Chapter – II

The Trauma of Partition in Khushwant Singh’s Train to Pakistan

This chapter will critically examine Khushwant Singh’s novel Train to

Pakistan which is undoubtedly a classic locus in the domain of Partition fiction of

India. No discussion of Indian Partition fiction would ever be complete without this

well acclaimed novel, which evokes to the readers’ minds the seething horrors of the

catastrophe.

Singh, a historian, novelist, journalist, and a forthright political commentator

was born on February 2, 1915 in Hadali, British India (now in Khushab District,

Punjab, Pakistan). He is one of India’s renowned men of letters with an international

repute, besides, being a major post-colonial writer in English. He is known for clear-

cut secularism, wit and a great passion for poetry. His assessment of social and

behavioral characteristics of people from the West and India is replete with

remarkable wit. He had his schooling at Modern School in New Delhi, Government

College in Lahore and King's College London, prior to reading for the Bar at the Inner

Temple.

Khushwant Singh began his distinguished career in 1938as a lawyer. He

worked for eight years at the Lahore Court. In the year 1947 Singh entered the Indian

Foreign Service (IFS). He took up the profession of a journalist in 1951 with the All

India Radio. He had edited an Indian government journal Yojana, The Illustrated

Weekly of India and The National Herald and the Hindustan Times, two broadsheet

Indian newspapers. His Saturday column in the Hindustan times "With Malice

Towards One and All" was one of the most admired columns of the day. He was a

member of the Upper House of the Parliament, Rajya Sabha from 1980 to 1986. He
 33
was awarded the Padma Bhushan in the year 1974. However, in 1984, he returned the

honor opposing the siege of Golden Temple in Amritsar by the Central Government

during the Operation Bluestar. He was bestowed with the "Honest Man of the Year

Award" for his honesty and courage in his brilliant incisive writing by the Sulabh

International Social Service Organization in July 2000. He was awarded the second-

highest civilian award in India, the Padma Vibhushan in 2007. Singh was bestowed

with the prestigious "Order of Khalsa", the highest award conferred by the Sikh

community. He also received Sahitya Akademi Fellowship in 2010 by the Sahitya

Akademi of India.

As a writer, Singh had an exceptionally flourishing career. The first major

breakthrough in his literary career came with the publication of the short stories, The

Mark of Vishnu (1950) and The Voice of God and Other Stories (1957). Nearly all

these stories were based on actual events or those shared by his friends and

colleagues. Khushwant Singh shot into limelight with the publication of the novel

Train to Pakistan in the year 1956. This novel earned him wide recognition and

appreciation. It won him the Grove Press India prize in 1956 for the best work of

fiction. It is one of the finest and realistic novels written on the backdrop of Partition.

Speaking about the treatment of the theme of Partition by Khushwant Singh, O.P.

Bhatnagar in his book Indian Political Novel in English(2007) comments:

Singh was the first novelist to write in English with an

amazing artistic concern in Train to Pakistan about the

massive destruction of partition. The spine chilling horrors

following the Partition is that draws the attention of the

novelist and not really the act of Partition. (152).

 34
I Shall Not Hear The Nightingale published in 1959, has a historical

background. The novel is set during the period from April 1942 to April 1943. He

deals with the Indian nationalism in a most critical and unbiased manner. It is the

story of a relatively important Indian Sikh family in Punjab, set during the

independence struggle. Such a blend of history with the story of common civilians

gives us an improved perspective of history when compared to the perspective we get

when we read history merely as a chain of important events in chronological order.

Khushwant Singh’s The History of Sikhs (1963) is a major composition in the

domain of biography and history. His full-length sketch of Ranjit Singh strikingly lays

bare the man ,the ruler and the leader.

Khushwant Singh’s novel Delhi, published in 1990, created great waves. It is

regarded as a remarkable work of historical novel and continued as best seller for

several months. It is the tale of a journalist fallen on bad times and his relationship

with Bhagmati, a hijra (eunuch). She is the central character of the novel who also

represents the city Delhi. She can be viewed as an image of history and Delhi at the

same time. The narrator is a mask for the writer, whereas the hijra is a symbol of

Indian culture.

Singh’s novel The Company of Women (1999) depicts the man and woman

relationship in a creative and unique style, which is not only erotic and frank, but also

extremely appealing and enthralling. The protagonist, Mohan Kumar, succumbs to the

elitist Delhi culture and sets out on an experiment with short time companions

because he believes that lust is the real basis of man-woman relationships. It belongs

to the convention of the critique-of-society novels. The novel concentrates on the life
 35
style of westernized and modernized urban men and women. The book also presents

middle class dreams and desires, the notion of arranged marriages in India.

Khushwant Singh was extremely distressed by the assassination of Mrs. Indira

Gandhi and the consequent violence and riots that victimised the Sikh community.

His ruminations on these incidents and the movements that continued to erupt until

mid-90’s, can be found in his journalism and also in other works such as My Bleeding

Punjab (1992) and Punjab Tragedy: Operation Blue Star and After (1984). His other

works — The voice of God and other Stories (1957), The Sikhs Today (1959),The Fall

of the Kingdom of the Punjab (1962), Sex, Scotch and Scholarship: Selected Writings

(1992), We Indians (1993), Not a Nice Man to Know: The Best of Khushwant Singh

(1993), Women and Men in My Life (1995) and Ghadar (1996) — reveal the writer’s

mastery in fusing theme and plot.

Khushwant Singh is what his British education made him. He has cheerfully

acknowledged that he is a creation of both East and the West. The broad-minded and

the modern city of London, the countryside and landscape of the Punjab and the city

of Delhi are the major factors that had an impact on Khushwant Singh. Though

influenced by the concepts and the thoughts of the West, he has also retained his

Indian self. His career as a writer is not without hardships and struggles, it is a

constant search for identity which is replicated through his art and literary career.

Singh is therefore one of the renowned man of letters with an international repute.

Till date, Singh has written few novels, an authentic history of Sikhs, a large

number of short stories, numerous articles and biographies of Sikh leaders which

exhibit his feelings and views of a great writer. Thus, he exhibits a broad view of

Indian life. On his novelistic art Anthony Burgess writes: “Undeniably Khushwant
 36
Singh is an outstanding novelist from the Punjab who writes too little.” He also

admits that I Shall Not Hear The Nightingale is a brilliant narrative of life of Sikh

community (Chelliah 66).

Singh's fictional world reveals the greatness and profoundness of his

apprehension of the truth. He designates himself as a writer of fiction and history. He

is an eyewitness to the national movement before Partition, Independence and Post-

Partition politics and the modern complex world. Thus, it would not be an

exaggeration to state that he himself is history. He admitted that a historian calls his

books mere fiction whereas literary critics feel that his fiction appear to be laden with

history.

Train to Pakistan depicts the trauma of Partition that led to the formation of

two political boundaries—India and Pakistan. The novel depicts one of the most

vicious chapters in the history of the world, in which thousands of women, men and

children were brutally slaughtered and about ten to twelve million were uprooted from

their homes and had to leave behind their belongings. Singh has truly presented the

actual picture of the terrible consequences of Partition and the agony and pain that the

ordinary people experienced. He depicts a graphic picture of the rift between the

Sikhs, Muslims and the Hindus in the summer of 1947. The novel encompasses many

themes like patriotism, religion, politics, history and love. But the seminal theme of

this novel is Partition and its impact on the lives of the people. It is a vibrant account

of political abhorrence and violence. The novel primarily deals with the theme of

Partition of the sub-continent into India and Pakistan. As a result it presents the tragic

anecdotes of both the individuals and communities struck down by the turmoil of

Partition.
 37
The theme differs from many other novels written on Partition in many ways.

Writing about the major themes of the novel, Pala Prasad Rao (2004) say:

The village, Mano Majra in the novel Train To

Pakistan is afflicted with hate and violence which

were the outcomes of the division of the

subcontinent. When a train arrives in the village

carrying slain men, women and children, it clearly

exhibits the worst ever horrific picture of how the

conditions were in the aftermath of the division on

the Indo-Pakistan border during the days of 1947.

Utter fidelity to the truth, stark realism and

exposure of horrors of the Partition are the major

characteristics of the novel. (32-33).

The disturbing and frightening incidents of 1947 has shuddered the conviction

of the people regarding humanity. It had forced them into a condition of shock over

what human beings have made of their fellow creatures. This was certainly a phase of

great cynicism and degradation of values, a tormenting and degenerating phase of

one’s life. The faith one had cherished throughout one’s life was destroyed. The

ominous and deadly impact of the Partition and the resentment it spawned in common

man has been authentically depicted in the novel. Originally titled Mano Majra, the

novel, Train to Pakistan depicts with a brave and stark realism, the vicious story of

communal frenzy and animosity during the unstable days that proceeded and followed

the Partition.
 38
It is undoubtedly a reality that Partition touched the whole country from

Kashmir to Kanya Kumari and every place within. Truly speaking, Singh’s endeavor

in Train to Pakistan is to see the incidents from the perspective of the people of the

tiny village Mano Majra. It is a small village located in Punjab and is the background

of this finely knitted story. Before relating the story, Singh gives a short but suitable

description of the poignant national tragedy. What strikes the reader most in this

account is the writers’ fair and unbiased depiction of this disaster. He writes that the

Muslims alleged that the killings had actually been planned

and started by the Hindus who in turn blamed the Muslims

for everything that had happened. As a matter of fact, both

the parties killed, stabbed, shot and speared each other.

Women of the two sides were tortured and raped. Both

committed the most heinous crimes ever witnessed by the

subcontinent. (1).

In the earlier part of the novel, the writer has continually put forward the idea

that even after the bloodsheds throughout the Punjab and various parts of India, Mano

Majra was a calm village and the people lived together with harmony. Truly it was a

tiny piece of land with peace; A land of brotherhood and harmony. But the slow

course of deceitfulness in the community by religious differences becomes the center

of the novel. The novelist carefully presents all the aspects leading to the holocaust

and how the serene and quiet life in the village is abruptly hauled. The novelist

realistically portrays the tragedy of Partition which is undoubtedly an ugly phase in its

history.
 39
The action of the novel centers round a small village named Mano Majra on

the border of India and Pakistan during the time of Partition. The novelist adeptly

weaves a story around the life in the village making it a miniature of a larger world.

Though dominated by the Sikhs, the village has a considerable number of both Hindus

and Muslims. The amazing thing is that the main protagonist of the novel Train to

Pakistan is the village itself. As P.C. Car observes in his article "Khushwant Singh:

Train to Pakistan" that Khushwant Singh composes a story revolving round the events

in a small village making it a miniature of the larger world. (91).

Here is a brief outline of the novel. The novel has been segmented into four

as: “Dacoity”, “Kalyug”, “Mano Majra” and “Karma”. The four parts are divergences

on a specific theme, but each part sets off the action of the next and aids in advancing

the story to a broader vision. The novel opens with an attention on Mano Majra, a

Punjabi village but gradually moves to indicate that the village represents its

geographical identity and becomes a symbol of any common village in the country. It

is well expressed that psychological and physical properties become crucial as the

novel moves forward. The writer’s vision becomes more and more composite as the

reader moves from one segment to the other. In ‘Dacoity’, the first segment, a

significant allegory is worked out.

A mob of dacoits from an adjacent village murder a local money-lender, Ram

Lal. This sets of the action of the novel by giving an additional dimension to the

incident. Dacoity has resulted in disintegration and made innocent people suffer for

the action of others. Symbolically, it represents the political disintegration of the

nation by the colonial rulers who charged the local leaders for the Partition with some

evil intentions. Thus the first segment of the novel foregrounds the later section.
 40
A normal incident is turned into an effective image. Thereafter, all the

incidents that take place seem to have ensued from the dacoity. All important

characters of the novel are introduced in this segment. The day after the murder, the

train drops off a group of armed policemen and also Iqbal, a young Marxist at the

station of the village. Around the same time, Hukum Chand also comes to the village.

Suspecting Juggut Singh and Iqbal for the murder in the village. The police arrest

them. Thus, the calm and peaceful village awakens to life and gradually associates

with the turmoil outside. An unexpected commotion in the calm and tranquil village

brings the past into motion and the alienation of the village slowly but steadily fades

away. The village witnesses many incidents that are quite different to them until then.

‘Kalyug’, the next section, aptly indicates that the novel has an extraterrestrial

vision. Kalyug approaches towards the end of the cycle in the Hindu philosophy of

epic time, when the foundations for a new order is laid and the old order is

extinguished. The train that carries mutilated bodies to be cremated in the village from

Pakistan indicates that the old order has died. The scene of mass cremation totally

disrupts the regularity of the life of the village. A pall of somberness overshadows the

village. The people of Mano Majra take the train as a forewarning of evil times. The

Mullah, Imam Baksh, who prays regularly every evening, does not pray that morning.

This disorder in the regularity of the life of the village indicates that the end

has come. It is believed that the universe is coming to a complete stagnation and

people are supposed to forget their basic characteristics such as humanity,

brotherhood etc. ‘Mano Majra’, The third section, carries the action of the novel to a

greater degree of intensity. It is developed around the symbolic transformation of the

village. There is a discernable transformation in the life of the village as well as in

 41
understanding of the condition of the people. The section begins with a note on the

changed atmosphere as,

When the train with the load of dead bodies arrived, a

heavy brooding silence overshadowed the village. People

started to suspect one another of their plot. They kept

awake talking to each other in low voice. They were

completely oblivious to the clouds blot out the stars nor did

they smell the cool damp breeze. (124)

As the village loses its well-built privacy and gets involved in the upheaval,

the action becomes bizarre. The village head constable succeeds in dividing the

village into two halves between the Muslims and the Sikhs. The houses of the

Muslims in the village are robbed. Malli, who robbed and murdered Ram Lal’s

wealth, is recommended by the police to be the caretaker of the property and other

belongings of the evacuees.

‘Karma’ the fourth segment, gives the novel a philosophical attribute. It is in

this section that Singh highlights the philosophy of Karma, which means action, as

defined in the Gita. The novelist advocates the fact that in such an ambiance of

viciousness, human action is hollow. Even a courageous act done under such

circumstances does not carry any value whatsoever. It is in this part that the story gets

to a disastrous and ironic. Jugga, the local badmash, loses his life to protect the life of

his Muslim lover Nooran and other refugees on the train. In an amazing turn-around

of roles, Juggut Singh becomes a hero and Malli, the dacoit turns into a caretaker of

the property of the Muslims. The novel concludes with such a dramatic change of

roles. Juggut Singh’s sacrifice protects thousands of lives, however, their fortune
 42
remains unpredictable. Through the character of Iqbal, the novelist contemplates

philosophically on the characteristics of human action and on the price of

independence. Thus the novel keeps before the eyes of the reader all the incidents at

the time of Partition.

Train to Pakistan accounts the adversity of Partition that resulted in the birth

of two different countries by names India and Pakistan. Many people from both sides

flee, seeking a safe haven. The residents were forcefully uprooted and it was

undoubtedly a horrifying experience for them to part with their belongings and rush to

a land which didn’t belong to them intimately. Partition affected the entire nation and

Singh’s purpose in Train to Pakistan is to see the happenings from the perspective of

the people of the little village, Mano Majra, located near the boundary line between

Pakistan and India. While the original title of the novel Mano Majra implies stable,

the existing title Train to Pakistan suggests transformation. Singh employs the third-

person or omniscient narrative method to narrate the story of the novel. The setting of

the novel is Mano Majra, a small Punjabi village on the banks of the river Sutlej. The

action of the novel takes place during the tumultuous days of Partition of the country.

The distinctiveness in Khushwant Singh’s works is certainly the exhibition of

his anguish and disillusionment. Harish (2001) observes that the novel presents how

long cherished human values were at stake following the barbarous and savage

massacre of the people of both India and Pakistan during the partition of the

subcontinent in August, 1947 (125). The bloodshed that followed in the wake of the

Partition of the country is considered to be one of the greatest disasters of human

history that resulted in the loss of incalculable innocent lives and property. It is a real

curse on the citizens on either part of the boarder. The Partition of the sub-continent
 43
and the violence it engendered depressed Khushwant Singh enough to imagine the

idea of writing a novel to articulate his emotional distress and inner struggle. He

expresses his anger and pain saying that:

All his faith in humanity and his strong belief in the innate

goodness of the common man have been shattered. He also

expresses his anguish saying that the brutal annihilation of

the people on either side of the border is the most cruel

carnage ever known in the country. He has a firm

conviction that Indians are “peace-loving and nonviolent”.

He claims himself to be an angry middle- aged man who

wants to express his disillusionment with such things in this

world. These brutal acts, as he admits, have compelled him

to try his hand at writing (Gundur 76).

Thus, Singh has successfully transformed his trauma into creativity. He

concentrates chiefly on the tragedy and trauma of Partition. He pays attention on the

occurrences before it, the mass destruction that it led to and its penalty. His objective

of writing this novel is to display to the world around him that Partition is a blot to

humanity. The author desires to depict all its realistic setting. He constructs a series of

convincing events with the background of Indian manners and gestures, sights and

sounds and Indian landscape as only an extremely observant and sensitive novelist

can portray them. The entire novel represents Indianness. Professor William Walsh,

an authority on common wealth literature, has well said that the novel,

Train to Pakistan depicts true details of the events that

occurred in the wake of the partition of the two nations.

 44
The novel, as he says, is very “economical” and “tense”

which moves forth in an “athletic and trim way.” He also

considers the novel to be an “unemphatic voice” that makes

an authentic human commentary (qtd in Swain 90).

This statement is undoubtedly true, since the horror, bloodshed and violence

that is depicted in the novel, voices Singh’s deep concern for humanity and their

travails.

The village occupies a prime position in the novel. In fact, it would not be an

exaggeration to say that the principal protagonist of Train to Pakistan is the village

Mano Majra. The writer tries to find out the effect of this tragic event on this village

which symbolizes India as a whole. He tries to determine the true Indian answer by

putting together the people, their understandings as well as their actions.

Mano Majra has always been regulated by the trains running across the bridge

close to the village. All the activities in the village are closely related to the arrival,

stay and departure of trains. Mano Majra awakes before daybreak when the morning

mail to Lahore passes across the bridge. It is then that both the Sikh Priest and Mullah

offer their morning prayer. When the midday express rattles through, the people of the

village eat and have a nap. When the passenger from Lahore comes in, they go back

to work. When the goods train comes in, it is an indication to the Sikh Priest and

Mullah for their evening prayers and for the villagers to sleep. Thus the train turns out

to be a vital symbol in the life of the village. However, things begin to rapidly change

in the village. Partition begins to show its impact on this small village as well. As

stated by Manavar in his article "The Theme of Partition in Khushwant Singh’s Novel

Train to Pakistan"(2001).
 45
Although the Muslims and Sikhs who have lived together

for centuries got suspicious of and feared each other, there

survived the feelings of brotherliness between the two.

Mano Majra, the village in the novel, depicted an intensely

human and touching scene where the people of the two

communities meet for consultation. (31).

Mano Majra is a tiny village which is evenly inhabited by the Muslims and the

Sikhs. They live in good relations and amicably with each other like a big family. The

quiet and harmonious life in the village is not at all influenced by the political

occurrences in the nation. The pleasant-sounding environment and practical friendly

nature that remains in this tiny village is brightly described in the novel as,

Standing upright under a keeker tree close to the pond is a

three- foot slab of object that all the people including Lala

Ram Lal in Mano Majra hold in great veneration. This

sandstone is worshipped as a local deity by the people of all

the communities – Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, or pseudo-

Christians in the village. They secretly offer their prayers to

the deity wherever they are in need of blessing (2-3).

Thus the local deity Deo, stands as a figure of communal peace and harmony

in the village. Regardless of their religious associations, the villagers, display a spirit

of unity and harmony by praying to the idol during their difficulties. They trust one

another and believe that the sandstone saves them from any difficulty. In this way the

village symbolises unity and integration among all communities and particularly

between the Sikhs and the Muslims.

 46
Unfortunately 1947 was not like other years for the villagers and the other

people who live in various parts of India. The year was entirely distinct in nature. The

condition of the nation deteriorated desolately because of the Partition. There are a

large number of rapes and bloodsheds. Evil dominates the scene and people lose

control on themselves. The communal devil enters their brains and they become pale

pawns in its hands. The violence that erupts in Calcutta sweeps through the country

and rattles the people. The strife among the people who belong to different

communities was something that grew rapidly.

Singh appears to take an unbiased stand when he objectively depicts that all

communities are to be equally blamed for the disharmony and violence in the village.

The riots that began in Calcutta spread over the North, East and West,

wrapping a huge section of the population. In Bihar, Hindus slaughtered Muslims and

in East Bengal, Muslims slaughtered Hindus. It was said that Mullahs travelled with

boxes of human skulls of Muslims in the Frontier and the Punjab Province killed in

Bihar. The Sikhs and Hindus who lived for ages on the North West Frontier had to

discard their homes and run away for security towards the Hindu and Sikh

communities who lived in the east. They had to travel in bullock carts, hang on to the

sides and roofs of trains, cram into lorries and on foot.

By the summer of the deadly year 1947 many Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs

were in escape from their rivals. In few months approximately a million of them lost

their lives. During the Partition of the Indian sub-continent, thousands of people were

in the hunt for shelter and protection on both sides of the border. From Pakistan

thousands of non-Muslims desired for passageway to India which is a land of trust

 47
and tranquility. At the same time, in India thousands of people belonging to Muslim

community looked for passage to Pakistan, the land of Islamic faith and promise.

Initially, Mano Majra was a calm village and the people lived together with

harmony. Truly it was a tiny piece of land with peace, a land of brotherhood and

harmony. It is also trenched in a state of the lack of political awareness. The sub–

inspector of police, one of the characters in the novel, tells the Deputy Commissioner

that no person in the village is aware of the fact that the British have quit India and the

sub-continent is divided into Hindustan and Pakistan. He further says that Gandhi is

known to some of the people there but he's not sure if they have heard of Jinnah.

However, this tiny village which remains unscathed is shattered by the arrival

of “outsiders” and the “ghost trains”. The “outsiders” are Malli and his gang, Hukum

Chand, the new District Commissioner, the police sub inspector, Iqbal and the boy-

soldier dressed as an American Cowboy. By introducing these people who are not

Mano Majrans, Khushwant Singh too embraces the myth the newly formed Indian

government maintained, that the genocidal violence unleashed by Partition was due to

outside elements and not due to the locals who wanted nothing more than to continue

living their daily lives in peace.

The murder of the local money lender, Lala Ram Lal, sets the ball rolling for

the unfolding of the action in the novel. Malli and his gang of thugs come to Mano

Majra to commit a dacoity. They murder Lala Ram Lal and run away with his money.

While passing by the house of Jugga, they fire shots in the air and throw bangles into

his courtyard and pass lewd comments about Nooran, the Muslim weaver’s daughter,

who is in a liaison with Jugga, and implicate him in the murder as he has been their
 48
enemy. Thus the peaceful and harmonious atmosphere of the village is crushed under

the ruthless murder of Ram Lal.

The act of the gang of dacoits is only an overture to analogous actions and is

also an early indication about future events, that are the consequences of this robbery.

Thus the harmonious and peaceful life of the village is abruptly devastated. Prafulla

C. Kar opines that the novel figuratively represents the political disintegration of the

nation by the British government which alleged that the partition, in fact, was caused

by the local lenders (96).

Juggat Singh is then introduced to the readers, who is widely acknowledged as

budmash number ten in the village. He has been jailed quite a few times for robbery.

He is instructed by the local police to remain in his house when the night falls. Yet,

during the time of this incident, Jugga was in the fields with Nooran, his muslim

lover, the daughter of Imam Baksh. Actually the entire village was well aware of their

relationship.

It is also important that the Deputy Commissioner of the district, Hukum

Chand comes to the village just a day before the dacoity. We are also told that almost

at the same time, when Malli and his gang were perpetrating the dacoity in the village,

the district magistrate, Hukum Chand is engaged in an “affair” with a Muslim teen-

aged girl, Haseena, at the Officers’ Rest House.

Like Juggat Singh, Hukum Chand plays a leading role in the novel’s progress.

In the beginning, he looks as a characteristic Indian delegate of bureaucracy in British

India. His place as the Deputy Commissioner of the district makes him intensely

thoughtful of the disastrous condition of his people and the incidents of the novel are

depicted from his perspective. With comparatively only some Hindus in Punjab,
 49
Hukum Chand appears as a promoter of British authority and to the Mano Majrans, he

epitomizes virility and masculinity and an image of diplomatic order.

Next morning a train brings in a group of policemen in to the village to carry

out an investigation into the murder of the local money-lender Ram Lal. The train also

brings in a young Marxist and an England educated Iqbal, to the village. Jugga is

arrested by the police suspecting him for the murder because at the time of the murder

he was found absent from his house and was not able to clarify the reason for his

absence. Iqbal, who has been sent there by the people’s party to create political

awareness among the peasants at that decisive period, is also arrested. Though he does

not instigate any trouble, he has a definite role to play in the novel. He stays at the

gurudwara where the granthi, Bhai Meet Singh accepts him as a Sikh. The cross-

communal nature of his name in conjunction with the fact that he is a clean-shaven

Sikh causes him a lot of grief. He could be a Muslim, Hindu or a Sikh and does not

disabuse anyone about his true religion as he is a communist and does not profess to

follow any religion. Though he does not follow any religion or believe in it, he

understands the importance of religious affiliations and belonging to a religious

community in the communally charged atmosphere of the days. In his conversation

with Bhai Meet Singh, Iqbal makes clear his intentions of working in the village. He

introduces himself to Bhai Meet Singh as a social worker sent to the village by his

political party as the place now is a vital point for refugee movements. He says that in

the wake of the partition, there's copious bloodshed going on and it immediately needs

to be stopped. He feels that there's a lot to be done in the village and any Trouble

would be dreadful.
 50
When Iqbal comes to know about a murder in the village, he gets terrified. He

feels he can do nothing staying in the village where the people are tremendously

excited about a murder. Iqbal is full of abstract ideas of what the people of India are

supposed to do with their freedom to attain material success and true political

independence. But all his ideas are upset when the opinions of the villagers are very

unsophisticated. His lectures on several issues fall on deaf ears, mainly because the

people have no awareness on the happenings of the time. The villagers wanted to

know much about Hindustan and Pakistan from Iqbal. Some of the villagers

innocently asks Iqbal to tell him what is happening in the world and what it is all

about Hindustan and Pakistan. He displays his ignorance when he asks Iqbal why the

English had to leave his village.

For those people, independence is related to their financial position than to

political matters. Practically speaking, independence was insignificant or nothing at

all to them and they believe that they are comfortable under the colonial rule because

there was some security. The lambarder of the village voices this mocking outlook

when he tells Iqbal that freedom must be a good thing for others but not for

uneducated people like him and asks Iqbal what he will get out of the much regarded

freedom. He knows that with the British leaving India, only the educated people of

India would get benefited from the jobs that the English had but he's not sure if he

gets more lands and buffaloes. The Muslim man says that the independence is only

for those people who have struggled for it. He goes on adding that they who were

slaves of the British, now have to be the slaves of the educated Indians or the

Pakistanis.
 51
That is the common idea of most of the Muslims of the village. They cannot

have freedom at the expense of massive devastation. The Lambardar certainly tells the

stance of the common man when he says that the only ones who like freedom are

robbers, thieves and badmashs. Iqbal is really surprised at the views of those people

and he cannot say anything to them.

Under these circumstances, Iqbal ponders over the helplessness of the little

man like him in anelioralling the situation. As he sits down beneath the stay, the

sound of the engine orally depress like. He is a lonely. He wonders as to how he

could actually act to stop the killing. He remains powerless.

It is clear that Iqbal fails to influence the people of Mano Majra because of his

uncertainty and also lack of self-confidence. Iqbal is supposed to be a member of

Muslim League by the Indians. He is considered ‘an outsider’ by almost all those

people. They fail to understand his real purpose. His views on politics and the

political condition of the nation are restrained to himself. This gives an opportunity to

Prempati to comment thus in the article “Train to Pakistan: Some Reflections” (2001),

The character, Iqbal in The Train to Pakistan represents

“Khushwant Singh's extra-literary dimension.” He goes on

saying that the author of the novel appears “adventitious to

the text” and he is “no better than a dispensable commodity”

being affected by “non-textual considerations.” (qtd in

Krishna Daiya 4).

As the story moves on, Jugga reveals the cruelty of the Baluch soldiers en

route to Lahore. When they reach the Pakistani border, these soldiers engage in acts of

cruelty and vandalism.

 52
Juggat Singh is of the opinion that no one escaped God. At this, Iqbal is

irritated and utters, "Who caused the crash, the dog or God?" (72). There is cynicism

in his voice. The Tonga driver, Bhola, stresses the mental illness of the blood thirsty

people and retorts saying that while attacking the mobs don’t try to find out whether

you are a Muslim or a Hindu, first they will strike you.

Possibly to give a fitting answer to the violence done by the Muslims to the

Sikhs, Bhola narrates the tale of the four Sikh Sardars, who suddenly attacked Muslim

refugees. He says that they opened fire with their four sten guns at them without any

warning. He feels shocked to know that many people have mercilessly been killed. He

knows he would be killed first if he and his tanga full of Muslims were caught by the

Sikhs.

The tale reflects the terror and the fear-psychosis of the people during the

Partition. Juggat Singh also narrates an account of the abduction of many women and

have been sold at clear places. There is a lot of unevenness in the village. Police

stations become attention centers and stringent procedures are followed to extract

facts from those people who are arrested. What is of importance here is the author’s

objectivity in depicting the terror-filled events. He does not take sides. He in fact

frees himself from imaginative exaggeration and selection of events. Therefore, as

Harish observes, the novel attains a state of artistic objectivity and goes on to say that

the novelist depicts the carnages and mayhems perpetrated on both the sides of the

border without any prejudice and bias (132).

All of a sudden one day, in bright sun light, a train arrives from Pakistan. It

generates uproar in the entire village. It is packed with brutally mutilated bodies of

Hindus and Sikhs brought for cremation in the village. The villagers gather in the
 53
gurudwara to discuss the repercussions of the ‘ghost train’. The army personnel

collect kerosene and wood from the villagers to cremate the dead bodies in the night.

They notice very many activities at the station after the arrival of the train carrying the

corpses from Pakistan but they are forbidden to go near the station. The villagers

stand on the roofs to notice and ask each other for updates. They become conscious of

the bloodshed and slaughter which causes restlessness in their minds. The village is

overshadowed by an eerie silence. They understand, actually it is the pungent smell of

burning flesh that describes the gruesome disaster. The very smell suggested to them

that the train had brought dead bodies from Pakistan. The ‘ghost train’, packed with

mutilated corpses that has come from Pakistan, reveals the barbarous act that has been

nakedly presented on the borders. Hukum Chand is shocked and the shock is very

intense for him to comprehend. He is baffled and scared by its violence and

heinousness of the incident. The details of the carnage are narrated through the

recently appointed Deputy Commissioner, Hukum Chand.

He recollects how there were helpless women and children with their “eyes

dilated” and “their mouth skulls open” (90). Most of them seem to have died of

shock, rather than physical pain. The number of corpses were massive as they were

crammed in the train, including the lavatories and all available space. Along with the

visual image of horror, is the olfactory description of repulsion as narrated by Singh.

The air is laden with “…the nauseating smell of putrefying flesh, farces and urine”.

(90) Singh describes the corpse of an old Sikh peasant who “did not look dead at all”.

The expression of sadness in their peasant face was unforgettable, since, “A thin

crimson line of coagulated blood ran from his ear onto his beard.”(90).
 54
When the people of Mano Majra discover the fact that the Muslims in Pakistan

have brutally slaughtered Hindus and sent their dead bodies to their village in a train,

a gloomy silence overshadows the village bringing about a paranoid feeling. People

begin to doubt one another of their plot. They kept awake, talking to each other in

whispers. The novel in fact, is an exploration of the horrors caused by the Partition.

The Partition of the sub-continent into India and Pakistan has resulted in the

migration of the Muslims from India and Hindus from Pakistan and the crossing of

the boundary by the refugees. This has also led to communal frenzy and violence,

leading to the massacre of the Muslims in some regions of India, and Hindus in

Pakistan. The people belonging to the Muslim community from Chundunnugger and

other villages were forcibly vacated and moved to refugee camps. The displaced

refugees psychologically carry the trauma of violence and separation that is hard to

assuage. The migrants who have come to Mano Majra, call for retaliation. As a result

tension and disorder rises in the village and it can no more remain insensitive.

The event disrupts people of all faiths. The Muslims remember the carnages

perpetrated upon them by Sikhs. They recollect the violence, murders, rapes, self-

immolation and other provocative acts. They contend that the Sikhs desecrated their

premises by the slaughter of pigs and also had torn up their copies of the Koran by

infidels. For the Muslims every Sikh is now an outsider with evil intentions and

therefore the newly emerging country, Pakistan has apparently come to mean for them

a safe and secure haven, devoid of all Sikhs.

The Sikhs are also similarly infuriated. The knowledge of the barbarities

wreaked upon them by the Muslims in Pakistan slowly dawns upon them. History

reveals how the Hindus and the Sikhs had to suffer numerous insults by the Muslims.
 55
The Sikh refugees tell them that the Sikh women, so as not to fall into the hands of

Muslims, jumped into wells and even burnt themselves. Some women who couldn't

escape were forced to go naked in the streets and were raped before being murdered.

The youth are vengeful of what had happened to the people belonging to the

Hindu and Sikh communities in Pakistan. One of them asserts that they have treated

the Muslims to be their own brothers yet they have behaved like snakes.

Though the process of separation has begun, many people gathered in the

Gurudwara are still uncertain to deprecate the Muslims. Nevertheless, simultaneously,

they do not know how to handle the new refugees and the problem that their presence

has led to. The lambardar is concerned about the refugees who may wreak their

vengeance on the Muslims of the village. They believe that under these circumstances

the only thing they could do is to request the Muslims to go to Chundunnugger to take

shelter in the refugee camp temporarily. When the parting of the Muslims becomes

certain, Imam Baksh breaks down and expresses his reluctance to leave the place

where they were born and lived among other Indians like brothers as their ancestors

did. He tells that they have nothing to do with Pakistan.

Imam Baksh’s mournful words reveals that the concept of Pakistan is foreign

and meaningless for him and other Muslims of the village. It also shows that they are

strongly entrenched in the soil of the village, and live contentedly and harmoniously

with the Sikhs.

The Sikh lambarder expresses his solidarity promptly saying that the relation

of being like brothers between them is always left intact. He further assures them to

stay back with their children and grandchildren together with them as long as they
 56
like. He even promises that they would safeguard them like their own family members

if there's any one speaking or behaving rudely to them.

At the same time he does not dismiss the probability of a threat to their lives if

that is done. In this manner the tiny village is divided into two groups communally

even though they are living like brothers.

The evacuation of the Muslims from the village is the most touching scene of

the entire novel. The communities that had been living together for centuries in a

very friendly manner are suddenly turn against each other. The thought of Muslims

leaving the village made both the communities emotional. The trauma of parting is

also concisely depicted when the Muslims pack their things to leave the village. The

night before the Muslims were to leave for Pakistan, none of them sleep. With tears in

their eyes, they swear love and hope to see light at the end of the tunnel, since they

leave behind both human relationships and their properties!

The Muslims of Mano Majra who initially assume it as a short stay and hence

they hope to be back to the village once the condition is under control. It slowly

dawns on them that they are displaced forever. Singh seizes the opportunity to further

highlight the human tragedy of the Partition, when he describes a flood of corpses in

the swelling sultry. Initially, the villagers assume that they are the corpses of drowned

people. But later they realize that they are not drowned, but murdered. Singh paints a

grotesque picture of the scene that haunts our minds long after we have ever read the

book.

The scene of tragedy was at their most intensity when the

slain men and women were seen with their clothes still

clinging to their bodies. It was as if they had been swept

 57
away by the floods. Even worse was the scene where the

children were lying with their arms on their bellies and

their little buttocks dipping in and out. Vultures and kites

soon enveloped the sky. They landed on the carcasses that

were floating and packed until they were shoved off by the

corpses themselves with their hands while rolling over.

(150)

After the “ghost train,” the picture of the sea of corpses makes an indelible

impression of the horrors of Partition in the reader’s minds.

The villagers are engulfed with the terror of another "ghost train" that has just

reached the station then. Once again, the railway station buzzes with the activities of

the policemen and the army personnel. But this time, there was no request from the

villagers for wood or kerosene. The second train carrying the corpses of women,

children and men from Pakistan had to be buried in a ditch, since the wood was damp

because of the incessant rain and no more kerosene to spare. The corpses are lifted by

the bulldozer.

Despite the massive carnage of human lives, Mano Majra is still committed to

friendliness, peace and harmony. But this quality of humaneness and saneness is

viewed as a symbol of cowardice by the younger generation. The Sikh youths, who

are enraged by the atrocities inflicted upon the Sikhs and Hindus, come to the

Gurudwara at night and question the silence being maintained by the older generation.

They call them impotent and remind them of how dead Sikhs and Hindus have been

brought by the train, through the massacres in Gujranwala, Multan, Sheikhupura and

Rawalpindi. They express their anguish over their inaction and ask them how they can
 58
call themselves Sikhs enjoying good food and sleep but doing nothing else to avenge

the merciless killings of their fellow beings. They urge them to kill two Mussalmans

to avenge the killing of each Sikh or Hindu, abduct two women for each woman

abducted by the Mussalmans. He wants them to loot two houses for each house

looted, send two trainloads of the dead for each sent by them. Singh thus depicts the

generational conflict and the rage of the youth to the horrors of Partition.

The youth are swayed by importance of anger. Meet Singh does raise his wise

voice of objection on several occasions but his voice is totally neglected. Exhibiting

his benevolent view, he firmly believes that only the guilty should be punished. But

the uncompromising Hindu youth assuage him with a series of violent angry flare-

ups. Along with the Sikhs, they are ready to kill the Muslims with spears and swords

and fire arbitrarily through the windows to see that the train takes only the corpses of

the Muslims to Pakistan. Meet Singh still worries about the Muslims of the village but

his voice is meek.

Hukum Chand discloses his helplessness to prevent the riots that had flared up

in the wake of the Partition. He feels that the world has gone mad and he doesn't

object to it. Even if another thousand are to be killed, he may not even need a

bulldozer this time to bury them, as he will throw the corpses into the river. His

attitude is a consequence of anguish rather than anger! Hukum Chand is astonished to

learn of the plot to attack the train going to Pakistan, which was carrying the Muslim

refugees. He urgently searches for ideas to save the train. It is mainly because he

learns that a Muslim teen-aged girl Haseena is on the train. The sub-inspector

discloses to him the fact that they can do nothing at that point. The entire refugee

camp might be devastated by some extremists’ thirst for human blood, if the train is
 59
not allowed to go to Pakistan. If it is allowed to go, there is certainly a possible

destruction.

Hukum Chand’s intelligent brain immediately thinks of a plan. He instantly

signs the documents and orders the inspector to release immediately two prisoners -

Iqbal and Juggat Singh to be sent without delay to the village. In accordance with the

instructions of Hukum Chand, Iqbal and Juggat Singh are released from the jail and

the news of the Muslims of Mano Majra being moved out of the village is continually

thrust into Juggut Singh’s hard head. He is further told that the train with the Muslims

of the village is leaving that night to Pakistan. Juggat Singh and Iqbal come back to

Mano Majra. Iqbal goes to the Gurudwara and finds several refugees there. He wants

to learn from Meet Singh the incidents taking place in the village. Meet Singh tells

him not to ask what has been happening, but asks him what hasn't been happening in

the village following the Partition. He narrates how he has burnt lots of the dead

bodies brought by the train. He reports that the river was flooded with the corpses and

many more such heart-rending and pathetic incidents have taken place. He

rhetorically asks him what else he wants to know in the aftermath of the Partition,

since the ghastly incident had transformed the village into a mere cemetery.

Hukum Chand feels sore about the happenings in the wake of the Partition. He

wishes the Muslims to go to Pakistan without any harm. He is against any violence or

demolition of property. Iyengar observes that the act of Partition, “like a tornado” was

uprooting masses of humanity destroying and “throwing them in heaps across the

border.” (489).

Hukum Chand thinks critically of the political leaders making fine speeches in

the assembly. He ruminates with sarcasm, Nehru’s famous speech "making a tryst
 60
with destiny."(185). Singh plays on the word “tryst” and narrates how the “tryst”

works in different ways and different levels in the novel. He recalls how Prem Singh,

his colleague, who went to Lahore to bring back the jewelry of his wife made his

“tryst” at Faletti’s hotel, of Sundari who made her “tryst” with destiny on her way to

Gujranwala – she was gang raped and her husband castrated, and of Sunder Singh

who shot his wife and children in the refugee train because there was no food or

water. Only his family made their “tryst” with destiny. Thus Khushwant Singh, the

author, becomes emotional and opens a war of words on the Prime Minister, for the

use of the word ‘tryst’.

Jugga worries mainly about the safety of Nooran. He thinks that any threat to

the train would also mean a threat to his beloved Nooran’s life. As Srinivas Iyengar

comments,"…the simple uncalculating love of a man for a woman asserts itself"

(501).

Juggut Singh, an accepted local hooligan, understanding that the reprisal may

mean a threat to the life of Nooran, his Muslim lover, succeeds to slash at the rope

with his knife and lets the train to pass safely to Pakistan:

He (Juggat Singh) pulled himself up, caught the rope under

his left armpit, . . . . . The man shivered and collapsed. … . .

. The train went over him, and went on to Pakistan. (190).

In this way, Hukum Chand cleverly uses Jugga’s sentimental emotion in a

positive manner. Jugga is certainly a pawn used by the intelligent Police Officer for

his personal as well as common gain. He is sure that if Juggat Singh learns that the

villagers have set a plan to attack the train, he will do something to prevent the threat

since Nooran, his sweet heart, would be travelling by that train. As he anticipates,
 61
Juggat Singh exhibits remarkable velour to save the life of his beloved and also the

lives of many people on the train. He emotionally loses his life for his beloved

Nooran. Thus, Nooran is saved, Hukum Chand’s Haseena is saved and also all the

Muslim refugees are saved.

Juggat Singh becomes a sacrificial pawn in the scheme of Hukum Chand.

However, his sacrifice certainly, restores humanity, peace and tranquility to a village

destroyed by the fratricidal violence. The episode is a proof of Singh’s answering

faith in humanity.

Vasant Shahane rightly observes that:

Train to Pakistan isn't a simple lifelike treatise and it's not a

austere record of real events either. He opines that the

novel is a recreation of the real events and reiterates that

the novelist doesn't do away with his asserted commitment

to the “humanistic ideal”. (qtd in Firoz Shaik 72).

The British rulers brought the country to a horrendous tragedy. Such people

responsible for an unexpected disaster had not at all been spared. The irrationality of

the two-nation theory, a safe home land and the Partition, displacing the masses has

been totally exposed. K.R. Srinivas Iyengar states that the novelist,

With his “resolved limitation and rigorous selection,” has

been successful “in communicating “ to the reader a tinge

of coarseness, horror and severe insanity of “the tragedy of

partition” suffered by both the countries. Train to Pakistan,

 62
He admits, communicates both the pathos and the terror of

the two-nation theory. (502).

The conclusion of Train to Pakistan is highly exciting when Juggat Singh

protects the train at the expense of his own life and his immediate interest is the safety

of his Muslim beloved but he also succeeds in saving the migrating Muslims. The

death of Juggut Singh under the wheels of the Train to Pakistan indicates the final

union of the two communities, which may become true in future. It indicates the

inseparableness of the two communities as in Mano Majra at the start of the story.

Thus Khushwant Singh’s Train to Pakistan will remain the most

understandable description of the tragedy imposed on people because of Partition.

Khushwant Singh’s Train to Pakistan is the first Indian novel in the history of Indian

literature in English to be written on the theme of Partition. It is a classic of Partition

literature. A distinctive feature of the novel, Train to Pakistan is its biting economy

with a tight and compact structure. Covering a short period of time and a limited

number of events, Khushwant Singh manages to cover many facets of the tragic event

of Partition. He uses literary techniques such as symbolism, satire and imagination in

his treatment of the theme of Partition.

The trains played a major role in the great mass-migration during the turbulent

days of Partition. Khushwant Singh also uses the train as a major symbol in the novel.

No piece of work makes use of the train as a predominant and powerful symbol as

does Khushwant Singh’s Train to Pakistan. The importance of the train in the book is

that it is woven into the life-pattern of the people of Mano Majra. Their activities have

always been regulated by the passing of trains across the bridge nearby. Nevertheless,

the irregularity of the trains also implies the forthcoming holocaust. In addition, the
 63
train acts as a connecting link between India and Pakistan. The train successfully

going to Pakistan not only adds to the final denouement of the action but also gives an

optimistic ending to the novel.

Khushwant Singh has written the novel Train to Pakistan to expose the cruel

and deceitful nature of man and at the same time display his confidence in the values

of humanity, loyalty and love. He does not engage in open didacticism, but frankly

portrays the reality in all its originality. He wants to clearly convey that man

individually is different from when he is a member of a mob. As a member of a mob

man loses his individual thinking and behaves emotionally.

As one reads Train to Pakistan, it is inevitable that we think of Gandhiji

whose views on Partition drew much flak. Although Gandhiji did not whole-heartedly

support Partition he was forced to accept its brute reality. A follower of nonviolence,

Mahatma Gandhi was upset due to that unexpected display of callous violence. The

novelist firmly contends that the Hindus of India and the Muslims of Pakistan can live

together as they lived in the village Mano Majra prior to the Partition. But the

political act of the Partition has unfortunately severed the human bonds that had kind

together for. But if they unite, the united India definitely will become a strong force

not only in Asia but also in the world.