Train to Pakistan By khushwant singh Introduction

ONE OF THE MOST BRUTAL EPISODES IN THE PLANET'S HISTORY, IN WHICH A MILLION MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN WERE KILLED AND TEN MILLION WERE DISPLACED FROM THEIR HOMES AND BELONGINGS, IS NOW OVER HALF A CENTURY OLD. PARTITION, A EUPHEMISM FOR THE BLOODY VIOLENCE THAT PRECEDED THE BIRTH OF INDIA AND PAKISTAN AS THE BRITISH HURRIEDLY HANDED OVER POWER IN 1947, IS BECOMING A FADING WORD IN THE HISTORY BOOKS. FIRST-HAND ACCOUNTS WILL SOON VANISH. KHUSHWANT SINGH, WHO WAS OVER THIRTY AT THE TIME, LATER WROTE TRAIN TO PAKISTAN AND GOT IT PUBLISHED IN 1956. REPRINTED SINCE THEN, REISSUED IN HARDCOVER, AND TRANSLATED INTO MANY LANGUAGES, THE NOVEL IS NOW KNOWN AS A CLASSIC, ONE OF THE FINEST AND BEST-KNOWN TREATMENTS OF THE SUBJECT.

About the author

Khushwant Singh, one of the best -known Indian writers of all times, was born in 1915 in Hadali (now in Pakistan). He was educated at the Government College, Lahore and at King's College, Cambridge University, and the Inner Temple in London. He practiced law at the Lahore High Court for several years before joining the Indian Ministry of External Affairs in 1947. Among the several works he published are a classic two-volume history of the Sikhs, several novels (the best known of which are Delhi,Train to Pakistan, and The company of women), and a number of translations and non-fiction books on Delhi, nature and current affairs. The Library of Congress has ninety-nine works on and by Khushwant Singh.

Setting
Khushwant Singh recreates a tiny village in the Punjabi countryside and its people in that fateful summer. When the flood of refugees and the inter-communal bloodletting from Bengal to the Northwest Frontier at last touches them, many ordinary men and women are bewildered, victimized, and torn apart.

Plot
It is the summer of 1947. But Partition does not mean much to the Sikhs and Muslims of Mano Majra, a village on the border of India and Pakistan. Then, a local money-lender is murdered, and suspicion falls upon Juggut Singh, the village gangster who is in love with a Muslim girl. When a train arrives, carrying the bodies of dead Sikhs, the village is transformed into a battlefield, and neither the magistrate nor the police are able to stem the rising tide of violence. Amidst conflicting loyalties, it is left to Juggut Singh to redeem himself and reclaim peace for his village. Is he able to?

Partition has left many scars in the hearts of several Indians and those tragic days still haunt the new India, the memories of that tragic period still makes people shiver, and being a sindhi and hearing these stories from my grandma, I completely relate to it. Imagine being ousted from your house, friends, family, everyone and packed off to some distant land, like a courier package. All this, only because you are circumcised, or you are not! A must read for any one, who wants to get a first hand feel on the happenings of those times. A big message from the book would be that this kind of holocaust should never ever again happen anywhere, and the pain and torture is simply irreversible.

Themes
After the prolix of Love in the Time of Cholera, Train to Pakistan was a refreshing change. Not merely for its brevity and directness, but also for a context with which I could very much relate. Although fiction, the background events are real. Thousands of refugees perished during the exodus, when a Pakistan was split from India. Instead of joy in freedom, it was misery and bloodshed that greeted many of the new citizens. Trainloads of dead crossed the border, as people in vengeance sought an insane form of justice. The copy I have is a 1961 Grove Press edition, which cost 50 c. then, and which I bought for $3.50 circa seven/eight years ago. Heres what the cover blurb says:

The brew is indeed acrid, and would leave one rather burned, but for the salve in the end. The sacrifice of Juggat Singh, alias Jugga, for the love of his Muslim fiance. The train went over him, and went on to Pakistan. The train with Juggas fiance. Whom he will never marry, in whose womb grows the child he will never see. The brawny thug had the wisdom which political leaders of the time lacked. The story is set in an isolated border village, Mano Majra, where Sikhs and Muslims lived in harmony, till the wake of the partition. There are several relevant characters. Theres the tough guy Jugga, a convict in parole, in love with a Muslim girl. Theres the Europe returned intellectual Iqbal, a communist social worker seeking to reform the simpletons, but becomes a frustrated victim of bureaucratic quagmire instead. Then theres Hukum Chand, the seasoned district magistrate, scheming, playing his moves as in a game of chess. While Jugga, in denouement, is a portrayal of how love can elevate the motives of a common criminal, Iqbal and Hukum Chand, from their own different perspectives, reveal the bitterness in the abject failure of a political move. A move that heavily cripples both countries to this day, and is likely to do so for many more years. Khushwant Singh, with his acerbic prose, effectively drives home the dual themes of the novel: the brutality of partition, and the incapabilites, even indifference, of an inept politcal class

Conclusion
The novel Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh describes the train from which the novel takes its title, features only towards the end of the novel. And even then the focus is on the hopes, fears, and fate of the people, using the trains as one of the means of escaping the horror of communal violence that erupted between Hindus and Muslims during partition of undivided India in India and Pakistan. If I try to visualize the train as a character I can only think of it as some one who is witnessing the attempts of people to flee to safety, and their success or failure to do so. It can also be seen as someone trying to help the people to flee, but in spite of being brave and physically strong is rendered quite powerless do much.

Yash Bindal 1111639 2 BBA-B