‘Train to Pakistan’ as a Postcolonial Novel

        A saying as personal as ‘one does not find faults in themself until someone else does’ holds great political relevance too. From the seeds of separation sown into the hearts of the indigenous people by those from the ‘Mother Country’, grew the enormous Indian tree of self-doubt and unease. In the midst of the obvious bias of most historical texts, the brutally frank narration of Indian novelist and journalist Khushwant Singh stands out. His acclaimed historical novel ‘Train to Pakistan’ paints the not-so-rosy picture of the events following India’s partition in 1947. Written with the precision and purpose of a survivor, this novel is chilling.

        The linguistic abrogation in the novel does not only make it relatable to its twenty first century readers but it also better highlights the mental state and notions of its various characters. Urdu origin words like ‘budmash’ (rogue), ‘zulum’ (injustice), ‘punkah’ (fan) and ‘shabash’ (well done) frequently occur during the course of the book. What is obvious is that the way to incite one’s enemy was either by making lewd remarks about their female relations or publicly making assumptions about each other’s potencies. This also serves as the source of some comic relief, especially if the altercation is between village rogues Jugga and Malli.

        The novel gives space and time for the unfolding of stories of some of its characters like the police inspector Hukum Chand, the mischief-maker Jugga Budmash and the ‘religion-less’, foreign return Iqbal whilst keeping with the description of the atrocities of the partition.

        Though set in the fictional town of Mano Majra, the events narrated in the book are real and typical to any other village in Punjab at the time. Setting the mood of the village is the common site of horse ridden tongas and the charpoys in the yards of houses. Most of the residents of the village are farmers with their hopes of a good harvest hung on the whimsical monsoon. Located at the banks of the river Jhelum, this village is prone to flooding and the only warning of an upcoming flood is the one issued by those on the river watch. The residents of this peaceful village are made aware of the time of the day by the periodic passage of the goods train through it. The humdrum affairs of Mano Majra are disrupted on the arrival of a trainload of corpses.

        The words of the mischievous Jugga, though added intending to add comic relief to the text, introduce the new age readers to the notions and mannerisms of their mid-twentieth century counterparts. He says, “There is no fun in marriage, Babuji. Where is the time or place for fun? In summer, everyone sleeps out in the open and all you can do is to slip away for a little while and get over with things before your relations miss you. In winter, men and women sleep separately. You have to pretend to answer the call of nature at the same time at night.”

        Not aware of the reasons and need for separation as well as independence, the villagers are indifferent to it. In the portrayal of their attitude towards the same, Khushwant Singh brings the plight of the native bourgeois to the forefront, thus proving to be one of the few writers with authentic description of the event. Dialogues like “(…) freedom is a good thing. But what will we get out of it? Educated people like you, Babu Sahib, will get the jobs the English had. Will we get more lands or more buffaloes?” strike a chord with the reader and give them something to ponder over. It talks about issues such as the benefits of colonization to certain sects of natives, namely, the educated and the compradors.

        A postcolonial perspective, though a study of the dominance of the coloniser and the resistance of the colonized, the hegemony of the colonisers is not obvious here. The author, instead, chooses to throw the limelight over the ambivalence of the aboriginals toward the partition and this emotion is the main protagonist of the novel. The book proves that colonialism still existed after the foreign colonisers were driven out. It insists that the concept of colonization is not limited to the universal idea of one nation colonising the other but that any group, society or individual exercising power on the other can be said to be a coloniser. At a time such as the partition, any individual with oratory skills is shown to be able to sway public opinion.

        At one point, a hot headed teenager from another village, who no one knows, is seen walking into the Mano Majra gurudwara and motivating his fellow Sikhs to brutally kill the Muslims leaving on trains to Pakistan, so that Pakistan too receives a trainload of corpses. He states, “Do you know how many trainloads of dead Sikhs and Hindus have come over? Do you know the massacres in Rawalpindi and Multan, Gujranwala and Shekhupura? What are you doing about it? You just eat and sleep and call yourselves Sikhs- the brave Sikhs! The martial class!” Such violence under the name of religion also goes to show that the blame of the massacre could not be placed on one group and that all were responsible.

        What is especially interesting to learn is the difficulty of the masses in getting used to the new life they had not much earlier hoped for. Fearing their own lives, the Sikhs of Mano Majra had driven all the Muslim occupants out. But near confessions like ‘(…) since the Muslims had gone, their deserted houses with doors swinging wide open had acquired an eerie, haunted look’ pull at the reader’s heartstrings.

        With its experimental language, eye for detail, surprising climax and unconventional protagonists, this novel is an eye opener. An enlightening read, ‘Train to Pakistan’ not just educates its readers but it also stays with them much after they have turned the last page.  Whether it is taken up by one in order to seek answers regarding the manner or reason of their ancestors’ deaths or by just someone looking for a great read, it informs them of the gore that has been caused in the history of India and somewhere in its subtext, pleads with the present generation to let history not repeat itself. A postcolonial writer writing about the immediate reaction of the colonised country to post colonialism, Khushwant Singh shoulders his responsibility well and sets the tone for other Indian postcolonial writers.