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Partition, 1947
Mano Majra. If this name stirs a memory within you, it is likely that you have read the book "Train to Pakistan" by the late Khushwant Singh. It is a fictitious village close to the Sutlej river in the state of Punjab, India. Pakistan, created in 1947, lay on the other side of the river.
The "Train to Pakistan" is a story that captures one of the millions of stories - depicting nothing but sorrow and suffering - that came to life because of the partition, in 1947, of what was then British India, into the India that we know today, and an Islamic state - Pakistan.
Big events often get pigeon-holed as great singular occurrences in history. The millions of threads that hang on to these events, nay that are born out of these events, are never remembered. "Partition, 1947", this story, is an attempt to preserve, for no other reason except as a historical record, one of these threads - a series of events that took place in another part of India, in 1947.
Based on a true story.
The "Train to Pakistan" is a story that captures one of the millions of stories - depicting nothing but sorrow and suffering - that came to life because of the partition, in 1947, of what was then British India, into the India that we know today, and an Islamic state - Pakistan.
Big events often get pigeon-holed as great singular occurrences in history. The millions of threads that hang on to these events, nay that are born out of these events, are never remembered. "Partition, 1947", this story, is an attempt to preserve, for no other reason except as a historical record, one of these threads - a series of events that took place in another part of India, in 1947.
Based on a true story.
90 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 4, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 13, 2022
An extremely fascinating true story of a couple of friends who chose to migrate during the partition to Pakistan but finding the discrimination against "Mojahirs" in the "pure land" unacceptable, returned to India only to be branded as absconders.
June 25, 2022
The biggest surprise might just be that the book is unexpected. It's not a general discourse with large canvas, but very personal.
The book is written by a Hindu of India, based, the author states, on true stories related by an elder who lived through the partition era.
But, for some reason, instead of what the true account must therefore have been, I.e., that of refugees from North West India, it's been turned around and fictionalised into one of community of poor muslims from Gangetic planes.
Is that due to an agenda of turning everything around to an anti-Hindu politics? It's unclear, because much of the story as it develops on refugees' arrival isn't as it happened in Indian side. Instead it seems like a real experience of refugees hoping to do better in a homeland for muslims, and finding it otherwise, attempting to return home. This did happen to many, acknowledged or not.
But instead, the true story comes at the reader at a startling angle - stories heard by those returning to India accompanied by refugees from North West.
Just as one thinks ones got it, there's another twist. It's a political diatribe after all, indicting so-called right wing politics, or Hindu organisatons, in India.
Halfway through, another twist - one begins to enjoy the unexpectedly humorous turn. And then again, yet another unexpected turn around, devastating this time.
The book is written by a Hindu of India, based, the author states, on true stories related by an elder who lived through the partition era.
But, for some reason, instead of what the true account must therefore have been, I.e., that of refugees from North West India, it's been turned around and fictionalised into one of community of poor muslims from Gangetic planes.
Is that due to an agenda of turning everything around to an anti-Hindu politics? It's unclear, because much of the story as it develops on refugees' arrival isn't as it happened in Indian side. Instead it seems like a real experience of refugees hoping to do better in a homeland for muslims, and finding it otherwise, attempting to return home. This did happen to many, acknowledged or not.
But instead, the true story comes at the reader at a startling angle - stories heard by those returning to India accompanied by refugees from North West.
Just as one thinks ones got it, there's another twist. It's a political diatribe after all, indicting so-called right wing politics, or Hindu organisatons, in India.
Halfway through, another twist - one begins to enjoy the unexpectedly humorous turn. And then again, yet another unexpected turn around, devastating this time.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews