Unwomaning

The India that Cracking India, a novel by Bapsi Sidhwa, first introduces is an India full of women. When Lenny is operated on for polio, the “small and entire Parsee community of Lahore, in clucking clusters, descends on the Sethi household.” (17). When Lenny later describes this community as “visiting ladies” (17) she clarifies that the Parsee community is a community of women. This does not mean that there are no male Parsees; of course these women have husbands, but the significant people in the community are women.
Lenny’s early life is surrounded not only by “visiting ladies” in general, but also by Ayah, Mother, Godmother, Slavesister, and Electric Aunt. The individuality of these women is deemphasized by the fact that Lenny always refers to them not by their names but by their titles. These women are nevertheless round characters, with likes and dislikes, virtues and faults. Thus, Lenny’s world is populated with a group of women who represent all women in that they are referred to by title not by name. Yet, the women aren’t dehumanized by being used as stereotypes. Instead, the uniqueness of their characters brings life and individuality to the stereotypes that they represent.
The composition of the group of women that surround Lenny is forever changed when Lenny’s young, nubile, Hindu Aya is abducted by a mob of men. Ayah is pulled from her home by a mob in front of the entire household. As she is carted away, Lenny is left seeing her “wide-open and terrified eyes.” (195). Ayah, the woman who has been closest to Lenny throughout the entire novel, is reduced to a set of eyes. Her personhood is stripped of her when she is taken by the men. She becomes only a set of eyes, a woman who can see and observe but does not have any agency of her own.
After Ayah is taken, Hamida, a “fallen woman” (227) is hired to be Lenny’s ayah. This woman is an individual, never a stereotype; it is not that Lenny’s community of women is being restored but that Lenny needs to have an ayah. Hamida has obviously seen too much pain; she is always over-protective and self-conscious, unsure of what to do with her hands. Hamida brings Lenny to the park for the last time. The park has chillingly been “unwomaned” (249) by the removal of the Queen Elizabeth statue.
When Ayah is later found by Lenny and Godmother, it is her eyes that reveal her inner anguish. “She looks achingly lovely. . . But the illusion is dispelled the moment she opens her eyes. . . frenziedly, starkly.” (272). Ayah’s body looks the same as before, but her eyes are tormented. Ayah still does not have any agency. She cannot do anything with her body to alleviate her pain or change her situation. Only her eyes reveal what she has seen. Ultimately, it is Godmother and Mother who rescue Ayah, not Ayah herself.
The park is “unwomaned” right before Lenny sees Ayah heavily made up in a taxi. Throughout the partition of India, women were used for men to assert their primacy. Men abducted women from the opposing religion and raped them. Oftentimes, these women would not be allowed to rejoin their families, instead being labeled “fallen.” This is the unwomaning that occurs when the British empire, as represented by the Queen Elizabeth statue, partitions India. Women are no longer safe; they are a prize to be fought for and raped. This is what happens to Ayah. She is taken from her home, raped, and then pimped out. The woman in India are devalued and dehumanized by men during the partition.