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.