Vol. 6, Issue 2, Part C (2024)

The research paper analysis Khushwant Singh’s Train to Pakistan as both a narrative of trauma and an act of cultural testimony about the 1947 Partition of India. Set in the fictional village of Mano Majra, the novel captures how communal harmony collapses under the weight of political upheaval and violence. Using trauma theory, the study analyses Singh’s portrayal of both physical atrocities and intangible wounds such as displacement, betrayal, and the loss of coexistence. By focusing on morally complex characters, the work resists simplistic binaries of victim and perpetrator, instead presenting Partition as a shared human tragedy. The novel serves as both a historical record and a moral warning, preserving the memory of Partition as a lasting wound in the nation’s consciousness. Singh’s Train to Pakistan (1956) stands as one of the most poignant literary testimonies of the Partition of India in 1947, a cataclysmic event that witnessed one of the largest forced migrations in human history, accompanied by mass violence, communal hatred, and irreparable social fragmentation. This paper examines the novel as both a narrative of trauma and an act of cultural testimony, foregrounding the complex interplay between personal memory, collective history, and moral responsibility. Singh’s fictional village of Mano Majra, initially untouched by the political and communal upheaval, becomes a microcosm of the subcontinent’s shared humanity and its violent rupture. The paper also explores the testimonial dimension of Train to Pakistan, reading it as an attempt to record not only the visible atrocities of Partition but also the intangible wounds loss of home, betrayal by neighbours, and the erosion of cultural coexistence.