Throughout the novel, the symbols that identify each person as a member of a particular religious group gain more importance as Independence and Partition grow near. Finally, religious affiliation determines how each characters views and treats others. Previously happy neighbors become enemies overnight: Muslims murder Hindus, Sikhs murder Muslims, and Hindus murder Muslims. In the new Pakistan, men convert from Hinduism to Islam, changing their names, their clothing, and their hairstyles in addition to getting circumcised, as exemplified by the Sethi’s gardener, Hari.

Lenny describes this change: “And I become aware of religious differences. It is sudden. One day everybody is themselves—and the next day they are Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian. People shrink, dwindling into symbols” (101).

Sidhwa uses the symbolic image of “cracking India” to describe the political and social upheaval that occurred during the creation of an independent India and Pakistan (101). This image symbolizes the brokenness between the two countries, and it reflects the damaged relationships among the ethnic factions, including the complicated mixture of majority- and minority- Hindu and Muslim cities and countryside, along with permanently minority ethnicities such as the Parsees, who practice Zoroastrianism.