Cracking India

Imagine the partition of your country. What do you think would be the lines of division? Would it echo the devastating political and religious fallout of India’s partition? Why or why not? In what ways?

Cracking India was first titled Ice-Candy-Man. What makes Ice-candy-man central? Why did the author ultimately change the novel’s title?

Why did the author narrate such violent history through a child’s eyes? Find one incident in which Lenny’s innocence and youth affects the way she understands the world. In what ways would another character’s narrative be different?

Research the history of the partitioning of India. Does the novel tell this contentious history with bias? Explain why or why not, using examples from the text.

One of the major themes in the novel is the use of sexual violence as a political tool. Characterize Lenny’s sexual coming of age against this backdrop. Does it affect how we see Lenny’s relationship with Cousin?

Because Lenny is a child, she sometimes brings up references and ideas that are never fully explained or clarified. Choose one of those moments and decide, based on your research into historical events, what the significance of that moment might have been.

Compare and contrast the life of one of the novel’s other children to Lenny’s. How is Lenny privileged? How does she learn from this child?

Research a real historical figure from the novel. How does Lenny’s understanding compare to the way they are remembered in history?