{"id":91103,"date":"2019-03-18T12:50:39","date_gmt":"2019-03-18T07:20:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vallamai.com\/?p=91103"},"modified":"2019-06-17T12:06:43","modified_gmt":"2019-06-17T06:36:43","slug":"peer-reviewed-a-critical-analysis-of-story-telling-khushwant-singhs-train-to-pakistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vallamai.com\/?p=91103","title":{"rendered":"(Peer Reviewed) A Critical Analysis of Story Telling \u2013 Khushwant Singh\u2019s Train to Pakistan"},"content":{"rendered":"

E. Rengadevi M.A., M.Phil., B.Ed.,<\/strong>
\nAsst.Prof. of English<\/strong>
\nP.G. & Research Dept of English<\/strong>
\nSanghamam College of Arts & Science<\/strong>
\nAnnamangalam 604 210<\/strong>
\nMel Malaiyanur T.k<\/strong><\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

Abstract<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Indian English Literature originated as a necessary outcome of the introduction of English education in India under colonial rule. In recent years, it has attracted widespread interest, both India and abroad. It is now recognized that Indian English Literature is not only part of the Commonwealth Literature, but also occupies a great significance in World Literature. Today, a number of Indian writers, in English, have contributed substantially to modern English Literature. Fiction, being the most powerful form of Literary expression today. Indian English fiction occupies its proper place in the field of Literature. This article analyzes the storytelling of Khushwant Singh\u2019s \u2018<\/em>Train to Pakistan.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Khushwant Singh\u2019s biggest attribute is that he speaks what he feels. He is honest to the extent that he offends even his friends and icons revered by people. He brought history to our doorsteps.<\/p>\n

Narrative Discourse<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>\u201cAs an adjective, \u2018narrative\u2019 means \u2018characterized by or relating to storytelling\u2019. Thus, a narrative technique is the method of telling stories and narrative poetry is the class of poems (including ballads, epics, and verse romances) that tell stories, as distinct from dramatic and lyric poetry\u201d. (Narrative: A Critical Linguistic Introduction, p.41)<\/p>\n

The narrative is a telling of some true or fictitious event or connected sequence of events, recounted by a narrator to narrate, although there may be more than one of each. A narrative will consist of a set of events (the story) recounted in a process of narration or discourse, in which the events are selected and arranged in particular order (the plot). The category of narratives includes both the shortest accounts of events and the longest historical or biographical works, diaries, travelogues, as well as novels, ballads, epics, short stories, and other fictional forms. Literally speaking, the narrative is a story and it can be conveyed through pictures, songs, poetry, speech, fiction, non\u2013fiction as well. Narrative discourse is vastly an aesthetic enterprise. It is a binding vine of the narrative. A narrator detains the past, holds present and prepares the reader for the future. There has been much exaggeration in the narrative techniques since 1938 when Raja Rao\u2019s \u2018Kanthapura\u2019<\/strong> is published. It is perhaps the first most successful and influential novel by an Indian writer in English.<\/p>\n

Key Words: <\/strong>Mano Majra, Narrative, Punjab, Train to Pakistan.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Train to Pakistan – Introduction <\/strong><\/p>\n

Train to Pakistan<\/em> has a fine blending of growth in space and movement in time. The novel grows out of a chronological sequence of time with a synthesis of reality and value. It expresses creatively as to how the movement of trains, which used to set a tone of the village, signaling time for action, rest and sleep, became a symbol of despair, darkness, and destruction. This technique of contrast is very suggestive. The novelist has recreated imaginatively the likes of Hukum Chand, the commissioner, reformist, Iqbal, criminals Juggat Singh and Malli gang, still visible in the Indian society. In moneylender Ram Lal\u2019s murder case Jugga and Iqbal are put behind the bars, while the real culprit Malli is released after arrest. Is such a drama not enacted even today? Also, the lodging together of Jugga, the criminal, and Iqbal, the reformist, gives a peep into the police way of functioning then and even today.<\/p>\n

In his realistic depiction of the prevailing atmosphere of hatred and violence and distrust between the Hindus and the Muslims, Khushwant Singh narrative spares neither:<\/p>\n

\u201cMullahs roamed Punjab and the Frontier
\nProvince with boxes of human skulls said to be
\nthose of Muslims killed in Bihar\u201d <\/strong>(Train to Pakistan, p.9)<\/p>\n

The Position of the Society<\/strong><\/p>\n

The novelist has described three levels of Governmental strata. Commenting on this, V.A., Shahane in his book, Khushwant Singh, says:<\/p>\n

\u201cThree levels of Governmental strata are depicted.
\nHukum Chand belongs to the upper level of the
\nPunjab district administration; the sub-inspector of
\npolice comes from the middle level; constables
\nbelong to the lower level of this hierarchical,
\nadministrative structure. Hukum Chand is a type as
\nwell as an individual, a person as well as a
\nbureaucrat, and, in various ways, an evolving
\ncharacter.\u201d <\/strong>(Khushwant Singh, p.80)<\/p>\n

Khushwant Singh has beautifully portrayed the man\u2019s multidimensional mind, especially in the case of Jugga, the criminal, in love with Nooran, the Muslim Mullah\u2019s daughter. Jugga visits the Gurudwara and asks for the Guru\u2019s blessings to prepare himself for the final sacrifice which he does make. This is also true in the case of Hukum Chand whose mind flies to Haseena, the dancing girl, heading for Pakistan with a hope that she would be safe. This ambivalence of mind has exquisitely been brought out by Singh in the novel. Shahane comments on the character of Juggat Singh and says:<\/p>\n

\u201cOne finds a \u201crare combination of the criminal and
\nthe lover, which is a baffling aspect of the realities
\nand complexities of life. He embodies the
\nambivalence of moral values.\u201d<\/strong> (Khushwant Singh, p.80)<\/p>\n

There were reports of Pakistani police helping and protecting Muslims who were attacking and killing Hindus. The atrocities inflicted on Hindus in Lahore have been described by the novelist through a police constable who reports:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026It was the Muslim police taking the side which made
\nthe difference in the riots. Hindu boys of Lahore
\nwould have given the Muslims a hell if it had not
\nbeen for their police. They did a lot of ZULUM\u2026
\ntheir army is like that, too, Baluch soldiers have
\nbeen shooting people whenever they were sure there
\nwas no chance of running into Sikh or Gurkha
\ntroops.\u201d <\/strong>(Train to Pakistan, p.59)<\/p>\n

The novelist had maintained a balance in condemning atrocities on both sides. As a realist in his factual depiction of the violent scenes, he narrates the story of four Sikh Sardars on a killing spree in a jeep alongside the column of mile-long Muslim refugees on foot.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201c\u2026without warning they opened fire with their sten guns, God alone knows how many they killed\u2026 .\u201d <\/strong>(Train to Pakistan, p.61)<\/p>\n

Narrative Technique<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a rare narrative technique, the novelist has depicted forces of division and unity, hate and love, anger and affection, revenge and sacrifice alternating in the novel. Shahane commenting on this aspect says:<\/p>\n

\u201cTrain to Pakistan presents rural Punjab with its
\nreligious and caste divisions, which result in
\nalienation, alternating with forces of the union, which
\nresult in amity. Hate alternates with love; anger
\nalternates with affection; the desire for revenge
\nalternates with the impulse to sacrifice\u201d <\/strong>(Khushwant Singh, p.78)<\/p>\n

Singh in this novel has also artistically explored the mind of the Sikh priest Meet Singh and the reformist Iqbal, who discuss the urgent need for stopping the communities on the Indian side from taking retaliatory actions by blowing the train heading for Pakistan with Muslim refugees from Mano Majra on the railway overbridge mid-river. Meet Singh is helpless and so is the reformist Iqbal as the voice of sanity had been stilled and drowned in the communal frenzy, provoked and ignited by arrival and disposal of trainloads of the slain bodies from across the borders. Both Meet Singh and Iqbal in the given situation find themselves incapable of any positive action and also find themselves out of place.<\/p>\n

Singh mixes Hindi words in his narration to reinforce the impact of his narrative. He has made typical usages bordering on bad English. Urdu-Hindi words such as Salaam, Kalyug, Kos, Nar Admi, Annas, Karmat etc. On the strength of the above, it may be said that in his narration of the story, Singh had followed humanistic and realistic tradition in the Indo-English Literature.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

Khushwant Singh proves his own identity through his writings. He created most of the characters in his novel were real people when he met. His novels reveal about a lot of social problems during the partition of India-Pakistan. Singh emphasizes his narrative ability to the readers. The study of Singh\u2019s novels has been a highly fascinated Endeavour resulted in making not a good man know really on endearing man to know.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Works Cited<\/strong><\/p>\n