Religious Idenity

Through its exploration of the linkages between religion and identity, the novel shows how reductive, simple classifications of people according to their religion allows for their dehumanization and exploitation. The novel portrays how violence and discrimination thrives when people's complex, multifaceted identities are ignored. As some readers will note, characters are frequently described as being either Hindu or Sikh or Parsee; however, the novel does not refer to any religion in its noun-form, such as Hinduism, Islam, Zoroastrianism, or Sikhism. This is because the novel is far more concerned with religion as an identity that is socially constructed to be important. As Lenny says, “One day, everyone is themselves—and the next day, they are Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian. People shrink, dwindling into symbols” (101). Because of political events, namely Partition, religious identity emerges as something more important than individual identity.

As the novel suggests, religious...