CRITIQUE PAPER OF KARMA BY KHUSHWANT SINGH

Karma is a short story written by Khushwant Singh which revolves around Sir Mohan Lal, an
arrogant, native Indian who is a blind follower of the English culture and hates everything about India; and
his wife, Lachmi, who he looks down because she is poor and illiterate. Her presence in the story created
a contrast between herself and her husband’s attitude. The other characters are the disrespectful British
soldiers who were the instrument of Karma in this story. The attitude and aggressive behaviors of these
soldiers taught Sir Mohan Lal a lesson and a punishment of his own arrogance. The conflict of the story
started with Sir Mohan Lal’s negative outlook towards India and its culture, and how he sees himself as
superior above all Indians. It was resolved when the British soldiers made him feel worthless and
irrelevant by throwing him out of the train together with his belongings.

While reading, I realized that the author’s main purpose of writing this literary art is to open our
eyes and change our wrongdoings. First, we should all remain humble regardless of the achievements
and success we obtained in our life. Second, no matter the circumstances and events that will unfold, we
should still look back to where we came from and keep our feet leveled on the ground. And lastly, we
should practice patriotism, embrace our culture and love our country. It is acceptable to idolize other
country’s ways but it is a grave mistake to declare it as our own.

Certainly, Khushwant Singh did a great job at highlighting racism, the main social issue that affect
a lot of people in societies all over the world. Also, he well illustrated the famous line, “Pride comes before
downfall” which means that if you’re too conceited or self-important, something will eventually happen that
will make you feel foolish and irrelevant. In addition, Khushwant Singh well portrayed the fact that by
mimicking the western lifestyle or another country’s culture, we will lose our originality and identity and will
always remain a joke in the eyes of the westerners or foreigners.