Gandhi Philosophy

THE AGONY OF PARTITION IN ‘TRAIN TO PAKISTAN’ Dr. Seema Singh* Every year on “15th of August” we Indians become witness to an exhilarating experience- ‘The Ecstasy’. The ecstasy of being a free country takes us down the memory lane where we contemplate the India of 1947. But then at once it reverberates of the other side- ‘The Agony’. The agony of partition of our country and the communal riots that erupted was traumatic which left its impression on the society, the politicians and the intellectuals. The trauma of partition stirred the creative genius of Indo- Anglian novelists too and the novels like - ‘Azadi’ by Chaman Nahal and ‘The Rape’ by Raj Gill painted the features of partition. Manohar Malgonkar’s ‘A Bend in the Ganges’ conceived on epic dimension is based on partition theme. Another novel, written by H.S.Gill, ‘Ashes and Petals’ also evokes the partition theme. Of all these writers Khushwant Singh enjoys the distinction of being the first novelist to capitalise the partition of India and Pakistan in his very first novel “Train to Pakistan”, which is perhaps one of the best and the most powerful novels on the relevant theme. The freedom movement and the freedom of India were turbulent, heroic and bloody and the furious winds of change and destruction, death and rebirth blow through the pages of ‘Train to Pakistan’. The formal creation of Pakistan had by the summer of 1947 led to the massacre of almost a million of Hindus and Muslims; actually it was a surgery without anaesthesia. The story of ‘Train to Pakistan’ revolves around the haunted days of August 1947. Certainly there are many other novels based on the partition theme but of all the novels, novelty of this story resides in the treatment of the tragic aftermath of partition. The novel is set in an imaginary village ‘Mano Majra’ situated on the border of India and Pakistan. It is the summer of 1947. The frontier has become a scene of rioting and bloodshed. But in Mano Majra, partition does not yet...