“Train to Pakistan” is the story of those post independence days when massacres were routine; cutting and killing was matter of pride; communal riots were at peak; inhumanity and brutality had taken wildest ever shape…………It was perhaps the darkest page of history of India independence, without any silver lining at all.
Mano Majra, a small commonplace village on the border, peacefully leading its way of life, the life of Sikh farmers and their Muslim peasants. The villagers are dwelling happily despite all odds of post independence calamities all around.
Jugga Singh, a dacoit, a budmash, is arrested for dacoit and murder of a Hindu Money Lender in his own village, Mano Majra. It is known to the Police that he is not involved in the crime, but as a part of strategy of the Magistrate to save this border village from those killings, Jugga is kept in custody.
The old Magistrate, Hukum Chand, lays one more strategy to move Muslims of Mano Majra to Pakistani camps, to protect them from possible attacks, not by Sikh dwellers of Mano Majra, but by refugees coming over from Pakistan and also by villagers from other parts of district.
When all Muslims are moved to refugee camps, including Jugga’s beloved Nooran a troop of fundamentalist Sikh youngsters along with some Sikh refugees, plot a plan to execute the Muslim travelers in a ‘Train to Pakistan’.
In a dramatic end of the story, which shivers you entirely, Jugga sacrifices his life to save the ‘Train to Pakistan’, and gets butchered by the very train which he saves from his own countrymen and community people.
Khushwant Singh’s first novel, “Train to Pakistan”, deserves many accolades. The book depicts the horrifying times of post independence days. The facts to which our generation is completely alien. In a country like India, people were butchered, women were ravished, kids were ruthlessly killed and houses were voraciously looted. Without going into too much of description on such incidences, Khushwant Singh lefts tremendous impact on your mind about all these things, and also perhaps raises the thunderstorm of questions; the unanswered questions.
Khushwant Singh uses his each word aptly and choicely. While creating the drama in the story, he doesn’t forget to write some paragraphs about the beauty of nature, the philosophy of human life, failure of religion systems etc. This adds literary value to the book. His characters are real life characters. He’s meticulous describing even the small action or movement of the character, which makes each one of them live.
The book is very honest effort. The story is crafted and drafted such a way that its neither boring or slow nor is too dramatic such that it would lose its real life touch. He takes leisure in building the drama in the story, but never disturbs the flow of the story.
Unusual to such stories, which usually end on negative note, “Train to Pakistan” in one way ends with a very positive note. The story doesn’t give any message or lay down any controversy, but raises some obvious questions in one’s mind, search of which would begin, when one would end reading the book.
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