Memory, Massacre, and Moral Collapse: Partition Narratives in Train to Pakistan

Abstract

Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh is one of the strongest fictions of 1947 Partition of India, which showed the great human loss of the Partition due to communal violence, displacement, and the loss of moral ethos. Located in the village that appears as quiet till the end of the world, Mano Majra, where living Sikhs and Muslims have been coexisting long enough, the novel describes the evolution of the community into a territory of fear, betrayal, and blood. The paper addresses three interconnected patterns, namely, memory, massacre, and moral collapse, as the core of the paper on the topic of how Train to Pakistan represents the trauma of Partition. The novel opens with nostalgia and sense of coexistence of communities that were together in sharing culture and not in independence, it is a sentiment based on collective memory on shared ways of living and living together with each other. This memory of unity however becomes controversial and painful as outside forces of politics start to enter the village and as refugees report violence. Singh opposes the remembered harmony to the current situation of hostility, providing an example of how the history can be redefined by the survival instinct and fear. The appearance of the "ghost train" with the shot Muslims aboard can be regarded as such a pivot, a falling into a massacre and disintegration of morality. Singh does not use a sensational approach of describing violence but, instead, heightens the horror of violence with his low-key narrative style. The casualness with which the ideas of the killings of the Muslims in the village in another train bond all the people into the sense of collective violence reveals the relative and casual rose of the ordinary persons into communal violence. The paper also explores moral breakdown of people and institutions. Other intellectuals such as Iqbal find themselves in a state of incapacitation and administrative figures such as Hukum Chand demonstrate personal security instead of justice. Against this backdrop, Juggas sacrifice is a short yet complete redemption factor. By using these themes, Singh develops an even more convincing denunciation of Partition as not simply a political catastrophe but also the most human tragedy, in which memory turns into trauma, violence is naturalized, and morality is the first victim.