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Critical study of the Journey in “The Peshawar Express” and “The Train has reached

Amristar”

“People travelled in buses, in cars, by train, but mostly on foot in great columns called kafilas,

which could stretch for dozens of miles.” These refugee marches comprised tens of thousands

of people, sometimes up to nearly 400,000 individuals. Many women who were raped or

abducted were reportedly taken during attacks on kafilas.”

Urvashi Bhutalia, “The Others side of Silence” 1

The Partition of India led to one of the largest ever processes of forced migration. It was

estimated that by March 1948, six million Muslims and four and a half million Hindus and Sikhs

had become refugees bringing about a virtually complete and forcible exchange of population.

The freedom of the country ironically meant, for large sections of masses, the loss of freedom to

live peacefully, safely and happily in their homes. The birth of a new nation and the redefining of

the boundaries of the ‘Free Indian’ meant uprootedness, loss of life and property, rape and

abductions, rendering thousands of people penniless and homeless and the majority of this

happened in people’s struggle to reach a new home. The terrified faces we see today in the

texts and images help evoke a powerful symbol of pain and trauma that ordinary people went

Urvashi Butalia is an Indian feminist and publisher. Along with Ritu Menon, she co-founded Kali for

Women, India's first exclusively feminist publishing house, in 1984.

Butalia, Urvashi. The Other Side Of Silence. 1st ed. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000. Print.

through. The “truth” of Partition migration, thus, masks the complexity and the multiple levels

within the population movement. For instance, the experiences of upper caste migrants who

flew down to safety or that their household belongings and bank accounts were transferred

through official means seldom frame the popular imagination of “what happened during the

Partition”. The Partition migrants, thus, in the popular accounts appear united in their misfortune
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irrespective of their social class, caste and gendered experiences.

The means of transport used during the migration becomes a point of entry into differing modes

of how individuals or communities experienced at that time. While the foot journeys took weeks

of travel and were fraught with dangers of violent attacks, looting and abduction on the way, the

air transport took no more than a couple of hours and posed no risk of attack to the travelers. In

between these two options lay train and motor truck transport that was not always easy to

obtain and, once it became freely available, it became targets of specialized attacks. The means

of transport provided the vantage point from which to “witness” and later on “narrate” Partition.

Two such stories that show the journey of these people through train is, “The Peshawar

Express” and “The Train has reached Amritsar”. Both the stories portray the same sense of

violence happening at the time of partition but the narration of the stories is very different from

each other. The most gruesome and nerve racking depiction of mass killings during the partition

is perhaps in Krishan Chander’s story, “The Peshawar Express”. It can be said that the story is

a moving account of the manmade cruelties and bestial activities emerging from the communal

passion which leaves the readers stunned. The people of both the countries were inflicting the

worst kind of violence on each other. The thing that makes this story different is that in most of

the partition narratives we usually see a man or a woman narrating the story but in “The

Peshawar Express”, it’s the locomotive of a 1947 refugee train which becomes the narrator.

Trains happen to be one of the most enduring images of the partition of the subcontinent. An

image of overload trains, with people pasted onto every possible part of its body, clinging on to

the windows, perched precariously on footboards, hanging between the buffers, crowding on the

roofs is what immediately comes to mind while thinking of the partition. It is an image that has

been permanently imprinted on the nation’s collective imagination and has become over the

decades, a convenient shorthand to refer to the partition.

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a train carrying refugees.

In the story as the train travels from Peshawar to Bombay via Taxila, Wazirabad, Lahore,

Amristsar, Jullundu and Ambala the locomotive narrates the humiliation and massacre of its

passengers. And yet having used the journey to convey the horrors of Partition, Krishan

Chander has the locomotive speak of a progressive future where, rather than dead bodies, the

locomotive would haul grain to famine area and visit coal mines steel mills and fertilizer plants.

Thus, it can be said that the train carrying Hindu refugees from Pakistan (Peshawar) to India is

personified throughout the story. Chander provides a very moving, mind boggling and heart

rending account of the train killings, looting, abduction and rape. The train was carrying

refugees who were overcome by a sense of grave insecurity in Pakistan and thus they were

trying to escape to India. The refugees were so grieved that even the train “felt so weighed

down under their cataclysmic grief that it slowed down her speed” (p. 816). Chander has been
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successful in showing the people’s fear of their lives. He made the readers realize that the

people who were boarding the train were very depressed, “their faces were tensed with fear and

their women and children looked around apprehensively” (p. 816). The evacuees who were

escaping to India as refugees breathed some sense of sigh as they boarded the train but they

were not fortunate enough to continue their journey uninterrupted. The train was time and again

stopped by the rioters who brutally harassed and butchered the passengers. After boarding the

train, we can see the sense of confusion on the face of the people as to why the train isn’t

moving but as the time progressed they started thinking that there might be some more Hindus

who might be coming but what they saw completely took them into shock. They saw Muslims

carrying the dead bodies of Hindus over the sound of drums, the readers are showed the impact

of the situation through the sound of the drums, as the music of a drum somehow intensifies a

situation. The unfortunate people tried to escape but they were caught by the mob and killed

mercilessly. These people were sacrificed at the altar of communal insanity. Even before their

journey starts they are subjected to merciless killings. The story also shows that at the time of

partition, everyone’s religion became their identity whether it were those who were in the mob or

the ones who were protecting them. The guards guarding the refugees helped rioters to fulfill

their mad desires. Ironically the guards pushed a few Hindus out and entrusted them to the care

of the mob where all the Hindus were asked to stand up in a que and were killed one by one.

Another thing that creates an impact in the journey is the use of language by Chander where the

Hindus are called as “Kafirs 2” which is very derogatory term for Non-Muslims.

Kafir is an Arabic term meaning "unbeliever", or "disbeliever". A person who rejects or disbelieves in God

and the teachings of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, and denies the dominion and authority of God

Ironically this heinous crime is happening at a place which “boasted of being the leading

university of Asia, where thousands of students flocked from distant places to study civilization

and culture (p. 818). Yes, this holy land was Taxila whose “museum housed unique images and
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inmitiable jewellery, representing the finest example of Asian art”. (p 818) But now people of this

land have gone mad and this communal passion and hatred that they have piled up in their

head is making them collect skulls and corpses to “decorate” the museum. This was the land of

Buddha who used to preach the gospel of non-violence but on that same land there was only

bloodshed. Later in this gruesome journey Chander introduces women. The women who are

considered to be the worst sufferers amid bloodshed and killings. At the Rawalpindi station

Muslim appeared with some Non-Muslim women and they boarded the train. These women

were crying pitifully. Later they were dragged to jungle where the mob had their “way” with these

women. He writes, to the train, “it appeared the whole earth was covered with the dark

forebodings of the doomsday” (p. 819). There is a constant use of the symbolism which adds an

impact to the journey for example when the train reached Lalmusa there were so many dead

bodies that they had to throw them out of the train, later in this paragraph he writes, “In no time

all the dead bodies, along with those who had carried them, had vanished leaving sufficient

space in the carriages for the people to stretch their legs in comfort.” (p. 820)

Throughout the story wherever the train stopped its journey there was a massacre about to

open like at the Wazirabad station massacre took place again. But the train was first looted and

then four hundred passengers were pulled out of the train and were being killed. Here it was

done out of revenge since the Muslims rioters had seen that four hundred Muslims were being

killed so to match the scales of both the communities they start killing one by one. Not only this,

a procession of naked women was seen at this station. These naked women ranged from old

women to young girls where they were made to sit naked in the women. “A little child asked, Ma

why are you sitting naked? He wondered if she was returning from a bath. The old woman

forced her tears. Today the sons of her land had given her a sinister bath” (p. 821). The story

depicts how man had degraded himself to the level of beasts. As the journey of the train

progresses readers are told that similar acts of communal violence were carried out on the other

side of the border. The Hindu and the Sikh rioters were doing the same things, killing, looting,
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raping Muslim refugees. No doubt, the cataclysm has shaken the human conscience. People

had become so callous and ruthless in the name of the religion that even infants were not

suffered from the wrath of the rioters, “A Jatt impaled the body of an infant on his spear and

jubilantly flung in the air” (p. 823). The happy and prosperous land of Punjab was now tarnished

and mutilated beyond recognition. Both the communities were responsible for bloodshed and

arson. Both were responsible for killing mankind. Both had fallen. The story has always been

under the radar of facing extreme criticism. It was slammed by the government of Pakistan

for being biased towards Muslims, who were shown perpetrating extreme violence against

Hindus and Sikhs. although it seems like an unfair charge since the Peshawar Express also

recounts the violence against Muslims in East Punjab, albeit less graphically. Chandar has been

charged with “bad faith” for overdoing his account of the violence to provoke disgust and anger

amongst the reader. He has been criticized harshly for meticulously balancing the fatalities

suffered by both sides and trying to create the impression that all three communities are equally

blameworthy for the carnage and mayhem of 1947. Without entirely agreeing with these

criticisms, Chandar’s emphasis on the actual violence instead of its psychological impact on the

perpetrator or the victim does flatten out the complexity and depth of the human tragedy of

partition. But it is the ideologically motivated narrative ending of the story that is most jarring.

After “The Peshawar Express” grinds to a halt in Bombay, it is washed and cleaned of its

accumulated layers of blood and alcohol stench and put away into the shed. Haunted by the

rape and killings it has witnessed, the train wishes never again to leave the shed. The story

ends with the train’s idealistic rant that it may never again be used to lug corpses and hate.

“I am made of wood and steel. There is no life in me. And yet rather than witness bloodshed and

be burdened with dead bodies, I want to carry grain to the famine stricken areas. I want to visit

coalmines, steel mills and fertilizer factories. And transport in compartments happy and care

free peasants. Women with their eyes longing for their men folk, children with smile on their

face. People who would salute new world where there would be no Hindus or Muslims, just
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human beings”. (p. 826)

With this statement Chander shows that every creature in the world whether living or not wants

peace, coexistence, a life of dignity, laughter, simplicity, family, love, and a community that

nourishes.

Another story which looks at the boisterous event of partition through the journey of a train is

Bhisham Sahni’s, “The Train has reached Amritsar” or “We have arrived Amritsar”. He has used

the train as a site to articulate the fragility of life, and the uncertainty of being able to reach one’s

destination. In Sahni’s story the Hindu weakling shifts from being in a state of terror in a Muslim

majority area to a state of revengeful and homicidal arrogance in the Hindu majority area.

Passing from one warring territory to the other, the train carried not just people but horrific

rumors as well. Thus, the motif of the train acquires the status of a reporter, travelling far and

wide to report on violence. Sahni in his story has masterfully described the breakdown of civil

amity in a confined public space. It can be interpreted that the story is set just before partition

and the communal violence is about to rise. At the beginning of the story a group of Muslim

Pathans begin to tease a Hindu clerk, or Babu, mocking his effeminate manner. Their chiding

were very jocular at first, but as the train leaves Lahore they began to fall silent and the Hindu

who has swollen his pride until that time, gradually becomes emboldened and tries to rally the

other Hindus and Sikhs in the carriage. Outside the windows smoke and flames can be seen in

the villages they pass; evidence of looting and bloodshed were very common and can be seen

through the lens of the characters. The train itself doesn’t stop and Sahni’s description convey

its relentless momentum, crossing over a border that is yet to be defined. Seeing a town where

rioting has broken out the mood in the railway compartment changes dramatically.

“After the train left the city far behind, there was silence in the compartment. When I turned

around to look at the passengers, I noticed that the Babu’s face was pale and that his forehead

was covered with sweat. He looked deathly pale. I realized then that each passenger was

nervous and suspicious of his neighbour. The Sardarji got up from his seat and sat down next to
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me. The Pathan on the lower berth climbed up to join his two companions on the upper berth.

Perhaps the conditions in the other compartments were the same. Everyone was tense. The

lights had been turned off. The old woman was telling her rosary. The three Pathans on the

upper berth quietly watched everyone below. The passengers were alert to everything around

them”.

It shows that how a journey which was looking like a fun ride for everyone changed its

perspective so swiftly as when religion was added to it. The change of perspective in this

journey happens with the Muslim throwing out a poor Hindu man out of the train and later in

Amritsar the Babu does the same. The psychological nuances captured in this story are

indicating the demarcation of space in terms of dominance of one community over the other

even in the train compartment and the mirroring of this dominance in the ego structure of

individuals. Through this journey, we find a sharp criticism of the construction of hyper

muscularity in times of communal strife as well as the vindictiveness and ill will that often

underlies the psychic make up of those on the receiving end of taunts about their lack of

muscularity. Bhisham Sahni has presented this journey in the story with a panoramic view. As

the landscapes from the train window kept on changing the modes of the people present in the

story kept on changing for example the Babu who looked weak and effeminate in Pakistan gets

all man up when he reaches Amritsar.

“We have arrived!” he shouted again in excitement. “We have arrived in Amritsar!” He leapt up,

whipped around to face the Pathan, and began shouting, “Come down, you bastard! You son of

a bitch…! May your mother…” The Babu began to hurl filthy curses at the Pathan. With the

rosary in his hand, the Pathan turned to look at the Babu and said, “Oh, Babu, what’s the

matter? What have I said?” Seeing the Babu greatly agitated, the other passengers sat up.

“Come down, you son of a bitch…! You dared to kick a Hindu woman, you bastard…!” “Oh,

Babu, stop cursing and screaming. I’ll cut your tongue out, you son of a pig.” “You dare to abuse

me! May your mother…” The Babu shouted as he stood on his seat. He was trembling with
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rage”.

The panoramic vision of the train journey thus serves to show up the contrasts of not just people

but also city/provinces and city/nature. The unfolding panorama may be passive or active

depending on how the protagonist or the panorama influence them. The transformation of the

characters in the story is a comment on how the madness of the times made murderers out of

ordinary men. This is also reflected in the character of Ranvir in Sahni’s novel Tamas, who,

having once killed a hen, can kill any human being without remorse. Both the Babu and Ranvir

share many similarities as for both of them it’s the journey that changes them. For Babu the

journey might be more physical and involve diaspora but for Ranvir the journey lies in his

conscience where he travels from being a young man to a Hindu fanatic. We know that men are

moved by a complex of motives that passion is uncontrollable and that the fragile threads by

which the webs of communication, understanding and existence are spun can snap at slightest

excess of stress. The readers might think that they understand why the Babu act as he does,

but in reality, the understanding cannot be fully ours. To be able to fully explain evil is to provide

its rationale, its justification. Ultimately Sahni’s story leaves us with a feeling that there is, and

will continue to be, something inexplicable and ineffable about human behavior. Every journey

in our lives is something of a mystery, something of an accident and indeed both these motifs

figure largely in both the stories.

Both of these stories helps the readers to explore railways as a “main setting or as the critical

sense of violence”. The projects of modernity and nation building embodied in the railways

came to a climax in 1947 when the same railways became sites of horror as national, local,

secular and communal forces converged and conflicted. With its mandate to testify to the true

cost of freedom, witnesses the derailment of modernity. Both the stories has shown us the

different levels of violence inflicted on the people at the time of migration. The stories are

simplistic and secular in a literal sense, they describe events as a mute passerby might see

them. They contain the emotions like drama and emotions but the gruesome violence is what
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that settles on the readers. A journey is something that makes us nostalgic because of the

memories attached to it but the question is would the people who have migrated in the event of

Partition, would they like to visit their memories of journey again and again? For some of them

these journeys would be their visit to new home but to some the loss of their loved ones.
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Works Cited
1. Roy, Rituparna. South Asian Partition Fiction In English. 1st ed. Amsterdam: Amsterdam

University Press, 2010. Print.

2. Hosain, Attia, Ravikant., and Tarun K Saint. Translating Partition. 1st ed. New Delhi: Katha,

2001. Print.

3. Butalia, Urvashi. Partition. 1st ed. Print.

4. Saint, Tarun K. Witnessing Partition. 1st ed. Print.

5. Gnanamony, S. Robert. Literary Polyrhythms. 1st ed. New Delhi: Sarup & Sons, 2005. Print.