Train to Pakistan!!

Train to Pakistan.. a celebrated novel by Khushwant Singh, which has been translated into many other foreign languages and is accepted as one of the classics of modern Indian fiction. The bold novel recites a tale of Blood and the ill-fate of the partition which took place in 1947 when India got independence. The book when published was titled as 'Mano Majra' but is now known as 'Train to Pakistan'

The story revolves around a small village called Mano Majra where there are only three prominent buildings, A Gurudwara (a sikh temple), a mosque and a home of the moneylender Lala Ram Lal. The characters in the novel are described by the Author in beautiful way. Lets talk about each one of them individually and the story related to them.

Staring with Lala Ram Lal, in the novel, he doesn't have a specific role because he is killed in the first half of the story but the author has tried to keep him alive by revolving the other characters around it. He was a big moneylender of the town who is killed by Malli (the badmash from the other own) and his group people because they wanted money and they loot the house of this moneylonder and go away.

Malli, a badmash from the other town round the village is a rival of another badmash of this village called Juggut Singh, whose family is the family of dacoits. Malli singh kills Lala Ram and the blame comes down on Juggut Singh because he was the renowned badmash in the locality who was barred from going out of the village area after dark. But on the fateful day of the killing, Jugga was with the girl(Nooran, daughter of Imam Baksh) whom he loved and because they heard the fires from the gun that they came back to village. but to his bad luck, the people have already reached his house to check upon his presence but because he wasnt there, the villagers believed that it would be him who committed the murder. Though some villagers were of the view that he could not have killed the man of his own village but their belief did not make much of difference. He went absconding but was caught by the Police after he came back to relax in his house in the dark. He then was taken to the jail where he had to spend his time for a long period with another guy who was arrested by the police on the same charges of killing the moneylender.

Before proceeding further, let us throw some light on the other characters in the novel, Meet Bhai Singh is the care taker of the Gurudwara and he preaches the words of Granth to people. He is a sensible man and believed in his God till the end. Then there is Imam Baksh, who is half blind due to his cataract but he is the caretaker of the Mosque. basically in this village the mullas were the tenants of sikhs.

Another interestung charcater is Hukkam Chand who is the magistrate and plays an important role in letting the train reach pakistan which contained the musalmans of Mano Majra in it. He has a distingushed character in the whole book. Though he wants to make love to a girl who might be his daughter's age but he cannot come over the guilt feeling he has when he thinks of doing it. he can be called a corrupt officer because he orders arrest warrants for innocent people and releases the guilty ones inspite of knowing the truth. He tortures the accused but one can come to the conclusion that he palnned things in an opposite manner which was directed somehow for the good of all the people of that village.

The other character is Iqbal who is basically a cut surd and a social worker sent to the village by People's Party of India to take the situation under control by imparting ideas and values in the minds of the sikhs. however, to his bad luck, he gets arrested by the police on the charges of Muder of Ram Lal even though he landed in the town a day after the killing took place. At the early stages of his arrival, he refuses to accept any religion as such but the situations make him accept that he was a sikh and his name was Iqbal Singh and not Mohammed Iqbal as claimed by the sub-inspector whose name in the book, i guess is not mentioned.

now coming down to the main story, the author is describing as to how the minds of the individuals who till yesterday were addressing the fellow muslims in the town as their own, were changed to go against those fellow members itself just because in other part of the world, their cast people were murdered by this cast people. It starts with the murder of the moneylender of the town who was a hindu, people started suspecting Juggut Singh who is a Sikh. The police arrest him to make a case against him which might be true or might not be true but because he is the badmash in the town, he was arrested. A day after the murder, Iqbal Singh comes to the town to maintain peace but his ideas are drowned due to his unexpected arrest by the police with the charge of murder. the police insipte of knowing that he is a Sikh, fills the chargesheet with the name Mohammad Iqbal instead of Iqbal Singh. The Trains stopped passing from the town on the right time it used to or more late than the usual time to get late. The daily routines of the people at Mamo Majra got effected but nothing really bothered. The magistrate comes to the town to have his wishes fulfilled but this visit turns to be a disaster with the partition taking place, the law and order of the town goes out of hand. The trains started coming with corpses instead of living people in it, the magistrate and other people associated with it, tried to hide the fact to avoid any kind of commutation in the village but the villagers used to climb on their houses and peep in the far fletched area to see what is happening. the fact that the lambardar was asked to collect the woods and the kerosene which can be spared by the families in the town made the people believe after some point of time that there are dead bodies which have to be cremated. but with the break of monsoon in the town, the cremation became a tough task so they started burring the bodies after digging the ground and pilling up the bodies one on the other. meanwhile, juggut and iqbal are in the jail unaware of anything of this sort happening outside. the police catches Malli and his associates for the murder of the moneylender but they were left in front of the villagers and the police tried to fool the villagers by asking about Sultana who was a Muslim Badmash but had already left the town with the other members of his society. Meet Bhai singh tried his best to control the situation but nothing was in his hand, he was just a preacher and not the authority. Hukkum Chand has different plans everytime an arrest is made for the purpose of the murder.

Later due to lot of trouble anticipated, the muslims of the area were asked to leave the town so that their lives can be saved but who knew that their own people who were swearing to take care of their houses in their absence will turn violent against them after an instigation by a stranger who challenged the manhood of these sikhs. This is when Juggut Singh and Iqbal are released from the jail and then juggut singh learns the departure of her love who is carrying a 2 months baby in her womb and was first turned down by the mother of this badmash. thereafter, juggut singh decides to save this train passing by which had his love and other members of their society on board by ruining the plans of the stranger. He lost his life but dint not let the train stop for the massacre to happen. it is disheartening to mention that the train which passed by earlier containing dead corpses was marked as 'Gift for Pakistan' and here we could see a Hindu saving a life of hundreds of the muslims.

Even though in those times when the country was getting divided, there were people in the various parts of the country who were like Juggut Singh who, just to protect the lives of their countrymen parting from them, laid its life to save theirs. This is what India is known for but why do people like that young stranger poisons the minds.... The consequences are grave which cant be healed in decades to come... the people are ripped of their own dignity and no one knows who started this whether it was Hindu's or Muslims... but there were victims irrespective of the cast!!!