The purpose of both the film and the novel was to illustrate women’s experiences during the partition as well as the impact that conflict caused in their lives. Lenny is the daughter of an affluent Parsee family in Lahore, through whom we discover diversity and grand betrayal. Between the status of disputed territories and the colossal wave of migration, the stories of individuals are often lost.ĭrawing precisely on our innermost senses and affinity for anecdotal accounts of historical events, both Bapsi Sidhwa’s “Cracking India,” and Deepa Mehta’s cinematographic adaptation “Earth” recount the hostile atmosphere surrounding the partition Punjab (pre- and post) through a coming of age story, starring Lenny (in the film, played by Maia Sethna). Amidst mass abductions, forced conversions, and massacres, some 75 thousand women were raped and disfigured. Throughout the Indian subcontinent, communities that once coexisted began to senselessly attack one another, and perhaps the carnage was felt with full intensity in Punjab and Bengal (provinces on what is now Pakistan’s border). The partition was characterized by the death of thousands of South Asians and the exodus of millions of more refugees uprooted in a vision of uncertainty and loss. Through oral testimonies, published newspaper articles, and eyewitness accounts, we have become acquainted with the stories of our ancestors leaving their homes behind and fleeing. India was a quasi-religious thriving world empire before bearing the destruction of imperialism and colonialism the British’s racist imperial project gave rise to historical tragedy saturated in mass genocide.
Whether it was our grandparents or great-grandparents caught in the midst of British colonial sanctioned segregation, the violent legacy of 1947 and beyond comes with trauma, hegemonic nationalism, hatred, and religious-militaristic state ideologies. The long-lasting treacherous and heart-wrenching effects of the India and Pakistan partition are embedded in the hearts of South Asians everywhere.
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