#Imagery in a train to pakistan code#

Unfortunately for party ambitions, Iqbal is rather too fastidious to commune much with the locals: educated in England and accustomed to middle-class comforts, heВ found the press of humanity unbearable on the train, and, staying at the Sikh temple because there is no hotel, heВ has broughtВ his own bedding and food, andВ covertly sterilises his water to avoid any contact with less than clean fingers. Jugga is arrested, and so is Iqbal, a young communist sent by the party (with remarkably poor timing) to вЂenlightenвЂ™ the village as to the potential for real reform if they would only abandon their ignorant ideas (which include remnants of loyalty to the Brits, with whom some of them served in the war). But вЂ“ contradicting his admiration for JuggaвЂ™s fatherвЂ™s selective moralityВ and his explanation ofВ JuggaвЂ™s efforts to go straight вЂ“ he tells Iqbal thatВ вЂ a snake can cast its slough but not its poisonвЂ and Jugga вЂhas crime in his bloodвЂ™. His father and grandfather who were both hanged for murder, never robbed their own village and indeedВ provided protection because no other dacoits would dare come to Mano Majra while they were alive. 40)ДЄs far asВ Meet Singh is concerned, Jugga has disgraced his family. Have you ever heard of dacoits robbing their neighboursвЂ™ homes? Now all morality has left the world.вЂ™ (p. Iqbal Singh, this is Kalyug вЂ“ the dark age. вЂRobbing a fellow villager is like stealing from oneвЂ™s mother. So Meet Singh, (the Sikh leader playing host to Igbal in the temple),В is shockedВ when the evidence points to Jugga. She is the daughter of the self-proclaimedВ mullah, Imam Baksh. When he sneaks out at night these days, itвЂ™s to meet his 16 year-old girlfriend, Nooran. Besides, despite a string of convictions, Jugga is a reformed character. That is how the village knows that the murderer could not possibly be the local bad-boy,В Juggat Singh, because everyone knows that bandits do not prey on their own. Certainly they subscribe to ideas about truth and honesty and financial integrity, and yes, they observe their religious obligations up to a point, but more important than that is loyalty to the village.

#Imagery in a train to pakistan code#

Muslims and SikhsВ have lived together in Mano Majra as brothers for generations, and this is in large part due to the moral code by which Punjabis live. (Khushwant Singh is clear-eyed about endemic Indian corruption and sardonic about incompetence). Unexpectedly, they have a murder to deal with, but it is clear from the outset that justice is unlikely to be done. These reports have brought the presence of magistrate and deputy commissioner of the district, Mr Hukum Chand, and his entourageВ of armed policemen. They areВ Muslims fleeing India and Hindus and Sikhs fleeing Pakistan, and there are terrible reports of вЂghost trainsвЂ™ carrying slaughtered victims arriving at frontier stations along the line. Only Ram Lal the moneylenderВ is Hindu and his murder at the hands of dacoits (bandits)В at the beginning of the story coincides withВ imminent violence as trainloads of refugees pass through theВ village. About half of them are Sikh small-holders and the other half are Muslim tenant-farmers. There are only about 70 families in the village.

The only remaining oases of peace were a scatter of little villages lost in the remote reaches of the frontier. By the time the monsoon broke, almost a million of them were dead, and all of northern India was in arms, in terror or in hiding. In the summer of 1947, when the creation of the new state of Pakistan was formally announced, ten million people вЂ“ Muslims and Hindus and Sikhs вЂ“ were in flight.

Written in 1957, it is set during Partition, when the British had departed and hopes of a peaceful transition were in shreds:

Khushwant Singh is a prolific author, and his third novel Train to Pakistan is a classic. Using the Recommendations page at his blog, I set myself up with an Indian-Lit to-read shelf at GoodReads, and Train to Pakistan is theВ first book in this literary journey. A little while ago I decided that I wanted to redress my woeful ignorance of literature from India, (as distinct from expat Anglo-Indian literature)В and I asked my friend Vishy for some advice about what to read.