Then there’s Hukum Chand, the seasoned district magistrate, scheming, playing his moves as in a game of chess. There’s the Europe returned intellectual Iqbal, a communist social worker seeking to reform the simpletons, but becomes a frustrated victim of bureaucratic quagmire instead. There’s the tough guy Jugga, a convict in parole, in love with a Muslim girl. The story is set in an isolated border village, Mano Majra, where Sikhs and Muslims lived in harmony, till the wake of the partition. The brawny thug had the wisdom which political leaders of the time lacked. Whom he will never marry, in whose womb grows the child he will never see. “The train went over him, and went on to Pakistan.” The train with Jugga’s fiance. The sacrifice of Juggat Singh, alias Jugga, for the love of his Muslim fiance. The brew is indeed acrid, and would leave one rather burned, but for the salve in the end. Trainloads of dead crossed the border, as people in vengeance sought an insane form of justice. Instead of joy in freedom, it was misery and bloodshed that greeted many of the new citizens. Thousands of refugees perished during the exodus, when a Pakistan was split from India. Although fiction, the background events are real. Not merely for its brevity and directness, but also for a context with which I could very much relate. Train To Pakistan by Khushwant SinghAfter the prolix of Love in the Time of Cholera, Train to Pakistan was a refreshing change.
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