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    Bhali Ladkiyan

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    kunal mehto
    The document summarizes the novel "Train to Pakistan" by Khushwant Singh. It discusses how the novel depicts the violence during the partition of India through the lens of a border village called Mano-Majra. It describes how the village was previously harmonious with Sikhs, Hindus, and Muslims living together. However, the partition inflamed religious tensions, with a ghost train arriving full of corpses and the Hindus forcing out the Muslim residents. It highlights the tragic love story between Juggat Singh, a Sikh, and Nooran, a Muslim, as challenging the growing religious divides. The train comes to symbolize hope and a means of escape or transport amid the brutal violence unfolding during India's independence and

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    Bhali Ladkiyan

    Uploaded by

    kunal mehto
    68 views6 pages
    The document summarizes the novel "Train to Pakistan" by Khushwant Singh. It discusses how the novel depicts the violence during the partition of India through the lens of a border village called Mano-Majra. It describes how the village was previously harmonious with Sikhs, Hindus, and Muslims living together. However, the partition inflamed religious tensions, with a ghost train arriving full of corpses and the Hindus forcing out the Muslim residents. It highlights the tragic love story between Juggat Singh, a Sikh, and Nooran, a Muslim, as challenging the growing religious divides. The train comes to symbolize hope and a means of escape or transport amid the brutal violence unfolding during India's independence and

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    The document summarizes the novel "Train to Pakistan" by Khushwant Singh. It discusses how the novel depicts the violence during the partition of India through the lens of a border village called Mano-Majra. It describes how the village was previously harmonious with Sikhs, Hindus, and Muslims living together. However, the partition inflamed religious tensions, with a ghost train arriving full of corpses and the Hindus forcing out the Muslim residents. It highlights the tragic love story between Juggat Singh, a Sikh, and Nooran, a Muslim, as challenging the growing religious divides. The train comes to symbolize hope and a means of escape or transport amid the brutal violence unfolding during India's independence and

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    68 views6 pages

    Bhali Ladkiyan

    Uploaded by

    kunal mehto
    The document summarizes the novel "Train to Pakistan" by Khushwant Singh. It discusses how the novel depicts the violence during the partition of India through the lens of a border village called Mano-Majra. It describes how the village was previously harmonious with Sikhs, Hindus, and Muslims living together. However, the partition inflamed religious tensions, with a ghost train arriving full of corpses and the Hindus forcing out the Muslim residents. It highlights the tragic love story between Juggat Singh, a Sikh, and Nooran, a Muslim, as challenging the growing religious divides. The train comes to symbolize hope and a means of escape or transport amid the brutal violence unfolding during India's independence and

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 6

    Page |1

    H.P NATIONAL LAW


    UNIVERSITY, SHIMLA

    ASSIGNMENT II

    ENGLISH

    SUBMITTED TO

    MS. RUCHI RAJ THAKUR

    ASSISTANT PROFESSOR,

    ENGLISH

    SUBMITTED BY

    NISHANT GOYAL

    ROLL NO. – 22

    BA.LLB. (HONS.) – II SEMESTER

    “LITERATURE IS BORNE OUT OF A SOCIAL MILIEU. A READER CANNOT


    AFFORD TO OVERLOOK THE SOCIAL BINDINGS, CUSTOMARY FACTORS
    AND THE HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS OF THE RESPECTIVE AGE WHICH
    SHAPES LITERARY WORK OF ART.”
    Page |2

    “LITERATURE IS THE ART OF DISCOVERING SOMETHING EXTRAORDINARY

    ABOUT ORDINARY PEOPLE, AND SAYING WITH ORDINARY WORDS

    SOMETHING EXTRAORDINARY”

    ~BORIS PASTERNAK

    “Literature is the mirror of the society.” Literature reflects society, and society shapes
    literature. Both Literature and society prevail conjointly, and both are the counterparts of
    each other. On one hand, while Literature is the manifestation of socio-economic and
    political structure of a society, society, on the other hand, forms the subject matter for
    literature, be it fiction or non-fiction.

    Literature is the tool used by the writer to portray through his writings and scrutiny and a
    reader to understand and interpret the social obligations, the customary or traditional
    practices and historical antecedents of that epoch. Literature forms its base on the trends
    in society, its social constructs and events, through which writers try to bring to the
    surface a social scenario, through which it has always been successful in having
    tremendous impacts over the development of societies. It has shaped civilizations and
    affected political systems, and through which, writers always try to elucidate how these
    social constructs and processes govern relationships between individuals in the society,
    and their position and status within the social milieu, with respect to the other individuals.

    The story “Bhali Ladkiyan” is a depiction of society’s presupposed notions of what is


    moral and righteous, and what is immoral and debauched with the help of two girls Leela
    and Mukta, through which the story tries to establish the set standards of morality in the
    Indian Society. Leela and Mukta were classmates, neighbours and best friends since
    childhood. They’ve always done well in studies and have been proud of their morals and
    ethics. They are carrying out research and surveys pertaining to their phd in psychology.
    Another character in the story, Sadanand Mishra, senior to both the girls was also
    carrying out his survey regarding his phd in psychology, and the assistant professors of
    all three departments were under the supervision of Dr. Asthana.
    Page |3

    Leela and Mukta were to be given the responsibility for research and survey among
    women in slum areas for which they had to visit the slums themselves. Dr. Asthana asksa
    Mishra to accompany them to the slums, for it would not be safe for the girls to go all by
    themselves in a slum area. This also describes the scenario in Indian Society where
    women are not free to move around independently in their own country, and the
    hypocrisy that they always need assistance and company of a man, can’t be
    independently.

    On their way to the slum in Maleehabaad, Mishra stops his car on the pedestrian side of
    the road, leaving the girls in suspiscion. He rushes to a shop on the other side of the road,
    which both the girls suspect to be a liquor shop, and they were proved right. This action
    of Mishra strikes both the girls with panic and petulance. The idea of Mishra consuming
    liquor grosses both the girls out, for consumption of liquor was not something which is
    considered reverent and moral in their society, and this labels a person immoral in their
    society. Both the girls refrain from travelling further with Mishra to Maleehabad, for it
    was not honorific for them to travel with a liquor consuming person, and they wish to get
    off the car.

    Through this stimulus of both the girls towards Mishra consuming liquor, the author in
    the story tries to reflect to the readers that society has also set standards and conventions
    which define the degree of morality and ethics in the society. Through this literary
    artwork, it is also elucidated how society places different individuals on different stratas
    of morality, thus, pronounces their moral character on the basis of their consumption
    patterns. In this way, literature enables its readers to evaluate the social standards based
    on morality and immorality, which it explains through various events and circumstances
    prevailing in the social milieu.
    Page |4

    BOOK REVIEW: TRAIN TO PAKISTAN

    ~KHUSHWANT SINGH
    Page |5

    Partition left the country in a state of trauma and marked permanent cicatrix on the hearts
    of Indians which still haunts the contemporary societies of both India and Pakistan.
    Khushwant Singh’s novel makes a tragic portrait of the political hatred and violence
    which took place in those unstable and turbulent days. Despite of being Khushwant’s
    first, his lucrative narration of the pitiful anecdote of the individuals was awarded with
    “Grove Press India Fiction Prize” in 1956. Khushwant Singh stages the violence and
    savage killings that took place on both sides of the border from the view point of Mano-
    Majra, a village located at the border.

    The village itself has been created as the protagonist of the play. Though the village is
    dominated by Sikhs, but is also resided by the Hindus and Muslims. Singh tries to weave
    a story revolving around the village which is known for its railway station and all the
    activities are related with the arrival and departure of railway trains. The villagers
    irrespective of their religious affiliations live like a close-knit family and live in an
    atmosphere of solidarity and integrity.

    Khushwant Singh draws a disturbing portrait of the events that took place during the
    bloodiest communal conflicts. The plot of the novel shifts to a dramatic incident when the
    Ram Lal, the moneylender of the village is murdered by a neighbouring village’s dacoit,
    Malli and Juggut Singh is arrested as the murder suspect. The novel also states the love
    affair between Juggat Singh and Nooran, which is viewed as a love affair between a Sikh
    and a Muslim. Later on in the novel, Juggat Singh emerges as the protagonist of the novel
    by saving the lives of including his love of life, Nooran. The harmony of the village is
    infringed when a ghost train enters the village with corpses and bitters the relation
    between the Hindus as it fanned the steam among the Hindus to shoo away the Muslims
    from the village with whom they shared kin-like relations.

    Train to Pakistan is one of the finest portrays of the communal bloodsheds, the shadow of
    which was casted even on a peaceful and harmonious village like Mano-Majra. Love has
    been inculcated as the essence of the novel by Singh, despite of being a novel full of
    communal rights and dark realities of the partition. Jugga who has been portrayed as a
    local dacoit of the village who afterwards sacrifices himself for his love. The tragic love
    story of Jugga and Nooran cuts the religious barriers up and tries to bridges the gap
    Page |6

    between the communal gaps that had widened among the villagers due to the happenings
    of the partition of India. The novel states the brutal fact that the freedom attained by India
    was celebrated by the people in the form of mass murders and rapes on the border. The
    title of the novel is well justified by the very fact that Jugga emerges as the protagonist by
    saving Nooran and also the lives of Muslims on the Train to Pakistan proclaims the train
    as a symbol of peace and hope in the dark world of savage and despair.

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