The Nightmare Essay -- India Indian Politics Essays

The NightmareDreams are often visions of the conscience that hold the most truth. In the novel, Cracking India, by Bapsi Sidhwa, the narrator Lenny, has a reoccurring nightmare that contains much truth some the state of India. In Lennys nightmare, Children lie in a warehouse. Mother and Ayah move about solicitously. The atmosphere is businesslike and relaxed. Godmother sits by my bed smiling indulgently as men in uniforms quietly slice off a childs arm here, a leg there. She strokes my head as they dismember me. I feel no pain. Only an abysmal sense of loss- and a chilling nuisance 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 future of India is organism dismembered by British rule while Indians remain passive and impartial to the destruction of their country. This portrayal of India is comparable to Gandhis view that the British have not taken India India has have given their country to them. In hinder(prenominal) Swaraj, Gandhi suggests that India is in a state of unrest and that it will take some time for an true(a) awakening. Lennys vision of children lying in a warehouse with their guardians remaining indifferent to the suffering taking place is representative of Indias state of unrest. This apocalyptical state of unrest also refers to Indias tolerance of British rule. In Cracking India, the Ice- great dealdy Man is adamant about Indians awakening from this restive state. He says, If we necessitate India back we must 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 tormented 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 future 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 Writings of Mahatma Gandhi. Vol. 1. London Oxford University Press, 1986.Sidhwa, Bapsi. Cracking India. Minneapolis Milkweed Editions, 1991.