Train to Pakistan: A Saga of Unsalvaged Suffering

The torments of the colossal human tragedy of the partition of India and its aftermath are still being borne by the people of India in some way or the other. The fissured social and emotional spirit of the people is still not healed. The horrific scenes of partition still haunt the psyche of the Indians. Millions were massacred and those that were alive were like live corpses moving around. Their sufferings are unfathomed. They not only suffered physically but also mentally and emotionally. Khushwant Singh’s Train to Pakistan is a novel that unfolds all aspects of suffering and pain which were endured by the people at that time. Singh has been successful in communicating to his readers the tribulations of the partition days, the harrowing experiences, grossness, the madness and the bestial horrors.The displacement of people from one country to another became the root cause of the whole holocaust. The village which bustled with activity turned into a kenopsia. Singh’s rankling at the idea of partition can be perceived in the novel. In the novel, Singh has vehemently written about every aspect of the dreaded violence to which women were subjected. It is quite obvious from the conditions prevailing in India that this splitting of the country was a futile effort. It sowed the seeds of communal discord permanently. People are still suffering they have not fully recovered from this psychosomatic trauma. The seeds of harmful weeds that were sown by the partition are still being reaped by the Indians.

43 the border leading to massive destruction, despair, antagonism and murderous chaos. The whole society was beset by a paroxysm of angst.
The partition of India is not an ordinary historical event that can be buried in the annals of history and forgotten. It is that dark page in the history of India which will continue to haunt the memories of the people for ages. During this holocaust, more than eight million people migrated and approximately one million died. This kind of forced migration and massacre is unprecedented to date. The historical documents can give an account of the dead bodies but cannot communicate the shrilling shrieks of pain borne by the wounded, mutilated bodies and the lacerated souls and psyche. History can never sketch the heinousness and magnitude of the tragedy of partition. Historian, Urvashi Butalia has rightly said that partition "has ramification that reach far beyond 1947, yet historical records make little mention of the dislocation of people's lives, the strategies they used to cope with loss, trauma, pain and violence" (Butalia 5 (English translation) opens with a shocking description of the aftermath of the partition: The flood of communal violence came and went with all its evils, but it left a pile of living, dead and gasping corpses in its wake. It wasn't only that the country was split into two bodies and minds were also divided. Moral beliefs were tossed aside and humanity was in shreds (Naqvi 3 Singh has however succeeded through resolved limitation and rigorous selection in communicating to his readers a hint of grossness, vastness and utter insanity of the twonation theory and the partition tragedy. The pity and horror of it all" (Iyengar 228). In the novel, Singh has focused more on the communal and patriarchal discourse of the time of partition.
The storyline of Train to Pakistan is seething and emotionally exhausting. It is a witness to the naked dance of the appalling carnage. The most perturbing fa cet of the partition was that the villagers who were living together in harmony for a very long time suddenly became foes, thirsty for each other's blood. Some imaginary lines divided the masses of India. Salman Rushdie the famous diaspora novelist has aptly said in his novel. The Midnights Children that the subcontinent of India was, "split like an amoeba". Amitav Ghosh in his novel The Shadow Lines also mentions these imaginary lines which divide places. The character Tha'mma is unable to see any lines or trenches dividing India and Bangladesh. The splitting aggravated prejudice and animosity. In this fractioned milieu, men started tearing and snapping wildly like animals on each other and the bonds of human relationships were torn and tattered. Religious tension was the root cause of this violence. Jugga relates to Iqbal and the tongaman, Bhola: The Bhai told me of a truck full of Baluch soldiers who were going from Amritsar to Lahore. When they were getting near the Pakistan border the soldiers began to stick bayonets into Sikhs going along the road. The driver would slow down near a cyclist or pedestrian, the soldiers on the footboard What had the Sikhs and Hindus in Pakistan done that they were butchered?
Weren't they innocent? Had the women committed crimes for which they were ravished? Had the children committed murder for which they were spiked in front of their parents? (Singh 157).
Although people like Iqbal Singh (the social worker) exist they are very few, who do not pollute their minds by the venom which the communally charged people spit on others.
When Iqbal sees the frenzied crowd outside, he feels feverish he wants to go out and face the maddening and mindless mob and make them aware that what they are indulging in is a grave misdeed. But he is hesitant whether he should go out and tell the mob: He has a keen desire to suppress this bestial violence and bring a moral change in people, but he knows that this resistance would in turn generate more violence. He suffers from the anxiety of getting killed for no reason, his death would be a futile sacrifice.
Jugga is a character who sacrificed his life at the end of the novel to save his beloved Nooran who was aboard the train which was going to Pakistan loaded with Muslim refugees.
The irony of his life is that he was considered a 'badmash' by the whole village but he is the only person who proved to be a true human being. He suffered the stigma of being a dacoits son. He was falsely accused and jailed. Had he not been in jail he would not have let his mother behave with Nooran rudely. He and Nooran would have been happily married. It is the 'badmash' who baulks the plan of the fanatics to kill the people on the train by displaying exemplary courage in cutting the rope which was tied to kill the 'solid crust of human beings on the roof'. In this act this stud bull forfeits his life; "The engine was almost on him. There was a volley of shots. The man [Jugga] shivered and collapsed. The rope snapped in the centre as he fell. The train went over him, and went to Pakistan" (Singh 190).
Train to Pakistan recreates the scenes of the horrific ethnic violence that disfigured the face of humanity. When the ghostly train comes to Mano Majra and halts with a deathly silence, a sense of fear lurks in the atmosphere. The train appeared sinister and ominous.
There is an air of kenopsia around the station. The 'shrieking silence' and the putrid smell of the burning dead bodies makes the people shudder and brood, the train had come from imagination to the scenes of horror which he has described in the novel. The ghastly and inhuman acts come alive before our eyes sending a shiver down our spines. Here is a heartrending description. After hearing the human cries for help the three men who were assigned the duty of watching the flooding river 'Sutlej' and the lumbardarwent near the river and stood on the embankment. In the darkness of the night, things were not visible properly. They could not make out that something was floating in the river; "it was a dead cow with its belly bloated like a massive barrel and its legs stiffly stretched upward. Then followed some blocks of thatch straws and bundles of clothing" (Singh 149). Then they heard the rumbling sound of a train with no lights and the train did not whistle. This was the second train that had come to Mano Majra loaded with the dead, mutilated bodies. They sat near the river with heavy hearts and in the light of the dawn they could see very conspicuously the: Carts with bloated carcasses of bulls still yolked to them. Horses rolled from side to side as if they were scratching their backs. There were also men and women with their clothes clinging to their bodies; little children sleeping on their bellies with their arms clutching the water and their tiny buttocks dipping in and out (Singh 150).

49
The villagers could deduce that these people had not drowned rather they had been brutally slaughtered. The body of an old peasant was floating which: had a deep wound on his neck, which slanted down from the side to the chest.

Many incidents in the novel enunciate this mental and psychological suffering. Hukum
Chand is sickened with fear psychosis after catching a glimpse of the ghostly train. He also suffers from stress and anxiety related to the well-being of Haseena and the people of the village. He "looked like a tired man. One week had aged him beyond recognition" (Singh 163). Other characters in the novel like Imam Baksh, Meet Singh also suffer from anxiety and fear. Hukum Chand also felt miserable because of the pricks of his conscience; "he felt a pang of remorse. He also knew that his remorse and good resolutions went with the hangover.
They always did. He would probably drink again and get the same girl over and sleep with her -and feel badly about it. That was life, and it was depressing" (Singh 100).

50
One extreme example of mania and depression is of Sunder Singh, a brave Sikh soldier, who was granted land in Sindh by the government. He was going by train with his wife and three children. The train in which they were travelling was detained at the station for four long, hot days. The passengers were not allowed to onboard the train. Sunder Singh's children felt hungry and thirsty. They kept on crying for water, Sunder Singh had no other option but to serve them his urine. But after some time that also tried and the crying sound unnerved Sunder Singh and "he pulled out his revolver and shot them all" (Singh 187).
The plight of women who suffered the brutalities of violence has been described fervidly by Singh in Train to Pakistan. The women were the worst sufferers. They suffered because of their smothered and fettered existence. They were suppressed, oppressed and victimized. They were powerless so they had no power of resistance. The inhuman violence inflicted upon the meek women rendered them lifeless. The dehumanising sexual violence ended their existence, even if they were alive, they were mere puppets of flesh and blood without any soul. The novel is replete with descriptions of violence against women. Women of all ages were brutally raped, assaulted, mutilated and abducted to be used as a sex toy to gratify sexual desires and humiliate the other community. They were also paraded naked on the streets. To save their honour many women immolated themselves or jumped into the wells or became a victim of honour killing.
The novel also relates the brutal ordeal of Sundari, the young, newly married daughter of Hukum Chand's orderly. She had been married just four days ago to Mansa Ram who worked in Gujranwala as a peon. The crowd of relatives had not allowed their privacy to meet each other. Sundari had hardly seen him properly. They both sat in a bus going to Gujranwala with all hopes of a happy married life. The red lacquer bangles and the attractive henna patterns on her palms were still deep red. She was daydreaming about how she would be loved by her husband but suddenly all her hopes and desires are crushed to bits when a 51 huge crowd of people stopped the bus and ordered the passengers to come out. The Sikhs were hacked to death and she who had not even seen her hundred's face properly: [W]as shown her husband completely naked. They held him by his arms and legs and one man cut off his penis and gave it to her. The mob made love to her. She did not have to take off any of her bangles. They were all smashed as she lay in the road, being taken by one man and another and another (Singh 197).
What could have been more brutal and gruesome than this to this young, Sundari! There were many such women like Sundari who suffered profoundly because of the savagery that wreaked havoc on their lives. The sexual assaults brought shame and dishonour to them, their family and their community. The word 'izzat' (honour) has strong sexual connotations associated with womanhood. The honour of a woman was associated with the honour of the community. It could save or taint the glorious image of the community. This was the reason why men abused women of the other community. Abducted women were not accepted by their family and community in India, due to the fear of this social stigma. To evade this situation the women who were victims of sexual violence either did not go back home or committed suicide. In the novel also there are references to this code of society.
Many women jumped into wells or set themselves ablaze. After undergoing such excruciating mental and physical torture their death was a mercy to them. The unspeakable misery and torments which the women endured and suffered during this devastating sexual violence cannot find a befitting pronouncement in black and white.
The emotional sufferings of the characters of the novel are no less than their physical sufferings. The feeling of loss led to critical emotional distress. During partition, people suffered economic loss, loss of loved ones, loss of identity, loss of roots, loss of honour, loss of faith etc. displacement was a major cause of emotional despair because when people are He feels anxious about her safety. Meet Singh and almost all the people, Hindus as well as Muslims feel sad at the time of separation. "They wiped the tears off their faces and turned back to their homes with heavy hearts" (Singh 145). Later when Jujja comes to know that Nooran is in the refugee camp and will go to Pakistan he cannot bear it. The thought of separation from Jugga twinges the heart of Nooran. She goes out on the rainy night to meet Jugga's mother (Jujja was in custody). Nooran does not want to go anywhere, she wants to marry Jujja and give birth to Jujja's child which she is carrying in her womb. She pleads to his mother to inform Jujja so that he can rescue her from the refugee camp at Chunddannugger. The scene of Nooran's separation is pitiful.
The feeling of alienation is another kind of suffering that these characters undergo. 53 the other hand, the Hindus who had run from Pakistan felt lost in this new land, India because the land which they were forced to leave was their native land.
Thus, it is discerned that much of the tragedy grew from the displacement during partition. The whole society was reshaped, identities were thwarted, aggressive, chauvinism based on religious identity came forth, intolerance and fanatism were rampant. All this was instrumental in augmenting and aggravating the sufferings of the human lot. Train to Pakistan revives the perturbing wounds of partition in post-colonial India. Singh has not depicted the events in the novel with a political angle but has provided human facets that transcribe the perception of genuineness apprehension and integrity. He has ended the novel on an optimistic note that humanity is not completely dead. Even a blackballed character like Jugga can bring a ray of hope and life for the disconsolate and distressed souls. Singh's art "is a creative endeavour of transcending the actual, asserting the value and dignity of the individual and finally, of expressing the tragic splendor of man's sacrifice for a woman" (Sahane 52).
The novel Train to Pakistan encapsulates the colossal human tragedy of partition which still lurks in the memories of the people. Millions of people who had to realign identities are still suffering. Those who had to start their life all over again from the scratch suffer from the nostalgia for the loss of home, country, friends and relatives. People are still bearing agonies stemming from the troublesome nostalgia of things left and lost. The ruination, the bloodbath and "heaps of crushed humanity" cannot be forgotten easily. This suffering is our cultural heritage. The symptoms of this historical trauma will continue to pass from generation to generation along with the emotional baggage. It is ingrained in the collective unconsciousness. Their hearts are splintered. Their fractured spiritskeep oscillating between India and Pakistan. Many families are still struggling to cope with post-traumatic stress disorder. The people suffer from things that happened in the past and from fear of 54 future happenings. Almost seventy-four years have passed but the wound of partition has not been healed properly. Thus, the suffering remains unsalvaged.
Literature has kept the shocking memories of partition alive in our minds. The startling narratives of many writers from the time of partition till today mention this catastrophic episode. This itself proves that the Indians have not recovered from the trauma. It has been aptly said that; "The rending of the social and emotional fabric that took place in 1947 is still far from mended" (Menon 91). This suffering is a state which has enveloped our psyche and seems incurable. The existential angst is sustained leading to never-ending problems. "Today the legacy of 1947 looms larger than ever before on the subcontinent. Partition has actually proved to be a trauma from which the subcontinent has never fully recovered. But sadly, this is not reflected in its history writings, a fact that is lamented by many" (Roy 18).