Cracking India

In the book Cracking India by Bapsi Sidhwa uses the narration of Lenny to capture the idea of nationalism and an imagined political community. In the book Cracking India it is apparent that the sense of community is imagined. The characters of the book all come together as a community, but in reality look down upon each other for their differences. Lenny describes the people of her community saying, "One day everybody is themselves and the next they are Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian. People shrink, dwindling into symbols."(101) And rather than come together as one symbol of nationalism they are each separated into their own. As the book goes on more and more lines are drawn between the different religions. The Queen's garden goes from a community into separate cliché. Lenny notices the change herself but can't define what it is or where her community went "..There is a subtle change in the Queen's Garden "(104).The characters continue to go to the Garden despite the change, to have that imaginary sense of community, but is it really there? Lenny's life is also very confined to a select few people and a select few streets. When she ventures from this, it is obvious she feels out of her element and out of her comfort zone of the safety of her community. Lenny says, "My world is compressed" which is true to a community, people stay where they know and don't like the mysteries of the unknown. I believe all this captures what McLeod was trying to get across that people like to have a sense of community even if it is imagined. People need to feel that sense of belonging. Lenny feels like she belongs in her small community despite their differences and their hidden animosity towards each other, they still in a sense are their own community. 

Religious Intolerance

A major theme in the novel Cracking India is religious differences and intolerance. Each characters comes from different religious backgrounds and it is because of that the Queen Garden loses its sense of community. It is because of religion that there are fights of physical and verbal matter between characters and why friendships are lost. 

Religious Persecution in Pakistan I found this article while searching for religious intolerance in Pakistan, and even today there is an extreme intolerance of religious differences. 

• Muslims: 175,376,000
• Sunni Muslims: 80%
• Shia Muslims: 20%
• Ahmadi : 2,000,000
• Hindus: 3,200,000
• Christians: 2,800,000
• Bahá'í Faith: 30,000 - 78,000
• Sikhs: 20,000
• Zoroastrian/Parsis: 20,000
• Buddhism: 70,000
• Other (included Animists, Atheists, Jews, etc: unknown  

Above is a list of the religions in Pakistan, those that don't fit under the category of Muslim are under the most persecution. The Muslims are intolerant to the minority religions.   

 

 Lastly, I wanted to add a video of important scenes from the book Cracking India, and that also illustrate some of the acts due to religious intolerance.