Book Reaction: Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh

Through the eyes of villagers in a border town in the Punjab area of India called Mano Majra, author Khushwant Singh paints a picture of the “Partition” of August 1947. The Partition is a historical reference to the time when India and Pakistan were created after the British rule. When the border lines were drawn, there were distinct religions associated: Muslims in Pakistan and Hindus and Sikhs in India. It was a historical moment of great religious hatred, uprising and bloody violence. Throughout the book great detail about the characters’ relationships allows us to get close to a social, cultural and political understanding of the time.

Turning the pages, we witness the fairly peaceful lives of the villagers in Mano Majra impacted by the traumatic events of the national conflict. The Muslim villagers in Mano Majra are forced by the government to leave everything they know to get across the border to Pakistan safety. Trains back and forth over the border often arrived packed full of dead bodies- as a signal to the other side. This only fueled more retaliation for the conflict.

The book’s ending reminded me of a well known saying that my parents used to tell me in reference to Nazi Germany that went something like this:
First, they knocked on my door asking for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I was not Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak up for me.

My friends and I did not agree on the final scene in the book, where they say Jugga (the village troublemaker) saves the train full of Muslims (including his pregnant girlfriend) that is about to be derailed before getting to safety across the border to Pakistan. I actually think the author never quite tells us who gave their life to ensure that the train got across safely. It left room for us to reexamine each character’s internal battle to stand up for what was right and also to draw parallels with our own lives. We all have it in us. Which of us would actually do it?