Train To Pakistan
My rating
5 / 5
Self-Purchased copy
Author
Khushwant Singh
Publisher
Penguin India
Genre
Fiction (Indian)
Number of Pages
190
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Summary
Mano Majra is a small village nestled in the boundaries between India and Pakistan on the banks of the Sutlej river. Every day the villager’s day begins with the onset of the first train into their village, the track of which passes at some distance from the center.
In the summer of 1947, unaware of the Hindu-Muslim unrest and partition chaos, a dacoity happens in the village killing Ram Lal the most prosperous of the villagers. An eerie silence creeps into the village. Two suspects are arrested by the Police. Juggut Singh, a local badmash having an affair with a village Muslim girl. Second Iqbal, who arrives on a train the day after the murder, is an educated man from England sent by the People’s Party.
Then there is the re-arrival of a train, only now it carries thousands of corpses of Sikh killed and mutilated, and that begins a battle that will chill you, and shock you to the core.
My Review
I feel lucky to have read this book because I feel I have discovered an Indian writer who can elegantly and rivetingly hold my attention for the 190 odd pages of this book. Although first published in 1956, I think the ultimate charm to this book is its core emotions and thought process remains relevant even in the 21st century.
Khushwant Singh has portrayed his observations, frustrations, and desperation through the monologue of the educated character Iqbal, and I loved his straight forward-thinking without holding back anything in the last chapter of Karma.
The descriptive daily routine described before any of the untoward incidents is lush and soothing. It gives us a glimpse into the unusual unity we are to encounter.
Amongst the uncanny incident of the train, Singh describes the onset of monsoons in such eloquent words that readers will get lost in the first drops of rain.
Final Verdict
Although the story has warnings of sex, rape, torture, killings, massacres, I implore you to read this book. It is undoubtedly an exceptional piece of writing in Indian literature, and the story will always send Goosebumps whenever I remember it.
Top Quotes from Train To Pakistan
“Not forever does the bulbul sing
In balmy shades of bowers,
Not forever lasts the spring
Nor ever blossom the flowers.
Not forever reigneth joy,
Sets the sun on days of bliss,
Friendships not forever last,
They know not life, who know not this.”
“Freedom is for the educated people who fought for it. We were slaves of the English, now we will be slaves of the educated Indians—or the Pakistanis.”
“India is constipated with a lot of humbug. Take religion. For the Hindu, it means little besides caste and cow-protection. For the Muslim, circumcision and kosher meat. For the Sikh, long hair and hatred of the Muslim. For the Christian, Hinduism with a sola topee. For the Parsi, fire-worship and feeding vultures. Ethics, which should be the kernel of a religious code, has been carefully removed.”
“Morality is a matter of money. Poor people cannot afford to have morals. So they have religion”
“Consciousness of the bad is an essential prerequisite to the promotion of the good.”
“There is no crime in anyone’s blood any more than there is goodness in the blood of others. Criminals are not born. They are made by hunger, want and injustice.”
“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.”
“And all the mumbo-jumbo of reincarnation. Man into ox into ape into beetle into eight million four hundred thousand kinds of animate things. Proof? We do not go in for such pedestrian pastimes as proof! That is Western. We are of the mysterious East. No proof, just faith. No reason, just faith.”
“Not forever reigneth joy, Sets the sun on days of bliss, Friendships not forever last, They know not life, who know not this.”
“Your principle should be to see everything and say nothing. The world changes so rapidly that if you want to get on you cannot afford to align yourself with any person or point of view. Even if you feel strongly about something, learn to keep silent.”
Khushwant Singh
Khushwant Singh, born on 2 February 1915 in Hadali, Undivided India, (now a part of Pakistan), was a prominent Indian novelist and journalist. Singh's weekly column, "With Malice towards One and All", carried by several Indian newspapers, was among the most widely-read columns in the country.
An important post-colonial novelist writing in English, Singh is best known for his trenchant secularism, his humor, and an abiding love of poetry. His comparisons of social and behavioral characteristics of Westerners and Indians are laced with acid wit.
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