Group+4+Khushwant+Singh,+Train+to+Pakistan

//**Train To Pakistan**//

toc

// Train To Pakistan // is a historical fiction novel written by Khushwant Singh and published in 1956. The novel addresses the sociological and cultural effect of India's 1947 Partition on Pakistani and Indian peoples.

Khushwant Singh
Khushwant Singh (age 95), a prominent post-colonial Indian author and journalist, primarily writing in the English Language, was born February 2, 1915 in Hadali, Punjab (now in Pakistan, but then former British India). His long list of works are a reflection of the socio-political atmosphere of the transitional decolonized/partitioned India he was contemporary to. He is best known for his "clear-cut secularism, humor and a deep passion for poetry" ([|Khushwant Singh Biography 1] ), which can be seen in his most acclaimed novel, //Train To Pakistan.//

Born to a rich Sikh family, Khushwant's father Sir Sobha Singh made his money as a builder and contractor, constructing many of the buildings in New Delhi, many of which still stand. Khushwant had a long and broad education, attending Government College, Lahore, St. Stephen's College in Delhi, King's College, London, and reading at the Bar at the Inner Temple. After meeting the qualifications to become a lawyer, Khushwant opened a legal practice in the city of Lahore. While he struggled for years, it was the Partition of India in 1947 that ended his practice. Soon after, he found himself a diplomat in the Ministry of External Affairs.

Just as he wasn't a lawyer for long, neither was he a diplomat. In 1951, he became journalist for All India Radio, which started his career as we know it. Even though he is universally known for his literary work, he is also a well-known editor/journalist and historian. In 1963, 7 years after the publication of //Train to Pakistan,// Khushwant published //A History of Sikhs//, a comprehensive two-volume book of Sikh History and Culture, still used by scholars and researchers today. Khushwant's journalism is widely acclaimed, and the highlight of his career was as editor of //The Illustrated Weekly of India//, and when he left the journal, all the popularity and readers he brought to the journal quickly plummeted. As editor of the //Hindustan Times//, he published a very popular two-length column every Saturday on the editorial page called "With Malice For One And All".

During an interview in the Youtube video below, Khushwant is asked what he thinks about India today. He replies that all he thinks about is the India of the past, and that the current generation is a "wretched lot". He says he spends most of time writing against superstition and religious bigotry. Despite being raised Sikh, Khushwant maintains that as the older he gets, the more he is sure of his agnosticism, and that religion is India's single worst problem. Even at his old age, Khushwant is still an outspoken critic of Indian politics, and while he may have made incidents in the courtroom, he has never acted unlawfully ([|Khushwant Singh Biography 2]). Despite his agnosticism, and secularism, in 1999 during the Sikh's 300 years at Khalsa at Anandpur sahib, Khushwant was honored with the highest decorum bestowed by the Sikh Community, Nishaan-e-Khalsa (Order of Khalsa).

Over the course of career, Khushwant has received many awards. From the Government of India, he received the Padma Bhushan in 1974, which is the third highest civilian award in India, recognizing their service to the country and nation. In 2000, Sulabh International titled him as the Honest Man Of The Year, with Dr. Bideshwar Pathak, the founder of Sulabh International, saying Khushwant's biggest attribute is that he speaks what he feels. He is honest to the extent that he offends even his friends and icons revered by people. It does not matter to him that it jeopardizes his chances in life. I think it is this quality that made Gandhi into a Mahatma. [|Khushwant Singh Biography 2] In 2006, he was awarded with the Punjab Rattan Award, which is given out by the Government of Punjab to those who, in the service of Punjab, gained international level in the fields of literature, art, culture, etc. In 2007, he achieved the second highest civilian award from the Government of India, the Padma Vibhushan.

In his essay "India", Khushwant talks about the importance Short Stories have had on Indian culture, and how in their current rebirth, it has taken the level of importance poetry once had on the culture. Below are 5 tips he gives to short story writers,

1 .a short story must in fact be short. It cannot be a short novel, any more than a novel can be a long short story. Just as a large painting needs a larger canvas and is better done in oils than in water colors, and just as a miniature is better done on ivory or parchment and in stone colors with its lines drawn with the precision of a hair brush, so it is in writing. A novel is on a large canvas, a story is like a miniature painting. Per- sonally, I would fix 3500 words as the outside limit for a short story. 2. a short story must be built around one incident or a series of incidents illustrating one theme or portraying one character or the equation between that one character and others. 3. a short story can be as fantastic and its characters and situations as fanciful as the writer cares to make them- provided they have the ring of truth and a "message" to convey. 4. a short story must have a distinct beginning, middle, and end. 5. a short story must have, like a scorpion's sting in its tale, a curlicue which sums up the story. (Singh 503)

media type="youtube" key="WLpJywDSpys" height="385" width="480"

Synopsis
The setting of // Train to Pakistan // is Partition-era Mano Majra, a fictional village situated on the Northwest Frontier of India bordering Pakistan. Mano Majra is home to approximately equal amounts of Sikh and Muslim inhabitants. Due to its diminutive size and remote area, the village has yet to experience any religious persecution between Hindus/Sikhs and Muslims occurring in more populous Indian and Pakistani locales. Mano Majra’s train station is largely incorporated into the existence of its residents; it is also the basis for several of // Train to Pakistan // ’s most important events and character developments.

The novel commences with the robbery and death of a Hindu moneylender. Two of the novel’s main characters become implicated in the murder: Juggut Singh and Iqbal Singh. The five Muslims // dacoits // (armed robbers) responsible for the murder are linked to Juggat Singh, a powerfully built Muslim laborer with a history of arrest. Juggut did not participate in the murder; he was with his secret lover, Nooran. Out of faithfulness to Nooran and her reputation, he is unable to produce an alibi for the night of the murder and is subsequently jailed. Iqbal Singh is an educated outsider of ambiguous religion visiting Mano Majra to preach his communist agenda. He is arrested for the moneylender’s murder by virtue of his outsider status.

During these affairs, the district magistrate visits Mano Majra’s deputy commissioner to discuss the possible advent of Muslim on Sikh violence in the village. Hukum Chand (the magistrate) stays in Mano Majra to oversee Muslim evacuation via train, and becomes romantically involved with a young village girl. Hukum Chand’s character is called into question throughout the novel; his lechery, alcohol consumption, and handling of the “Ghost Trains” arriving in Mano Majra make him a symbol of authoritarian corruption.

As // Train to Pakistan // progresses, accounts and incidents of Muslim on Sikh violence make their way to Mano Majra. The arrival of a train bearing hundreds of dead Sikhs sours the previously harmonious relationship between village Muslims and Sikhs. While Iqbal and Juggat become acquainted in jail, Hukum Chand struggles to curtail rising anti-Muslim sentiments and ultimately orders all of Mano Majra’s Muslims (Nooran among them) to board a train to Pakistan.

During a gathering at the lambardar’s house, a young activist dismisses Meet Singh’s pleas for nonviolence and incites the Sikh villagers to take action against the Muslims. The activist and several of Juggat’s former gang members devise a plan to murder the village Muslim passengers on the Pakistan-bound train; a rope is strung over the railroad tracks to halt the train and allow the rifle and spear-laden Sikh activists to board. Both Iqbal Singh and Juggat Singh are released from jail and discover the plan. While Iqbal debates which course of action is appropriate, Juggat sacrifices his life for Nooran and the train passengers by cutting the rope and falling to his death underneath the train’s wheels.

Historical Context
//Train to Pakistan// is primarily concerned with India and Pakistan’s division, and the effect it had on communities and individuals. In order to fully understand the novel’s characters and themes, one must be familiar with the 1947 Partition.

The primary motivation behind the Partition’s enactment was the Indian Independence Movement. India’s people were demonstrating their displeasure with British occupation and rule. Anti-British Colonialism revolts and an escalating sense of Indian nationalism resulted in discernible government reforms and a widespread increase in upward mobility. The formation of Indian sovereignty groups, such as 1876’s Indian National Association and the Indian National Congress in 1885, gave Indians a presence in previously British East India Company-dominated governance (221 Metcalf and Metcalf). While this movement represented India as a nation, Muslims felt Hindu reformers perceived them as a minority group, and worried their rights and concerns would be dismissed. The Muslim League was consequently founded to protect Muslim interests. It insisted on (and in 1909 received) more Muslim members in the predominantly Hindu Congress, and considered itself a separate entity.

The influence Mohandas Gandhi had on the Indian Independence Movement was astronomical; his various acts of peaceful civil disobedience from 1915 up until his death in 1948 revolutionized the nation and its desire for independence against Britain. Along with a growing sense of nationalism, however, came increasing dissent between the Muslim League and the Congress. The Government of India Act of 1935 aimed to resolve both British occupation and Muslim minority concerns. However, the act was eclipsed by the Hindu Congress’s dominance over the Muslim League in provincial elections. Increasing hostility between the parties and their supporters spurred the leader of the Muslim League to propose India’s division into two separate states, one Hindu and one Muslim (111-3, 121 Chatterji). Gandhi was strongly against this division, as he believed each religion should be able to resolve their differences and reside together peacefully.

The discord between the parties intensified. Congress’s disregard for Muslim tradition and beliefs enraged India’s Muslims; Britain’s support for the Muslim League enraged Hindus; Congress’s refusal to assist Britain in World War II angered both Muslims and British. Muslim acts of violence against Hindus and Sikhs (they were lumped together by virtue of being ‘non-Muslim’) began occurring, and the calls for India’s partition by religion became louder. In 1947, the Indian Independence Act was passed; the suspension of the British Empire and the establishment of Pakistan and India became official. The Bengal province became East Pakistan and West Bengal, and the Punjab province split into the Pakistani Punjab and Indian Punjab (73 Brass).

The Partition of India and Pakistan forced approximately 10 to 12 million displaced people to abandon their homes and migrate across the new borders for fear of religious persecution. Anywhere from two hundred thousand to three hundred and sixty thousand Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims died from continuing religion-based violence (75 Brass). Riots broke out in the now-divided Bengal and Punjab provinces; incidents such as the Great Calcutta Killing only contributed to the rising death toll. Government officials desperately tried to reduce acts of religious terrorism by mass-evacuating Hindus and Muslims to their respective provinces, but religious activists took such evacuations as opportunities for mass Sikh or Muslim murder.

//Train to Pakistan// explores the disastrous results of the Partition through the microcosm that is Mano Majra. Khushwant Singh wanted readers not to see the Partition’s victims as a statistic; he wanted to demonstrate how communities were divided, friendships dissolved, and violence propagated at a level readers can relate to. The novel is similarly not a political commentary, but an examination of Partition-era on the personal plane.

=The effects of Partition as seen in //Train to Pakistan// =

Khushwant Singh wasn't using historical context alone while writing //Train to Pakistan//. While still a fictional novel, Khushwant incorporated many experiences he was witness to. While he was still a lawyer in Lahore, he was on his way to his family's residence in Kasauli a few days prior to the partition, when he came across a group of Sikhs pridefully boasting they slaughtered a whole village of Muslim residents. However, even backed by personal experience, he was not tainted by bias, and the secularism Khushwant is known for is evident from the very beginning of //Train to Pakistan,

Muslims said the Hindus had planned and started the killing. According to the Hindus, the Muslims were to blame. The fact is, both sides killed. Both shot and stabbed and speared and clubbed. Both tortured. Both raped. (Singh 1) // The town of Mano Majra is fictional, and while villages similar may have existed, it is of Khushwant's imagination, and used to portray a community where Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims live in harmony. The village is a reflection of the effect of partition, turning a once humble village into one of chaos, where distinction and difference of religion becomes apparent through lines cut into geography The external pressure of partition tore the village apart, where there was no internal conflict prior.

//Train to Pakistan//, as the name implies, focuses on the death trains sent from both sides (India and Pakistan) filled with refugees. Mano Majra, being by a railway, becomes slowly tainted by the death that the trains bring. The partition, and everything that followed thus, was brought to them by train. However, before partition, the train were something else entirely. What once was used a force of colonization, became background imagery to the residents of Mano Majra. The train was a symbol of their routine, and apart of life,

When the goods train steams in, they say to each other, "There is the goods train." It is like saying goodnight. (Singh 5)

It acted a clock, reflecting the rhythm of their daily life. What was once the symbol of Colonialism and the British conquest of India became, to them, apart of their world. There was no longer conflict, the train was a natural to them as Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs coexisting.

However, the train is not natural. It is an instrument. As it was used to bring colonialism in, it was also what brought it out. It uprooted those with generational roots, shipping them across newly formed borders. For the people of Mano Majra, it was a symbol, it brought unity and harmony. It also took all that away.



Train to Pakistan: The Motion Picture
In 1998, a film adaptation of was released to general critic acclaim. The film is directed by Pamela Rooks, and the screenplay was co-written by Rooks and Khushwant Singh. The film version of stars Mohan Agashe as Hukum Chund, Nirmal Pandey as Juggut Singh, and Rajit Kapoor as Iqbal Singh. It received a nomination for Best Feature at the Cinequest San Jose Film Festival.

media type="youtube" key="raRia1UPpr8" height="313" width="396" align="center"

Other Works By Khushwant Singh

 * The Mark of Vishnu and Other Stories, 1950
 * The Sikhs, 1953
 * Train to Pakistan (Mano Majra), 1956
 * The Voice of God and Other Stories, 1957
 * I Shall Not Hear the Nightingale, 1959
 * The Sikhs Today, 1959
 * The Fall of the Kingdom of the Punjab, 1962
 * The History of the Sikhs, 1963
 * Ranjit Singh: The Maharajah of the Punjab, 1963
 * A Bride for the Sahib and Other Stories, 1967
 * Black Jasmine, 1971
 * Tragedy of Punjab, 1984
 * Delhi: A Novel, 1990
 * Sex, Scotch and Scholarship: Selected Writings, 1992
 * Not a Nice Man to Know: The Best of Khushwant Singh, 1993
 * Women and Men in My Life, 1995
 * Uncertain Liaisons; Sex, Strife and Togetherness in Urban India, 1995
 * The Company of Women, 1999
 * Truth, Love and a Little Malice, 2002
 * With Malice towards One and All
 * The End of India, 2003
 * Burial at the Sea, 2004
 * Paradise and Other Stories, 2004
 * Death at My Doorstep, 2005
 * The Illustrated History of the Sikhs, 2005
 * Why I Supported the Emergency: Essays and Profiles, 2009