Train to Pakistan
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Average rating4.1
“In the summer of 1947, when the creation of the state of Pakistan was formally announced, ten million people—Muslims and Hindus and Sikhs—were in flight. By the time the monsoon broke, almost a million of them were dead, and all of northern India was in arms, in terror, or in hiding. The only remaining oases of peace were a scatter of little villages lost in the remote reaches of the frontier. One of these villages was Mano Majra.”
It is a place, Khushwant Singh goes on to tell us at the beginning of this classic novel, where Sikhs and Muslims have lived together in peace for hundreds of years. Then one day, at the end of the summer, the “ghost train” arrives, a silent, incredible funeral train loaded with the bodies of thousands of refugees, bringing the village its first taste of the horrors of the civil war. Train to Pakistan is the story of this isolated village that is plunged into the abyss of religious hate. It is also the story of a Sikh boy and a Muslim girl whose love endured and transcends the ravages of war.
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Brilliant story. It shows how political propaganda can turn people minds. The book tells about the horrific events resulted by partition of India.
When I saw Gadar for the first time, the images of bodies on the train scarred me so much that I never revisited that movie and the handpump shenanigans for a long time. Train to Pakistan invokes the same kind of feeling . The book is haunting in its depiction of the partition, elaborate in describing the rural Indian life, frank in showing how religions are viewed in India and walks in a delicate balancing act between all three aspects. There are 2-3 protagonists and some of their plot points do seem contrived, but it takes nothing away from the core idea of the book.
PS: Do not read it before you go to sleep.
What an emotional roller-coaster ride! The story revolves around the bloody week of partitioning into India and Pakistan and how barbaric mutilations were the norm during that time. Khushwant Singh brilliantly uses hypocrisy and morality to show how fickle the human mind is and how easily it can be persuaded into different directions. Though the book lacks coherence in certain segments, it builds up to a crescendo as the story unfolds - the last few pages, especially the last segment is tragically beautiful. A must-read for sure!!
