The Nightmare Essay -- India Indian Politics Essays

The NightmareDreams are often visions of the conscience that expect the most truth. In the novel, Cracking India, by Bapsi Sidhwa, the narrator Lenny, has a reoccurring incubus that contains much truth about the state of India. In Lennys nightmare, Children fraud in a warehouse. Mother and Ayah move about solicitously. The atmosphere is solemn and relaxed. Godmother sits by my bed smiling indulgently as men in uniforms quietly slice off a childs subdivision here, a leg there. She strokes my head as they dismember me. I tonicity no pain. Only an abysmal sense of loss- and a chilling mutual exclusiveness that noone is concerned by whats happening (Sidhwa 31). Lennys childhood nightmare is symbolic of the condition of India prior to and during the time of Partition. The proximo of India is being dismembered by British rule while Indians remain still and impartial to the destruction of their country. This portrayal of India is comparable to Gandhis view that the British have n ot winn India India has have given their country to them. In Hind Swaraj, Gandhi suggests that India is in a state of unrest and that it leave alone take some time for an actual awakening. Lennys vision of children lying in a warehouse with their guardians remaining indifferent to the suffering taking home plate is representative of Indias state of unrest. This suggestive state of unrest too refers to Indias tolerance of British rule. In Cracking India, the Ice- apprizedy Man is diamond about Indians awakening from this restive state. He says, If we want India back we mustiness take pride in our customs, our clothes, our languagesAnd not go mouthing the got-pit-sot-pit of the English (Sidhwa 38) Similarly, Gandhi suggests that in order to take back India from ... ...orm (Gandhi 206). According to Gandhi, the discontent that these tortured children in Lennys nightmare experience will force India as a nation to awaken and provide reform to stop the cries of their youth. If the leaders of India (Ayah and Godmother) can put an end to their passive behavior and answer the insistent cries of the succeeding(a) of their nation (Lenny), then there is hope that despite its dismembered limbs and deep cracks, India will be able to thrive once again. Sadly enough, a nightmare is only revealed in the slumber of the conscience and once the mind awakens it is readily forgotten. Works CitedGandhi, Mahatma. Hind Swaraj, Modern Civilization, and Moral Progress. The Moral and Political literature of Mahatma Gandhi. Vol. 1. London Oxford University Press, 1986.Sidhwa, Bapsi. Cracking India. Minneapolis Milkweed Editions, 1991.