Reviews

“ Not forever does the bulbul sing
In balmy shades of bowers,
Not forever lasts the spring
Nor ever blossom flowers.
Not forever reigneth joy,
Sets the sun on days of bliss,
Friendships not forever last,
They know not life, who know not this.”

Khushwant Singh was one of the most popular authors in India. Serious literary as well as light humorous fiction, journalism etc he was everywhere. And even if you are not a reader, you need to love him for him for his humor, he actually came up with his brand of jokes – the Santa-Banta jokes.
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‘Train to Pakistan’ is the best novel about the subcontinent that I’ve read this far. It is about religious riots in and around Punjab at the time of independence of the country in which an estimated 14 million people were migrated over something as fictional as God. 2 million were killed.

You know how Dawkins talks about a world without religion? well there you have it, 2 million lesser deaths which includes children and raped women. All done in sweeet name of God

The few trains from either side that would cross the border were always overcrowded – Singh estimates a typical train with about a thousand people in it and another four-five hundred on roof. The train would be stopped mid-way by rioters, and by the time it crossed the border – it would be full of death bodies.

You know another thing about a world without religion – lesser political boundaries. Nations are another piece of fiction we could do without. It is the childish for people to fight for something (their nation) for a century and then as soon as you get it – divide it into pieces.

If you think ‘childish’ is not the right word, think of last time you judged between two children who just had a fight. Was their response ‘he/she did it first’? Well that is exactly how those involved in those riots justified it.

And these are the people who were living in harmony for centuries!

‘Who is it?’ asked the lambardar, shading his eyes from the lamp. ‘Come in.’
Imam Baksh came in. Two others followed him. They also were Muslims.
‘Salaam, Chacha Imam Baksh. Salaam, Khair Dina. Salaam, salaam.’
‘Sat Sri Akal, Lambardara. Sat Sri Akal,’ answered the Muslims”

People who wouldn’t be capable of violence otherwise. Singh brings out the effects of mob violence really well. He is very secular in his writing style; holding equal disgust for all:

“Logic was never a strong point with Sikhs; when they were roused, logic did not matter at all.”

… and this is coming from a Sikh.

And almost anyone can haunt you with descriptions of a train from Pakistan full of dead bodies, but it takes a Khushwant Singh to back it up with lines that make it imposible to paint all muslims in black:

“The northern horizon, which had turned a bluish grey, showed orange again. The orange turned into copper and then into a luminous russet. Red tongues of flame leaped into the black sky. A soft breeze began to blow towards the village. It brought the smell of burning kerosene, then of wood. And then—a faint acrid smell of searing flesh.
The village was stilled in a deathly silence. No one asked anyone else what the odour was. They all knew. They had known it all the time. The answer was implicit in the fact that the train had come from Pakistan.
That evening, for the first time in the memory of Mano Majra, Imam Baksh’s sonorous cry did not rise to the heavens to proclaim the glory of God.”

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Part II
Mostly more ramblings against religions with a supid satire at the end.

Spoiler

And of course, you could hear someone say that it is not about religion. That a true Hindu, Sikh or Muslim would never have do it – well, the people involved in religious violence always carry the right kind of dressing and speak right kind of slogans. They have always proclaimed themselves belonging to that religion all their lives. No one clarified until it was too late. No one throws them out of their respected temples or mosques before they commit violence. And if they were not caught, they would have returned to same religious places and still no one would have clarified:

“they know what they are doing. They will kill. If it is a success, they will come to the gurdwara for thanksgiving. They will also make offerings to wash away their sins.”

But if they got caught, you want to tell the world they didn’t belong to your religion. Okay, throw them out, your choice! But you can’t do that with retrospective effect, you have to accept responsibility for what they already have done.

Another thing you hear a lot is that they wouldn’t have done it if they had read their scriptures. That doesn’t make them any less religious. Does it? No religion I know of, has ever put any kind of entrance exam requiring knowledge of scriptures. In fact, every major religious community has a lot of illiterate population int it which is never said to be less religious on that account.

And you know what kind of slogans did ylthose rioters used while killing each other. Slogan for group one Allahu Akbar, group two: Sat Shri Akal, group three: Har Har Mahadev. I mean do they even know what these slogans really mean? They mean ‘God is Greatest’, ‘God is ultimate truth’ and ‘May God take away our sorrows’. Potato Potato. They are supposed to be at same team. It is atheists they need to be looking for. Devil’s greatest achievement might have been convincing people that he is God.

And now while I’m rambling, I was wondering how these rioters would have ask for forgiveness of their crimes. What reaction did they expect their God to have:

Imagine a typical Sikh or Hindu rioter goes to temple asking for forgiveness.
“O Lord!” he prays “Forgive me for I’ve killed seven people today.”
Suddenly the God shows up and asks him “WHAT? Why would you do it?”
“They said it was their Allah that created the world, not you”
“Oh! Did they?” God looks away too embarrassed to tell him that was name he had taken while talking with Mohammad, “All right, you are forgiven.”
But our rioter doesn’t leave, “Ahm sir!”
“yes”
“I forget to tell you that three of them were children.”
“WHAT?”
“But ... but ... but” our rioter quickly adds in self defense “I did shouted aloud our religious slogan before doing so.”
“Then it is okay.” Says our all forgiving God.
But rioter still doesn’t leave. “Ahm sir!”
“Now what?”
“I forget this another little thing...”
“Be out with it” said God now a little furious.
“You see two of them were women ... and I might have raped them in passing.”
“WHAT! And did you enjoy it?”
“No sir!” says rioter pretending to be offended, “Not a bit of it. I had all my senses in control. It was all in your name.”
“Then it is okay. Now leave. I’ve an appointment somewhere else.”
Our rioter nods, salutes and leaves. As soon as he left, God too flew away, to across the borders where a Muslim rioter was waiting for him with request for a seat in heaven with all its full package of four virgins as a reward for similar acts he did against Hindu idol-worshippers and Sikh infidels in Almighty’s service.

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Part III
Not so serious quotes from book describing nature Indian society. Read if you don’t want to read book but want to know about Indians atititude towards marriage, education, sex etc. Not much have changed in over five-and-a-half decades since it was written.

Spoiler

Education

“For him, education meant knowing English. Clerks and letter writers who wrote Urdu or Gurmukhi were literate, but not educated.”
Inequality

“In a country which had accepted caste distinctions for many centuries, inequality had become an inborn mental concept. If caste was abolished by legislation, it came up in other forms of class distinction. In thoroughly westernized circles like that of the civil servants in the government secretariat in Delhi, places for parking cars were marked according to seniority, and certain entrances to offices were reserved for higher officials. Lavatories were graded according to rank and labelled SENIOR OFFICERS, JUNIOR OFFICERS, CLERKS AND STENOGRAPHERS and OTHER RANKS. “

Sex

“It was not possible to keep Indians off the subject of sex for long. It obsessed their minds. It came out in their art, literature and religion. One saw it on the hoardings in the cities advertising aphrodisiacs and curatives for ill effects of masturbation. One saw it in the law courts and marketplaces, where hawkers did a thriving trade selling oil made of the skin of sand lizards to put life into tired groins and increase the size of the phallus. One read it in the advertisements of quacks who claimed to possess remedies for barrenness and medicines to induce wombs to yield male children. One heard about it all the time. No people used incestuous abuse quite as casually as did the Indians. Terms like sala, wife’s brother (‘I would like to sleep with your sister’), and susra, father-in-law (‘I would like to sleep with your daughter’) were as often terms of affection for one’s friends and relatives as expressions of anger to insult one’s enemies. Conversation on any topic—politics, philosophy, sport—soon came down to sex, which everyone enjoyed with a lot of giggling and hand-slapping.”

Matimonials

“In disgust, he turned to the matrimonial ads. There was sometimes entertainment there. But the youth of the Punjab were as alike as the news. The qualities they required in a wife were identical. All wanted virgins. A few, more broad-minded than the rest, were willing to consider widows, but only if they had not been deflowered. All demanded women who were good at h. h. a., or household affairs. To the advanced and charitable, c. & d. [caste and dowry] were no bar. Not many asked for photographs of their prospective wives. Beauty, they recognized, was only skin-deep. Most wanted to ‘correspond with horoscopes’. Astronomical harmony was the one guarantee of happiness. Iqbal threw the papers away, and rummaged through the magazines.”

Religion

“India is constipated with a lot of humbug. Take religion. For the Hindu, it means little besides caste and cow-protection. For the Muslim, circumcision and kosher meat. For the Sikh, long hair and hatred of the Muslim. For the Christian, Hinduism with a sola topee. For the Parsi, fire-worship and feeding vultures. Ethics, which should be the kernel of a religious code, has been carefully removed. Take philosophy, about which there is so much hoo-ha. It is just muddle-headedness masquerading as mysticism. And Yoga, particularly Yoga, that excellent earner of dollars! Stand on your head. Sit cross-legged and tickle your navel with your nose. Have perfect control over the senses. Make women come till they cry ‘Enough!’ and you can say ‘Next, please’ without opening your eyes. And all the mumbo-jumbo of reincarnation. Man into ox into ape into beetle into eight million four hundred thousand kinds of animate things. Proof? We do not go in for such pedestrian pastimes as proof! That is Western. We are of the mysterious East. No proof, just faith. No reason, just faith. Thought, which should be the sine qua non of a philosophical code, is dispensed with. We climb to sublime heights on the wings of fancy. We do the rope trick in all spheres of creative life. As long as the world credulously believes in our capacity to make a rope rise skyward and a little boy climb it till he is out of view, so long will our brand of humbug thrive.“