Train To Pakistan

Ch-4 Part II
 Title:
Train To Pakistan

About Author:
Khushwant Singh
 Quick Summary
When he receives news of the planned massacre, Hukum Chand is at wit’s end. He tells the subinspector to let the mob kill, but to
keep a record of the police messages so they can prove they tried to stop the killings. The subinspector remains calm, knowing that
Chand doesn’t actually believe in what he’s saying. He slyly gets Chand back on track by hinting to him that Haseena will be amongst
the Muslims on the doomed train tonight. This news snaps Chand out of his despondency. He argues that they should tell the
commander of the Muslim refugee camp about the plot, so that he decides to keep the refugees at the camp instead of sending
them to Pakistan. The subinspector argues this is a bad idea, as an attack on the camp itself would then be imminent, and they don’t
have the manpower to stop it.

Chand sees the veracity of the subinspector’s words, and sits down to think. After a while, he asks about the current status of Jugga
and Iqbal. The subinspector replies they are in custody, and then Chand asks about Nooran. When the subinspector answers that
Nooran left with her father to the refugee camp, it seems Chand has come up with a plan. He writes up orders for the release of
Jugga and Iqbal, and orders the subinspector to make sure both men are in Mano Majra by the evening. At first, Chand’s plan isn’t
clear to the subinspector, but as he heads to the station, it begins to make sense.

As the subinspector releases Jugga and Iqbal, he warns them that they will find Mano Majra somewhat changed. The comment flies
over both men, who are more concerned with their release. This changes when the subinspector tells them the Muslims have all been
evacuated, and Malli is running amok, threatening Muslims and stealing their property. Jugga is immediately incensed, and swears
revenge. The subinspector warns him that Malli is armed and has a mob with him as well. None of this deters Jugga, who promises
he will make Malli suffer. Jugga then leaves for Mano Majra, with Iqbal in tow.
The tonga ride to Mano Majra is long and uneventful. No one talks, and the countryside is likewise still and silent. There are no men,
women, or children about, except for the odd armed man peering around a corner. Iqbal quickly realizes that if not for Jugga, who is a
known Sikh, he would be stopped, questioned, and possibly killed because of his circumcised penis. Iqbal rues his situation and
longs to escape to civilization in Delhi. Meanwhile, Jugga worries about Nooran and hopes she has stayed behind in Mano Majra to
wait for him. Once the tonga reaches the village, Jugga jumps from the moving vehicle and disappears into the night. Iqbal goes into
the gurdwara, where he finds Meet Singh leading the evening prayer. Around him are a group of mostly refugees, who look at Iqbal
suspiciously until the priest reveals he is Sikh.

Meet Singh takes Iqbal to his room, and informs him of what has transpired in Mano Majra since his arrest. The priest seems
reconciled to the horrors that have happened and those to come, and so blithely slips in that a killing is yet to come. This makes Iqbal
pause, and that’s when he finds out about the planned train massacre. He is agitated, and tries to get Meet Singh to intervene, but the
priest says that no one will listen to an old man. The priest counters by saying that Iqbal with his educated upbringing should be the
one to talk to the mob. Iqbal at first refuses, but when Meet Singh leaves the room, he begins to think.

Meet Singh’s suggestion that Iqbal talk to the mob sparks an inner debate in the social worker. Iqbal could tell the
mob that they are immoral, but he would surely be killed, and no one would be able to witness his supreme act of
sacrifice. In his eyes, this would render his sacrifice pointless. The point of sacrifice is the purpose, and the
purpose must be known by others as a good purpose. Because news of his sacrifice wouldn’t be spread across
the country, and he would die as just another nameless victim, Iqbal decides not to come to the aid of the Muslims
on the train. Instead, he sits in his room at the gurdwara drinking whisky, and muses about the state of India.

Later in the night, as Meet Singh sweeps the gurdwara’s courtyard, someone bangs on the door. It’s Jugga, and
he’s come for the Guru’s word. Meet Singh is annoyed, but reads Jugga a verse from the Morning Prayer. Jugga
asks Meet Singh what the verse means, but the older man brushes him off, saying that Jugga has no use for the
meaning. Jugga agrees, and turns to leave. On his way out, he catches sight of Iqbal sleeping, and tries to wake
him up. Meet Singh says not to disturb him, as he’s been taking medicine to feel better. Jugga asks the priest to
say “Sat Sri Akal” to Iqbal for him, and leaves into the night.

Back at the rest house, Hukum Chand is anxious. His faith in his plan of releasing Jugga and Iqbal so they could
stop the train massacre has dimmed. He thought Iqbal was the daring type of social worker with lots of nerve, but
perhaps he was actually the intellectual type who only criticize others for not doing their duty. Meanwhile, Jugga
was a notorious badmash who lived for money. If it turns out that Malli isn’t with the mob, perhaps Jugga would
join forces with them, and take part in the killing and looting. These doubts force Chand to question his own lack
of action and culpability in the massacre. As magistrate, he knows he has a responsibility to maintain law and
order, but without the support of the government he finds fulfilling this duty difficult.

As his thoughts spiral, Chand remembers various acquaintances who all had their tryst with destiny over the
course of the partition. First is his colleague Prem Singh, who went back to Lahore to fetch his wife’s jewelry.
While there, he drank beer and entertained Europeans at a hotel next door to the Pakistani parliament. As Prem
drank, a dozen men from the parliament waited to capture him. The next person Chand remembers is Sundari, the
daughter of his orderly. Recently married, she and her new husband met their tryst on the road to Gujranwala. A
Muslim mob attacked their bus, killing most of the men and raping the women. The last person is Sunder Singh, a
military hero who was given land in Pakistan for his service. When he and his family tried to escape Pakistan, they
got stuck on a train for days on end with no food or water. Sunder killed his family to end their suffering, but
cannot find the will to commit suicide. When the train began to finally move, he throws his family’s bodies off the
train, making it to India alone.

As Hukum Chand remembers these stories of horror and violence, he grows increasingly fearful for Haseena. He
wishes he made her stay with him instead of going back to Chundunnugger. Suddenly, he hears the rumble
of the train as it approaches Mano Majra. At first he begins to cry, but then he lifts his face to the sky, and begins
to pray.

At the bridge everything is going according to the mob’s plan. They’ve arranged themselves alongside the train
tracks, and have already tied the rope above the railway line. They lie in wait for the train, which eventually comes
puffing down the track towards the bridge. The mob has their eyes glued to the incoming train, so they don’t see a
big man climbing the bridge until he reaches the top where the rope is tied. As the mob looks on, the man begins
tugging on the knot, seemingly testing its strength. The train gets closer, and the leader of the mob yells at the
man on the bridge to get off, or they’ll shoot him. The man ignores the leader, pulls out a kirpan, and begins to
hack at the rope. The mob begins to wonder who the man is, but there’s no time to find out, as the train is almost
upon them. The mob leader shoots the man, but he doesn’t stop cutting the rope. He manages to hold on and
continues cutting, even using his teeth. The train is almost upon him, and the mob fires a volley of shots at him.
The man finally collapses and falls, but the rope finally snaps and falls with him. The train goes over his body, and
continues on to Pakistan.
Before the chapter

Before : Mano majra is in turmoil. The muslims have left Mano Majra(including
Nooran). It is Hukum chand’s plan to evacuate muslims to prevent any killing. As
per the announcement all the muslims of Mano majra will be taken to a refugee
camp. For the safety of their brothers and sisters, the sikhs of Mano majra agree.
Before leaving Nooran informs Jugga’ s mother that she is pregnant. The muslims
had to leave all their property with Malli being appointed as the custodian, due to
this the muslims had already guessed that they were in fact going to Pakistan and
not the refugee camp as informed previously.
Setting
Where did it happen?

Mano Majra is a small village located on the border of India and Pakistan.
The Sutlej river which is located half a mile away from the village has flooded.
The setting of the chapter in the beginning is the river.( River full of dead bodies)
In the evening the setting shifts to the Gurdwara located in Mano majra, where all the
villagers spend their night. The plan to attack the train travelling to Pakistan is
formulated inside the Gurdwara.
The setting switches to the rest house in which Hukum Chand was staying and then to
the police station located in Chundunnuger
The story/chapter ends at the railway line where the killing was about to take place.
Main conflict

A group of armed men dressed in khaki uniform enter the Gurdwara at midnight. The leader of the
group is an educated young man.He tells them of the massacres Muslims have committed in towns
across the continent, and scolds the villagers for not taking action, the young man calls the government
coward. This instigates the sikhs of mano majra. The young man shares his idea of attacking the train
which would be travelling to Pakistan. Malli and his gang agree and decide to support him. Meet singh
tries his best to stop the people of Mano majra and also predicts that the train could be carrying
muslims of Mano majra. But at the end, the young man is successful and the people of mano majra
decide to support him.
 Main Characters

Juggut Singh Iqbal

Nicknamed Jugga, A young, dacoit with a good

Iqbal Singh/Muhammad is an educated man sent
heart, he is the resident “bad boy” of Mano
to Mano Majra. In the starting of the chapter he is
Majra.In the starting of the chapter he is in the
in the jail at Chundunnuger with Jugga. He
jail with Iqbal. At the end of the novel Juggat
refuses to talk to the people who are planning the
Singh sacrifices himself for saving Nooran and
attack. Meet Singh assumes Iqbal is frightened
lives of the Mano Majra Muslims, as an act
redemption and regret of his past crimes.
 Meet Singh
Meet Singh is a priest and the
guardian of the Sikh temple in
Mano Majra. At the end of the
novel when the band of Sikh
extremists come to Mano
Majra and gather volunteers to
murder a train of Muslims
enroute to Pakistan, he is the
only voice of dissent.
Hukum Chand
Hukum Chand is the magistrate and
deputy commissioner of Mano
Majra and the surrounding district.
Morally questionable, he struggles
with many of his decisions
throughout the novel. In the end, he
attempts to avoid a massacre of the
Muslims in his district, and releases
Jugga and Iqbal so they can stop
the train massacre.
The leader of the Mob
A young man who comes to
Mano Majra from a surrounding
village. He incites the Sikhs of
Mano Majra to turn on their
Muslim neighbors, and devises
the plot to murder the train of
Muslims bound for Pakistan.
Symbols,Motifs
Trains

The two trains that regularly stop serve as a type of clock for the largely illiterate Mano Majra
villagers. As the mail train rushes through on its way to Lahore, this signals to the village that it’s
time to get up and start the day. And when the final goods train comes in at night, everyone knows
it’s time for bed. Thus, from early on, the train symbolizes technology, order, and structure.
Suddenly, trains become symbolic of the horrors of religious persecution, government instability,
and mob violence. Rather than being a vehicle that brings fleeing Sikhs and Muslims to safety, trains
are a death trap.
Railway Bridge (Symbol)

About a mile from Mano Majra is a railway bridge that spans the Sutlej River. The trains in and out of
Mano Majra must cross this bridge, so it has an integral function. Similar to the trains, it connects Mano
Majra to the outside world, and facilitates the movement of people and goods to, from, and through the
tiny town. In the later stages of the book, the bridge becomes the rallying point of the Muslim murder
plot. There’s a rope tied across the bridge that’s designed to kill the Muslim refugees sitting on top of the
train. Once that happens, the mob stationed around the bridge are to begin attacking the Muslims inside
of the train. At this point, the bridge is no longer a symbol of connectivity and a means of possible
salvation for the fleeing Muslims, but a symbol of impending doom.
The bridge later on also becomes symbolic of Jugga, his bravery, and his sacrifice.As he protects the
people on the train thinking that Nooran might be on it
Jugga’s Heroism (Irony of Fate)

Irony of fate is when the irony goes beyond being unfair, and is morally tragic. Jugga’s choice to sacrifice
himself to save Mano Majra’s Muslims is a prime example of this. The entire novel, Jugga is his town’s
bad boy. Half the town criticizes him for murdering his neighbor, although he is innocent of the crime.
Even before Lala Ram Lal’s murder, Jugga was a disreputable figure in Mano Majra, because of his and
his family’s past. Thus, it’s highly ironic that it’s Jugga, and not Iqbal, the enlightened and educated man
from the city, or one of Mano Majra’s religious leaders, who has decided to save the Muslims. The town
badmash must be his town’s moral compass and uphold their lofty ideals of neighborly love and loyalty
across religious lines. While commendable, his heroism is tragic, particularly when considering he has
no idea his unborn child is on the train to Pakistan with his lover, the heroic note of a romantic sacrifice
by juggat singh for nooran had become just one of the many deaths in the partition. Forgotten.
Themes
 The Partition of India and Religious Warfare

By refusing to cast blame toward any particular religious group for the violence of the partition, Singh
illustrates the complexity of humanity during a time when people were simplified to their religious
allegiances. He gives detailed accounts of the cruelties committed by all to emphasize that such habits
are not limited to certain religious factions, but rather, are common to humanity. Yet even as Singh uses
the story of India’s partition as a cautionary tale of what can occur when people succumb to their baser
instincts, his depiction of Jugga’s destruction of the rope shows that humanity is also capable of
extraordinary acts of courage and heroism in the face of hatred.
Here, we can see that the basis of the religious animosity isn’t the religions themselves but the
characteristics of the people who practice each religion.Most of the strife between the two groups
stems from acts of violence, both past and present, each side commits against the other.
 Post Colonial Anxiety and National Identity
A Train to Pakistan details how the Partition of India not only divided the nation geographically, but
also demarcated the British colonial era from that of postcolonial independence.Iqbal’s experiences
in Britain have allowed him to know the British on more egalitarian terms, however, while the others
know them primarily as ruling officers. Access to such experiences, as a result of his higher social
class, make it more difficult for Iqbal to understand the fears of poorer Indians who believe that they
cannot rely on themselves to develop their own path forward. At the heart of the 1947 Partition of
India are questions of national identity. What does it mean to be Indian, and what does it mean to be
Pakistani? For many Muslims, forced to leave India for Pakistan because of their religion, these
questions are particularly pressing. As Imam Baksh points out, Muslims have lived in India for
generations, setting roots and building lives. Their religion may be Pakistani, but their culture until
now has been Indian. Not only are they being forced to relocate to a country they know nothing about,
but they are experiencing violence and death along the way.The author ultimately uses the
conversation between Iqbal, Meet Singh, Banta Singh, and Imam Baksh to highlight the uncertainty
that many Indians felt in the post-Independence era.
Though British rule may have been unjust, some believed that the imperialists gave the country a
structure that it would not otherwise have had. From these conversations, the author describes the
nature of postcolonial anxiety—and how self-doubt, lack of education, elitist rule, and, now, sectarian
warfare, made a successful post-Independence government seem increasingly elusive.
 Power and Corruption

Despite his education and higher social station, Iqbal is no more capable of defending himself against
the police’s scheming. The sub inspector’s resentment of Iqbal, which influences his wish to frame the
social worker, is the result of his envy toward Iqbal’s education, higher social class, and foreign manners,
all of which the sub inspector first noticed upon their encounter at the train station. There are a few
interactions that reveal that, in a policing system in which officers can frame and imprison anyone they
please, everyone is vulnerable. Iqbal’s education and refined manners serve him no better than Juggut’s
six-foot-four frame; both are rendered small and powerless.
The author depicts specific instances of police corruption in A Train to Pakistan to underscore their
prevalence throughout India’s political infrastructure, the powerlessness of peasants, such as Juggut, in
response to it, as well as the difficulties that political agitators, such as Iqbal, face in transforming a
society mired under the weight of its own moral decay.
 Honor and Heroism

Through Juggut, Singh illustrates how anyone is capable of performing feats of heroism—that is, acts
that benefit others without offering immediate personal reward. Iqbal, meanwhile, presents himself as
someone who wants to help Mano Majra, but who in reality only wishes to use the village to facilitate his
own fame. He desires heroism yet shrinks from the sacrifices that he must make to earn it. The fact that
the villagers, including Meet Singh and other elders, assume that Iqbal is a good man despite his
selfishness raises the question of what it doing “good” actually means, as well as what mistaken
assumptions people make based on social status. Singh’s study of heroism through these two men
ultimately reveals the complexity of morality as well as the price of honor.
 Gender and Masculinity

Even as love proves a powerful force within the desperate world of A Train to Pakistan, women in the
story are routinely denied autonomy and defined primarily by their relationships to men. At the same
time, men in the story are subject to stringent expectations of masculinity that shape their prevalence
towards violence. By highlighting the highly-restrictive attitudes that prescribe both male and female
behavior throughout the novel, Singh suggests that, in addition to religious and caste tensions, gendered
prejudice is heavily to blame for the horrors following the Partition.

The novel’s treatment of women and hijras exposes their vulnerability in a country that does not value
them individually, and ultimately highlights how sexism and gender discrimination were related to the
vicious cycle of violence that engulfed the country. The gendered nature of that violence is evidenced in
the novel’s repeated mention of rape as a weapon of war. For example, Muslims in Mano Majra speak of
rumors “of gentlewomen having their veils taken off” and being “raped in the marketplace.”
 Morality
The characters of Train to Pakistan grapple with questions of morality throughout the novel. Early in the novel,
Meet Singh argues that because Europeans don’t care much for religion, they have no morals. Clearly, he sees a
direct link between religion and morality, but ironically he would have no problem lying on Jugga’s behalf if Jugga
murdered someone from another village. This is just one example of morality’s shaky status in the novel. In Mano
Majra, being moral means being loyal “to one’s salt, to one’s friends, and fellow villagers” . This takes precedence
over truth, honor, and financial integrity. Though this code of morals is baffling to outsiders like Iqbal, it makes
perfect sense to villagers like Meet Singh and Jugga. This code is one of the reasons why it’s Jugga, not Iqbal,
who sacrifices himself to save Mano Majra’s Muslims, even though Iqbal seems morally superior to Jugga for
most of the novel.

Hukum Chand is another key character when considering morality in Train to Pakistan. At every turn, he seems to
wrestle internally with the decisions he makes. For example, after Haseena spends the night at his house, he
wakes up and feels “old and unclean” (Singh 133). He compares her to his daughter, and feels remorseful about
his actions, but realizes once he drinks again his remorse will fade away.
When Chand releases Jugga and Iqbal, hoping that they will save the train of Muslims from the mob, the
morality of his decision haunts him again. He is effectively sending two civilian men of questionable
intentions to save a group of refugees from certain death, and it’s a mission that should have been his
responsibility as magistrate of Mano Majra. Chand knows this and feels uneasy about his choice, but
does nothing to fix it. Instead he sits, cries, and prays, turning to religion in his hour of moral ineptitude.