"An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind."
Train to Pakistan proves this famous quote of Mahatma Gandhi (The Story of My Experiments With Truth) very precisely. It is one of best work of Khushwant Singh, India's leading Novel writer. He articulated his concerns of brutalities suffered by the people generated as a result of partition. Partition that has left many scars in the hearts of several Indians and those tragic days which still haunt the new India. It is the story of an isolated fictional village Mano Majra located along the borders that is plunged into the abyss of religious hate during Partition, a euphemism for the bloody violence that preceded the birth of India and Pakistan as the British hurriedly handed over power in 1947. The protagonist of the story is a Sikh boy Juggut Singh “Jugga”,and a Muslim girl Nooran whose love endured and transcends the ravages of war.
The stating of the novel gives vivid description of how the village was, it shows the true picture of Indian village and culture of 1940’s. One Night when the village money lender, Ram Lal was killed by dacoit then the story took a dramatic change. Then the main characters Juggut Singh, Iqbal and Hukum Chand came in picture. The author described the love between Juggat Singh and his Muslim girlfriend very profoundly. The Juggat Singh is then arrested as murder suspect by the police. Along with the Jugga the police had also arrested Iqbal, a Western-educated visitor and social reformer, who came after the murder in the train with the policeman’s. He was a visiting commie in disguise who wants to mobilize support for the socialist party of India. There is one more important character in the story, Hukum Chand the village magistrate. The novels shows the scenes from the jail, Talks between sub Inspector and village magistrate, Discussion between the villagers about the partition condition, show how people viewed famous personalities like Mahatma Gandhi in some way or the other.
The most heart-rending passage in the book is when the government makes the decision to transport all the Muslim families from Mano Majra to Pakistan. The village is portrayed to be a peaceful and harmonious place until the seeds of hatred and suspicion were sown. A small joint army convoy, containing one unit of Sikh soldiers and one of Baluch and Pathans, arrives in the village and orders the Muslims to board within ten minutes. They do so with the barest minimum of their meager belongings. The Muslim officer politely shakes hands with his Sikh colleague, and sets off with his caravan to Pakistan. The non-Muslim families don’t get a chance to say goodbye. This entire scene takes place after we are familiar with the characters, and it is painful at many levels: the poverty in which these people live; the terrible uncertainty they are suddenly cast into; the renting asunder of the attitudes and loyalties of the British Indian Army; and at least temporarily, the eclipse of people’s humanity. In the end the bravery of Juggat Singh was brought in the story, when he attempted to save several innocent lives and his lady-love, Nooran too.
Khushwant Singh’s eye for detail and his love of the people shine through in his descriptions: the District Magistrate’s “style of smoking betrayed his lower middle-class origin. He sucked noisily, his mouth glued to his clenched fist.”
The descriptions of various characters in the story are presented in great detail that may allow the reader to form picture of what all happened. The way he shows the beauty of a person, his thoughts, his feeling and related the all things is surely increase your horizon of knowledge about dwelling the things. The whole story gives many positive nodes and many sentences of the story shows a deep meaning as the way the written.
The opening of the book reflects the quality of work done by the author. The way Khushwant Singh played with the words and narrated the whole story is just awful. The way of writing of Khushwant Singh is unique and that makes him India's one of the best writer, an eminent personality. The way he unfolded and then folded the whole story is worth reading and it shows the creativity of the writer.
This book is a must read for all those who want to get a glimpse of what had happened as consequence of one of the most saddened episodes of not just of the history of the subcontinent but also in human history.
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