plight of minority

ethnic groups in Pakistan. The Ice Candy Man is considered as both a

Pakistani version of the Partition and one of the finest novels on Partition to

emerge from the Indian sub - continent.

Several communities interact in Ice Candy Man—Lenny’s

immediate and extended family, Ayah and her circle of admirers, the Hindu

neighbours and the Muslim villagers. In the novel, Sidhwa describes the

Partition through the young Lenny’s eyes. Sidhwa’s humour tones down

the horror and pity of the scenario as she tells the story of the Partition

through the perspective of a child. Lenny’s comprehension of the events of

the Partition are explained through the story of what happens to her

beloved Hindu Ayah.

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Sidhwa makes her Paksitani identity clear in Ice-Candy Man where

she suggests how the Partition favoured India over Pakistan. To quote from

the novel: “The Hindus are being favoured over the Muslims by the

remnants of the Raj. Now that its objective to divide India is achieved, the

British favour Nehru over Jinnah. … They grant Nehru Gurdaspur and

Pathankot without which Muslim Kashmir cannot be secured (ICM, 1959).

Sidhwa has made an attempt to give a Pakistani perspective on the

Partition of India. According to Sidhwa, the British glorified Mountbatten,

the Indians and Gandhi. But only Gandhi sowed the seeds of the Partition

and turned the whole independence struggle into a Hindu movement. As a

Pakistani, Sidhwa finds it difficult to defend Mohammed Ali Jinnah. The

reference to Jinaah is made suitably in the Parsi family, that is the centre of

the novel.

Lenny comes across the picture of an astonishingly beautiful

woman and is said that it is the picture of Jinna’s wife. As a Parsi, she

married the Muslim Jinnah braving her family’s displeasure. But the

marriage was not a happy one.

Sidhwa rises above petty nationalism. Ice –Candy Man does not

stress the two-nation theory behind the creation of Pakistan. Sidhwa does

not emphasise the belief of Pakistani Muslims in the necessity of the

parititon and the creation of Pakistan.

The novel explains the religious and cultural differences that are

artificially created and fostered through Lenny’s perspective. Sidhwa

describes how religious differences were deliberately exploited on the eve

of the Partition. To quote from the novel: “Gandhi, Jinnah, Nehru, Iqbal,

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Tarasingh, Mountbatten are names I hear. One day everybody is

themselves – and the next day they are Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian.

People shrink especially dwindling into symbols(ICM, 115)

The United States enabled Sidhwa to give a ‘happy’ ending to the

story of the Partition. But here too it may be observed that the victim is

only the Muslim woman. Sidhwa portrays and presents a different

perspective on the story of the Partition.

Lenny attempts to have free social interaction with a group of Sikh

children. But Lenny is pulled away by Masseur. Moreover the Sikh women

ask her about her home and the name of her religion. When Lenny says that

she is from a Parsi family, the Sikh women express amazement at the

discovery of a new religion. Only then does Lenny realize the social divide

between communities.

Rationalizing her feelings she expresses her view: “That’s when I

realize what has changed. The Sikhs, only their rowdy little boys running

about hair piled in topknots are keeping mostly to themselves”

(ICM,96).Cultural and religious exclusivity leads initially to indifference

and later to contempt. This contempt becomes the breeding ground for

communal violence and bigotry.

The Ice-Candy Man pretends to speak to God over telephone. The

scene is really ridiculous and filled with a sense of humour. The Ice –

Candy Man’s predicament provokes only amusement. The duplicity of

people, all in the name of religion is criticized here. Their gullibility is

exposed clearly. “Suddenly he springs up … Allah! Wah Allah!.... the

madder the mystic, the greater his power.” (ICM,99)

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The secular group of Ayah’s admirers maintain a facade of unity by

cracking ribald jokes on community characteristics. They too become

vicious and fall prey to a communal frenzy.

The Ice – Candy Man’s attempts to marry the Ayah become

fruitful. He frostily marries Ayah, and changes her name as Mumtaz. He

also recites love poetry to her. Love becomes powerless. Moreover Ayah

has a revulsion for her newly –acquired Muslim identity. With the help of

Lenny’s God mother, she is taken to a recovered women’s camp. Later she

is sent to the family in Amritsar. Love does not conquer all especially when

communal passions are aroused.

Only with the help of humour, parody and allegory, Bapsi Sidhwa

does convey the danger of compromising with religious fundamentalism of

all categories. Though her novel is about the Partition, Sidhwa reveals that

communal riots are contemporaneous.

In the world of the Ice-Candy Man, what transpires in the great

halls of Delhi matters. The fate of Ayah’s circle, Lenny’s family the

refugees who go and come, the Muslim villagers who face death remain

disturbing.

Post coloniality is a major theme and preoccupation in Sidhwa’s

novels. The chronological moment of post-coloniality is the centre of The

Ice Candy Man. Moreover it is set in the period of Partition and around

what Sidhwa tells us is a quintessential post colonial moment.

The horror experienced by the people at the time of the Partition

permeates this work. The Parsis are the most-colonised of the people. They

74

come to an understanding of themselves and their connections with the

subcontinent.

Sidhwa’s works are timeless and speak of the cultural conflict in

the migrations of people. The novels of Bapsi Sidhwa reveal her as a Parsi

and a Pakistani writer.

In Ice Candy Man, the Parsis are not implicated in the Hindu –

Muslim struggles even though an innocent child becomes the victim of

questioning and betrays her Hindu maid servant to the Muslims.

The main theme of Bapsi Sidhwa’s work is how the Parsis interact

with the rest of the multicultural populace around them, whether in India,

in Britain or as in the case of American Brat in the United States.

Following the advice of their elders like Faredoon, the majority of

the Parsis adopted a discreet politically naïve profile. They also directed

their efforts towards achieving success in their personal lives. But within

the next four years, the freedom movement gathered such a momentum that

some Parsis like Dr.Maneck Mody of the Ice-Candy Man found it difficult

to remain uninvolved.

In the Jashan Prayer meeting to celebrate the British victory in the

Second World War, the Parsis of Lahore exchange their views freely on the

political situation prevailing in the country. Colonel Bharucha, a doctor and

president of the Parsi community in Lahore warns against joining the

struggle for power: “Hindus Muslims and even the Sikhs are going to

jockey for power and if you jokers jump into the middle you’ll be mangled

into chutney”(ICM, 36)

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Moreover one impatient voice expresses his distrust of the three

major communities, “If we’re struck with the Hindus, they usurp our

business from under our noses and sell our grandfathers in the bargain, if

we restrict with the Muslims they “convert us by the sword, and God help

us if we‘re struck with the Sikhs (ICM,37). Colonel Bharucha asks them

not to develop rancour against any community. He tells them that they will

cast their lot with whoever rules Lahore. “Let whoever wishes rule! Hindu,

Muslim, Sikh, Christian! We will abide by the rules of their land” (ICM,

39).

When a question arises if they should move to Bombay in case the

Muslims rule Lahore, Col. Bharucha replies that they must remain where

they are “As long as we conduct our lives quietly, as long as we present no

threat to any body, we will prosper right here”(ICM,40).

The final decision is that they will not meddle in political matters;

will keep equidistance from the three major communities contending for

power.

In the opening of the novel, the narrator Lenny is four years old.

Her parents are quite well off since they live in a big house on Warris road.

Her brother Adi is one year and a month younger than her. Because of her

affected leg she is pampered by everyone everywhere. Her world is

compressed and her movement is also limited. Her eighteen year old Ayah

only takes her out to her godmother and aunt’s houses on the opposite

sides of jail road. Lenny loves visiting her god mother most.

Lenny is jolted out of her Jollity by her nightmares about a German

solider To quote her words: “. . .coming to get me [Lenny] on his motor

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cycle. Another nightmare which is more ominous is that of ‘men in

uniforms quietly, slice off a child’s arm here, a leg there, she exclaims “I

feel no pain, only an absymal sense of loss – and a chilling horror that no

one is concerned by what’s happening” (ICM,22).

The chilling horror that she feels over no one being concerned about

what is happening is symbolic of the general lack of sensitivity to the blood

bath of Partition.

Lenny’s another nightmare is that of the zoo lion breaking free and

sinking his fangs into her stomach. To quote from the novel, “… the

hungry lion cutting across Lawrence road to Bird wood road prowls from

the rear of the house to the bedroom door and in one bare-fanged leap

crashes through to sink his fangs into my stomach”(23-24)

Generally the hungry lion foreshadows the lust for blood and the

murderous cruelty with which people of different communities treat one

another at the time of Independence and Partition. Through the personal

nightmares of Lenny, Sidhwa sets the stage for the lurid details of real

violence in public life.

Lenny has her first experience of communal amity in rural India

among the Muslims of Pir Pindo and the Sikhs from the neighboring

village forty miles east of Lahore. When Lenny’s family cooks and a towns

man Imam Din broaches the subject of Sikh and Muslim trouble, the

villagers both Sikh and Muslim raise a protest. After the tumult subsides,

the Sikh Granthi Jagjeet Singh says: “Brother, our villages come from the

same racial stock. Muslim or Sikh we are basically Jats. We are brothers.

How can we fight each other? (ICM,56).

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Seconding the views of the Sikh Granthi, the Muslim Cleric of Pir

Pindo tells Imam Din: “ …. Our relationships with the Hindus are bound by

strong ties. The city folk can afford to fight … we can’t. We are dependent

on each other bound by our toil by Mandi prices set by the Bunyas – they’

our common enemy – those city Hindus. To us villagers what does it matter

if a peasant is a Hindu, or a Sikh? (ICM, 56).

Moreover the avowal of love allays Imam Din’s fears. He feels sure

that communal frenzy will not affect the villages. Sikh Granthi says: “ If

need be, we’ll protect our Muslim brothers with our lives”(ICM,56).

When Ayah remarks generally that Jinnah, Nehru and Patel are not

fighting their fight, Sherbet Khan says that “May be true but they are

stirring up trouble for us all”(ICM, 75-76) and reports to her on the

incidents of violence that take place in many parts of the old city.

Parsis especially being a minuscule community are reduced to

irrelevant nomenclatures. Even jokes get tainted. To quote from the novel:

“Cousin erupts with a fresh crop of Sikh jokes, and there are Hindu,

Mulsim, Parsee and Christian jokes” (ICM,95).

The seven year old Lenny senses a subtle change only in the

Queen’s garden. The people of different communities are silting apart.

Only the group around Ayah remains unchanged, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and

Parsee are as always unified around her.

The most pathetic thing is that even children are not being allowed

to interact with one another. When Lenny goes to play with a bunch of Sikh

children, Masseur follows her and drags her away. These incidents are only

instances of what was happening on a large scale in Lahore and other cities

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in India before the Partition. The Ice Candy Man poses as a sufi saint.

Sidhwa also conveys the message that in a society where different religions

struggle with one another for superiority, genuine faith gives way to

religious exhibitionism.

As the time of Independence and Partition draws near, Lenny

notices a lot of hushed talk. “In bazaars, restaurants and littered alleys, men

huddle round bicycles or squat against walls in whispering groups”

(ICM,101).

Moreover the atmosphere of fear, suspicion and distrust takes its

toll on general health especially that of children. More than a year has

passed since Lenny’s visit to Roxana’s village, Pir Pindo. The tension in

the cities is likely to infect the villages. Imam Din decides to pay his kin

another visit. Lenny also goes along with him.

When Lenny observes Delhi Gate from the roof of the Ice-Candy

man’s tenement in Bhathi Gate, She finds English soldiers chased by a mob

of Sikhs. Such scenes of violence have a baleful influence on children.

When Lenny reaches home, she picks out a big bloated celluloid doll and

pulls its legs apart. Lenny’s brutality results only from the re-enacted

scenes that she witnessed in the street.

The Ice –Candy Man helped his friend Sher Singh in getting his

tenants evicted from his house. At that time he had said, “I’m first a friend

to my friends ….. And an enemy to their enemies …. So I serve my friends

(ICM, 122).

Ice – Candy Man cajoles Lenny to reveal the truth about Ayah’s

whereabout and gets her forcibly carried off. Sidhwa through Lenny’s eyes,

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relates the scene of Ayah’s abduction: “The men drag her in grotesque

strides to the cart and their harsh hands, supporting her with careless

intimacy, lift her into it. Four men stand pressed against her, propping her

body upright their lips stretched in triumphant grimaces” (ICM,183)

When Lenny’s God mother learns about Ayah’s presence in the

Hira Mandi, she swings into action to get her rescued. Initially she calls Ice

– Candy Man to her house and then she herself visits Ayah. She tries to

console and comfort her. Apart from helping Ayah, Lenny’s family helps

everyone who is in distress.

The Parsis emerge at the end of the novel as Messiahs of the

Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs, bogged down in a maze of communal hatred

and violence. The strength of charity makes the Parsis both venerable and

invulnerable. Sidhwa’s Parsi perspective makes her account of Partition

largely free from religious fanaticism. She has also a different bias owing

to her Pakistani nationality.

Sidhwa was not happy with the literature written on the theme of

the Partition and also with the film Gandhi because she thought that

Gandhi was unduly glorified. On the other hand, Jinnah was caricatured as

a monster. As a Pakistani, Sidhwa felt it incumbent upon herself to defend

Jinnah, the father of Pakistan. She says to David Montenegro:

And I felt in Ice-Candy Man, I was just redressing in a small way, a very grievous wrong that has been done to Jinnah and Pakistanis by many Indian and British writers. They’ve dehumanised him, made him a symbol of the sort of person who brought about the Partition of India. A person who was hard headed and obstinate. Whereas in reality, he was the only constitutional man who didn’t sway crowds just by rhetoric and tried to do everything by the British standards of constitutional law(532).

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Sidhwa exhibits her love for Pakistan in two important ways: first

she highlights the atrocities committed in East Punjab against the Muslims ;

secondly she reappraises the personality of Jinnah. She also suggests that

the British were less than fair to him as well as to Pakistan.

In Ice – Candy Man Sidhwa tries to balance the account of the

Partition riots by showing both Muslims and Sikhs indulging in

violence.Sidhwa describes clearly the mass murder of Muslims in Pir

Pindo as Ranna saw it. Most of the eminent political leaders of the time

Gandhi, Nehru, Jinnah, Iqbal, Patel, Bose, Master Tara Singh and Lord

Mountbatten figure in Ice – Candy Man in some context or the other. The

Hindu leaders have been presented in an unfavourable manner while the

portrayal of Jinna evokes admiration and sympathy.

Gandhi is described in Ice – Candy Man as a tricky politician.

Masseur says of him, “He’s a politician. It’s his business to suit his tongue

to the moment”(91). Lenny is puzzled by Gandhi’s popularity. For the

butcher, Gandhi is a ‘double-speak.’

Kashmir is always a bone of contention between India and Pakistan.

Sidhwa also thinks that the English have shown favour to Nehru by

granting him Kashmir. Nehru received this preferential treatment because

he is young and handsome. He is also a favourite of both Lord and Lady

Mount battens.On Nehru Sidhwa says: Nehru wears red carnations in the

button holes of his ivory jackets…. He is in the prime of his Brahmin

manhood. (ICM,159)

Jinna was not been given even his rightful due because he is a

scholarly man. Depicting him sympathetically, Sidhwa says:”Jinna is

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incapable of compliments …. The fading empire sacrifices his cause to

their shifting allegiances”(ICM,59-60).

Moreover Sidhwa laments the way Jinnah is being treated by

British and Indian scholars she observes: “… Jinna who for a decade was

known as ‘Ambassador of the Hindu – Muslim unity’ is caricatured and

portrayed as a monster”(ICM,160).

To support Jinnah, Sidhwa quotes from Sarojini Naidu, an eminent

Indian poet and freedom fighter of Jinna: “… the obvious family and

serenity of world wisdom effectually disguise a shy and splendid idealism

which is of the very essence of the man.”(ICM,161).

Thus, Ice – Candy Man presents a Pakistani version of the

Partition.

Sidhwa’s Parsi faith and her trust keep her out of the religious

imbroglio of the Partition. Regarding nationality she is surely a Pakistani

and it also places her in favour of Pakistan.

Ice- Candy Man also represents a feminine view of the Partition.

The narrator of the novel is a little Parsi girl Lenny. Because of her

lameness, caused by polio, her world is limited but has colour and variety.

Ayah, the eighteen year old girl has friends from different religions and she

wants to keep them united. But during the Partition, the communal tension

takes alarming proportions.

The Ice – Candy Man forces Ayah to embrace Islam and also

marries her. But Ayah has not even an iota of love for him. When Lenny’s

God mother visits her, she entreats her to get her away from him. God

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mother saves her and gets her sent to her family in Amritsar. Lenny’s

mother, God Mother, and lecture-aunt do all they can for the riot victims.

Sidhwa portrays men as perpetrators of violence and women as

sufferers and saviours. This reveals her feminine perspective on the

Partition. Ice – Candy Man pictures a fictional account of Partition from

three perspectives – Parsi, Pakistani and feminine.

Sidhwa selects her themes for her novels from widely different

aspects of life. She presents life as she knows and feels it. She considers

even common place things highly important. Her plot moves freely from

any artifice. She also follows the epic method of narration.

In Ice – Canady Man,Ayah is abducted after Lenny discloses her

hide out to Ice-Candy Man. To Lenny, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs are all

alike. She is a child and children are generally innocent. They are also free

of bias and are truthful.

The story of the novel depicts the historical events of the Partition.

Sidhwa aims to throw light on the mutual distrust and communal hatred in

the sub-continent. The unpleasant happenings of the Partition gain

significance in the lives of the characters. Sidhwa chooses characters from

all classes of society.

Ice –Candy Man and Sakhi do villainous things but Sidhwa doesn’t

portray them as villains. She is always sympathetic in the portrayal of her

characters. Her characters reveal themselves through their dialogue and

actions. She refrains from giving unnecessary details and also avoids

delivering judgements on her characters.

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Sidhwa’s keen insight into the workings of their human heart makes

her characters real. Fardun Zaitoon, Jerbanoo, Ice-Candy Man and Feroza

are unforgettable examples.

In The Crow Eaters Sidhwa portrays the Parsi community in

colonial Lahore. The outsider could not help but love these people and

identity with them since they faced life’s most rewarding and difficult tasks

especially the formation of relationship, the maintenance of community

apart from human jealousy and domination.

In Crow Eaters, Sidhwa tries to respond to many queries by

recreating a fictional yet typical saga of a Parsi family and also the

corresponding social milieu. The novel deals with the psychology of the

Parsis, their social behavior, value systems and customs.

Faredoon Junglewalla, his equally successful son Billy and mother

–in law Jerbanoo create an entertaining piece of literature. The social

mobility of a Parsi family, the JungleWallas during the British Raj in the

early 20th century is the main theme. The Jungle Wallas increased their

business from a single general merchants store in Lahore to a chain of

stores in a few months.

The description of Faredoon JungleWalla and his family is not just

historical fiction, but has a strong autobiographical element also. The

achievement of Freddy is stupendous. The novel commences on a note of

praise; many doubts are raised about Freddy’s fame and wealth.

The Parsis settled in India and realised that they could survive as a

minority only by being strictly loyal to every ruling authority and avoiding

tensions and conflicts especially between various groups and the powers in

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the state. The community itself becomes a power factor that would enforce

its interest against the will of the rulers. Parsis also learned to realise that

only loyalty to the ruler generates the right political climate for survival.

Moreover the Parsis were not hindered in the practice of their religion. The

exaggerated servility of Freddy, his son Billy and the other Parsis towards

the British is revealed as a strategy to ensure legal security, peace and

economic prosperity. The flattery of the Parsis is humorously and

obviously revealed in the novel. It expresses an underlying identity crisis

and quest for security among the community. Putli as a dutiful and God-

fearing wife must walk one step ahead of her husband and she considered it

as hypocritical. She also considered it to be barbarous.

Putli also adapted to what she considered new –fangled customs

when she and her husband were invited to the formal tea parties, especially

on the gracious lawns of Government House. She is also cajoled to attend

these functions by her husband. To her husband, it is a chance for

advancing contacts and consolidating friendship. The Parsi milieu of Putli

had a different value system and this is highlighted by the author.

Putli only preserves and follows certain Parsi customs like walking

behind her husband. But her daughter Yasmin vehemently protests and

after marriage she ignores such notions and raises her voice against the

servile attitude of women.

Her seeming relationship of equality, with her husband in following

the manners and customs of the ruling colonial power was a gradual

process. Putli’s inability to realize the ways of Yasmin is seen as the

generation gap. The scope of the novel is large and it shows the reality of a

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whole family and also its network of relationships. Only these relationships

spread out to encompass a wide variety of human beings of different ages.

Sidhwa portrays the changing generations in the Junglewalla family.

The new generation with their increasing economic contacts with

the British like Billy’s scrap iron deal become totally westernized. This is

clearly exemplified by the life style of the youngest son Billy and his

fashionable wife Tanya.

The changing social milieu and identity crisis which Sidhwa depicts

was visible among Parsis in British India too. It is also a social problem for

many in the community even in contemporary India and Pakistan. Parsis

also maintained group identity by their dress, and the general change of

attitude is also evident and clear.

Faredoon and his family took it as a pride to wear their traditional

dress. The next generation of Parsis, Tanya and Behram slowly discard the

traditional dress. Besides their limited status as a minority community,

there is another reason for the supreme regard, the Parsi had for the British

manners and their way of dressing. The Parsis desired only religious

autonomy and protection from the ruling British authorities. Their concept

of good governance hinged on religious tolerance and common justice.

In The Crow Eaters, Freddy makes use of every chance to

demonstrate his loyalty to the British. After his settlement in Lahore, he

wears the finest clothes and visits government house to sign his name in

the visitor’s book.

Bapsi Sidhwa treats the Junglewallas’ as the representatives of the

majority of Parsis especially the business class, bankers and civil servants.

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The apprehensions of Jungle Wallah are not figments of a dying man’s

fevered imagination, but based on social realities and the threat they pose

to the Parsi sensibility.

There were three anti – Parsi riots in Bombay and other cities in

1851, 1874 and 1921. On the last occasion, Gandhi called for a boycott of

the visit of the Prince of Wales to India. Many Parsis refused to join this

boycott and that sparked off a violent riot. Anit-Parsi aggressions continued

for a couple of years. These memories form an integral part of the Parsi

mind and reinforced their loyalty to the British. Later, on realizing the

inevitability of Independence, the Parsis displayed remarkable adaptability

and changed their allegiances.

This important facet of the identity crisis that verges on Paranoia

is exemplified by the escapist behaviour of Yerzad. He is aggrieved by the

conspicuous commercialism and sycophancy of the Parsis. He revolts as his

father does not permit him to marry his sweet heart, the Anglo – Indian

Rosy Watson. He breaks away from his family and gets his share of the

family money and invests it in a trust. He receives monthly interest from

the trust and helps the dying children. The portrayal of Yezad adds to the

richness and variety of the novel. It shows that Parsis are not ‘types’ nor do

they have ‘stereotype’ reactions to social issues.

In The Crow Eaters there is a net work of human relationships.

This networking serves to cement the actions. There are no loose ends in

the plot. Sidhwa ironically hints at Freddy’s ambivalent attitude towards

charity. This irony highlights the Parsi Paradox.

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The overall mode of the novel is comic. It is not a social comedy

like that of Jane Austen, or a satirical comedy of Swift or a genial comedy

of manners, that has an experiential dimensions and hints at the paradoxical

ways one gleans philosophical principles from life.

The Crow Eaters purports to present a satirical account of the

successful story told by Faredoon to the youngsters in his later years.

Jungle Walla relates how he managed to succeed: “Yes I’ve been all things

to all people in my time… within a year I was handling all traffic of goods

between Peshawar and Afghanistan!”(TCE, 47). The Parsi background

becomes an integral part to this narrative. The story also finds its way from

the anonymous forests of Central India to Lahore where the Jungle Wallas

settle down after an anxious search for the right locale.

Freddy saw no future for himself in his ancestral village, tucked

away in the forests of central India and resolved to seek his fortune in the

hallowed pastures of Punjab. “… loading his belonging…. he set off for the

North”(TCE,12-13).Freddy knows well how to manage himself as a god

father of his community. When Yazdi violates the family’s tradition he

admonishes him on the necessity of maintaining the family tradition.

Sidhwa writes from a deep historical consciousness. She herself

grew up in Lahore and made her home there. The title of the novel refers to

the Parsis’ notorious ability to talk ceaselessly at the top of their voices like

an assembly of birds.

Bapsi Sidhwa looks at Parsi experience as an outsider who knows

her people’s inner secrets, their real strength and weakness. Her novel

encompasses life beyond particular situations and characters.

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In this, the novel seems to be unique. It reads like an exploration of

life, the Parsi code of feeling and behavior. Sidhwa’s view of life is

optimistic. She loves life inspite of all its ugliness, brutality and horror. Her

novels are full of physical humour.

Freddy manages as a God father of his community to dispense

favour and to command obedience and gratitude. His wife Putli is the

ideal Indian wife marked by submission, love and responsibility. She is

equally understanding towards her children.

The novel explores both the superficial and the more profound

dimensions of the comic mode. It is an entertaining satire on the foibles of

its main characters. It also embodies a larger vision of the world. This

vision is ‘comic’ like Chaucer’s or Shakespeare’s. It tries to convey the

variety, diversity, vitality and validity of life in all its dimensions.

The first section of the novel belongs to Freddy. In the middle the

attention shifts from Freddy to his children. The novel depicts Yazad’s

other-worldliness and attempts to recognise life’s totality. The third and

final section properly belongs to Behram Jungle Walla or Billy the

youngest son who not only carries on Freddy’s business, but goes on to

become one of the richest men in India.

Her works have aroused a variety of reactions. Her interests are vast

and so she cannot be easily categorised as just a comic writer or a Parsi

novelist.

In her novels, the social idiosyncrasies of the minority Parsi

community are portrayed with themes like marriage, women’s problems

and patterns of migration. Sidhwa has drawn extensively on her communal

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heritage and benefited as a writer from the privileged environment. She

has enlarged her canvas. This expansion serves her well in An American

Brat.

Through this novel, Bapsi Sidhwa has made an important

contribution to the literature of the Diaspora. If the new world offers Feroza

adequate social space to grow, Zorastrianism provides the ultimate

emotional and religious space for her.

Feroza is sent from Pakistan to America since she is becoming

more backward every day. One day when Zareen Gin Walla, Feroza’s

mother goes to school to bring Feroza back home in sleeveless Sari –

blouse, Feroza says: “Mummy please don’t come to school dressed like

that”(AB,10)

She won’t even attend the phone call for her fear of having to talk

to some unknown person. Zareen considers it as her daughter’s

conservative state of mind, promoted by the orthodoxy around and she

wants her daughter to grow and expand.

Zareen consults her husband Cyrus and decides that Feroza must

go for three or four months to America to get rid of her conservative habits

and to inhale liberal air. Cyrus too agrees to this.

Zareen also contacts her brother Maneck studying in America

Maneck too agrees with his sister and says, “I will look after her. Don’t

worry, just send her” (AB, 26). Feroza is also happy to go to America.

Thus Feroza a sixteen year old girl, born in an apparently liberal

Parsi family and brought up in a closed Muslim culture becomes

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conservative in Man – Woman relationships, clothing, eating and

drinking.

She has come to America to break out of the narrow shell of life.

Feroza passes through different phases of experience in the brave new

world of America in general and particularly in the company of Maneck,

her uncle in New York studying chemical Engineering at MIT.

Mancek receives Feroza at Kennady Airport and frees her from the

unhappy situation created by the immigration officer and makes her aware

of the facts : “You’ll have to learn to stand a lot of things in this

world”(AB,66). He tells her as if in warning.

Feroza’s stay with Maneck makes her undergo adventures, teaches

her manners and helps her to cope with all sorts of unexpected situations.”

(AB,135).

Maneck wants Feroza to join a junior college in Twin Falls, Idaho,

a small town which he thought would ease her assimilation into American

way of life. The college was ready to offer a stipend. Her parents also

permitted her to study in America (AB,39)

Maneck makes Feroza join the junior college and hands her over

to Emily, the college counsellor. Jo takes change of Feroza’s life to become

her friend, philosopher and guide. Jo and Feroza join the Hotel

Management Course in the University of Denver. The third phase of

Feroza’s life starts and the new set up makes her think that “she was in the

right place and that her life would develop in unexpected and substantial

ways”(AB,212)

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Shashi, a gregarious youth from India enters Feroza’s life and cuts

off the umbilical cord by which she had attached herself to Jo” (AB,214).

He was a year ahead of her in the Hotel Management Program. He

made a magnetic impact oh her. For Feroza, it was like looking through

Alice’s wonderful mirror.

Shashi’s non–possessiveness, lightness and free wheeling

congeniality rubbed off on Feroza’s angularities and helped her see that

freedom was “an essential condition of any relationship” (AB,230).

The process of expansion and transformation reaches its climax in

the fourth phase when Feroza meets David Press to buy his second hand

car. David takes her across the unchartered seas of her emotions”

(AB,251).

She submits herself completely to David. She writes about it to her

parents.

Later, Feroza’s mother dissuades David from this marriage. The marriage

proposal comes to an end but without paralysing Feroza’s ambitions. As for

marriage in future, Feroza’s vision is very clear: “There would never be

another David, but there would be other men and who knew, perhaps,

someday, she might like some one enough to marry him. It wouldn’t matter

if he was Parsee or of other faith. She would be more sure of herself and

she wouldn’t let any one interface” (AB,317).

Feroza comes to America as a Parsi-Pakistani school girl with a

conservative mind and her mind starts growing and expanding and

acquires new heights. The final outcome is also positive as she accepts the

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break up with David. She is also ready for the next. Feroza considers

America to be the catalystic agent(312).

Feroza shows increasing levels of adaptability and gets readily

Americanised. In her, there is successful assimilation into the pattern of

American life though she preserves her ethnic identity.

Sidhwa’s roots too continue to be in Pakistan. This is precisely

what makes her a creative artist and complements her expatriate

experience though the experience of exile plays an important role in her

writing, she has not really experienced it. For, whenever she felt like an

exile, she would rush back to Pakistan to nourish her psyche and the well-

springs of her creativity.

An American Brat deals with the intercultural theme which has

assumed vital significance for many post colonial novelists. The West is

depicted as a set of values in conflict with the value systems of the East.

The conflict between the two cultures is discernible not only on the social

plane but also on the personal level. This leads to an identity crisis and

consequent quest for acculturation stemming from a sense of

isolation/alienation.

Bapsi Sidhwa evinces keen interest in the interaction of the two

cultures that exist side by side. Especially the Zorastrian mode of life of

Feroza, the Parsee protagonist clashes with the modern American way of

life. The stress is also laid on material prosperity. The resultant fiction

compels her to make a moral choice in life. This fate is shared by many

expatriates today.

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Feroza, the protagonist is caught between conservatism that stems

from the rising wave of fundamentalism in Pakistan and newfound

liberalism, a result of her life in America. In the novel, Zareen stands for

progressive liberalism. Her lack of interest in religion is typical of the

Parsee community today. Feroza has a peculiar relationship with

zorastrianism. Though she did not have sufficient knowledge of the Parsi

rituals, she had a blind faith in them. she symbolizes the younger-

generation Parsis of her times.

Bapsi Sidhwa like Firdaus Kanga detaches herself from issues

pertaining to religion. Feroza resolves to have humata (good thoughts)

hukta (good words) and hvarshta (good deeds) that would advance His

divine plan. She also feels the spiritual power of the fire reach out from its

divine depths to encompass her with its pure energy. She feels being

suffused with the presence of Ahura Mazda. She prays,“Come to my help

O Ahura Mazda! Give me victory, power and the joy of life”(AB,42) This

is an assertion of Parsi religious identity—a sort of armour the anxious

expatriate wears in the eagerness to be loyal to one’s roots. The same

tension is visible in the expatriate’s relations with the land of birth and the

land of adoption.

Writing on the major trends in post colonial literatures, Ashcroft,

Griffths and Tiffin say that, “A major feature of post colonial literatures is

the concern with place and displacement. It is here that the special post-

colonial crisis of identity comes into being, the concern with the

development of recovery of an effective identifying relationship between

self and place”(pp.8-9).

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This is the anxiety to belong to somewhere. This belongingness often is

only ‘be-longingness’ to the migrant.

In Feroza’s case also the active sense of self is destroyed by

displacement. The sudden swing from the conservative milieu of Lahore

to the ultra-modern world of New York disorients her. A perceptive

change comes over her. Her gain of knowledge in the New World is a

privilege. This privilege was denied to her in Pakistan. As Novy Kapadia

points out through Feroza’s experiences, Sidhwa shows the expatriates’

assimilation to the way of life of the New World.

The attitudes of Feroza, and Maneck-her uncle are contrary to each

other. He adapts himself in external behavior with the smoother ways of

the chosen land.

In the novel, Fr.Fibs’ message is nothing but an enunciation to the

migrants’ experience in general, Feroza’s in particular. He compares

young men and women to birds. He observes that they would fly and fall

and fly again,He says: “And once you are no longer afraid to fall, away

soar –up, up to where you need never fall. (AB,117)

This message fires her imagination and has a catalytic effect on the

process of her assimilation. The pressures of constraint so deeply

embedded in her Pakistani psyche slowly loosen their grip under Jo’s

influence.

But the loosening is not easy. A taboo-ridden mind will protest,

revert to its rigidity often kindling feelings of guilt and sinfulness. On such

occasions, as Vinay Kirpal points out the compelling need in a migrant

which almost becomes a survival strategy, is to cling to his own traditions

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and to mix with people of his own traditions and to mix with people of his

own country (P.30).

Feroza too revives her ethnicity like most expatriates. This leads to

nostalgia.

One evening, Feroza commits the sin of smoking (at least in

Zorastrianism). The same night she performs the Kusti ritual, bows her

head to beg divine forgiveness for desecrating the holy fire. This becomes a

symbol of Ahura Mazda by permitting it such an intimate contact with her

unclean mouth.

The interior mindscape of Feroza remains Zorastrian. Her private

triumph lies in preserving her ethnic identity despite her long stay in

America. Her quest is not just for social space that would ensure her an

identity of her own but also for self development. The emotional space is

gained by her through sticking to Zorastrianism. Like a true Parsi, she aims

at ethical perfection but at the same time she also realises the importance

of freedom—something she is not entitled in the conservative Pakistan.

Feroza becomes the fictional embodiment of Virginia Woolf’s cherished

ideal of the female protanonist, eager for a room of one’s own.

Sidhwa explains in An American Brat the complex love – hate

relationship which exists between the land and the migrants. Feroza grows

nostalgic with the passage of time. This is typical of one in exile. She is

caught between the two worlds: the one she had forsaken since it grants no

hope or prosperity ; the other one she feels has failed her despite initial

promises. She also becomes a marginal being, unable to discard the old

ways and equally unable to find comfort in the chosen land. The sense of

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dislocation(which is part of diasporic consciousness) in Feroza is more

acute in the New World. It is shared by thousands of expatriates like

her.The introduction of the Islamic Law at home she feels has really

crushed her freedom. She admits: “The abandon with which she could

conduct her life without interference was possible only because of the

distance from her family and the anonymity America provided.” (AB,312).

In other words, the New World promises Feroza enough freedom

and abundant joy. For her, life at home is only gloomy. One of the reasons

for migration is the need to work in an intellectually stimulating

environment. Feroza’s thirst for knowledge is kindled by the universities

and the libraries in the New World. It is an intellectual need that is not

fulfilled in the conservative homeland. She resolves:“Surely she could

arrive at a compromise if her conscience troubled her and even as she

thought this, she knew it would. Her deeply ingrained and early awareness

of political and state evils and her passion for justice would always make

her fight injustice wherever she was”(AB,313).

However, Sidhwa is not blind to the defects of the New world.

Feroza praises the American ideal of prosperity. But at the same time she is

critical of America for its sale of weapons to impoverished countries like

Pakistan. She considers alcoholism as the other evil that she perceives in

her adopted land. Her efforts in shaping the future brings a tormenting

dilemma to an end. In the end she invokes the blessing of Ahura Mazda.

She muses: “As for her religion no one could take it away from her, she

carried its fire in her heart. If the priests in Lahore and Karachi did not let

her enter the fire temple, she would go to one in Bombay where there were

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so many Parsees that no one would know it she was married to a Parsee or

a non. (AB,317)

Feroza considers herself a fellow participant in the construction of

the new order. Her quest for identity is not the pursuit of the narcissistic

self. It is to be regarded only as a search for self –respect as the citizen of a

free country. In her case, the prediction of Fr.Fibs comes true. She is also

very optimistic. To quote from the novel : “If she flew, and fell again,

could she pick herself up again? May be one day she’d soar to that self –

contained place from which there was no falling, if there was such a

place”(AB,317).

Thus, Feroza’s realization of her creative potential is significant.

The central tenet of Zorastriansm is exemplified with the triumph of the

forces of good.

Regarding the quest for happiness, Bertrand Russell observes: “All

happiness depends upon some kind of integration with the self . . . there is

lack of integration between the self and society. . . it is in [such profound]

instinctive union with the stream of life that the greatest joy is to the

found”.(31)

Feroza attains successfully the fusion of heart and mind stressed by

Russell and so resolves the moral crisis in her life.

Sidhwa deals with the motif of expatriation that was dealt with

extensively by Bharati Mukherjee and also by other post- colonial novelists

like Yasmine Gooneratne. These two novelists emphasised the multi

cultural situation in America and Australia in their works.

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But for Sidhwa, multi – culturalism becomes only a mode of

perception. The clash of cultures and the need for adaptation become part

and parcel of the diasporic experience.

Expatriate experience constitutes the core of the narrative in An

American Brat. Important issues such as mixed marriage and oppression of

women become integral themes in Sidhwa’s fiction. Sidhwa’s canvas is

also much broader than Bharati Mukherjee’s or those of other novelists.

Mixed marriages are not allowed in the Zorastrian community.

Parsis who marry outside their community forego all the privileges

usually enjoyed by them. Feroza’s affair with David Press, an American

Jew becomes a potent threat to the orthodox Parsi community of Lahore.

Zareen, mother of Feroza also tries to dissuade her daughter but ironically

she modifies her stand on mixed marriages and conversion to the

Zorastrian faith. She also raises a question on the rigid code that exists in

Zorastrianism.

How could a religion whose prophet urged his followers to spread

the truth of his message in the holy Gathas, the Songs of Zarathustra

prohibit conversion and throw her daughter out of the faith? Her

predilection for mixed marriages is an existential necessity.

She muses: “Perhaps the teen agers in Lahore were right. The

Zorastrian Anjumens in Karachi and Bombay should move with the time

that were sending them to the New world… the various Anjumens would

have to introduce minor reforms if they wished their tiny community to

survive.” (AB,288).

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Sidhwa also focuses on the younger generation of the Parsee

community. She does not advocate blind conformity with the prevailing

ideology of the Parsi community. Through Feroza and Zareen, Sidhwa

stresses the need for change. She emphasises the crucial issues of mixed

marriage and the survival of the microscopic community. If she resents the

mindless current of fundamentalism in Pakistan, she is also critical of the

rigid custodians of the Zorastrian faith too.

Zareen also attempts to establish that Zorastrianism is a greater and

purer religion than Judaism. David resents this condescending stance of

her.

Feroza’s first visit to her homeland after emigration is only a

revelation. The poverty, Sickness and fundamentalism in Pakistan are

disgusting and the status granted to women is also disturbing.

Rohinton Mistry too has dealt with the predicament of Parsis in

multicultural societies. His realistic novels make use of events and

personages from the historical past in order to add interest and a

picaresque quality to the narrative. Mistry cites the following reasons for

his migrating to Canada:

The Westernised education which Mistry received in India

provided him a better place in Canada. In 1975, Australia

was racist. America was fighting war with Vietnam.

England was also not England any more. So, he selected

Canada, the land of milk and honey. He also felt that Canada

would provide him a prosperous and luxurious life. In one of

his interviews he said, “those who are very rich and also

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share my background and education wouldn’t want to leave

India, because they could create the west for themselves in

India, whereas I couldn’t (TCE,56).

Mistry himself selected this self-exile since he concluded that there

was not much of a future in India, for persons like him who were

economically poor and also alien by culture and community.

In 1989, he published a novel, Such a Long Journey. This work won

the Governor General’s award and Commonwealth Writer’s Prize in 1991.

Such a Long Journey was nominated for Britain’s prestigious Booker prize.

Mistry belongs to the South Asian Diaspora. The establishment of

the South Asian Diaspora provides an identity to South Asian writers

including Rohinton Mistry. The term ‘diaspora’ actually meant the

dispersal of Jews. But it is now interpreted as alienation, migration and

marginalization or being in the minority.

Generally there are two phases of diaspora namely the old and the

new that suggest the voluntary migration to a foreign land for a brighter

future. Mistry’s migration belongs to the second phase. He tries to retain

his ethnic identity in Canada by attending the congregations of Zoroastrian

society of Toronto. Mistry’s ancestors came to India and settled as

refugees. Then Mistry became a Parsi Zoroastrian in India. The Parsis have

the hope of returning to their ancestral land having somewhat failed to

merge in the Indian milieu.

As a Parsi and an immigrant in Canada, Mistry considers himself, a

symbol of double displacement. This sense of displacement is a recurrent

theme in his literary works. Immigrant writers have a tendency to look

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back to their home land from an alien soil especially to expose its culture,

geography, politics etc., through their works.

They do not desire to return to their homeland voluntarily. But they

create imaginary spaces in their fiction. From salman Rushdie’s words, one

can understand that “Exiles, immigrants or expatriates are haunted by

some sense of loss, some urge to reclaim to look back even at the risk of

being mutated in the pillars of salt”(Qtd., in Dodiya, 170).

The portrayal of yearning for the past and looking forward to the

future forms the basis of Mistry’s fiction. The writings of Mistry are

governed by the experience of being a Parsi, a diasporic minority

community in India and also by being an emigrant in Canada.

Mistry’s novels also present the various patterns of empowerment

in a world that refuses individual voices. Political supremacy, parental

authority and personal betrayal are dealt in Mistry’s fiction. He is very

much interested in revealing the problems of the untouchables, upper castes

and the politicians through his fiction.

Mistry’s writings expose religious bigotry and the political

debacles of the era. He is ethnocentric and community specific in his

themes and attitudes.

So, there is a typical Indianness in Mistry’s writings. They really

hold the mirror up to Indian society and culture. As a post modern writer,

Mistry analyses the social imbalances in Indian communities. His texts

have undergone critical scrutiny.

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Mistry emigrated to Tononto at the age of 23. As an expatriate

writer, he is again the embodiment of the fundamental dialectic of a multi-

cultural consciousness.

Multiculturalism can be defined as a social rather than a political

ideal. Both politico-economic and cultural influences in the multicultural

world are after the erosion of the nation-state concept. The aim of

multiculturalism is only to stimulate pluralism in the universe rather than

singularity and particularity. Multiculturalism combines a pre-rational

sense of belonging with a claim to collective rights. It can be articulated

in universal terms.

Like all eminent writers, Rohinton Mistry too is interested in

cross-cultural issues. Mistry is a writer free from all labels. He cannot be

pigeonholed as one or the other type. Mistry is a representative of Global

culture. His multiple identities as an Indian, Parsi, post – independence

born, metropolis-raised male expatriate writer are reflected in his work.

Mistry like Mulk Raj Anand holds the writer’s craft in high esteem

and has raised basic social questions. One of the problems that Mistry

challenges for a solution is that of national integration.

Mistry’s protagonist in Such a Long Journey deals with Indian

Society and Social problems through the woven-story patterns. Even

disgusting characters become human in the hands of Mistry. He conveys

various moral attitudes through his characters.

In Such a Long Journey that is set in Mumbai, the life-style of the

Parsis is clearly depicted. The novel also portrays various issues in the sub-

continent like the wars India fought with Pakistan and China. The novel

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also presents the emergence of Bangladesh, and how the community of the

Indian Parsis responded to all these occurrences.

Mistry’s Such a Long Journey narrates the sufferings of Gustad

Noble who suffers at the hands of self –centred politicians and also callous

officials. His son rebels and acts against his wishes. To be a member of the

minority community, he must ensure the survival of his family. The hero’s

struggle against odds becomes a challenge and every day ordeal. The novel

provoked great literary response and Mistry received many awards.

Recently, the novel formed the basis for a film. This novel deals with the

predominant theme of the predicament of the central character whose hopes

are destroyed by circumstances beyond his control.

Gustad, the hero, is cast into the mould of a classical tragic hero. He

is passing from happiness to misery and is also pitted against many odds.

He faces all these struggles with extreme serenity. He also cherishes the

values of friendship and he condemns the scourge of war. He denounces

the corrupt and hypocritical political leaders who have eaten the vitals of

the nation.

Mistry’s opposition to social and class distinctions and his anguish

over environmental pollution have widened the spectrum of contemporary

reality. In the opening of the novel Gustad is pictured as a God – fearing

men. The envy of all, Gustad is portrayed as a bank employee and the

father of three children, two sons Shorab and Darius and a daughter

Roshan. As the novel progresses, one finds Gustad’s hopes, dreams and

aspirations being blighted in a manner that is contrary to his likings. His

fortunes makes him feel helpless. Initially the sudden disappearance of

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Billimoria from the Khodadad building shatters Gustad. Billimoria was

like a loving brother to Gustad and almost a ‘second father to the children.’

Next, Gustad’s son sohrab refuses to enroll himself as an IIT student. His

bold manners and violent temper spoil the ninth birthday party for Roshan,

especially in his desertion of his home. Gustad has to face the protracted

illness of Roshan, a complicated case of diarrhoea. Once, Gustad receives a

package from Major Billimoria and the trouble that lies in hiding ten lakh

rupees. Gustad is pained by his close friend Dinshawji’s illness and the

death of Tehmal Lungraa, a retarded child who is the tenant of Khodadad

building. The destruction of Gustad’s sacred wall by the municipal

authorities completes his cup of woes.

For a time, everything goes smoothly. Gustad’s son Sohrab gets

admission to IIT, a mark of Pride. Gustad decides to celebrate it on the

ninth birthday of Roshan, for which his close friend Dinshawji has to be

invited.

He also brings a live chicken into his house much to the

embarrassment of his wife Dilnavaz. The initial atmosphere of gaiety,

humor, songs, jokes and fun are contributed by Dinshawji. The dinner is

enjoyed by the entire family, but there comes an abrupt end to the

happiness—Sohrab’s refusal to join IIT. There lies surprise and sudden turn

of events due to Shorab’s act in the later part of the novel. Mutual hatred

starts from this incident and mars the father-son-relationship.

Many incidents start surfacing at an alarming rate. Gustad corners

Mr.Rabadi who is called by him ‘Dogwalla’ another tenant of Khoadadad

building. The charge arises that Darius has an affair with Mr.Rabadi’s

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daughter. Gustad is awaiting a letter from Major Billimoria very anxiously

which has not yet come.

The real event that changes and reverses Gustad’s fortune is the

coming of the long-awaited package from Billimoria. This package turns

out to be a huge sum to the tune of ten lakh rupees to be deposited in a

bank in the name of one Mitra Obili. Gustad and Dilnavaz do not know

how to hide such a huge amount. But even before the amount is deposited,

the secret is out. Gustad also feels ill-at ease when Tehmal informs the

inspector that Gustad has a huge amount in his flat.

Another woman also makes a reference to the money to his shock.

The forbidden package is responsible for spoiling Gustad’s happiness and

peace of mind. He also feels betrayed. Initially he hides the amount in the

kitchen and then with the help of Dinishawji deposits the amount in a bank

because he is unable to meet Ghulam Mohammed from whom he gets the

package.

Gustad’s fear and restlessness are due to a folded paper on which is

written a nursery rhyme in pencil. It is found inserted between two adjacent

branches of his Binaca brush. Due to all these disturbances, Gustad grows

suspicious.

The most disturbing is Dinshawji’s inadvertent disclosure to Laurie,

a typist in the bank where Gustad and Dinshawji are working. The whole

secrecy lies with Dinshawji.Gustad observes an imminent danger in

Dinshawji’s frolicsome ways. Dinshwji is taken to task, reminding him of

the serious occasion in which they are drawn into. Dinshwji changes his

character from a public entertainer to a reserved person.

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Major Billimoria is arrested on charges of corruption. The news is

published in the paper. Gustad’s horizon is entirely darkened with fear.

Ghulam Mohammed asks Gustad in a semi-threatening tone to return the

entire amount to save Billimoria’s life.

Roshan’s illness assumes an unexpected proportion and Gustad’s

fear is intensified. At this critical juncture, Dinshawji is hospitalised after a

sudden collapse in the office. The death of Dinshawji is a great blow in

Gustad’s life. Gustad makes a trip to Delhi to meet Major Billimoria who

desires to tell him all that has happened.

It is really a big fraud of sixty lakh rupees in which the Prime

Minister’s office gets directly involved. Billimoria is requested to get the

amount from the SBI director on an emergency basis to finance the guerilla

training pending official sanction by impersonating the Prime Minister’s

voice on telephone. Major Billimoria is asked to write a confession which

he does without any second thought. Before the money is used for the

original purpose, the Prime Minister’s voice intercepts. Billimoria is

arrested and is kept in prison for four years and later dies of heart attack.

Sohrab pays his visit to his mother during the office hours of his

father. Sohrab also foresees a rift between him and his father because he

knows that he is responsible for the latter’s unhappiness. He reacts: “It’s no

use I spoilt all his dreams, he is not interested in me anymore”(SLJ,321 ).

Gustad feels sad and prays reciting the Yatha Ahu verse five times

and Asham Vahoo three times with tears rolling down from his eyes. He

also prays for all, cries for all, for him, for Tehmul, for Jimmy, for

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Dinshawji for his papa and mama. for grandpa and grandma, “all who had

to wait for so long” (SLJ, 337)

In this novel, the archetypal cycle of birth, death and rebirth gains

added significance. The universal pattern is carved out through the central

character Gustad Noble. Like Oedipus, he bows to the will of Providence.

Mistry himself responds with passion to the slow death of the Parsi

family and community. He clearly narrates the community’s woes and

sufferings through the characters. The individual’s fate is tied up with the

fate of the community. The psychological crutch gains significance with

the stories of their community embedded in the narratives.

Such a Long Journey grows controversial in its discourse on

political issues and questions of identity, religion, culture and community.

The novel as a cluster of narratives centralises the Parsi community

as a protagonist. There is an interaction between stories about the past and

present of the Parsi community. Mistry informs the past of his community,

comments on its present and foresee the flow of events to follow through

his characters.

Such a Long Journey traces the chequered history of the Parsi

community in India. The identity of the Parsis as a religious minority does

not fail to emerge on the occasion of Dinshawji’s funeral in Such a Long

Journey. Dinshawji’s body is carried to the tower of silence, an authentic

banner of distinction for the religious minority where according to the

strict Parsi tradition, the corpse will be left to be picked clean by vultures.

The reader is also confronted with a rare example of a genuine dustoor. To

quote from the novel: “The dustoorji prayed beautifully. Each word

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emerged clear and full-toned, pure as if shaped for the first time by human

lips. And Gustad, lost in his thoughts began to listen. It sounded so

soothing, such a wonderful voice. Like Nat King Cole’s when he sang:

“You will never grow old, soft smooth, rich as velvet (SLJ, 247)

In pre-colonial India, the Parsis were allowed to practise their

ancient monotheistic religion. The Parsis had to adapt themselves to the

traditions and language of their Hindu hosts. This shows the imposition of

the majority will and power over minority peoples.

The disposal of coconuts and clay Gods and Goddesses by the

Hindus and the disposal of the dead men by the Parsis in the sea also reflect

Indian cultural practices.

The Parsi community lived peacefully in India but maintained their

cultural and communal specificity.

Mistry’s focus centres on ethnic, racial and religious diversity. In

Such a Long Journey he portrays various religious groups. Finally Gustad

is reconciled and accepts the imperfections of existence and stops hoping

for better times.

Mistry foregrounds, issues relating to traditional beliefs and

rituals. He also anlyses the nature of belief in and through various tones

and moods.

The Parsi community is observed as an enclave that has helped him

sharpen his literary and artistic vision. Though the main action of Such a

Long Journey occurs within the limits of the Parsi community of khodadad

building and the bank where the protagonist Gustad works, it deals with

the entire gamut of Parsi life.

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The action swells to encompass the wider world within which the

protagonists function. The technique of moving from the localized Parsi

story to the larger national story is one that the author refines in this novel.

At the centre of Such a Long Journey are religious rituals, that are

of death and burial. The ritualism surrounding the funeral for Dinshawji

and Billimoria conveys to the readers the emotions of Gustad and also his

inner vision. The preoccupation with religious rituals have a great impact

on Mistry’s novels. As a Parsi writer, he cleverly tackles religion and

rituals, since these two elements become the predominant features for Parsi

identity in the context of the many changes imposed upon the community

by the forces of history.

The themes that exist in traditional folk belief are also treated in a

comical manner with the character of Mrs.Kutpitia who generally suggests

ludicrous prescriptions to enable Dilnavaz to effect reconciliation with her

family.

Moreove Mrs. Kutpitia’s recipes and Madhiwalla’s magic function

could have influenced the flow of events. Tehmul does die. Sohrab does

return home. Roshan is cured. Gustad finds serenity and Dilnavaz is happy

with the healed family.

Such a Long Journey introduces many of the preoccupations of

Mistry which will become more obvious in his later works. The novel

presents the plight of the Parsi community in multicultural India. It also

serves as a comment on post-independence India. It is written in the years

preceding Indira Gandhi’s declaration of a state of Emergency in 1975.

Gustad lives through the consequences of the Bangladesh War and the

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Refugee Tax relief. Politics is presented as it affects individual lives. The

Billimoria story that is based on a true incident functions only in its human

dimension. It affects Gustad’s life and his relationship with his friend.

Gustad takes Dinshawji into confidence about the money. He does

not hesitate to reprimand him in very strong terms. The strength of

Gustad’s friendship is revealed at Dinshawji’s hour of greatest need and

the constant companionship he offers when Dinshawji is taken to the

hospital. At the bank Gustad’s friend Dinshawji’s antics serve to throw

Gustad’s ability and balance into relief. Gustad is politically aware as well

as clever in observing Dinshawji’s antics. Gustad is personified as a

character capable of strong bonds of friendship, with Jimmy Billimoria,

with Dinshawji and with Malcolm Saldanhe. Dinshawji is the most visible

of the three friends. He is also considered to be the best companion for

Gustad.

The plot of Such a Long Journey deals with the life of the ordinary

citizen and it also explores the manner in which it is connected with the

national political scene. The story of Gustad’s family is interwoven with

events on the national scene in the novel.

The novel is set during the Bangladesh –Pakistan Wars of the

1970’s. In this novel, the public events have repercussions on the lives of

the ordinary citizens. The War and its consequences form the background

to Such a Long Journey. This novel also suggests the abusive power

exhibited by the top levels of government. The novel is located during

Indira Gandhi’s emergency.

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Such a Long Journey functions through Gustad Noble’s perception

of the world. The Parsi is shown in Mistry’s works as resistant to change.

Parsi uniqueness receives the narrative emphasis through elaborate

descriptions of their rituals.

Mistry demonstrates an ability to transform the features of the

conventional narrative into explorations of cultural and social realities. His

fiction explores the realities within the family and the nation itself.

Politics forms an important subtext to the main action. The plot of Such a

Long Journey is linked with the national political scene.

When Roshan comes to Gustad with a request from her school for

money to help the refugees, she questions her father why West Pakistan is

killing East Pakistan Gustad gives her a simplified explanation of the war :

“Because it is wicked and selfish. East Pakistan is poor, they said to the

West we are always hungry please give us a fair share. But West said ‘no’.

The East said, in that case we don’t want to work with you. So as

punishment West Pakistan is killing and burning East Pakistan”(SLJ,86).

The novel is steeped in the realities of a war-time situation. The

real war with Pakistan is at the frontier. The scarcity of food and the

rationing affect the ordinary citizen.

This novel depicts the connection between War and State politics,

between the corruption of political leaders and the life of the ordinary

citizen.

The Indian politicians become an object of derision as they appear

to have affected the pride of the Parsis in Such a Long Journey. Nehru and

Indira Gandhi had been unfair to Feroz Gandhi, a Parsi. Nehru’s feud with

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his son-in-law, the thorn in his political side was well-known. Nehru never

forgave Feroze Gandhi for exposing scandals in the government. He no

longer had any use for defenders of the downtrodden and champions of the

poor. . . .”(SLJ, 11).

The title of the novel is taken from T.S. Eliot’s ‘The Journey of the

Magi”.

The Journey of the three wisemen to the birth place of Jesus Christ is not an

ordinary physical Journey ; it is really symbolic of man’s spiritual quest,

in which he has to undergo numerous hardships. Gustad triumphs in a calm

manner as he faces each trial in his life.

At the climax of the novel is the beginning of the real journey. The

search is without an end. Gustad Noble experiences everyday life, its

struggles and disappointments, its pains and problems. He realises that the

ordinary man has no control. He finds hope and salvation and understands

the meaning of heroism. Thus, he becomes a universal symbol of human

survival and triumph.

Mistry becomes a critical realist so far as the treatment of social

reality is concerned. He emerges as a progressive writer. He portrays the

universal principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity.

The story in A Fine Balance really centres around the innocent

characters Ishwar Darji and his nephew Om Prakash the tailors of Dina.

Mistry presents shades of history and corruption during Indira Gandhi’s

time. Mistry mingles history with the personal lives of the characters. The

novel also deals with its socio – political turmoil. The first world is with the

middle class urban world of Dina Dalal, a pretty widow in her forties.

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There is a glimpse into rural India provided by Ishwar Darji and his

nephew Om Prakash.

There is also another world portrayed and symbolised by Manech

Kohlah, a sensitive Parsi boy, Ishver Darji and Om Prakesh two rural

untouchables are from a family of tanners. They struggle themselves to

rise above their designated caste roles. They better themselves by becoming

tailors.

Even after they become fully qualified tailors and return to their

village, they are deeply conscious of their own roots in the society.

Ishvar and Om decide to migrate to Bombay and become exiles by

choice like Rajaram who says, “thousands and thousands are coming to the

city because of bad times in their native place. I came for the same

reason”(AFB,171 ).

Although they are aware of the pain and disorientation involved in

migration, they feel that displacement would really metamorphose their

lives. Their life in Bombay is contrary to their expectations. It

symbolises the pain, anxiety and restlessness of people. Om and Ishvar are

caught in an inescapable dilemma between two worlds: their native village

which they abandon because it holds no promise or hope and Bombay, the

indifferent metropolis. They stay on as marginal men like the protagonist in

Lend me your light, unable to discard the old or to find peace in the new.

The tailors, uncle and nephew were born into a family of

untouchables. But they rise in the world only to fall again. They become

beggars in the end. They also fail in their enterprise because of the

emergency. Dina chooses to be displaced from her home. She also wants to

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assert her individuality and sense of self. She has grown up in Bombay. Her

sense of independence after her husband’s accidental death keeps her away

from her family. She decides to restructure her life without being

economically dependent on a man. Life is a series of emotional upheavals

for her and also of emotional bonds.

Maneck is also a victim of displacement. He himself is displaced

from the protective environment of his home in the hills to the college in

the city. He is always insulted and humiliated by his seniors. He struggles

hard to adapt himself to the political atmosphere of the college. He feels

alienated. He also indulges in nostalgic reflections and thinks of his home

constantly and in the end, commits suicide.

Maneck and Dina fail in their attempts to survive because of

Emergency. Because of poverty and civic beautification, beggars are

treated as slaves in labour camps. Due to population control, villages are

denied wells, farmers are refused fertilisers and ration cards are also

withheld.

In A Fine Balance, Mistry highlights crucial events in the country’s

chronicle by depicting the background of each protagonist. The lives of the

tailor’s fore-fathers express the tyranny of the caste system in rural India.

The horrors of lower caste are unimaginable. This illustration from the text

is enough evidence for this:“….. I listen, you stinking dog’ you have

destroyed my property. Yet I am letting you off. If I wasn’t such a soft

hearted foci. I would hand you to the police for your crime. Now get out

(AFB,104).

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Poverty in the bleak season is responsible for the untouchables

depending upon the higher castes. The Thakurs get cheap labour from the

lower caste villagers. At the time of granting wages, they are threatened

with violence.

Dukhi Mochi accepts to powder one sack full of chilies alone for a

meagre wage though the Thakur asks him “Can you finish that by sunset”?

or may be I should call two men”(AFB,103)

Dukhi Mochi is from a tanner family and due to that he carries the

stamp of shame even from birth. Class and communal discrimination is

based on birth and profession. Dukhi’s individual dignity, value and

identity are not respected. He is considered a slave, treated just like an

animal, not as a human being Dukhi says, “I spit in their upper caste faces,

I don’t need their miserable jobs from now on”(AFB, 107). So he migrates

to the nearby city and becomes a cobbler. He meets his Muslim friend and

tailor Ashraf luckily. Through the story of Mukhi, one is brought face to

face with the Independence struggle in India. The pre-independence

pledge of fighting against caste injustice becomes ironic, since the evils are

still to be mitigated. The speaker who comes to spread the Mahatma’s

message says, “This disease, brothers and sisters is the notion of

untouchability.. No one is untouchable for we are all children of the same

God… .”(AFB,107)

This kind of rhetoric tries to bring out good will and appeals to the

good intentions of the upper castes and classes to create a social change. As

a result of this change, an egalitarian society will come into existence.

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Ishvar’s father violates caste rules by making his sons tailors. He

accepts his position according to the caste hierarchy without any murmur.

He knows very well about the conditions prevailing in a village

community. The upper caste people punish the lower caste people cruelly

even for minor offences committed knowingly or unknowingly. A

moving section of the novel brings out the living conditions of low-caste

Indians living in rural India.

During the General Elections, the chamaars come into conflict with

the land lords, Zamindars and the Thakurs. Mistry presents ruthless details

of the exploitation and torture suffered by the poor.

The ideological concerns of Mistry make him one of the foremost

Indian English political novelists of the 1990’s. Mistry pictures the corrupt

political scenario of India. The two poor tailors happened to be a part of the

crowd. To quote from the novel : “The Prime Minister’s message is that

she is your servant and wants to help you… you will be arrested for

trespassing on municipal property” (AFB,pp.256-265)

The officers in charge of the labour camp sell the poor job seekers

to Beggar masters even for a meagre amount. “Two thousand is okay. . .

don’t try to bargain with me”(AFB, 358-360).

Even the holy places and the court are no exception to corruption.

One can’t get justice against money power. Mistry portrays many types of

individuals in his fiction.

The ending of A Fine Balance is also surprising and

unconventional. Maneck, the Parsi young man is deeply upset by his

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misfortunes. His sorrows multiply when he visits Bombay and finds that

Dina has been evicted from her house. Now she stays with his brother.

Walking away from Dina’s house, Maneck is confused on seeing

Ishvar and Om as handicapped beggars. Manceck becomes highly

disappointed by these surprising and shocking events. So in despair, he

commits suicide by throwing himself in front of a train. Mistry emphasises

the concept that as a member of the privileged middle class, the sensitive

character Maneck lost out in the struggle to sustain ‘a fine balance between

hope and despair’.

A Fine Balance opens with a train journey and ends with ‘Epilogue’

1984. Dina completes her journey of emancipation and self-realisation.

Ishvar and Om, as beggars have their own ambition and dream, and are

still in their own journey.

This novel explores a problematic decade beginning with 1975 and

concluding with an epilogue in 1984. Mistry portrays the gloomy saga of

the country during the Emergency. Thematically, the novel articulates the

sagacity of cultures that are very much suppressed. At the same time the

novel depicts the life and longings of the middle class that craves for

honour and dignity. The age-old existing problems of caste and

communalism become the central theme in this novel. Om and Ishwar,

Shankar, and Rajaram by their actions knit the texture of the novel.

The major part of the novel is replete with life and longing in the

house and in the city in India. The novelist also comments on the

responsibility of the Indian bureaucracy and the socio-political

compulsions of the country. The tailors accept life as a token of comedy

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despite all the odds and obscurities that they face in their lives. The concept

of tomorrow is beyond the grasp of the human hand.

Mistry like Balzac, considers A Fine Balance a human comedy. The

events highlight only individual characters and their life styles. Mistry

being a Parsi keenly deals with the customs and culture, traditions and life

styles of the Parsi community. Moreover this community is basically

known for its silent suffering and selfless service rendered to the nation.

His Parsis are the most urbanized community. This community opts only

English medium schools for its children.

This novel is noteworthy for its wit, wisdom, narratology and fun.

The novelist makes use of puns and paradoxes. The novel reveals an

artistic brilliance to generate comic pleasure and profit.

In A Fine Balance there is an attempt to depict the truth of real life

honestly. This book can make readers ‘laugh and cry’ as they read it. It is

full of complicated religious and social conflicts that are related to the

dynamics of the Parsi community.

A Fine Balance is not a political book nor a reportage about the

conditions of the underdog. It is a fictional reflection about caste and

privilege in the light of the consequences of Indira Gandhi’s political

decisions on the unprivileged. Mistry also focuses on dealing with people

who are rarely represented in Indo-English fiction. To Mistry,

exaggeration becomes a specific comic tool away from reason and

argument. Like Raja Rao’s Kanthapura, Mistry’s A Fine Balance, presents

the new edition of Sthalapurana, “By this token and augmented by

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“Indianisms’ and words incorporated from other Indian language, the novel

develops a distinct character and identity of its own. (Rakshat,22).

In the novel, Mistry deals with the Emergency and oppression. But

his language is very comforting and sonorous. It is basically a socio-

linguistic expression of the pluricentricality of English. It synthesizes

various aspects of bilingual creativity in English. English is a symbol of

linguistic imperialism, while Hinglish is an attempt to get it freed from the

shackles of linguistic slavery. In the creative exploitation of the theme and

thought, the right choice of language plays a key role which enhances the

readability of the novel.

Mistry has made use of many clichés but not in traditional form.

Knowing that the cliche cannot rest upon its laurels, he has rejuvenated

these worn-out expressions to fashion new phrases and create a bright new

line”. A Fine Balance is nothing but the criticism of contemporary life and

literature. The linguistic mode of thought used by the characters have

dramatic overtones and undertones. The novel is treated as an artistic piece

of good-natured comedy and in the lightness of touch and urbanity. Mistry

can be compared to the great comic masters of English. V.K.Sunwari

rightly comments on the novel as he says: “Though it could not make it to

the Booker Prize, for critics feel it was a Canadian Book about India – a bit

like cosmic slick Joke. A Fine Balance. Mistry claims rightly, it is a fine

balance between hope and despair, the novel ends certainly on an

optimistic and hopeful note”. (Sahwani, 111)

Societies are generally patterned unequally and individuals are

really born with differences and deprivations. Due to social imbalances

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many problems occur and political thinkers and social scientists

emphasizes the need for solutions to those problems.

Caste and religion have affected the social functions and social

institutions. Despondency, disaffection and disenchantment affect the

social fabric Autonomous individuals find social restraints only in the

name of caste system, as social injustice. Mistry observes the community as

the pivot of all social changes. Mistry is against social imbalances and he

protests against the social apparatus that perpetuate disequilibrium. As a

social humanist, he looks forward to an egalitarian society based on our

common humanity. Mistry’s expectations of a society run high. A free

India should necessarily usher in peace and prosperity to all sections of

society.

Mistry finds it very difficult to free himself from his Parsi identity.

The Parsis are an urban community and their religion is really alien and

new to the Indian religio–cultural ethos. In order to break out of their

besieged mentality to reach out to other communities, the will of spirit is

imperative. Mistry succeeds to a large extent to break free, but the

gravitational pull of his religious identity is too strong to resist.

Mistry himself falls in line with the life that is cocooned with his

community. He had no experience of village life or the urban slum

dweller’s life. He had an intuitive experience and his narrative was based

on hearsay observations. The theme of identity gains a global dimension in

the novels of Mistry.

Mistry portrays human personalities that are under socio- economic

and cultural pressures. Due to this, the individual achieves intimate growth

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and adapts himself to the respective social milieu. The untouchables and

the suppression of the Dalits in the name of religion are inhuman and also

bestial according to Mistry.

Mistry makes use of history and geography to his advantage in his

fiction. Indian social realities are narrated with due need to time and place.

This helps to achieve a balance in characterization. Characters are created

in historical and geographical contexts.

In Mistry’s novel, Mrs.Indira Gandhi’s shadowy presence is felt

everywhere. But Mistry does not display any obsession with history. All

the events occur only with history as their backdrop. Geography wise,

Mistry is very accurate and keen in describing towns, and villages. He

employs religious fatalism, casteist determinism, empiricism, humanism

and historicism in his narration. He presents the problems of the

marginalised and has shown how human problems need humane solutions.

He reveals an optimistic spirit in his writings.

Social balance or harmony is a worthy state to be maintained.

Man’s search for identity is very important especially in this era of

desolation and despair. We must all feel that all human beings are equal

and belong to one fraternity.

Satire has been hailed as a valuable tool in the hands of writers who

have used it to condemn intellectual moral or philosophical constructs of an

age. Mistry portrays realistically the life in Indian villages with its

problems of caste prejudices, seldom lack of amenities etc., In the novel A

Fine Balance, he shows his concern for human beings. The Indian middle

class gets wide coverage in his fiction. Religious leaders are shown as

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responsible for spreading superstition and witchcraft to keep people in

bondage. But the writer’s sympathies are with the suffering people.

Mistry’s engagement with the Indian reality is revealed by his

concern for the problems of the fast-depleting Parsi Community that is

well-acknowledged. Mistry also highlights significant domains of values

and identity politics.

In A Fine Balance, Mistry laughs at the fate of his own characters,

who live as worms and insects. They settle down somehow in life and

continue to exist. Only Maneck fails to strike a compromise with life. The

reconciliation with life is due to compulsion of situations.

The fine balance exists only between the realities. Om and Ishvar

on the one hand and the urbanities Dina and Maneck on the other. Towards

the end of the novel, it seems the author finds his writing skills no match to

the unimaginable grief and misery in this world. Mistry makes his

characters forego the fine balance of mind. Maneck is aghast with mental

tension brought out by Avinash’s disappearance. It is also followed by the

macabre suicide of his three sisters and Maneck wilts: “What sense did the

world make? Where was God the Bloody fool? Did he have no notion of

fair and unfair?.... He allowed to happen” (AFB,585).

Dina is the balance of patriarchy for Ishvar and Om. It is a

balance between their low caste origin and also the newly found ‘Darji’

status. The balance in the life of nations is lost by India during Emergency.

Mistry has succeeded in his portrayal of socio-political reality, He has

lodged a powerful protest against the status quo. A Fine Balance is

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centainly an artistic and caustic comment on the meaningless search for

stability and meaning in the given context.

When a culture vanishes, humanity is the ultimate loser. The

cultural situation of the Parsis looks grim. This concern for a progressive

community with a glorious past and a dismal future underlies the writer’s

attempt to present the life style and culture of the Parsis wherever he finds

a chance in his fiction.

Many young Parsis decide to migrate to the West.The present Parsi

predicament is marked by a buried past and an uncertain future. After

livingin the Indian Subcontinent for centuries, still the Parsis remain the

‘other’, since they are depicted as conservative and religious minded

persons in an Indian modernity that is considered to be secular. The Parsi

identity could be seen as ‘otherness. ’ It is a way of foregrounding Parsi

uniqueness.

Nusswan takes Dina to the fire temple in A Fine Balance and

compels her to pray to become a ‘good’ girl. Dina is portrayed as a sceptic

within the Parsi community. Mistry writes:

While she bowed before the sanctum, he travelled along the

outer wall hung with pictures of various dustoors and high

priests,… Like Talcum powder, thought Dina watching from

the corner of her eye, from her bowed position, straining to

keep from laughing. She did not raise her head until he had

finished his antics (AFB,24).

Mistry’s portrayal of both orthodox and sceptical Parsis is meant to

show how there is scope for change—questioning and assimilation of

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secular ideals within the Parsi community. Mistry also feels the need to

document the various aspects of Parsi belief. According to the Census

figures(2004) the Parsis are the fastest diminishing group in India. This can

be attributed to factors both intrinsic to the community like modes of

localization and group marriage as well as migration.

Mistry’s socialist pity for the poor, the down trodden and the out

castes finds a larger canvas in A Fine Balance. The story of the tailors itself

is a story of horrors. To quote from the novel : “The over-worked women

who are doubly ‘othered’ as poor and as women who help Ishvar, A

women filled Ishvar’s gravel basket or helped him hoist it to his head. Her

stumpy grey plait slid forward over the shoulder”(AFB, 423-424).

Dina Dalal in A Fine Balance spends her life struggling against all

types of ‘othering’ that the structure of the traditional family thrives upon.

She decides to accept the subaltern role of unpaid domestic servant that her

status as both unmarried sister and widow demands. The characters are

‘othered’ in the very space where they expect to belong—the family.

The social order takes various forms of oppression. Caste, class,

clan, community and religious faith caste, oppression and riots form the

evidence of the marginalization of the subaltern, the homeless, the poor and

the manual workers within the geography of the city and the nation.

Mistry demonstrates an ability to transform the features of the

conventional narrative into an exploration of those cultural and social

realities that are presented marginally. His novels explore the realities that

exist within the family the nation and the community that make up real

societies.

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In A Fine Balance the law becomes a powerful tool for political

oppression. History, Politics and Law affect individual lives in Mistry’s

fiction. Om and Ishvar and the slum dwellers are compelled to load onto

buses and brought to a political rally to be addressed by the Prime Minister.

The slum dwellers deliberately comment ironically on the party workers,

when they are invited to attend the rally. “Tell her how happy we are! Why

do we need to come? .... Ask your men with the cameras to pull some

photos of our lovely houses, our healthy children! Show that to the Prime

Minister”(AFB,318-19).

The description of the activities of the audience during the political

speeches reveal the utter insignificance suffered by the slum dwellers. The

Prime Minister’s Twenty–point programme will have direct impact upon

their lives. The implementation of the programe is almost immediate. But

Om and Ishvar are being razed to the ground for ‘city beautification’.

The tailors are represented as slaves. The tailors’ return to the city

as beggars indicates the fate of urban subalterns. Ishvar’s dreams for his

nephew Om are also shattered. This is due to the brutality of the State. The

Age-old caste oppression and tyranny take over. Caste injustice becomes

arbitrary. It is ironic that Dukhi had tried to save his progeny from caste

oppression by motivating them to become tailors and to leave the village.

Mistry’s subject is the Parsi enclave in multicultural India. The

depiction of the Indian Parsis in the throes of redefining their role in

nationhood – forms the crux of the novels. As a Parsi inheritor who has

witnessed the complicated processes of immigration and adaptation over

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time, Mistry tries to redefine the role of the Parsi in the context of the

Indian nation.

Thus, Sidhwa and Mistry deal with the Parsi-life in multicultural

situations in both India and Pakistan ; they deal with the various trials

Parsis have undergone and probe their ability to adapt to the sad-cum-

challenging reality of the Partition and their response to such calamitous

events like the Emergency years in India and the rise of fundamentalism

around them. Both are humanistic in their view point and provoke the

reader to meditate on the situations and characters presented through a

wide variety of identical perspectives. They explore the problems of

multiculturalism and diasporic experience. In this lie the relevance to the

21st century.

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Chapter –IV

The Parsis’ Response to Socio-Political Upheavals

The Parsi community has first hand knowledge and experience of

political upheavals. The once-mighty Persian Empire was humbled by

Alexander the Great. Later, during the 8th Century, the Parsis indulged in

mass migration to escape the Islamic invasion of Persia which resulted in

their eventual settlement in the Indian sub-continent.

In India, as a minority, they had to witness and respond to such

cataclysmic political events like the Partition of the country, the tumultuous

Emergency years and ethno-religious fundamentalism.

A major concern in minority discourse and subaltern writing,

whether fiction or non-fiction, is its interest in the socio-political conditions

in which it is produced and located(Sadhath,6).

Sidhwa and Mistry’s fictions portray the Parsi response to the

politics around them.

According to Chelva Kanakanayakam, “Bapsi Sidhwa wrote Ice –

Candy Man from the Pakistani point of view”(Interview with Bapsi

Sidhwa: TSAR,46) Sidhwa’s treatment of history is typical of a postcolonial

novelist. History is also richly humanized where Lenny’s evolving

consciousness integrates within itself the diachronic moment of her own

growth and the disintegration of the sub-continent.

The Parsee attitude rendered through Lenny’s God mother and other

characters like Colonel Bharucha is that of a neutral disinterest. As they are

not so affected by the social, political or even economic consequences, they

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are also considered as near perfect observers. Sidhwa displays a fuller grasp

of the ‘human’ consequences of history.

The action is internalized in the young though fertile mind of Lenny

. She thus becomes an eye – witness to and also a victim of a topsy – turvy

world.

Zoroastrianism enjoins that a Parsee must be loyal to the ruler. The

Parsees are very much celebrated for their unflinching loyalty to the

British. Considering the loyalty of the Parsees to the British, Novy

Kapadia observes that all that the Parsis wanted from the ruling British

authorities was religious autonomy. The sense of insecurity in the Parsee

community was due to alienation brought about by the rejection of the

coloniser and distrust of the nationalists.

When objections are raised by some members of the Parsee

community at a Jashan meeting on the eve of the Partition, Colonel

Bharucha the spokesman of the Zoroastrian Community in Lahore

observes: “I hope no Lahore Parsee will be stupid enough to court trouble. I

strongly advise all of you to stay at the back and out of trouble” (ICM, 36-

37).

Moreover, he argues that it would be very difficult to predict the

outcome of Partition. He cautions them: “There may not be one but two –

or even three new nations. And the Parsees might find themselves

championing the wrong side if they don’t look before they leap.”(ICM,37)

He feels that there is no need for the Parsee community to leave

Lahore. He tells them: “Let whoever wishes to rule! Hindus, Muslim, Sikh,

Christian! We will abide by the rules of their land”(ICM,39)

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Only Ayah, the main character, an eighteen year old Hindu is at the

centre of Lenny’s scheme of things. The Nexus between Lenny’s world of

childish pleasures and innocence and the fast–changing ambience is

realised in Ice- candy – Man whose presence is exhilarating for the young

child. Sidhwa wrote Ice – Candy Man since she felt that enough had not

been written about the Partition though novels such as Train To Pakistan, A

Bend in The Ganges and Tamas deal with only the Partition horrors.

Lenny’s response to Gandhi is naïve. He is a mythical figure for

her, but at last he emerges as a multi-dimensional reality whose presence is

overwhelming.

Lennie truly realises the concealed nature of ‘ice’ lurking deep

beneath the hypnotic and dynamic nature of Gandhi’s non – violent exterior

only after the communal frenzy starts.

Sidhwa being a Parsee, did not suffer much during the Partition.

The fight was chiefly between Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs--people who

were to gain by it and who were going to be empowered by it. Lenny, at

least to some extent, takes after Sidhwa and most of the incidents did take

place in her own life though she just fictionalises them.

Sidhwa’s Ice – Candy Man is a work that looks at the victims of

the Partition on a religious basis. Sidhwa displays a fuller grasp of the

‘human’ consequences of history. Sidhwa is the second woman writer to

write a novel dealing with the Partition and it is a novel dealing with the

Partition and its aftermath. Attia Hossain who wrote Sunlight on a Broken

Column too discusses the theme of the Partition like Bapsi Sidhwa.

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Partition is treated as an upheaval that transformed millions of people on

either side of the border in the sub-continent into refugees.

Partition becomes the moulding principle, a shaping force in the

evolution of the consciousness of Lenny, the Parsee child – protagonist.

The political developments in the sub-continent give Lenny, a clear idea of

the crumbling familiar social order. Her realization of religion has profound

importance. She closes her eyes and tries to shut out the voices. She

remarks: “I try not to inhale, but I must. The charged air about our table

distils poisonous insights. Blue envy, green avidity, the gray and black

stirrings of predators and the incipient distillation of fear in their prey”(131-

132). Lennie also starts to play violent games, a gesture that she borrows

from the adult world. One day Adi and she pull the legs of a doll, and when

the doll splits, she breaks down. In anger, Adi asks: “Why were you so

cruel if you couldn’t stand it? He asks at last, infuriated by the pointless

brutality. (139).

In Kapadia’s view, Lenny’s innocent act has a symbolic

significance. He observes: “It shows how even a young girl is powerless to

stem the tide of surging violence within, thereby implying that grown-up-

fanatics enmeshed in communal frenzy are similarly trapped into brutal

violence.”(Indian Women Novelists, 83).

Though the Parsis were not victims of the Partition, their misery

was no less intense. Sidhwa highlights the quandary of the Parsee

community on the eve of Partition. The Parsees were detached observers of

a bloody event that broke India into two. Lenny’s innocent query is typical

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of a child, “India is going to be broken. Can one break a

country?”(ICM,92).

Sidhwa tries to re-examine the role of the British in ‘Cracking’ the

country. She attempts to expose the ‘illegitimate’ part played by the British

in the political process.

The birth of Pakistan leads to an identity – crisis in Lenny. She

observes bitterly: “I am a Pakistani. In a snap. Just like that”(ICM,140)

Lenny takes another birth, though a symbolic one as a Pakistani.

The Ice Candy Man is Pakistani in setting and also in sensibility. The

perspective of Sidhwa is quite clear. According to her, Partition was a

‘mistake’, a tragedy that could have been prevented. Moreover, in the novel

she argues how Partition itself favoured India over Pakistan.

The Hindus are being favoured over the Muslims by the remnants of the Raj. Now that its objective to divide India is achieved, the British favour Nehru over Jinnah. Nehru is Kashmiri. They grant him Kashmir spurning logic, defying rationale, ignoring the consequence of bequeathing a Muslim State to the Hindus…. They grant Nehru Gurdaspur and Pattankot without which Kashmir cannot be secured(ICM,265)

Sidhwa rejects the British and Pro-Hindu Indian versions of history.

She also subverts the popular myth on the Partition that was nursed and

also cherished by people on either side of the border in the sub-continent.

It is Lenny who, without willingness surrenders Ayah to the rioters

led by the Ice – Candy Man. Even Imam Din’s desperate lie fails to save

her. Lenny’s sense of guilt is too acute. “I am the monkey men’s

performing monkey, the trained circus elephant the snake –man’s charmed

cobra, an animal with conditioned reflexes that cannot lie” (ICM,184)

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Lenny’s mother and God mother set her firmly on the path of truth.

It is only her honesty that spells doom for Ayah.

The subsequent confrontation that occurs between the God mother

and the Ice- Candy Man opens Lenny’s eyes to the wisdom of righteous

indignation over compassion.

Ice-Candy Man who ravished the voluptuous Ayah, however

repents and marries her. Even her name is changed to Mumtaz. So Sidhwa

presents how patriarchy deliberately deprived women of liberty finally

resulting in a crisis of identity. But Ayah rejects the new identity which her

marriage offers. Lenny feels the pain of Ayah since it is she who

perpetrates it, though in innocence.

They have shamed her. Not those men in the carts they were strangers but Sharbat Khan and Ice–candy-Man and Imam Din and cousins cook and the butcher and other men she counted among her friends and admirers. I’m not very clear how – despite cousins’ illuminating tutorials –but I’m certain of her humiliation(253-54).

Sidhwa stresses the idea of how the Partition affected two nations in

general, and women in particular.

Lenny’s realisation that Ice-Candy-Man is a deflated poet and a

collapsed pedlar’ is symptomatic of her arrival. She perceives the charge

that comes over Ice-Candy-Man. “… and while Ayah is haunted by her

park, Ice-Candy-Man is haunted by his future and his macabre future

already appears to be stamped on his face”(ICM,265)

The eventual rehabilitation of Ayah which is mainly the work of

God mother, the Good Samaritan she is, and also the repentance of Ice –

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Candy –Man give Lennie a glimpse of the power of love and also the pain

of separation.

In Bapsi Sidhwa’s fiction in general, and in Ice-Candy-Man in

particular, there are many inter-textual references that not only enable

Sidhwa to register her ‘cultural distance’ but also introduces the exotic to

the Western Reader. This is one of the salient features of post colonial

fiction and Ice –Candy-Man like Anita Desai’s In Custody, provides

relevant fictional context for allusions to previous literatures.

Ice-Candy-Man’s newborn knowledge or wisdom is a mystery to

the young mind of Lennie. She understands the power of love only when he

also disappears across the newly created border into India.

Speaking on Sidhwa’s treatment of the Partition, Susie Tharu

remarks: “By representing the Partition in ‘Universalist’ terms as

outrageous and its effects as a metaphysical disorder that can be restored to

an equilibrium only by the artist who is imaged as a magician healer, these

texts inaugurate a narrative and a subjectivity that translates history and

politics into a failure of humanity”(78).

She also argues that the trauma and suffering of people

during the Partition is only due to the degeneration of politics that leads to

sub-human acts. The tragedy of the Ayah and the trauma of Renna are only

the result of what Tharu calls ‘failure of humanity.’ Lenny also cries out

that she feels very sorry for herself and for her cousin.

Lenny’s education is only the growth of consciousness, a

phenomenon that is hastened by events and situations at once tragic and

brutal.

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The novelist herself develops a philosophical conception of history.

There are few aberrations in providing historical signposts.

Sidhwa employs two narrative voices in her account of Partition.

The first one is that of Lenny, a child and the other is that of omniscient

authorial voice.

Lenny’s rendering is only through her dreams and might mares. It is

subjective, not involved or enlightened about its consequences.

Sidhwa’s Lenny tries to interpret the actions and events connected

with the Partition though she is too young to do so.

Through the character of Lenny, Sidhwa demonstrates how absurd

it is to break a country. The new title only suggests the idea of a quest of

discovery: “This work is regarded by some Indian scholars as a moral

allegory. According to Nilufer Bharucha “the Hindu Ayah is a symbolic of

the Indian earth” (The Parsi voice: 81).

The world view that serves as the controlling point of the narrative

is very much characteristically Zoroastrian. In Lenny’s consciousness,

there is a gradual and purposeful shift from skepticism to faith. It is also a

tale of arrival.

Lenny’s enlarged consciousness results from her experiment with

truth. Lenny’s s passage from a state of bliss to the misery of the adult

world constitutes the core of the narrative. It is a progress from innocence

to experience.

In the novel, Sidhwa portrays Lenny and her growth in a parallel

time order and trace the chronology of the sub- continental Partition tale.

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In Sidhwa’s fiction , there arises a tug between history and the

hapless protagonist. He / she seeks to break away from the history and

create his/her own world with temporal autonomy. The Ice-Candy-Man

ends on a note of assimilation. Finally even with the Partition, what matters

for the Parsi is a stable and unified country, India or Paksitan.

Ice –Candy Man’s departure for India is only a symbolic gesture,

particularly at the end of the novel.

As per the novel, in Lahore, things are going from bad to worse.

The impact of the struggle for power between the Congress and the

Muslim League on the common man is also visualized by Sharbat Khan

when he cautions Ayah: “These are bad times – Allah knows what is in

store. There is big trouble in Calcutta and Delhi, Hindu-Muslim trouble.

The Congress – Wallahs are after Jinna’s blood. . . .(ICM,75)

Seven year old Lenny senses a subtle change in the Queen’s

Garden. The people of different communities are silting apart. Only the

group around Ayah remains unchanged. Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, and

Parsees are as always unified around her. But children are not allowed to

interact with one another. When Lenny goes to play with a bunch of Sikh

children, Masseur follows her and drags her away. People have become so

ghettoized.

When Lenny’s parents are fond of entertaining guests, one evening

they invite their Sikh neighbor Mr.Singh, Mr.Rogers, the Inspector General

of Police and their families to Dinner.

The dinner party starts with Lenny’s father making a joke about a

British solider. Mr.Singh at that time lets out a loud guffaw. But Rogers do

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not relish it. This is enough to reveal that the British hold on India is on the

wane. The whole discussion veers round politics. Mr.Singh accuses the

British since they follow only the ‘divide and rule policy and say “you

always set one up against the other… you must give Home Rule and see.

We will settle our differences and everything” (ICM,63)

According to Sidhwa, the literature on the theme of Partition written

by the British and the Indian writers was not a balanced one. Hence,

through Ice – Candy Man, Sidhwa tries to balance the account of the

Partition riots by showing both Muslims and Sikhs indulging in violence.

Sidhwa also describes the mass murder of Muslims in Pir Pindo.

Most of the political leaders of the time figure in Ice-Candy Man in

some context or the other. The Hindu leaders have been portrayed in an

unfavourable manner. The portrayal of Jinnah only creates admiration and

sympathy.

Gandhi is respected throughout the world but in Ice-Candy Man, he

has been described as a tricky politician. Masseur says of him, “He’s a

politician. It’s his business to suit his tongue to the moment” (ICM,91).

Lenny considers him as an “improbable toss –up between a clown

and a demon and is puzzled why he is so famous. The butcher describes

him as a ‘non-violent violence monger’, who indulges in double speak.

Kashmir has always been a bone of contention between India and

Pakistan. Sidhwa thinks that the English have shown a favour to Nehru by

granting him Kashmir.

According to Sidhwa, while Nehru is loved and venerated, Jinnah is

still being treated harshly by Indian scholars and the British as she

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observes: “And today forty years later, in films of Gandhi’s and

Mountbatten’s lives in books by British and Indian Scholars, Jinnah, who

for a decade was known as “Ambassador of Hindu – Muslim unity is

caricatured and portrayed as a monster”(ICM,160).

Sidhwa presents in Ice-Candy –Man, a Pakistani version of

Partition. Sidhwa’s Parsi faith keeps her out of all religious feuds but

regarding nationality, she is definitely a Pakistani.

The Ice-Candy Man, explains a feminine view of Partition too. The

narrator of the novel is a little Parsi girl Lenny. Lenny’s world is limited.

Ayah has friends and admirers of all races and faiths. But the group

disintegrates due to communal tensions. Women are the worst victims

when the riots start.

Sidhwa’s portrayal of women as sufferers conforms to her feminine

perspective on the Partition. Ice-Candy Man presents a fictional account of

the Partition from three perspectives – Parsi, Pakistani and feminine.

Therein lies the uniqueness of this novel.Every country or community has

its own distinct culture. There are also divergences within the country.

Cultural diversity may bring colour and variety but at the same time it

divides people into different groups and subgroups. Also, it proves to be a

great barrier to human relationships. Bapsi Sidhwa presents the issue of

cultural differences and the problems induced by them in almost all her

novels.

The issue of cultural difference moves from the periphery to centre

in Sidhwa’s fourth novel An American Brat. When Sidhwa was questioned

by Naila Hussain about the theme of An American Brat, Sidhwa replied:

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Naturally the book deals with the subject of the ‘culture –shock’. Young people from the sub continent have to contend with when they choose to study abroad. It also delineates clashes, the divergent cultures generate between the families ‘back home’ and their transformed and transgressing progeny bravely groping their way in the New World. (AB,19).

The protagonist Feroza is a sixteen year old Pakistani-Parsi girl.

She is a Matric student at the convent of the Sacred Heart Girl’s School in

Lahore. She pics up fast, the conservative ways of her society.

Zareen, Feroza’s mother gets worried about her and feels sad, she

tells her husband Cyrus of Feroza’s mentality. She feels her daughter is

becoming more and more backward everyday. Cyrus tells her that there is

no harm in Feroza’s staying narrow – minded if it means dressing decently.

His words upset Zareen. She tells him: “I know you think my Sari –

blouses are short, but they’re not half as short as your sister’s chotis. At

least I don’t run around flashing my belly button”(AB,13).

Cyrus questions his wife what strategy she has in mind to tackle

Feroza’s backwardness. She says that Feroza must be sent to America for a

short holiday. Her brother Manek who is in America will take care of her.

Cyrus also accepts Zareen’s words for a different reason. One week

earlier, he had seen Feroza talking to an unknown young man in the sitting

room. He fears that his daughter would love and marry a non- Parsi.

Zareen’s mother Khutlibai is very angry on hearing of Feroza’s visit

to America. But Zareen convinces her. Feroza is very happy on hearing the

news. America means to her at the moment ‘the land of glossy magazines’

of ‘Bewitched’ and ‘Star Track’, of rock stars and Jeans…” (AB,27)

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Feroza is given a last minute instruction by her grand mother and

aunts. She is advised not to talk to strangers, not to drink or eat from them

as it might be drugged. She politely refuses a young Pakistani’s offer of

coke or tea at Heathrow in London.

She is triumphant and glowing the moment she steps down in the

Kennedy Airport. Still, she feels that she is in a strange country amidst

strangers.

Following the other passengers to the baggage-claim section,

Feroza finds herself suddenly confronted by a moving staircase. An elderly

American couple help her out of her predicament by escorting her down

the escalator. The courteous reception from the passport officer also moves

her deeply.

When she loads her suit cases and hand – luggage on the cart, she

finds the striking contrast between the Americans and her countrymen.

According to her, the Americans are unselfconscious. They are really busy

with their own concerns. They don’t stare at girls as people do in Pakistan.

She enjoys the first taste of freedom. To quote from the novel : “She knew

no one, and no one knew her. It was a heady feeling to be suddenly so free

– for the moment – at least of the thousand constraints that governed her

life”(AB,58).

Feroza catches a glimpse of her uncle Manek standing just outside

the exit. As she steers her cart towards him, a woman in a black uniform

stops her “Hey! You can’t leave the terminal. Your passport

please”(AB,59). Later, she directs Feroza to go with the immigration

officer for secondary inspection. The immigration officer grills her and at

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the same time a customs inspector rummages through her bags and

suitcases.

Feroza falls into their trap when she blurts out that her uncle is a

student and he also works at two other jobs to make extra money. When

Manek’s name is announced in the reception lobby, he is interrogated

separately. Another immigration officer brings him to Feroza. The officers

do not rely on Manek when he says that he is her uncle. They too feel that

the girl has come to America only to marry her fiancé. When charged,

Manek replies: “I work in the university cafeteria and at other odd jobs

here…. I work only for them, I’m permitted that”(AB,63).

Manek assures the officers that the girl would go back to her

country at the end of three months. Then the officers allow them to leave

the airport.

Feroza’s initiation into the American way of life begins. Manek

gives her the first lesson that she must learn to control her temper, while

she is in America. When she talks of honour, Manek exhorts her,“And

you’d better forget this honor- shonor business. Nobody bothers about that

here”(AB,66)

After spending a week in New York, Manek and Feroza go to

Boston. In order to accommodate Feroza, Manek shifts his room at an MIT

dorm in Cambridge. He moves into an attic of a large two –storeyed, three

bedroom house in a seedy part of Somerville near Union Square. He shares

the house with five other Pakistani and Indian students.

Maneck realises soon how brazen Feroza has grown in the short

while she has been exposed to American culture. She has become

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disrespectful and uncourteous as she keeps on interrupting him. Manek also

decides to improve her manners and behaviour. Maneck tells her: “…. If

there’s one thing Americans won’t stand, it’s being interrupted. It’s

impolite. It’s obnoxious. You’ve got to learn to listen … what he’s talking

about” (AB,101).

Manek undertakes the task of preparing Feroza for life in an alien

land. He likes her to pursue her studies in America and writes to many

universities and colleges for information. Feroza’s parents also permit her

to study in America.

Maneck advises her to be humble in life. Jo takes charge of

Feroza’s life after Manek’s departure. He makes Feroza give up wearing

her Pakistani outfit and dangling earrings. She starts wearing jeans. When

Jo wants her to wear skirts, Feroza tells her “It’s not decent to show your

legs in Pakistan” (AB,151).

But later she starts enjoying the company of boys. She has feelings

of guilt. She also wonders what her family will say of her conduct if they

come to know about it. But she considers it as her assimilation into the

American way of life.

Feroza finds the American way of upbringing the children, entirely

different. Feroza decides to spend her winter vacation in Lahore. She is

given a hearty welcome when she arrives home. The family members are

delighted on seeing Feroza and ask many questions. There is an exchange

of views.

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Feroza also perceives many changes in her family as well as in her

country. After observing things in America, it is really painful for her to

see her grandmother and others, looking older than they really are.

Feroza’s grandmother Khutlibai has stopped dying her hair and the

other one, Soonamai, has got her vision considerably impaired on account

of cataract. People have even forgotten Bhutto and his martyrdom.

Secularism has given way to Islamic fundamentalism. Non-

Muslims are being eyed with suspicion. The Islamic laws govern the law

courts. The rape victims are being punished for adultery while the rapists

escape scot –free.

Poverty has spread like a galloping disfiguring disease. Feroza is

also disconcerted to discover that she is a misfit in a country in which she

once fitted so well. Feroza has grown up into a confident creature. She is

very much interested in her studies. She also says, “I refuse to die an old

maid! .. I’ll marry the handsomest”(AB,240)

Feroza buys a car with the gift of seven hundred dollars from the

members of her family and her relatives. She is also jubilant. She also scans

the classified ads., and consults her friend. She also makes an appointment

with David Press to inspect his two – year – old car.

On the dance floor of the restaurant to which she has test – driven

the car, she feels, as if she cannot sustain herself without David’s support.

Soon, David and Feroza get physically close. Feroza decides to seek

permission from her parents to marry and also sends a letter along with his

photograph to her mother. The letter causes a flutter in the family.

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The elders in the family settle down to thrash out the problem

created by Feroza. They decide that Zareen should go to the U.S.A to

prevent her from marrying a Jew.

Cyrus gives her a bank draft for ten thousand dollars and tells her to

offer it or part of it to the scoundrel to leave their daughter alone.

Feroza entreats her mother to look at things in a different way as the

Americans have a different culture. Zareen says: “And you’ll have to look

at it our way, it’s not your culture! You can’t just toss your heritage away

like that. It’s in your bones!” (AB,279)

When Feroza speaks of love, Zareen says that love comes only after

being married to a right person. She regrets her having sent Feroza to

America: “I should have listened. I should never have let you go so far

away. Look what ‘it’s done to you – you’ve become an American Brat”.

(AB,279).

But later Zareen broaches the subject of Feroza’s marriage by

lauding the virtues of three marriageable Parsi boys in Lahore and two in

Karachi whose mothers have expressed an ardent desire to make her their

daughter in-law. But Feroza praises David’s parents and says that they are

respectable people though they are not rich. When Zareen questions

David’s ancestry and also his family connections, Feroza says: “If you go

about talking of people’s pedigrees, the American will laugh at

you”(AB,277).

Cut to the quick, Zareen explains to her, the risks of marrying

outside her faith. She would be thrown out of the community. She would

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not be allowed to enter the Parsi places of worship, nor to attend the funeral

rites of her grandmother or her parents.

Zareen feels that she must protect her daughter from him by hook or

by crook. She also consents to their marriage but wants it to be a regular

wedding. She also describes the details of the Parsi wedding rituals and

customs to David. He realises that Zareen’s offensive is not personal but

communal. He feels compelled to defend his position. He tells Zareen that

a Jewish wedding is an equally elaborate affair.

David’s anger shows that Zareen has succeeded in causing

estrangement between him and Feroza. David starts calling Feroza as

Zorastrian ‘ZAP’ meaning – American Princess. When Zareen casts the

peppers on the hot griddle placed on the stove, and with a dark look,

watches them sputter shrivel and charred to cinders, the room is filled with

an acrid stench. David cries and “Oh, God! What are you? A witch or

something?”(AB,304)

Ultimately it becomes very clear to him that Feroza’s culture is

entirely different from his and he cannot adjust himself to it. His feelings

for Feroza undergo a change. Her exoticism that once attracted him to her

now frightens him. He thinks of going out of her life. Fortunately he gets a

job with a firm in California and leaves Denver at the end of the summer

term.

Zareen goes back to Lahore. But Feroze decides not to go back

home but to live in America. Although the sense of dislocation of not

belonging is more acute in America she feels it is bearable, because it was

shared by thousands of newcomers like herself.(AB,321)

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The attraction of America lies not only in the material comfort it

provides but also the relief it gives from the pain of poverty and injustice.

Feroza decides to manage her life to suit her heart and pursue happiness.

As for her religion, she is Parsi and she will continue to be Parsi.

If the priests in Lahore and Karachi do not let her enter the fire

temple, she will go to one in Bombay where there are so many Parsis.

Moreover no one will know whether she is married to a Parsi or to a non-

Parsi.

Feroza’s mental turmoil typifies the predicament of many in a

modern multicultural society. She also represents the agonies of the

expatriates. The expatriates have to strive hard to strike a balance between

tradition and modernity past and present, dependence and freedom.

An American Brat deals with the inter –cultural theme which has

assumed importance for many a post colonial novelist. The west is depicted

as a set of values in conflict with the value system of the East. The conflict

between the two cultures is discernible not only on the social plane but also

on the personal level. Sidhwa evinces keen interest in the interaction of two

cultures that exist side by side.

The Zoroastrian mode of life of Feroza, the Parsee protagonist

clashes with the modern American way of life with its emphasis on

material prosperity.

Feroza is caught between conservatism and the rising wave of

fundamentalism in Pakistan. The progressive liberalism is presented

through Feroza’s mother Zareen. Her lack of interest in religion is typical

of the Parsee community today. Observing Feroza’s relationship with

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Zoroastrianism, Sidhwa observes : “Like most Parsees who know very little

about their religion. Feroza had a comfortable relationship with the faith

she was born into she accepted it as she did the colour of her eyes or the

length of her limbs. (AB,140)

Feroza resolves to have humata (good thoughts) hukhta (good

words) and Varshta (good deeds) that would advance His Divine Plan. She

too feels the spiritual power of the fire reach out from its divine depths to

encompass her with its pure energy. She also feels herself being suffused

with the presence of Ahura Mazda.(AB,42).

Novy Kapadia points out that through Feroza’s experiences Sidhwa

also shows the expatriate’s assimilation to the way of life of the New

World”(Novels of Sidhwa, 191).

In discussing the dilemma of the expatiates, Viney Kirpal points out

that the compelling need in a migrant which almost becomes a survival

strategy is to cling to his own traditions and to mix with people of his own

traditions and to mix with people of his own country”(65).

Feroza remains Zoroastrian and her triumph lies in preserving her

ethnic identity despite her long stay in America. Her quest is not only for

social space which would ensure her an identity of her own but also for

self-development.

Like a true Parsi, Feroza aims at ethical perfection and realises the

significance of freedom. It is a privilege to which she is not entitled in

conservative Pakistan. Feroza is the fictional embodiment of Virginia

Woolf’s Cherished ideal of an empowed woman.

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In the novel, Sidhwa portrays the love-hate relationship that exists

between the land and the migrants. One of the causes of expatriation is the

need to work in an intellectually stimulating environment. Feroza’s thirst

for knowledge is kindled by the universities and the libraries in the New

World. It is an intellectual desire that the conservative homeland fails to

fulfill.

In Feroza’s case, a valid and active sense of self is destroyed by

displacement. The sudden swing from the stifling conservative milieu of

Lahore to the exhilarating ‘surreal’ world of New York disorients her.

However a perceptible change comes over Feroza. Her gain of knowledge

in the New World is a privilege which conventional morality denies her in

Pakistan.

The attitudes of Feroza and Manek, her uncle are contrary to each

other. In other words, he adapts himself in external behaviour for a

smoother acceptance in the new chosen land. On the other hand, to Feroza

it is only ‘assimilation’ which is a far slower process. Her ability to react

instinctively and emotionally to the culture of the New World shortens her

period of adjustment. Only because of Jo, an American student, does she

understands the American ways.

When Feroza commits the sin of smoking, that night itself she

performs the Kusti ritual, bows her head to beg Divine forgiveness for

desecrating the holy fire, the symbol of Ahura Mazda by permitting it such

an ‘intimate contact with her unclean mouth’.

Speaking about man’s quest for happiness Bertrand Russell

observes:

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“All happiness depends upon some kind of disintegration within the self

through lack of coordination between the conscious and the unconscious

mind. There is lack of integration between the self and society where the

two are not knit together by the force of objective interests… the greatest

joy is to be found”(191).

In Feroza, there is a lack of integration between the self and society

at least initially. She achieves the fruitful fusion of heart and mind stressed

by Russell and thus resolves the moral crisis in her later life.

In An American Brat, Sidhwa deals with the motif of expatriation

that was dealt extensively by Bharathi Muherjee and other post-colonial

novelists like Yasmin Gooneratne. They are considered to be coloured

expatriates who faced a multi –cultural situation in the lands where they

settled.

In An American Brat, Sidhwa employs a situation in the narrative to

focalise the dissent among the younger generation of the Parsi community.

She seems to suggest that the demand for some rethinking on the rigid

code is justified. Zareen establishes that Zoroastrianism is purer and greater

religion than Judaism.

Though not an avowed feminist, Sidhwa too raises the issue of male

dominance and oppression of women in this narrative. The minorities in

Pakistan in general and the Parsee community in particular are

marginalised.

In An American Brat, Feroza’s visit to her homeland after

emigration is a revelation. If poverty, sickness and fundamentalism in

Pakistan are disgusting, the low status granted to and suffered by women is

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even more disturbing. The third World Women continue to be objects. This

is questioned and challenged though gently by Sidhwa and vehemently by

other postcolonial novelists like Anita Desai and Shashi Deshpande.

Thus with An American Brat, Bapsi Sidhwa has made a significant

contribution to the literature of the Diaspora. If the New World provides

Feroza adequate social space to grow, Zoroastrianism provides the final

emotional and religious space to her.

Sara Suleri in her perceptive essay on feminist concerns in Third

World countries like Pakistan observes:”If a post colonial nation chooses to

embark on an official program of Islamization, the inevitable result in a

Muslim state will be legislation that curtails women’s rights and institutes

in writing what has thus far functioned as the law of the passing

word”(766).

The Parsis migrated from Iran to the West coast of India to escape

religious persecution in the 8th century. The Parsis have contributed much

to the development of India. Though they are one of the fast diminishing

communities of the world, yet they encounter their marginalisation with

their ability to laugh at the struggles in their lives. Parsi writers are also

sensitive to the various anxieties felt by their community. Rohinton Mistry

is a chronicler of the Parsi fortunes in Bombay.

The Parsi community is on a long journey to growing and knowing

in Mistry’s Such a Long Journey. The novel attains importance and even

controversial nature only through its discourse on political issues. These

issues are built around questions of identity, religion, culture, community

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and country. On the surface, the novelist also presents controversiality and

also multiple narratives along with the central narrative of the Gustads.

As a community, the Parsis have lived peacefully in the vast

sprawling forest of Indian culture. On the other hand, the Indian politicians

have become an object of their verbal assault. They also run down

politicians like Pandit Nehru and Indira Gandhi since neither Nehru nor

Indira treated Feroz Gandhi, a member of their community.

Gustad too adds: “No where in the world has nationalization

worked, what can you say to idiots?”(SLJ,38). Like Gustad, the other

members of the community are scared of politicians like Mrs. Gandhi

whom they consider responsible for encouraging the demand for a separate

Maharashtra.

As a minority community, they have their little fears and anxieties.

Dinshawji also voices his concern about the rising communal forces. “And

today we have that bloody Shiva Sena, wanting to make the rest of us into

second class citizens… Don’t forget she [Mrs.Gandhi] started it all by

supporting the racist beggars”.(39)

Gustad sees no future for his son Sohrab and minorities in India.

Various characters in the novel belonging to the minority

community express their anguish. There lies the changing pattern of

communal relationships in society. This forms the narrative structure of the

novel. Mistry’s sensitivity lies only with the dangers to his community and

it is expressed by his characters’ consciousness.

Such a Long Journey was considered to be a much publicized first

novel. Mistry is influenced by the little –known but rich Parsi tradition. He

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employs the realist mode in his writings. The strategy of representing

varied attitudes to tradition is visible and clear in Mistry’s early collection

of stories.

The main action of Such a Long Journey takes place in a political

background. The novel is set against the backdrop of the Bangladesh –

Pakistan Wars of the 1970s. These public events have direct repercussions

on the life of ordinary citizens. The wars become the narrative excuse for

the exploration of both political ethics and all the related problems of

ethical/moral responsibility. The plot of Such a Long Journey deals only

with the life of the ordinary citizen, though it has its national political

overtones. The story of Gustad Noble and his family is interwoven clearly

with the events on the national scene. The War has direct results on the

availability of goods and the price of essential commodities also shoots up.

The episode that involves with Gustad’s younger son Darius and a

neighbour’s daughter creates a semi –comic situation. Dilnavaz is very

much upset by the wastage because it is the resale of news papers that

stretches the house-hold finances till the end of the month(SLJ,151).

Later in the novel, newspapers are at issue again when Roshan’s

school decides to collect newspapers to help national causes. This is

seriously bringing an embarrassing situation to the family budget.

The fear of a Pakistani attack results in the blacking out of

windows. Gustad also had put up the black out paper during the war against

China in 1962. The memory of the subsequent riots related to the defeat of

the national army also gains importance.

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The Indo-china Wars also provide the perfect occasion to reveal

how political greed and opportunism come in. “No Chinese soldier

approached Khodadad Building. Instead, teams of fund – raising politicians

toured the neighborhood. Depending on which party they belonged to, they

made speeches praising the congress government’s heroic stance or

denouncing its incompetency… .”(SLJ,10)

The ambivalent tone of this passage offers an objective assessment

of state politics. It is a good example of the neutral style that Mistry favours

throughout the novel. Gustad’s memory sweeps over the consequences that

the Indo-China War had for the leadership of the nation.

The black out paper only symbolizes the recurrent state of

emergency that the average home is forced to live with. The details

presented in Bangladesh are both familial and social.

Gustad reads to Dilnavaz, details of the formation of the Awami

League to proclaim the independence of East Pakistan, the reactions of

General Yahya Khan and the influx of refugees through the Indo –

Bangladesh border. This news is also ardently discussed at the office. “In

the canteen at lunch-time, I told all the fellows this is exactly what would

happen”(SLJ,12).

The discussion of international military issues is used as the

occasion to introduce Major Bilimoria. Gustad is also smarting from what

he considers his friend’s treachery. Billimoria’s heroic stature is called into

question by the startling revelation that he is implicated in dirty politics and

serious criminal frauds (SLJ,195).

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Mistry presents clearly international and intra –national politics

when he shows Bilimoria at the interface of both. Mistry’s politics can be

gleaned through Bilimoria’s tragic tale and also the detailing of a country’s

political corruption.

His subsequent novels continue to explore this theme. Billimoria’s

fate also reveals the false facade of nationalism and the corruption behind

patriotic rhetoric.

Mistry also denounces the corrupt politics that was prevailing in the

National Government. He Seems to have great admiration for Nehru who

was an idealist and his dream of a secular India. This is very clear and

reflected through the main protagonist of the novel. Gustad thinks of

Nehru as “The country’s beloved Panditji, everyone’s Chacha Nehru, the

unflinching humanist the great visionary”(SLJ,11).

The novelist has merged war and ethics in his work. When Roshan

comes to Gustad with a request from her school for money to help the

refugees, she asks her father why West Pakistan is killing East Pakistan.

Gustad gives her a simplified explanation of the war: “Because it is wicked

and selfish, East Pakistan is poor, they said to the West, we are always

hungry, please give us a fair share. But West said no. then East said in that

case we don’t want to work with you. So as punishment, West Pakistan is

killing and burning East Pakistan”(SLJ,81).

The lives of all the characters in the novel are steeped in the realities

of the war-time situation. Though the War with Pakistan is at the frontiers,

the scarcity of food supplies and the rationing affects the ordinary citizens

of India.

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A sense of insecurity and a fear for military attack are permanent,

which are indicated not only through Gustad’s dark, covered windows, but

also through the air raid sirens.

Denying the perception that the ordinary citizen is ignorant and

uninterested in national and international politics, the text shows the

political awareness permeating to all levels of society. Even Bhimsen, an

office peon specifically looks for newspapers with Portraits of Nixon and

Kissinger referred to as “the rat and the constipated ox”(SLJ,299). This

shows the degree of political consciousness and individual and collective

resistance that exists at all levels of the social scale.

The War and its sudden consequences form the background to Such

a Long Journey. The War becomes the most significant thing in the

duration of the entire narrative. The air raid siren sounds everyday at ten,

keeping the threat of Pakistani bombing ever present. This becomes a

routine affair for the inhabitants.

Mistry observes the universal in the particular. He strives to reach

the universal through the specific story of the Parsi community. The Parsi

community is to be seen clearly as an enclave that has helped him sharpen

his literary and artistic vision.

The pavement artist first comes to Gustad’s attention when he is

rushing to the bank to deposit Billimoria’s first instalment. The following

is his impression of the artist:

The pavement artist did not restrict himself to any single religion –one day it was elephant – headed Ganesh, giver of wisdom and success; next day it could be Christ hanging on the cross, and the office crowds blissfully tossed coins upon the pictures. The

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artist had chosen his spot well. He sat cross-legged and gathered. The wealth descending from on high. Pedestrians were careful with his square of pavement, this hallowed ground, as long it displayed the deity of the day (SLJ,143).

Such a Long Journey is a novel that introduces many of the

preoccupations of its writer. It presents itself as a novel that seeks to locate

the Parsi community in India. It also presents an important comment on

independent India. The novel is set in the years preceding Indira Gandhi’s

declaration of the state of Emergency in 1975. Gustad and his family have

to live through the consequences of the Bangladesh war and the refugee tax

relief as it affects the contemporary citizen. Politics is only represented in

so far as it affects individual lives.

Hence the Billimoria story though based on a true incident,

functions only in its human dimension. It affects Gustad’s life and also his

relationship with his friend.

Mistry considers the issue along with the abuses perpetrated by the

Congress and the Gandhi family. In Such a Long Journey, the incident of

money laundering deals with the Prime Minister. It provides a disguised

commentary on the nature of the abuse of power that took place in the early

1970’s.The novel was set in the early 1970’s during the War against

Pakistan and chronicled in relation to his characters’ lives. It picturizes the

abuse of political authority which affects the ordinary citizen.

Billimoria’s arrest becomes the subject of a national scandal and

for the first time Gustad understands that Billimoria might have been either

lying or ignorant of the real destination of the money. The nature of fact

that is recounted in official quarters and reported by the press is ridiculous.

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Bilimoria had impersonated Indira Gandhi over the telephone and ordered

the Chief Cashier of the State Bank of India to withdraw money and deliver

it to the Bangladeshi Babu who it appears was Bilimoria himself.

Jimmy Bilimoria is imprisoned on charges of laundering money but

what happens really is never explained. What Gustad does witness however

is the unbelievable disintegration of a strongman into a pathetic, weak

figure. Here, the revelation is that Bilimoria has come to this situation

through the ministrations of the hospital and the prison. What Gustad hears

as the official explanation “High fever and a lot of weakness. Must be

jungle weakness.. his duties took him to the jungle very often” (SLJ,266). It

also sounds suspiciously like the onset of diseases that in turn become the

pretext for the medication, Bilimoria receives. It ends in an utter state of

weakness that comes between reality and fantasy. Bilimoria explains about

the way the research and analysis wing (RAW) was hijacked for the

personal use of the Prime Minister. He says: “Big surprise… she was using

RAW like her own private agency. Spying on opposition parties, ministers

… any one for black mail made me sick. Ever spying on her own cabinet

…. RAW kept dossiers on her friends and enemies”(SLJ,270)

The abuse of power at the governmental level deals with Sohrab’s

adolescent opinions and anger.

But what about the leaders who do wrong? Like the car manufacturing licence going to Indira’s Son? He said, Mummy I want to make motor cars. And right away he got the licence. He has already made a fortune from it, without producing a single Maruti. Hidden in Swiss Bank accounts. Dilnavaz listened intently as Sohrab described how the prototype had crashed in ditch, during his trial, Yet was approved because of orders from the very top(SLJ,68).

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Dinshawji’s theories about American involvement in the war come

true and the USA is also involved as they send their seventh fleet to the Bay

of Bengal.

We are also informed that after their ‘antics’ in the straits of

Malacca. “Nixon and Kissinger became names to curse with, names which

if uttered had to be followed by hawking and spitting (SLJ,298). Thus the

population reacts to mighty international decisions.

Gustad returns the money. Billimoria dies. His passing was

mourned only by Gustad in the tower of silence and Ghulam Mohammed

from afar. Ghulam Mohammed says that he will stay in RAW to avenge the

injustice done to Jimmy.

In Such a Long Journey, the narrative is effectively woven and one

cannot escape the connections between and transmutation of public

decisions. Their repercussions on the private lives of the citizens also gain

significance. The close connection between War and State politics, is

explored. It also deals with the corruption of political leaders and its impact

in the lives of ordinary citizens.

In A Fine Balance, Mistry deals with the emergency years of Indira

Gandhi. If Such a Long Journey suggests the nature of the abusive power

exercised by the top levels of the government, A Fine Balance sets out to

document the election malpractices and misappropriation of power. It

affects the life of the poor rural migrants as well as the urban homeless.

This novel is situated immediately following the narrative period in Such a

Long Journey during Indira Gandhi’s Emergency.

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Mistry also historicises the life of the tailors placing it between the

1975 Emergency and also the time of Mrs. Gandhi’s assassination. The

ordinariness of their existence is also unbearable in its poignancy.

The central action in A Fine Balance is structured between the

opening chapter ‘Prologue 1975’ and the concluding section entitled

‘Epilogue 1984’. These were considered to be crucial years for the Indian

nation. 1975 saw the declaration of the ‘State of Internal Emergency’, by

the Prime Minister Mrs.Indira Gandhi. In 1984, Mrs. Gandhi was

assassinated by her Sikh body guards as vengeance for the Indian army’s

attack earlier that year on the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the holiest Sikh

Shrine. This attack only resulted in the death of the Sikh religious leader

Bhindran Wale. Mrs. Gandhi’s assassination triggered nationwide riots and

serious communal violence. The Sikhs were targetted by furious Hindu

mobs avenging the Prime Minister’s murder.

In a series of connected events covering the decades from the pre-

independent India to the assassination of Indira Gandhi, Rohinton Mistry

attempts to show the vulnerability of the average man’s life. The novel

shows how political changes mercilessly cut through the psycho – social

fabric of a country where justice is sold at all quarters.

The period of emergency is much like the country’s Partition,

especially the one following the assassination of Indira Gandhi. Emergency

disturbs the average lives of Ishvar Darjee and his youthful nephew Om

Prakash Darjee and also their employer Dina Dalal, a middle aged widow.

The paying guest Maneck Kohlah and Dina are the indirect victims of

Emergency as their lives are dependent on the lives of the tailors, Ishvar

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and Om. Though all of them struggle in their lives, they cannot connect it

to the existing political scenario of the country. Moreover, their struggle for

survival does not have a political angle to it. They all believe that the oft-

heard word ‘Emergency’ is only a sort of game played by the power centre.

They also think that it would not affect ordinary citizens like them.

Mistry’s novel is presented as a fine documentation of the human

dimensions of the Emergency. Mistry has created the characters like tailors

only to reveal the fate suffered by the ordinary people. The predicament of

honest and sincere villagers becomes a mass of statistics in the city.

The two tailors represent common humanity as they face the

consequences of all the political pressures and measures decided by the

higher echelons of power. To quote from the novel:

Om and Ishvar can join the masses looking for jobs which are not easy to come by. They live in the slum quarters. They become easy targets for political parties gathering crowds to attend political rallies. Om and Ishvar are made to attend such a rally. The precise description of the political rally, the behaviour of the politicians leaves no doubts about the identity of the politician being described during his rally” (AFB, 324)

The third blow of Emergency in their lives is when Ishvar and Om

are picked by the police from their rented foot-path dwelling to work as

construction workers as part of the city beautification project.

Ishvar’s protest that they are not street urchins or beggars fall on

deaf ears. They are forced into a trunk where in under foot, stray gravel

stabbed the human Cargo(AFB,326) . The tailors are compelled to abandon

their work for a number of days for reasons beyond their control. Maneck

only tries to pacify the agitated Dina.

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Dina comes to know through Maneck, the long –drawn sufferings of

Ishvar and Om, the inheritors of caste-victimisation. She feels that

“Compared to theirs, my life is nothing but comfort and happiness. People

keep saying God is great, God is just. But I’m not sure”(AFB,340).

The caste violence drove the lower caste tailors from their village to

seek employment in the teeming metropolis, Bombay. The overlapping

stories help to create an intricate plot. Oppressing caste violence has driven

Ishvar and Om Prakash from their traditional occupation (working with

leather) to learn the skills of tailoring and from a rural background to

overcrowded Bombay.

There are always upheavals, whether at the slums where Ishvar and

Om Prakesh reside in Bombay or problems of food and political

disturbance at the residential block at Maneck’s college. Some of these

upheavals like the emergence of competition in the cold drinks business,

occur as part of life’s struggle. However in A Fine Balance, most upheavals

take place after the imposition of internal Emergency. The eviction of the

poor from the cities, the forced labour camps, the sterilization are all

manifestations of the internal Emergency. Mistry criticises the internal

emergency. He shows how the avowed promises of the Emergency to

abolish bonded labour, Sati, dowry system, child marriage and harassment

of backward castes have not materialised.

Mistry points out in several instances in the novel, a nexus between

the police and the established hierarchy, either the upper caste dominance

in the villages or the land building mafia in Bombay.

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Many episodes in the novel reveal Mistry’s sympathy for the

oppressed and his concern with the authoritarian oppressive practices that

prevailed during the Internal Emergency.

During the course of the narrative, Mistry makes some revealing

political insights also. The transitions in rural life, the change in the

aspirations of the lower castes, the attempts by the upper castes to preserve

the old order are suitably delineated.

Mistry emerges as the foremost Parsi political novelist noted for a

consistent depiction of ideology and politics in his novels. In other Parsi

novels, references to political events are rare. The contrasting opinions of

the Parsi community on the freedom struggle and the Quit India movement

are suitably delineated.

Finally, A Fine Balance is a story of individual rather than of India.

Almost 23 years after the events of the novel, one finds a Dalit government

at the helm of affairs and the voice of the lower castes becoming

increasingly assertive in the main stream of our political life. A Fine

Balance showcases the political power-play within the frame of realism.

Social reality is very much a character in Mistry’s work, not just a

background. The nature of social reality allows the characters to acquire

complex dimensions.

In his novel A Fine Balance, Mistry has presented with the utmost

sensitivity and depth, the relationships of a few characters with the milieu

around them. Most of the characters belong to his own Parsi community,

an ethnic minority in a predominantly Hindu India. The existential crisis

which they confront in their personal, social and national life constitutes the

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central concern of the novel. The protagonist Farokh Kohlah happens to be

a victim of History, of the Partition of India in 1947. To quote from the

novel: “A foreigner drew a magic line on a map and called it the new

border; it became a river of blood upon the Earth. And the orchards, fields,

factories, businesses all on the wrong side of that line, vanished with a

wave of the pale conjurors’ word”(AFB,205)

Despite the loss of the family fortune, Farokh along with his wife

Aban and little son Maneck continue to relish their lives in the foot-hills of

the Northern mountain in India meeting out their needs from a small store.

Like his father, Maneck too likes his home in the mountain, so much that

his temporary departure for the city for education makes him terribly

nostalgic. Moreover, a steaming bowl of water in the bathroom brings to

his mind the vision of the dreamy mist that would be hugging the

mountains in the morning. To quote from the novel:

“… at this hour it would be swirling fancifully encircling the snow covered peaks. Just after dawn was the best time to observe the snow dance, before the sun was strong enough to snatch away the veil. And he would stand at the window, watch the pink and orange of sunrise imagine the mist tickling the mountain’s ear chucking it under the chin or weaving a cap for it(AFB, 201).

Not only for Farokh and his family but for his friends like Major

Grewal and others, the mountain was a part of their life like a living

intimate persona who lived with them side by side.

Their harmonious relationship with nature was soon disrupted by

the government’s plea to connect the hill town to the cities. They who had

never dreamt of leaving the mountain were shocked to find the mountain,

leaving them. Mistry’s subtle and veiled criticism is candid enough to

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target the self-styled messiahs for the development of the nation. To quote

from the novel: “These were to be modern roads…. Roads that would hum

with the swift passage of modern traffic. Roads wide and heavy duty, to

replace the scenic mountain paths too narrow for the broad vision of nation

builders and World Bank officials (AFB, 215)

Due to the threat of the forces of modernization and urbanization,

Farokh and his friend Major Grewal organise meetings to condemn “the

flawed development policy, the shortsightedness, the greed that was

sacrificing the country’s natural beauty to the demon of

progress”(AFB,215).

They protest with the authorities and sign the petitions. But the

authorities never responded to their fervent appeal. The invasion of

technology is presented by Mistry quite evocatively. To quote from the

novel:

The beautiful hills by its side become gashed and scarred. From high on the slopes, the advancing tracks looked like rivers of mud defying gravity as though nature had gone mad. The distant thunder of blasting and the roar of earth moving machines floated up early in the morning and the dreaminess of the dawn mist turned to a nightmare(AFB, 215)

The menace of modernisation causes ecological imbalance and

consequently an existential dilemma for Farokh.

Man interacts with nature through the medium of culture that

provides the values and knowledge for such interaction. By his elaborate,

and sensitive presentation of Man- Nature relationship. Minstry stands out

as a spokesperson of the Ecological Movement.

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Mistry’s characters have identical fate with those of Mulk Raj

Anand’s. The circumstances of their life, induces them to rave for revenge.

It is only this mental aggression that leads to physical aggression.

Mistry give examples from the memories of Hindu – Muslim

clashes during post-Partition days: “They brought with them stories of

Muslims attacking Hindus in many parts of the country… The trains are

stopped at the station and every – one butchered on both sides of the

border”(AFB,122-126).

During the Hindu – Muslim riots, Om Prakash and Ishvar save the

life of Ashraf and his family though they have been humiliated by their

own Hindu community people who taunt them: “Listen smart boy … Have

you run out of Muslims?”(AFB,129-130)

Mistry vividly sketches the bloody aftermath of the then Prime

Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination. Since the security guards who

killed Indira Gandhi belonged to the Sikh community, violence was

unleashed against innocent Sikhs.

Sikhs are the ones being massacred in the riots. For three days they have been burning Sikh shops and homes, chopping up Sikh boys and men and the police are just running about here and there, pretending to protect the neighbourhoods. … Afterwards the group became so powerful fighting for separation and they made trouble for her only(AFB, 570-572).

The horrors and traumas of emergency, the running tensions

between the upper and lower castes in rural India are some of the

ideological concerns of Mistry which make him one of the foremost Indian

English political novelists of the 1990’s.

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Many poignant scenes in A Fine Balance describe crowd-

manipulation for political purposes. The poor people who were all living

in the Thopdipat were compelled to board the bus which took them to the

Prime Minster’s rally. They were compelled not by the party men alone

but by the police too who joined hands with the political bosses. The

government buses were used for transporting them. Mistry presents the

corrupt political scenario of India. The logic of forced participation is

simple: “The Prime Minister’s message is that she is your servant and

wants to help you. She wants to hear about things from your own lips.

There will be a payment of five rupees for each person … otherwise you

will be arrested for trespassing on municipal property”(AFB,256-265)

The policemen harrass the poor and get money from them. The

lines “The police came to investigate. Manager and police talked. Manager

offered money, police took money and everybody was happy”(AFB, 303)

reveal the stark social reality.

The so-called facilitator understands the government and its

tamasha and the know-how to cheat the government and exploit the poor by

claiming that he is helping them. “You see, since the Emergency started

there’s a new rule in the department … Hundred now and hundred when

you get the card, while there is government, there will be work for

me”(AFB, 178-179)

Mistry feels that communal riots are well orchestrated and

choreographed events directed by self – seeking politicians.

Mistry’s characters represent the perennial misery of the

suppressed. Observing the social imbalances, political thinkers and social

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scientists along with creative artists have raised questions to find solutions.

Many forces collude to perpetuate the injustice prevailing among people.

The nation’s ills cannot be mitigated unless the government shows the will

to transform society.

Mistry internationalises the problems of the marginalized. Mistry’s

main thrust is on the need for a national and global change and to usher in,

a new pattern of impartial and healthy human relationships. He also desires

for peace and love to reign for ever.

Thus, Sidhwa and Mistry have faithfully portrayed the effects of

political upheavals in the Indian subcontinent on the minority community

of Parsis and their response.

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Chapter – V

Family Relationships

Traditionally, the institution of the family has been viewed as a unit

with several functions, notably legitimate sexual outlet for the partners,

procreation, socialization of children, and in some cases, production . . . [to

feminists], the family is an unequal institution in terms of income

distribution, the power to make decisions, the giving and receiving of

services. They have located the structural origins of women’s oppression in

the family by pointing to male control of female sexuality, male rights to

female servicing and the non-enforcement of male responsibility to provide

financially for the family. . . . The family is often not the cosy haven that it

is sometimes depicted to be. According to the Frankfurt School, it tends to

produce authoritarian personalities who tend towards Fascism; According

to Laing and the anti-psychiatrists, it produces schizophrenia ; and

feminists have shown that violence is prevalent in the family, in the form

of wife-battering and sexual abuse of children. Marxists see the family as

integral to capitalism in its role of socializing future generations of docile

workers. (Encyc.of Sociology 125-126)

Parsi familial life is marked by late marriages, low-birth rate,

growing divorce rate, illness and ageing. As the chroniclers of Parsi lives,

both Sidhwa and Mistry have delved deep into the Parsi families and have

come out parading a plethora of issues which plague them.

Bapsi Sidhwa attempts to develop a philosophical conception of

history. This point of view, used as a literary strategy assumes great

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significance. Sidhwa avoids omniscient narration in Ice –Candy Man. The

novel marks a new phase in her creative writing, especially in the use of

narrative voice. Sidhwa employs the two narrative voices for rendering an

account of Partition:the first is that of Lenny, a child and the other is that

of the omniscient authorial narrative voice.

Lenny’s rendering is through her dreams and nightmares. It is a

subjective view and as a child is not enlightened about the consequences of

events. Sidhwa’s narrative illustrates the horrors of the Partition and is

noteworthy for its dramatic use of language.

Lenny tries to interpret the actions and events connected with the

Partition. But she is too young to accomplish it. Lenny is a victim of polio

whereas Brit is an invalid by birth. Lenny’s predicament is also

qualitatively different from that of Brit in that she is a girl.

Lenny and the Ayah despite their intense struggle, fail to acquire an

identity of their own. Through Lenny’s perceptions, Sidhwa demonstrates

how absurd it is to break a country.

Ice-Candy-Man is considered to be the record of Lenny’s education

in the crucible of life. Lenny’s growth of consciousness takes place against

the back drop of the Partition. The process follows a parallel time order.

The story is narrated by the Parsi girl and she picturizes different

types of the Parsis living in the Lahore of 1940’s. This framework permits

for a life of seclusion rather than the active engagement with politics. The

child-narrator serves as a creative/critical purpose. Lenny, being a child is

ingenuous in her reactions. This facilitates an emotional expression of

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events and makes for a more thorough exposure of the human tragedy that

was to be a blot in the Post-Independence Sub-continent.

In the novel, the author and the narrator intersect at various points.

Lenny is a victim of polio. She is from a Parsi family and was a young girl

at the time of the Partition, very much like the author. The author herself

was aware of the dangers of a close identification between narrator and

author and has achieved a fine balance between herself and Lennie.

In a very didactic moment, the novel contends that Jinnah is

incapable of harsh compliments. The gullibility and innocence of Lenny is

seen in the manner in which she allows herself to be manipulated by her

cousin. The novel is specifically about a Parsi family that from the

beginning chooses to be aloof from religious feuds. The religious

differences of Sikh-Hindu-Muslim have no bearing on the Parsis.

The role played by Lenny’s mother and grandmother is mainly to

find ways of rehabilitating the women who have been abused. The novel

makes the issue of women a central theme in the narrative structure. The

violence that is done to women lies beyond indeterminacy. The novel also

stresses the open-endedness of artifice.

In her novels, Sidhwa emphasises women-related issues. She

projects a women – to women bonding. The question of female –child

education gains significance in this novel.

When Lenny’s god mother learns about Ayah’s presence in the Hira

mandi, she swings into action to gather the rescued. First, she calls Ice –

Candy man to her house. She herself visits Ayah. She also tries to comfort

and console her. Lenny’s family helps everyone who is in distress. Lenny’s

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world is considered to be very small, but it is full of colour and variety.

Only Ayah, who is always with her has friends and admirers of all races

and faiths. Lenny’s mother and god mother do all they can for the riot –

victims.

The Ice – Candy man forces Ayah to embrace Islam and marries

her. But she has not even an iota of love for him. When Lenny’s God

mother visits her, she only entreats her to get away from him. The God

mother rescues her and gets her sent to her family in Amritsar.

Hamida is another victim of men’s atrocities. Hamida gets

employed as a nursemaid by Lenny’s mother. Sidhwa portrays men as

ruthless victimizers and women as compassionate and victimized. This

conforms to Sidhwa’s feminine perspective on the Partition.

The novel deals with many stories; some more compelling than

others. But all are narrated in a way that does not privilege one over

another. The novel has to be read only as national allegory like the model

of Frederic Jameson. It is also more than just an allegorical tale about the

Partition. It focuses on a Parsi family that from the beginning chooses to

be aloof from religious feuds and in unity with all segments of society. The

historical episodes present the migration of the Parsis from Persia, their

initial rejection by the Indian ruler and the address by the doctor at a

community meeting in which he advocates neutrality. This is a significant

pointer to the role that the Parsis chose to play at times of crises.

Feroza belongs to the Parsi community living in the conservative

Pakistan. As a youngster, she has been influenced by the orthodox air

around. Hence, she does not want her mother to wear a sleaveless sari-

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blouse. Feroza says: “Mummy, please don’t come to school dressed like

that”(AB,10) she doesn’t like to attend phone calls for fear of having to talk

to some unknown person. She displays conservative tendencies with regard

to man –woman releationships, clothing, eating, dueling etc.

Zareen wants her daughter to grow and expand. So she tells Cyrus

her husband that Feroza must go to America for three or four months as

“travel will broaden her out look, get this puritanical rubbish out of her

head”(AB,14).Initially Cyrus protests, but later he accepts the proposal.

Zareen contacts her brother Maneck studying in America. He also agrees to

co-operate: “I’ll look after her, don’t worry, just send her” (AB,26).

Feroza too is happy to have this change as she says to herself, “I’m

going to America, I am going to America” (AB,27).

Ultimately after the ‘blessing’ and ‘hugging’ Ceremony (46) and

doses of instructions from her grannies, mother and aunts, Feroza boards

the plane for New York. Feroza has different phases of experience in the

brave new world of America in general and particularly in the company of

Maneck, her uncle at the YMCA in New York.

Sidhwa in her novels deals with the past and present history and

seeks to feminise it in the above fashion with an active interrogation of the

woman’s position in that historical / political situation.

An American Brat explains the increasing feeling of unease that the

Parsi community feels in Pakistan. Sidhwa sees how there is a general

descent into authoritarianism in the name of religion. The non – Islamic

communities like the Parsis were affected by increasing fundamentalism.

Zareen too complains about her daughter’s attitudes being affected by the

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laws. She says: “When I was her age, I wore frocks and cycled to Kinnaird

college. And that was in ‘59 and ‘60 fifteen year after Partition. Can she

wear frocks? … If everything corrupts their pious little minds so easily,

then the Mullahs should wear barqas and stay within the four walls of their

houses. (AB,10).

Women are most affected by the dictates of narrow religious

sanctions which propagate gender segregation. The narrator goes on to add

that their most trivial conversations taking a political turn was not

surprising. In Pakistan, politics with its special brew of marital law and

religion influenced every aspect of day-to-day living(11).

In The American Brat, Feroza’s journey to America serves the novel

in two ways. It is her journey toward self – discovery and also serves to

give the author / protagonist precious objectivity. This enables only a

genuine evaluation of both the societies that she is affiliated to: her

separation from home and family results from her move to America and

has a salutary effect on her mind.

Maneck receives Feroza at Kennedy Airport and frees her from the

unhappy situation created by the immigration officer and makes her aware

of the fact, “You’ll have to learn to stand a lot of things in this world”

(AB,66).

Feroza’s stay with Manek forms the first phase. Maneck makes her

undergo adventures. He also teaches her manners and helps her cope with

all sorts of unexpected situations(AB,135). He too desires her to join a

junior college. This would really ease her assimilation in American way of

life.

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The college was ready to offer a stipend. Her parents also permitted

her “to study in America” (AB,139). Feroza was timid, tense and complex-

ridden. She joins the University of Denver for the Hotel Management

course. The third phase of her American sojurn begins only here. The new

setup makes her think that “she was in the right place and that her life

would develop in unexpected and substantial ways”(AB,212).

Shashi was a year ahead of her in the Hotel Management Program.

He made a magnetic impact on her. He introduced his black and white

friends from different countries to her. For Feroza, it was like stepping

through Alice’s wonderful mirror. Shashi’s entry opened up something

which was locked within Feroza and allowed “her access to happier places

within herself.” (AB,215).

In the fourth phase, Feroza meets David Press to buy his second –

hand car. She submits herself and surrenders fully to David. Her mother

comes to America to dissuade Feroza from this inter-faith marriage. Feroza

firmly and boldly tells her mother: “We’re having a civil marriage in any

case, a judge will marry us. Of course you know David and I are

Unitarians”(AB,278).

Her mother’s efforts end in failure since Feroza is strong and firm in

her decision of marrying David. So Zareen makes an effort in dissuading

David from this marriage. The marriage matter ends without paralysing

Feroza’s onward march. She applies for a graduate program in

Anthropology in the University of Arizona. Later, she ruminates: “There

would never be another David but there would be other men and who knew

perhaps someday she might like someone enough to marry him. It wouldn’t

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matter if he was a Parsee or of other faith. She would be more sure of

herself and she would not let anyone interfere”(AB,317).

The places Feroza visits (the museums, the city streets, Twin Falls,

Denver) the people she meets (Maneck,Jo,Shashi and David) and the books

she reads(Psychology,philosophy,literature and anthropology) help her

mind expand. Her mind does not fluctuate. This continuous expansion leads

to a self-contained state and happiness.

Mistry too analyzes familial relationships at various levels in his

fiction. Such a Long Journey (1991) is a novel that heralds Mistry’s

arrival as a gifted writer. It is set against the background of the Indo –

Pakistan War of 1971. It deals with the predicament of Gustad Noble, the

central character.

Gustad is presented as an individual classical tragic hero who

passes from ‘happiness to misery.’ He has to struggle against heavy odds

which he tackles with placid serenity. Many things do not escape the

novelist’s serious concern. He also cherishes the values of friendship,

condemns the scourge of war and also denounces the hypocritical political

leaders who have eaten the vitals of the nation.

In a post – modernist tone, he refrains from becoming a political

propagandist. He exposes the political and social ills in India. The novel

conveys Mistry’s opposition to social and class distinctions.

The title ‘Such a Long Journey’ has a symbolic significance and

refers to the life of Gustad Noble, the central character of the story. Gustad

was a bank employee and a father of three children: two sons – Sohrab and

Darius and a daughter Roshan. As the novel progresses, Gustad’s hopes,

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dreams and aspirations go contrary to his likings. The frowns of fortune

render him helpless. Major Billimoria is a loving brother to Gustad. He is

almost a ‘second father’ to Gustad’s children. Gustad’s son Sohrab’s

refusal to enroll himself as an IIT student troubles him. The protracted

illness of Roshan (a complicated case of diarrhoea), and also Gustad’s

receipt of a package from Major Billimoria troubles him a lot.

Along with these, Gustad’s close friend Dinshawji’s illness and his

eventual death, and the death of Tehmul Lungraa, a retarded child, another

in -mate of the Khodadad building, finally the destruction of Gustad’s

sacred wall by the municipal authorities simply wreck him.

Dilnavaz is asked to perform some magic rites for a few days

before the setting of the sun. Due to this process, the trial goes on, but the

results are far from satisfactory. Sohrab drinks some lime juice prepared

by is mother who does some magic rituals to regain her son’s lost interest.

Success is not attained, since somebody has to drink a juice mixed with

lime juice to transfer the spell from Sohrab to the second person. Tehmul

becomes the target. There is little effect on Soharb’s mind. Sohrab also

revolts and leaves home and Roshan’s illness becomes a matter of great

concern. Miss Kutpitia maintains that Roshan’s illness is caused by the evil

eye cast on her.

This does not relieve Roshan of her illness. According to Kutpitia, it

is both evil eye and some dark force that are responsible for the continuous

illness. Finally, she suggests to Dilnavaz that Mr.Rabadi is the man behind

the misfortune.

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The central character is Gustad Noble in whose life and suffering, a

large rhythm of universal pattern is carved out. Gustad’s suffering is no

suffering in abstraction. Through this novel, Mistry hints that no happiness

will exist for ever.

Above everything, it is only destiny that Gustad finds at the helm

of affairs. Like Oedipus, he surrenders to the will of Providence. His

dignity and greatness help him to withstand the tortures heaped on him.

The arrest of Major Billimoria on charges of corruption is published

in the paper. Gustad’s horizon is completely darkened with fear and

uncertainty. Ghulam Mohammed asks Gustad in a semi-threatening tone to

return the whole amount in one month’s time to save Billimoria’s life. At

that time, Roshan’s illness worsens. When Gustad visits Dr.Paymaster to

report to him on Roshan’s continuous illness, he is taunted by the the

doctor who thinks that he has modified the prescription. The illness

assumes an unexpected proportion. Poverty haunts Gustad who cannot

make both ends meet. He sells his camera and his wife’s two gold bangles.

Dinshawji is hospitalised after a sudden collapse in the office. The

first great blow in Gustad’s life comes in the form of the death of

Dinshawji despite his prayer for the lives and recovery of both Roshan and

Dinshawji at Mount Mary.

Gustad makes a trip to Delhi to meet Major Billimoria who wants to

tell him all that had happened. It is also a big fraud of sixty lakhs rupees in

which the Prime Minister’s office gets directly involved. Bilimoria is

asked to get the money from the SBI Director on an emergency basis to

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finance guerilla training, pending official sanction by impersonating the

Prime Minister’s voice on Telephone.

Gustad comes out of himself to be one with death and one with life.

He prays for all the lives: for him, for Tehmul, for Jimmy, for Dinshawji,

for his papa and mama, for grandpa and grandma “all who had to wait for

so long”(SLJ,337). He prays for the mercy of God on all souls.

Only out of this vast vacuum, there emerges a profound meaning

that signifies the archetypal cycle of birth, death and rebirth. He also

accepts the return of his prodigal son. It is only in complete surrender that

the father and son lose their personalities. Now they reach out to each

other:”Gustad turned around. He saw his sons standing in the door way,

and each held the other’s eyes.…” (337).

The novel represents the larger rhythm with universal significance

and also tries to bring in other smaller rhythms within its fold.

The misfortunes that befall Gustad’s family are also interpreted by

Miss Kutpitia from her own ideological point of view. It is rooted in

beliefs and superstitions, culturally accepted and transmitted from

generation to generation.

In Such a Long Journey, Mistry comes out as a critical realist so far

as the treatment of social reality is concerned. With the help of this method,

his ideology comes out to project the kind of society he wants to be a part

of.

The novelist’s departure from the emphasis on the representation of

the psychic being of the character reveals the inadequacy of the novel form

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in the post modernist period. This novel is a successful work of art in which

a variety of values crowd generating a classical structure par excellence.

Gustad’s devotion to his family, loyalty to his friends and love for

his Parsi community are continually tested through a series of events and

situations. Ultimately, loyalty and journeying constitute two major

contrasting patterns in his life.

The novel is more than a tale of one individual’s life. It is the

microcosm of a community that is an image of a ‘tribe’ invented through

the imagination of the story teller.

The novel narrates and renarrates stories of the country, culture and

community woven around certain points of time and place. Characters like

Gustad, Dinshawji and Billimoria are vehicles for conveying ethnic,

communal and national consciousness.

This novel appears to be a story of journey of Gustad who along

with his wife, two sons and a daughter tries to rephrase epigraphical

excerpts of the novel “to live free of care during the days of the heroic

labours, undertaking a challenging journey in a ‘new’ country where ‘old

tracks are lost’. Mistry’s novel deals with the Parsi community and its

identity especially with its national consciousness and also with its identity

in the world. The novel also traces the history and the proud heritage of

the Parsi Community in India.

To quote from the novel: “This may be but our prophet Zarathustra

lived more than fifteen hundred years before your son of God was even

born, a thousand years before the Buddha, two hundred years before

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Moses. And do you know how much Zoroastrianism influenced Judaism.

Christianity and Islam” (SLJ,24).

Also, this novel sums up the fears and anxieties of the Parsi

community. As a community, Parsis have not only lived peacefully in

India but also contributed to its development in their own way.

Gustad feels that minorities have no future in India. He says:“No

future for minorities with all these Fascist Shivsena politics and Marathi

language nonsense. It was going to be like the Black people in America

twice as good as the white man to get half as much. How could the mute

Sohrab understand this”(SLJ,55).

Various other characters belonging to the Parsi community in the

novel also express their anguish at the changing pattern of communal

relationships and the increasing intolerance. This enriches the ideational

intent of the novel.

The racist and communal forces lead agitations finally resulting in

massive violence. The individual traits of the Parsi community are given

authentic expression through minute descriptions of rituals, and their

impact are interpreted by individual characters. Mistry, with almost a

caricaturing instinct dwells on individual idiosyncracies and habits of

speech. The Parsi – Gujarati words interspersed throughout the novel also

give colour and substance to Mistry’s portrayal of Parsi life. The Parsi

community is intensely conscious of its distinctive private identity and also

aware of its place in the Indian national scene.

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Mistry has exploited some historical highlights of post –

independence era to record the way his community reacted to them or were

affected by them.

In the novel, the sudden and uncalled-for rebuff of Sohrab not only

shatters all hopes of Gustad but also makes a surprising turn in the later

course of the novel. There appears the theme of father- son hostility.

Mistry has earned critical appreciation for his vivid and realistic

portrayal of Indian society especially the Parsi community. The microcosm

of Indian society that Mistry writes about in his fiction is often in conflict

at an individual as well as a larger level. Mistry’s fiction traces the

inextricable patterns of behavior of various Parsi individuals who struggle

to find space and roots in the main stream.

A Fine Balance is considered a socio – political, cultural, historical

novel more in the nature of a documentary about the situation and lives of

the people that inhabit the novel. Mistry exposes the lives of the four main

protagonists to focus on the mechanism of political governance that

prevails in modern India and its impact on individual lives.

The novel is filled with brutality,discrimination, injustice, lack of

opportunity suffered by the average citizen and the despair and revulsion

they cause in the minds of people who find expectations and hopes belied

amidst heaps of fresh promises clothed in rhetorical but empty phrases. The

novel offers a realistic, if painful documentation of India.

The novel’s four protagonists represent the commonest of the

commons in India. The novel is basically a study about human endeavor for

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dignity and the endless struggle of human beings to strike a fine balance

between their own desires, performance and fulfillment.

Mistry traces the story of the lives of these people against the socio-

political background. Each of the four protagonists is a victim of his social,

familial and communal conditioning. Each aspires to improve and change

his lot but finds himself pulled down by hostile circumstances.

The protagonists view life according to their own experiences. As a

diasporic writer and Parsi, Mistry is sensitive to the plight of those who do

not belong to the main stream.

The story in A Fine Balance revolves around a widow who is living

alone in the city of Bombay. Maneck Kohlah, a sensitive Parsi boy, a

student from a hillside town in the shadow of the Himalayas, whose family

had lost all its wealth in the Partition of India is a paying guest with Dina.

The two untouchables, Ishvar Darji and his nephew Om Prakash,

the tailors employed by Dina, struggle to rise above their designated caste

roles. They also have to endure the atrocities of the so-called high class

people. They offer a glimpse of rural India.

Ishvar and Om decide to migrate to Bombay and become exiles by

choice, since their entire family had been mercilessly murdered. They also

feel that the migration would really transform their lives. Their life in

Bombay does not meet their own expectations. They are mistaken for

beggars. The novelist also describes their inability to adjust in an alien town

after leaving their village. They really become beggars in the end, felled by

the hostile socio-political climate engendered by the Internal Emergency.

‘Beautification’ wrecks them.

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Dina also decides to be displaced from her home, since she desires

to assert her self and individuality. She seeks to restructure her life,

refusing to be a dependent on anyone economically. Her life is a series of

emotional upheavals. Maneck also becomes a victim of displacement. He is

uprooted from the protective environment of his home among the hills.

Emergency is the cause of the failure of both Dina and Maneck.

Beggars are made slaves in labour-camps. Three sisters born in a poor

family hang themselves to spare their parents the shame of having

unmarried daughters. Thus, the characters suffer for survival in a cruel

world that trudge along in the so-called ‘welfare policy’ forgetting that one

cannot legislate welfare and happiness.

Social circumstances and a sense of isolation paradoxically bring

them together, providing a link to survive. Their miseries, joys and sorrows

make them feel that life is only a fine balance between hope and despair.

The rich and varied character gallery of this novel portrays the

plight of the poor from the Parsi community. The novel presents the pain

and suffering of the poorest among India’s teeming millions. Mistry

narrates the story with rhetorical flourishes and Fraudian insights. Human

experience is anatomized as put under an ironic microscope.

According to Pascal, “Men never do evil so completely and

cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.”

(http://www.brainyquote.com/). Mistry shows how many social injustices

have religious backing. Social crimes go under the pontifical ‘religious’

banner. Mistry highlights many such events. The misery of the tailors

depicts the tyranny of the caste system in rural India. The following is a

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telling evidence: “The Thakur’s wife was watching from the kitchen

window….I would head you to the police for your crime. Now get

out”(AFB, 104)

Poverty drives the untouchables to depend upon the higher castes to feed

their family. The Thakurs obtain cheap labour from the lower caste

villagers.

Again, Dukhi Mochi accepts to powder one sack full of chilies

alone, for a meager wage though the Thakur asks him “Can you finish that

by sunset’? or may be I should call two men.”(AFB, 103)

Dukhi violates caste-rules by making his sons tailors. This shows

impulsive courage shown by a man, conditioned into accepting his position

in the caste hierarchy. Dukhi decides to send Narayan and Ishvar as

apprentices of Ashraf’s tailor shop in a nearby town and master a new

vocation. The boys find a sea change in their own life style after joining in

Muzzafar Tailoring Company. Thus, they turn from cobblers to tailors.

Dukhi says: “if some one asks your name, don’t say Ishvar Mochi or

Narayan Mochi, from now on you are Ishvar Darji and Narayan Darji

(AFB, 114).

Dukhi’s family deserves special punishment according to the

Thakur. Because of this heartless upper caste-attitude, the entire family of

Narayan Darji and his companions become victims. The untouchables lose

their identities because of mistaken beliefs. According to their

naïve/popular belief, untouchability is nothing but the result of Karma.

In the city, Ishvar and Om make progress as tailors. The Parsi

widow, Dina Dalal, gives shelter to them. They are allowed to sleep in her

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verandah. She too cannot afford to lose their services. When Ishvar and

Om go to their village to celebrate Om’s marriage and Maneck returns

home to leave for Dubai, loneliness returns to the house of Dina.

Dina’s brother Nusswan personifies the difference between the

cultural patterns of the Hindu and Parsi community at the time when she is

instructed to remarry.Remarriage is generally prohibited in Parsi

community. Male hegemony is part of Parsi values. Dina’s brother treats

her cruelly and he does not permit her to visit her friends.

Nusswan also insists Dina to remarry a person of his choice. But

she refuses and asserts her individuality. She marries Dalal, whom she

loves intensely. Dina becomes the symbol of a new woman who violates

the stereotypical feminine role. She emerges as a strong and independent

woman.

Fearing sad displacement and deracination, Dukhi Mochi refuses to

migrate with his family to the town though he has been advised by his

friend Ashraf, a Muslim with interests in Dukhi’s development. This novel

depicts the scenario of a fast changing India on account of Westernisation

and questions the non–acceptance of the traditional role models or

situations. At bottom, the novel focuses on the inherent meanness of human

nature.

Two of the protagonists are Parsis while the other two belong to

the lower class of untouchables. One of these protagonists is a widow and

so is a twice-marginalized character.

Dina Dalal, like Maneck Kohlah belongs to the Parsi community.

Widowed at the age of twenty two, she is a lonely figure in the novel. She

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is estranged from her parental family that leads to a monotonous existence.

Her life has been a cyclic pattern for her that began in her brother’s house.

Dina Dalal accepts the emotional subjugation of the patriarchal system that

her brother Nusswan symbolizes.

Failing health and poor eyesight make Dina emotionally and

physically drained. Dina’s brother resents her departure from the accepted

norms of the family and society. She also desires to educate herself. She

refuses to follow tradition and be acquiescent and submissive. Her endless

struggle is to lead a life with dignity. Dina finds herself emotionally and

physically vulnerable in keeping her spirit and selfhood intact.

Dina also takes a long time to get over her apprehensions about Om

and Ishvar’s antecedents and intentions. Only after analyzing the personal

tragedies of their lives, does she take the initiative to have them as inmates.

The day-to-day struggle for survival of these characters explores the

possibility of an answer to their existential crises.

The four individuals in the apartment finally function like one

family unit. They too start conversing on politics and political news. This

dialogue helps them to derive solace and comfort from each other. Only

human love becomes the basis for the unity among these characters.

This novel is about the quintessential spirit of modern India that

stands for the realization of the dream of ‘Ram Rajya’ that inspired people

in the struggle for their country’s freedom. It lies deep within the heart of

every citizen.

Moreover, the common man dreams of overcoming the

suffering, degradation and pain to the maximum extent. He longs for

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Justice, equality and a dignified existence for himself. Mistry hopes for the

best in this dismal situation. The four protagonists in the novel reaffirm

the great human spirit that is like the great Indian spirit, immortal but

invisible.

Mistry’s characters are in any way able to change the power balance

that made their marginalisation and silencing. They also maintain the fine

balance between the exploiter and the exploited.

In A Fine Balance the journeys are not restricted just to the Parsis’

diasporic peregrinations. The novel opens with Maneck Kohlah’s journey

from the mountain village to the city by the sea. Maneck’s Parsi

Zoroastrian ethno-religious status becomes a significant safeguard in this

locale. Dina Dalal moves from protected girlhood under the indulgent care

of the doctor-father to the harsh reality of reductive femaleness under the

hegemony of her brother Nusswan.

Dina’s happiness is short – lived as Rustom is killed in an accident.

This shock makes her accept Nusswan’s offer to live with him and his

family. Very soon her sympathy for Nusswan wears off and then the

brother and sister indulge in a typical Parsi exchange of invectives and

insults.

Dina’s journey back to her husband’s flat and her work for the Au

Revoir Fashion House brings Ishvar and Omprakash into her life. But this

soon comes to an end when Maneck leaves for a job in the Gulf and the

tailors go on a visit to their village. So Dina is forced to go back to

Nusswan’s home. Thus her cycle of journeys comes to an end.

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Dina’s life as the pampered daughter of Dr.Shroff comes to an end

with the death of her father. Patriarchy in the form of Nusswan tries to

crush all that is bright and fine in her.

Mistry’s Dina Dalal and Maneck Kohlah ring time as did

other Parsi characters in his earlier novels. Mistry has to be admired for

trying to magnify the shape of his narratives. A Fine Balance is a very

significant text in the newly emerging canon of Indian literature in

English.The novel chronicles the India of its times.Nusswan, Dina’s

brother personifies the difference between the cultural pattern of the Hindu

and Parsi communities. The language of Mistry clearly reflects Indian

culture. Dina represents a kind of urban sophistication. She survives on

her meagre income. She is also ready to help Ishvar Darji and Om Prakash.

The novel opens with a train journey and ends with ‘Epilogue:1984’

after Dina finishes her journey of emancipation and self-realization. But

Ishvar and Om have their own dreams and are still on their journey.

A member of the privileged middle class, Maneck loses out in the

struggle to maintain a fine balance between hope and despair”. The upper

class people notice a semblance of order during the time of emergency.

Emergency means, “No more strikes and marches and silly

disturbances”(AFB,73).

Nusswan is shocked at the plan of eliminating two hundred million

surplus people in the country. He proclaims: “With the emergency, people

can freely speak their minds. That’s a good thing about it” (AFB, 373).

Mistry also deals with Emergency’s excesses. “Have n’t seen you

for some time … there’s even a new law called MISA to simplify the

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whole procedure”(AFB, 294-295) is a chilling reminder of the socio-

political situation that prevailed then.

Mistry also considers the community as the pivot of all social

changes. As social humanist, he looks forward to create a society based on

a common identity namely humanity. Mistry subscribes to humanism and

take a firm stand against exploitation of all kinds.

The secret longings of the poor end their pursuits in trying to build a

new life for themselves is the focus of the novel. Mistry’s novel springs

from a lively imagination. It takes a detached look at the oriental

background, and is contributed to by a willing self -deception.

The novel presents the problems of caste and communalism, the

humiliations that the downtrodden have to go through.

A Fine Balance is considered to be a novel with a humane vision.

All the events and the images are brought together skillfully through the

two tailors and their lives. The actions of Dina, and her tears arouses pity

for all the evils of humanity. Back home, these characters have an identity

of their own. Yet, they have to struggle in an indifferent city to carve a

new identity. But the novel ends certainly on an optimistic and hopeful

note.

Mistry does not stop with caste discrimination ; he also discusses

gender discrimination. He asserts that women are relegated to a sub–

ordinate status in the family and in the society. Even upper caste women

are not exempted from oppression. Mistry truthfully presents this shameful

aspect of Indian society. He also points out the injustices done to women

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and interrogates the marginalization of women in a male-dominated

society.

A Fine Balance is basically a realistic tragedy that portrays the

humble dreams and aspirations of the common people. The message is also

implied that characters good at heart, meet an undeserved doom. Mistry’s

characters are filled with noble sentiments. Only Nusswan and his wife are

to be considered snobs.

Pauperisation both financial and emotional, is a hard fact of life for

characters in A Fine Balance. The novel is a caustic and artistic

comment on a futile search for stability and meaning in the given context.

As a chronicler of the Parsi community, Mistry is keenly aware of

his community’s peculiar predicament that is referred to as ‘ethnic

atrophy’.

A Fine Balance is a richly detailed human narrative of the

intertwined fates of the characters. Mistry is not a pessimist at heart and

does not despair of life. He conveys the message of life beyond life and of

a meaningful earthly existence.

Dina Dalal’s past underlines the sense of squalor and failure that

middle classes face especially in the under developed nation. Dina’s life is

a series of emotional upheavals. The novel is not to be considered a

political document. It may be read as an effort at interweaving national

history with the personal lives of the protagonists. This novel needs to be

read as an expression of the predicament of self in the Indian Urban / Rural

context. It succeeds in recreating the Parsi ambience. The rich culture,

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customs and traditions of the marginalized. Parsi community are

foregrounded especially in explaining Parsi beliefs and rituals.

The plot of Family Matters revolves around only lower middle

class Parsi family of Bombay. Nariman Vakeel, a retired professor of

English literature in his seventies suffers from Parkinson’s disease. His step

daughter Coomy is more concerned than his step son Jal. He lives with

them in a build’ing called ‘Chateau Felicity.’ They are the children of

Palonji Contractor, the former deceased husband of his wife Yasmin who

too is no more.

Mistry presents the different perspectives and attitudes of parents

and children. A mother takes care of her unborn child in her womb for

many months. After the birth of the child, parents bear all the hardships of

bringing it up with pleasure. But generally the world undergoes a sea

change of the time when the children have to look after their aged

parents.

Mistry highlights in this novel the misery and travails of parents in

old age and also the heartlessness of children. The problems of the aged

parents is pictured clearly through the protagonist, the seventy nine year

old Professor Nariman Vakeel.

Despite suffering from Parkinson’s disease and protestations of his

step – children, Vakeel insists on his vesperal walk. When Coomy asks

him: “How many people with Parkinson’s do what you do” (FM,3) he

shrugs off her fears by saying “I’m not going trekking in Nepal. A little

stroll down the lane, that’s all” (FM,3).

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Nariman realizes that dangers occur indoors as well as outdoors.

Nariman longs for fresh air and life out side the ambit of his step –chidlren.

This is clearly symbolised by the picture of an old Parsi in a trade – mark

solar topee. Standing with his back to the camera, gazing out at the sea.

Nariman has a fall while crossing the lane outside Chateau Felicity. So

Coomy accuses Nariman for his irresponsible behaviour.

Nariman retorts: “In my youth, my parents controlled me and

destroyed those years. Thanks to them, I married your mother and wrecked

my middle years. Now you want to torment my old age. I wont’ allow it”

(FM,7)

At this Coomy flares up and retaliates with, “you ruined Mama’s

life and mine and Tal’s. I will not tolerate a word against her”(FM,7).

Mistry points to the fact that parents are considered a burden. Coomy’s

resentment is also heightened that it is the ‘second class’ children like her

and Jal who have to bear this responsibility. But the ‘flesh and blood

daughter Roxana’ has escaped hers by virtue of her married status.

In his youth, Nariman had an affair with a Goan girl, Lucy

Braganza. Thirty six years ago, he ended his relations with Lucy. But he

had a suitable replacement in the form of Yasmin Contractor, a widow with

two children. “And that’s the best you can expect sister with your

history”(FM,15). So he becomes the husband of Yasmin Contractor and

the father of Jal and Coomy.

At the time of Nariman’s seventy ninth birthday celebrations,

Nariman and his family are more or less happy. Coomy warns Nariman

that he should not go out because of his serious fall. She also insists “she

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and Jal would deliver him straight away to the Cheney Residence (FM,35)

Yezad rejects it by saying “The chief is welcome, just make sure you bring

one of your extra rooms. We live in a two room flat not a seven room

palace like this one” (FM,35).

The boys question their parents on their way back home. Mistry

explains the situation prevailing among the contemporary Parsis in

accepting inter –communal marriages. Yezad and Ravana try to explain the

problem Nariman’s parents had with inter – religious marriages.

A confused Jahangir questions: “ If there was Kul against some one

for marrying who was not a Parsi. His father says: “ Yes, the law of

bigotry” (FM,42).

There is also a dramatic irony in Yezad’s response towards the

end of the novel when opposes his elder son Murad’s relationship with a

non-Parsi girl.

Nariman has a fall after his birth day party. The second fall results

in serious damage and he is admitted in the Parsi General Hospital.

Nariman is diagnosed by Dr.Tarapore. He has suffered a fracture in his left

ankle. He is discharged after two days in hospital.

Coomy and Jal leave Nariman at Roxana’s home. Nariman feels

that he has no right to refuse or even say, “This flat is my home, and I part

it in your names because I did not differentiate between you and Roxana.

Would you now throw me out in my helplessness? That they would

probably laugh that I was getting dramatic” (FM,87).Nariman says: “lying

in bed here or there is all the same to me. But it will be difficult for them in

such a small flat (FM,87).

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Mistry stresses one of the major themes of the novel that paucity

of accommodation is the bane of the majority of the family units in the

congested city of Bombay. This also has ruined the happiness of many

families. Nariman manages and reconciles himself to his helpless situation.

His sudden arrival at Roxana’s little flat, hits the pleasant villa of Roxana

also. She bends down to him. But his pungent odour repelled her. But she

fought the impulse to move away. She also wondered how well they had

been looking after him (FM,105-106).

Roxana loves her father but the problem is only with their small one

bed room flat. So, Nariman moves to Coomy. To what extent children can

avoid the responsibility of parents is revealed through the behaviour of

Coomy.

Coomy refuses to take her father back until the flat is perfect in

shape again. The bitter quarrel with Roxana over money strains Yezad’s

patience and he also blames Coomy for not caring for the family. He

charges Coomy: “Family does not matter to you! You keep nursing your

bitterness instead of nursing papa”(FM,193). Roxana too protests: “Papa is

not foot ball…. If you force papa out, you may as well throw me out at the

same time”(FM,195)

Sometimes Nariman’s presence irritates his son –in-law Yezad who

has to eat his breakfast in awkward situations. This experience is common

in many families in Bombay.

The Chenoy family struggles very much to care for Nariman

though the monthly budget gets more and more strained. Roxana tries her

level best to manage her monthly budget. Even her elder son Muhrad

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contributes to the family budget. He walks home from school and slips the

saved bus fare into his mother’s envelopes. Roxana and Yezad insist that

Coomy keeps her side of the bargain and take her step father back after the

stipulated three weeks.

Later in the novel, Coomy dies. Yezad’s idealistic employer

Mr.Kapur is killed by Shivsena goons and his pragmatic widow dispenses

with the services of Yezad. The Chenoy family faces real poverty with the

loss of Yezad’s regular income. They are saved by Jal who suggests the

plan of selling the Chenoy’s flat. They also decide to move in together into

Nariman’s larger flat. The Chenoy flat would really fetch a handsome price.

They may repair the larger flat and live on the balance money. Yezad also

hates his son’s association with non – Parsi girls with the same fervour

once displayed by Nariman’s father. This shows the fact that history

repeats itself.

Family Matters seems to be all about financial matters which

condition the familial relationships. The best known family value in India is

the respect for elders. In the novel, we observe a tug-of-war between

Coomy and Roxana over the issue of looking after their indisposed father.

Even God is falsely blamed for what has been done to the roof above their

heads by Jal and Coomy themselves (184).

Nariman repressed his desires which stage a comeback in his

dreams. Nariman’s children never excused their father / step father for the

pain that he inflicted on Yasmin through his belated chivalry.

Spiritual values provide sustenance to man in troubled times. But

human selfishness proves a stumbling block. This is expressed in Coomy’s

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character. She is faced with the unwelcome prospect of hosting her ailing

father. She invents the excuse of a leaking roof. “An act of God is no one’s

fault. Jal is prevailed upon to cooperate but is reported to be

uncomfortable with casting God in a supportive role in the deceitful drama”

(FM,184).

For Roxana, “belief is not essential, the prayer sound itself will

bring him peace and tranquility”(FM,445) The pictures of different apostles

and prophets Sai Baba, Virgin Mary, Christian Cross, Buddha belonging to

different faiths and also several Zarathustras used to decorate the walls of

the flat in Chateau Felicity. Most Parsis like to keep these tokens of

different religions in their homes.

In Family Matters, Mistry has based the central action on the

situation arising out of the Shivsena agitation for the so–called sons of the

soil in Bombay. This is really an act of political bugling which represents a

stumbling block in the way of the Parsis’ healthy adjustment to the Indian

society.

The theme of Family Matters reminds one of Eliot’s play The

Family Reunion. The similarity lies with the title and the theme. The

central character in Eliot’s play is haunted by his guilty conscience. For his

desire to kill his wife. Family Matters presents an ideal study of the

fluctuating commitment to values in the face of odds of different kinds.

Economic constraints play a great role in diluting dedication to family

values or understanding moral and social values. Of all the characters in

Family Matters, Yezad is the one whose professional life has been depicted

in detail.

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In Mistry’s Such a Long Journey the focus of the novel is with the

father-son relationship of Gustad and Soharb. The relationship takes a nasty

turn, when Sohrab refuses to join IIT in favour of an ordinary B.A..

Regarding Gustad, he relies on academic excellence and financial social

superiority. He too considers that these are the only possible means of

acquiring an elite status and a distinct identity.

The relationship between father and son can be considered as one

of the many casualities of modernity. The tradition and individualism are

in perpetual conflict. In the eyes of Gustad: “This was the bloody problem

with modern education. In the name of progress, they discarded seemingly

unimportant things without knowing that they were chucking out of the

window of modernity, was tradition and if tradition was lost, then the loss

of respect for those who respected and loved tradition always followed”

(SLJ, 61).

Gustad feels that a coherent self is possible only through tradition.

For his son, a unified identity from birth to death is no longer possible.

Sohrab, his son agrees with the concept that identity continues to be

reformed as one comes closer with hybrid cultural, political and social

systems.

In Mistry’s A Fine Balance too, Maneck Kohlah realises the agonies

of father- son conflict. This idea is characterised by the unwillingness of his

father to read the writing on the wall.

Rustom Kohlah, Maneck’s father runs the family business in the

idyllic hills of North India. Maneck advises his father to follow new

technologies, but to no avail. Modernisation, like death is a great levelller.

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Here it is survival of the fittest. The arrival of giant business establishments

kill the business of the Kohlahs. To quote from the novel: “But the giant

corporation had targeted the hills, … pack up your machines sign over all

rights…. Come grow with us and prosper” (AFB,220).

The foot paths, the slums, the teeming offices, the tenements, the

Parsi enclaves are all created and then recreated in the fiction of Mistry as

they proceed to form and reform in reality. Such a Long Journey has its

setting, the exclusive enclave of Khodadad building home to the family of

Gustad Noble, an aging Parsi Patriarch.

Mistry’s Family Matters is considered as Bombay epic. It can also

be treated as a mourning for the decline of the Parsi faith. Here, Mistry

makes us realise the negative effects of the Parsis’ insistence on keeping

blood lines pure. An accident, one of those common things of old age lands

Nariman in plaster, bedridden, helpless at the mercy of his children.

Roxana, his own child will react to her father’s changed position from

benign sorrowing patriarch. It also leads to unwanted burden.

In all the three novels of Mistry, a coherent concern for stability is

visible, running as a unifying thread with the tangled lives and concerns of

their Parsi protagonists. These three novels form a Bombay Trilogy.

Family Matters ends with an epilogue in Jehangir’s voice. Jehangir

is a narrator in his teens. Nariman’s tragedy can be repeated in his grand

chidlren’s lives. Religious fundamentalism destroys the new generation’s

chances of happiness.

Thus, Sidhwa’s and Mistry’s fiction give a sensitive portrayal of

the Parsi families in India and Pakistan. Their novels have effectively dealt

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with familial relationships at various levels between—man and

woman,parents and children and among siblings as issues involving

domestic harmony/disharmony, generational clash and sibling rivalry.

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Chapter VI

Summing Up

Striving to offer a Parsi Discourse is a challenging task for a

diasporic writer. Because, most of the Parsis are subjected to diverse

diasporas and receive fragmented images that reflect the glorious past,

reduced present and their insecure future. On the unenviable task of the

diasporic writer, Salman Rushdie opines that, “It may be that when the

Indian writer who writes from outside India has to reflect the world, he is

obliged to deal in broken mirrors, some of these fragments have been lost”

(Homelands, 10-11). But both Bapsi Sidhwa and Rohinton Mistry have

succeeded handsomely in chronicling the fortunes of the Parsis of the

Indian Sub-continent in their works.

The significant achievements of Parsis, their crises of identity and

survival strategies of identification and withdrawal as revealed in the

works of Bapsi Sidhwa and Rohinton Mistry form the main topic of this

thesis. Both writers portray the life style and culture of the Parsis and the

crises and upheavals they have passed through.

The introductory chapter focuses on the exodus of the Parsis to the

Indian subcontinent and also their predicament as an ethnic minority and

explains the significant accomplishments of the Parsis and their unique

insider-outsider status especially in India and Pakistan. Parsi consciousness

and cultural predicament form the central theme in the works of Bapsi

Sidhwa.

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In her novels such as The Crow Eaters, The Pakistani Bride, An

American Brat and Ice-Candy Man, Sidhwa gives an authentic picture of

the Parsis and this lends a cultural specificity to her works. Sidhwa’s An

American Brat deals with the diasporic experience as experienced by

Feroza, the central character. The community’s plight between the world

left behind and the new one in which it seeks acculturation runs as an

undercurrent in the events in the novel.

In Mistry’s fiction, the religious aspects of Parsi life, their social

and economic struggles, are documented in detail. Mistry focuses on

racial and cultural diversity through the portrayal of characters. His

analysis of gender discrimination adds a new dimension to his fiction.

Mistry’s perspectives on the Parsi-mind are particularly

penetrative and panoramic. His works—both novels and short stories

portray a kaleidoscopic spectrum of attitudes and perception in the past,

present and future of Parsis.

The second chapter entitled “Parsi Nostalgia” examines the strange

cat-on the wall position of the Parsis. Bapsi Sidhwa’s presentation of

nostalgia differs from Mistry’s.

In Sidhwa’s world, the immigrant experience becomes the basis for

the re-formation or realignment of the community in a sort of

anthropological paradox. The experience of the Parsis in their new

environment and how they accustom themselves to the new land, their

longing for their native land add significance in the works of Sidhwa. In An

American Brat, Feroza’s experience in America is portrayed by Sidhwa

with care and interest. Once settled in America, Feroza accommodates and

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involves herself with the society in which she lives. She also participates

in all the activities of the majority community.

As far as Mistry is concerned, his characters are recollecting the

joyful events they had witnessed in their lives. Mistry’s vision is only on

the community-centred existence.

The reminiscences that are presented in the fiction of Mistry add

glory to the past way of life. In his fiction, the central characters often

undertake a journey down memory lane recollecting events of the past. The

unexpected emergence of a nostalgic past in Villie Cardmaster in Family

Matters serves as an example. Similarly, Gustad in Such a Long Journey

expresses his longing to be in Iran and in his portrayal, the nostalgic past

gains prominence.

In the third chapter, the Parsi predicament in the multicultural

societies, and their quest for identity as a marginalized group as portrayed

by Sidhwa and Mistry is explored.

Bapsi Sidhwa portrays multiculturalism in her fiction by

establishing the variegated experiences in Asian life. With the comic

spectacle of human kind, these experiences form the basis for a

multicultural ethnic mosaic. Sidhwa’s presentation of multicultural

situation is not only a theme. But it becomes a mode of perception.

Sidhwa’s An American Brat deals with an intercultural theme that has

assumed vital significance. In this narrative, the West is portrayed with its

set of values in conflict with the value systems of the East. The conflict that

arises between the two cultures leads to a quest for identity. Feroza’s quest

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for identity is nothing but a formation of her personality , influenced by

her acculturation to the new land.

Mistry’s Such a Long Journey is only an allegory on

multiculturalism. This novel represents the vision of a multicultural

society and also the place of minorities in it. Dina’s relationship with Om

Prakash, Ishwar and Maneck in A Fine Balance clearly signifies the Parsi

predicament and their adjustments. Cultural issues and Politico-economic

developments play vital roles in Mistry’s fiction.

The fourth chapter highlights the abuse of political authority over

the ordinary citizen and the Parsis’ response to socio-political upheavals

such as the Partition, the Emergency and the killing of the Sikhs in 1984.

The anxieties of the Parsi writers attain vitality in their presentation of

political issues. These issues are portrayed through various characters.

Sidhwa’s Ice-Candy Man is the first Partition novel written

from a Parsi-perspective. In the novel, Lenny symbolizes the damaged

Parsi identity that was under threat during the Partition of India. The novel

approaches the theme of Partition on a religious ground. Sidhwa deals with

history as a Post-Colonial novelist. Despite her admiration for Gandhi, she

holds him as partially responsible for the Partition. Being a Parsi, Sidhwa

did not suffer much during the Partition. The fight was only among

Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs.

The Parsi Paradox that is whether to support ‘Swaraj’ or to maintain

their loyalty to the British Raj is humorously delineated in the novel. The

meeting convened by the Parsis reveals their insecurity on the eve of the

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Partition. It happens not because of communal antagonism, but due to an

apprehension of their status at the departure of the British.

Allegory is the literary device used by Bapsi Sidhwa to depict the

trauma of Partition. Lenny’s foolish betrayal of her Ayah is an apt allegory

on the mindless violence of the Partition. Another Partition novel Attia

Hosain’s Sun Light on a Broken Column (1961) also uses a narrator heroine

to similar effect. As in Ice – Candy Man, the enigma of Partition is

sensitively presented by the novelist.

With a sprinkling of humour, parody and allegory, Sidhwa conveys

a sinister warning of the dangers of compromising with religious

obscurantism and fundamentalism of all categories. Like Amitav Ghosh,

she reveals that communal riots are contemporaneous and those who do

not learn from history are condemned to repeat it.

In The Pakistani Bride, Sidhwa gives a clear description of Sikhs’

ambushing a train going to Pakistan and killing the Muslims mercilessly.

After the Partition, most of the Hindus and Sikhs left Pakistan and a large

number of Muslims left India. The Parsis remained where they were both

in India and Pakistan.

Mistry’s A Fine Balance, serves as the best example for the

portrayal of human tragedy that was part of the Emergency. Emergency

disturbs the coherence of routine in the average lives of Ishwar Darjee and

his youthful nephew Om Prakash. Their struggle for survival does not have

political angle to it.

The Parsi attitude and response towards the Partition signify the

religious differences. The communal tensions and also the anxiety of the

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Parsi Community towards the changing pattern of communal

relationships, impact their social, economic and cultural life.

The Parsi community maintains its specificity and protests

against the encroachment by other communities. A Fine Balance shows

how political changes cut mercilessly through the psycho-social fabric of a

country.

Sidhwa portrays the political upheavals by exhibiting soft spot for

Pakistan. Partition forms the central theme for all the works of Sidhwa. In

Pakistan, the Parsi identity proves to be a reductive entity.

In both The Pakistani Bride and Ice-Candy Man, the riots cause a

dangerous situation. Muslims attack Hindus and the latter attack the

Muslim areas. But her sense of the absurd helps Sidhwa to comprehend

the uselessness of artificial divisions.

But Mistry’s Such a Long Journey, that was set up in the early

1970’s during the Indo-Pak War, chronicles only the individual lives of his

characters. In Family Matters, the political subtext moves towards India of

the 1990’s.

In the fifth chapter, familial relationships, the tie between family

friends and the community, all forms of human happiness and sorrow

become the prime focus. The predicament of individuals in coping with

the family and self in the novels of Bapsi Sidhwa and Mistry deepen the

life of communities.

Sidhwa’s portrayal of parents and their children, the relationship

between the sexes, the dissent among the younger generation of the Parsi

community are discussed in detail.In depicting familial relationships,

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Sidhwa’s attitude towards the relationship between parents and children

deepens the life of the community. She discusses the revolt of the younger

generation of the Parsi community through the character Feroza in An

American Brat.

Mistry’s Family Matters is a moving picture of the helpless

situation of parents in old age and also the merciless attitude of children.

Prof.Nariman Vakeel’s character reveals the problems faced by aged

parents. In the novel, Nariman says: “In my youth, my parents controlled

me and destroyed those years. Thanks to them, I married your mother and

wrecked my middle years. Now you want to torment my old age. I won’t

allow it”(7).

Dina Dalal’s individuality and the relationship she has with the

family add a new dimension to the theme. The treatment of parents by

children , the misery and travails of parents in old age set the humanistic

premise that the “universal lies in the ordinary.” In depicting familial

relationships, the interaction between family, friends and community is

the technique of both the writers.

To conclude, this research was conducted to get a comprehensive

picture of the variegated predicament of Parsis as portrayed in the

selected novels of Bapsi Sidhwa and Rohinton Mistry. Both these writers

(whose own predicament is that of an insider-outsider) have provided

interesting insights on the predicament of Parsis from female and male

points of view, respectively.

This study points further avenues for research. At present, radical

changes are taking place in the Parsi community. Religious orthodoxy has

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limited the Parsi-population. The Parsi women go to court to secure their

religious rights. Parsis of the younger generation marry outside their

communities. The literacy rate of Parsis also is fast-changing. The search

for the elusive Parsi identity, the alarming decline in the Parsi population,

the high rate of divorce, the highly Westernized life style of Parsis, their

ongoing migration to the West, the chasm between the Parsis and other

communities in India all warrant research.

In fact, all these have been well-documented by creative writers of

Parsi origin. As such, Research studies are possible on the works of writers

like Firdaus Kanga, Farrukh Dhondy, Ardhashir Vakil and others. Also,

comparative studies involving the works of Parsi writers and writers from

other minority communities could be revealing.

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