Masculinity And Violence In Deepa Mehta's 1947 Earth

Bapsi Sidhwa’s novel tells the story of the violence leading up to the 1947 Partition of India and its aftermaths. The novel focuses on the division of British India into two separate countries, India and Pakistan, and tells the story of this event through the eyes of a young Parsee girl named Lenny. Lenny is just a child at this time, and she must watch in horror as her country falls and a very large religious divide occurs between Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs in India. We are able to see the fate of the people living in Lahore during the partition and the consequences of the religiously motivated violence and attacks committed by these three religious groups living in this region. Deepa Mehta’s 1947 Earth is a film adaptation of Sidhwa’s novel …show more content…
This theme is best expressed through the example of the Ice Candy Man. Throughout both the book and the film, we see the Ice Candy Man as a hyper-masculine and extremely religiously motivated man that will do anything to protect the honor of his religion. However, in the novel, he is initially very vengeful towards other religions right from the beginning and allows his violent tendencies to lead him more than his compassion and love for his non-Muslim friends. In the film, he is tolerant of others until the Hindus slaughter a train full of Muslims containing his relatives. In the novel, he finds his relatives dead on the train, as he states “Everyone in it is dead. Butchered. They are all Muslims. There are no young women among the dead! Only two gunny bags full of women’s breasts!.. I was expecting relatives… For three days… For twelve hours each day… I waited for that train!” (159). In both the book and film, Ice Candy Man blames the Hindus and Sikhs for the slaughter of the innocent Muslims on the train and considers this an unforgivable act of violence by the Hindus and Sikhs. Ice Candy Man responds in a fit of masculinity and violence by stating “I lobbed grenades through the windows of Hindus and Sikhs I’d known all my life! I hated their guts… I want to kill someone for each of the breasts they cut off the Muslim women… The penises!” (166). This shows that friendship no longer matters to him. Only revenge and protecting the honor of his dead relatives, as well as pride in his own masculinity are on his mind. The slaughter on the train is the major turning point in the film and novel because Ice Candy Man finally loses any shred of respect he has for the Hindus and Sikhs and begins on a journey of revenge for which he will not stop until he is