Train to Pakistan Study Questions

General Study Questions

1. How does the weather and natural world more generally function as a symbol and backdrop over the course of the novel?

2. What is the significance of trains, including but also beyond the obvious deadly ones we encounter in the novel?

3. What is the general style and tone of the narration?  Does this impersonal (i.e., 3rd person) narrator seem to have a particular view of characters and events?  How easy, or difficult, is it to distinguish between the point of view of the narrator and thoughts and feelings of the characters to whom we are allowed internal access?

4. How much of the broader historical setting of the Partition does one encounter in the novel?  How much indication of the impact of British colonization do we receive?  The pre-Partition relationships among the different groups?  The conditions outside of this village and even the Punjab itself?  The scale of the violence and of the migrations that occurred during Partition?

5. To what extent does the novel imply that what occurs in Mano Majra is typical or emblematic of what occurs in the Punjab and beyond during Partition, or does it suggest that this is merely one individualized portrait? 

6. As the events unfold, particularly in the final section of the novel, are the authorities portrayed as being in an impossible situation, with few if any good options and little ability to prevent the violence?

7. Consider the ways the different ethnic/religious groups are presented: Sikh males and female, Muslim males and females, and Hindu males and females.  How many of each are presented?  To what extent?  What are some characteristic features that one might attribute to each group and gender based on these depictions?  Is there anything problematic about these depictions?

8. How does the novel represent specific religious belief/practice as such?  Does the novel suggest that “Muslim,” “Hindu,” and “Sikh” are exclusively religious designations, or is there more to membership in these groups than just religious belief?

9. If we view them as representative types, how are the following figures depicted: the foreign-educated social reformer from the “new” India, Iqbal Singh; the Hindu Indian government official Hukum Chand; the local Sikh villager Bhai Meet Singh; the masculine “sympathetic” criminal Juggut Singh; the young, sexually exploited Muslim female characters Haseena and Nooran Baksh?

10. In particular, comment on the very differing characterizations of the men whose lives in the novel become intertwined: Iqbal and Jugga.  How does the ending of the novel change, if at all, our view of each?

11. What is the implication of focusing on a predominantly Sikh village, rather than a Muslim or Hindu one?  Also, how might the novel be different were it a story about a “Train to India”?

Specific Study Questions

Dacoity

1. What does the weather portend at the opening of the novel?

2. What historical context is established at the beginning? What has happened in Calcutta, Bihar, and Noakhali?

3. How is Mano Majra described? Where is it located?

4. What is the religious/ethnic make-up of the village? Who owns most of the land?

5. What is the routine of the village that is disrupted in 1947?

6. What does the narrator say about the typical traffic at the train station? Significance?

7. How is the robbery of the Hindu Lala Ram Lal depicted? Is the episode meant to be symbolic or emblematic? Does ethnicity/religion seem to play any role in the crime?

8. Why do they throw the bangles at Juggut’s house?

9. How is Nooran and Jugga’s sexual encounter described (14)?

10. Why does Jugga say that "this was no time for dacoities" (15)?

11. How is the Indian government official Hukum Chand described? What is his class background (19)?

12. What does the subinspector say about the violence (19-20)?

13. What do the subinspector and Chand discuss on page 20?

14. What does the subinspector say about what's been happening in Pakistan? What have the women been doing?

15. What does the subinspector hope will not happen in Mano Majra (21)? How does Chand respond?

16. What does the subinspector say about Mano Majra's knowledge of political developments?

17. What does Chand reflect on with regard to the Muslim girl (Haseena) (28)?

18. What does the old woman order the girl to do?

19. How is Iqbal Singh described? How is he greeted by the residents? Why has he come to Mano Majra, and what seems to be his view of his homeland (36)?

20. What does Iqbal say about the police (37)?

21. How are the trains described on pages 38-39?

22. What does Iqbal say about India on page 40?

23. How is the Punjabi code described?

24. What does Iqbal say about “crimes in the blood”?

25. What is Meet Singh’s view of Chand (42)?

26. What does the lambardar say about their knowledge of the conditions outside their village?

27. What does Iqbal think regarding their attitude toward Independence?

28. What does the anonymous Muslim say about Freedom?

29. What is Iqbal’s view of “the Big Lord”?

30. What does he think about his task? His own role and ability (50)?

31. How does Iqbal respond when he is arrested? How do they treat him? Jugga?

32. Why does the subinspector think Iqbal is Muslim?

33. What do the subinspector and Chand decide to do with the prisoners (65)?

34. What do the policemen say about Muslims (66)?

35. What is the “moral” of the story about the Baluch soldiers?

36. How are each treated upon arriving at the police station in Chundunnugger? What does Iqbal think about the differences in their treatment?

37. What does the subinspector say to Iqbal during their first conversation (73)?

38. What causes Jugga to wince during initial questioning?

Kalyug

1. What seems to have changed in Mano Majra at the opening of this section?

2. How is Imam Baksh viewed by the village?  Why might weavers be typically seen as effeminate?

3. How is Meet Singh described (79-80)?

4. How does Chand react to what he witnessed during the day (85, 87-8)?

5. Are we meant to agree with Chand’s judgment’s about himself at the bottom of page 87?

6. How does he seek solace at the end of the evening?

7. How are the monsoons described (90-4)?

8. How does Chand now view himself (95)?

9. What does he comment about Haseena’s age?

10. How does the subinspector summarize the situation to Chand (97)?
    Whom does Chand think might start the violence in Mano Majra?

11. What does Chand think about the “kalyug”?  What does he plan to do, and how does he reflect on his own role (100)?

12. Does Chand’s affection for Haseena seem genuine?

13. What does Iqbal think about Indians and sex (107)?  Can we tell if the narrator shares this vew?

14. What actions does the subinspector take?  Is he only carrying out the orders and intentions of Chand, or does he have a different agenda and motivation?  How in general is he similar to or different from Chand as a representative of the Indian government?

Mano Majra

1. What is the impact of the head constable’s visit on Mano Majra (120)?
   What Muslim views of Sikhs and Sikh views of Muslims are then expressed (120-21)?

2. What differing views are presented at the Sikh village gathering (122-4)? 

3. Why does the village decide to stand by their Muslim neighbors?

4. What does the Muslim Imam Baksh say about Pakistan?

5. Though they commit to protecting their neighbors, what are some still concerned about (126)?

6. What do they, and the Muslims who arrive, end up deciding?  Why?

7. What does Nooran tell Jugga’s mother, and how does the mother respond?

8. How does the Sikh officer respond to Meet Singh’s entreaty to respect Muslim property (135)?

9. What new plan for the Mano Majra Muslims is revealed and how is it presented to them?

10. Why do you think the authorities appoint Malli and his gang “custodians” of Muslim property?

Karma

1. How has nature (the rain / the river) merged with Partition violence at the opening of this section?

2. How do the Sikh soldiers view Mano Majra (147-8)?

3. Comment on the exchange between the young Sikh soldier and Meet Singh (149-51)?

4. What is the implication of having the expulsion of Muslims orchestrated mostly by Malli and Sikh refugees from outside Mano Majra?  How many local Sikhs participate?

5. What thoughts does the subinspector share with Chand (155)?

6. Based on their conversation, who seems to be responsible for the events about to transpire?

7. What now is Chand’s plan? Does it seem likely to succeed?

8. What does the subinspector say to Iqbal at the top of page 162?

9. How does Meet Singh summarize the situation to Iqbal (167)?

10. What are Meet Singh’s thoughts on what is to come (168)?

11. Comment on Iqbal’s reflections (169-72).  Is this simply a damning portrait of him, or is there any merit in what he says?

12. What are Chand’s thoughts about the government in Dehli?

13. Why do you think the novel includes the anecdote in which Chand recollects what happened to Sundari and her husband Mansa Ram?  Sundar Singh?

14. To what extent does this final section lead us to sympathize with Chand as a character?

15. What do you think motivates Jugga to do what he does?