Submitted to :Mam Syeda Ayesha Bukhari

Submitted by :Rashid Mehmood

Sequence # :05
Batch-09(AERO)

Book review
on
“A Train To
Pakistan”
English
composition

RASHID MEHMOOD
5/15/2011
Title : A TRAIN TO PAKISTAN
Author : KHUSHWANT SINGH
Publisher : Penguin Books India & Ravi Dayal Publisher.
ISBN NO. : 97801-4306-5883
First published in 1956 but this specific one was published in 2009.

Purpose of the book is to enhance the knowledge of the reader regarding the
partition of subcontinent and its effects on the peoples especially on villagers.
The book basically is an example of Mano Majra (small village) where
majority peoples are Muslims and Sikhs. And also to throw some lights on the
behavior of Sikhs, and their relations with the Muslims, and also their part in
the partition.The author wrote that both the communities live together friendly
before the partition. But suddenly partition starts and now same peoples
changes their attitude towards each other.

The writer first explains the peaceful life before partition and then the stages
during and after the partition. The content and the quality of English are fine.
But in some cases in order to gave the reality the author uses some foul
language he also explain some abuses which is unnecessary. He adopted a
chronological order and in doing so he don’t wrote much about its basic topic
i.e. the time during partition. Layout isn’t so impressive i.e. it often creates
difficulty for the readers that who is the listener and who is the speaker? And
he uses the primary source as he is telling the story in a manner that it seems
that he also in the scene of the story. There are few things which could be
removed without affecting the story or essence of the topic for example he
explain some irrelevant and foul scenes. And author also went so deep in
them which were not necessary to do so. He also wrote some irrelevant
things which could be erasable.

The writer don’t appreciate this movement of people as some peoples don’t
wants to left their ancestral homes and villages same is the case with Mano
Majra their Muslims also don’t wants to leave their homes but due to the
danger of being killed by the refugees from Pakistan they had to left their
homes, property, cattle’s etc. and also it results in a lot of causalities i.e. the
trade of trains full of corpses being observed by the indo-pak peoples. when
Sikhs saw the train full of corps from Pakistan then they became hyper and
wants to take revenge of that but when they thought that they are planning to
kill their own village fellows on behalf of Pakistani Muslims so most of them
came back but refugee Sikhs don’t wants to lose their chance to take revenge
from Muslims so they make a plan to destroy the train to Pakistan but their
whole plan was vanished by a Sikh who sacrifies his life to save the life’s of
the Muslims which were going to Pakistan.

You can get the idea of this book with the following quotation written by
khushwant Singh:

“Muslims said the Hindus has planned and started the killings according to
Hindus, Muslims were to blamed. The fact is, both sides killed. Both shot and
stabbed and speared and clubbed. Both tortured. Both raped.”

“Juggut Singh went near the track and slowly started climbing the ladder. He
reached the top, where the rope was tied to damage the train going to
Pakistan. Jugga holded himself firmly, took out the knife from the back and
slowly started cutting the rope. The planner to destroy the train starts
shooting at him. He heard the sound of train coming closer he has almost
finished cutting the rope. He was convinced that now the train will find its way
safe to Pakistan, and so will be his love Noora.The planner fired again, and
the bullet went in as mercilessly as ever, the sound of train came further
close, jugga fell down on the track, the train went over him and went to
Pakistan.”

Characters along with their professions are as follows:

➢ Lambardar (a person which communicates between the peoples
and the government)
➢ Ram laal (a money lender and richest person in Mano Majra)
➢ Meet Singh (he looks after the Gurdwara)
➢ Imam bakhsh (imam of the mosque of Mano Majra& also a weaver)
➢ Hukum chand (a magistrate which orders the inspector regarding
the different matters of mano majra)
➢ Juggut Singh (an illiterate badmash of Mano Majra)
➢ Inspector sahib (a person who took the order from magistrate)
➢ Nooran(daughter of the weaver imam bakhsh)
➢ Iqbal Singh (an educated person called himself as a representative
of peoples party)
➢ Bhola (a Tonga driver)
➢ Haseena (a dancer)
➢ A young extremist Sikh which leads the Sikhs to destroy the train of
Muslims.
➢ Mali and his gang

This book is very different as compare to the other book written on the same
topic by the other author. That author explains mostly the time period during
the partition and all the difficulties faced at every steps of their journey and
also he discusses more general views regarding the partition. But in this book
the author spend most of its times in explaining the life before the partition
and so he only explain very little about the original topics requirements i.e. the
time during the partition.
Over all this is the only English book other than text books that I read
thoroughly. It’s nice to read the book I choose that because it is easily
available and also considerably small in size, and also the topic encourage
me to choose that book first I thought that it will be about a train and the
difficulties faced by the peoples during their journey. But in this book the
author adopts the different way. He explains mostly the other things instead
of basic topic.