Ironically, its adaptation in the recently released film, Earth, by Deepa Mehta, attests to its timeliness. Set in 1940 s India, during the time of independence and the partition, Cracking India brings to life the deeply religious, national, social, and economic tensions marking both historical and current Indo-Pak political dynamics. Sidhwa s genius lies in her juxtaposition of the themes of innocence and experience in Cracking India. The co-mingling of innocence and experience allow the reader to view this extremely confusing and unstable chapter of Indian history through a simpler lens, a more objective voice. The people in Lenny s life are reduced to physical or spiritual characteristics.
Religion is reduced to a superficial label, as characters easily switch from one to the other.
But don t let the simplicity of the novel fool you. Simple, it is not. The simplicity of the narrator s view serves to exaggerate the extreme complexity of the times. The simplicity of the plot puts a human face on the multitudes of suffering people who lived through these times. Sidhwa has done a wonderful job of bringing the confusion and immense impact of social and cultural change upon the individual life of a small girl.