Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Projection of Women in Train To Pakistan
Projection of Women in Train To Pakistan
abstract:
we are reading many fiction, short stories, poems and prose pieces. every genre
that we read is not fulfill our mind set. every novel or any other genre that we
read is not get into the emotions in which it contains in it. some novels really
really gets into the reader to feel what the author wants to convey to us that kind
of work only stand till the literature lives. among other Train to Pakistan is one
such historical fiction that really gets into the reader in its undergoing.
we are travelling in 21st century we are all developed in so many fields like
education, economy and social structure but now also a women is viewed as only
bearing mission and capable of fulfilling the mails sexual pleasure still they are
earning money for themselves they are standing in their own legs without the help
of anyone whether it may be her husband, father, brother or her own sun. most of
the womens are proving that they can do anything without the hands of any one. I
should not want to strongly mention that all the men are cruelestic beast animal
among them few men are exemption for it.
the main aim of this paper is to find out how the women has been projected by
Khushwant Singh in his fiction train to Pakistan. many a people thought that it is
historical fiction it talks about the partition of India and Pakistan which took
place in August 1947 the after portraits all the happenings which took place in
that area situated between India and Pakistan.
introduction:
Khushwant Singh was founder-editor of Yojana, The National Herald and Hindustan
Times. Khushwant Singh was born in the year 1915 in Hadali, Pakistan. He died on
20th March 2014. He is most famous for his historical novel 'Train to Pakistan'
published in 1956. In addition to a writer he was also an historian,columnist, up-
front political commentator and social critic. Education: He was educated at
Government College of Lahore & at King's College in Cambridge University and at the
Inner Temple based in London.
Professional Career: in 1939-47: He was a practicing lawyer in High Court, Lahore..
in 1947: He served as a diplomat for newly independent India.. in1951: He began an
eminent career as journalist with All India Radio.. in1951-1953: He was also the
founder and editor of Yojana.. in1969-1978 he worked as the: Editor of the
Illustrated weekly of India, Bombay.. in1978-1979 he became the: Editor-in-Chief of
National Herald, New Delhi.. in 1980-1983: He was the Editor of the Hindustan
Times. His Saturday column "With Malice towards One & All" in the Hindustan times
is by far one of the most well-liked columns of the day.
Honours and Awards:
1. In 1974 he was honoured the Padma Bhushan by India’s President. However in 1984,
he returned the honour as protest to Indian government against the storming of
Golden Temple by the Indian Army.
2. In the year 2007, Khushwant Singh was awarded with the Padma Vibhushan.
3. In the year 2006, he was awarded Punjab Rattan Award by The Government of
Punjab.
4. In July 2000, he was bestowed the "Honest Man of the Year Award" by Sulabh
International Social Service Organization for his bravery and sincerity in his
"brilliant incisive writing." At the honour event, Andhra Pradesh’s chief minister
described him as "humorous writer & inveterate believer in human goodness with a
devil – may - care stance and a gutsy mind."
5. In 2010, he was given Sahitya academy fellowship award by Sahitya academy of
India.
6. In 2012, he was given All-India Minorities Forum Annual Fellowship Award by
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav .
7. He was also honoured with Order of Khalsa (Nishaan-e-Khalsa).
Khushwant Singh’s work included both fiction and nonfiction. He mainly wrote in
English language. Among his major books included Train To Pakistan ( first
Published in 1956) which won him international acclaim and Groove Press Award in
1954. The book depicts the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. His second
major work included Essays on India's Emergency by the name Why I Supported the
Emergency (Published in 2004). His third major work was Delhi: A Novel. He also
wrote I shall Not Hear the Nightingale (Published in 1959). The Portrait of a Lady:
Collected Stories was in the form of short story collection. He also authored other
books such as Maharaja Ranjit Singh and Fall of Sikh Kingdom. Apart from these, he
wrote and published a classic two-volume book on Sikh History by the name A history
of Sikhs (Published in 1963). His other famous works included Truth, Love and a
little Malice in the form of an autobiography and published in 2002, Sex, Scotch
and Scholarship and In the Company of Women (Published in 1999). Significantly, he
wrote his last book at the age of 98 titled The Good, The Bad and the Ridiculous.
Actually, he co-wrote the book with Humra Qureshi.
Contribution: His literary contribution to the literature was immense. He
entertained his readers with his satirical mode of writing.
Women in the story lack their own subjectivity. When they are discussed, it is in
the context of their relationships to men. Even Nooran, who is more fully detailed
than any other female character in the novel, is defined as Juggut’s lover and the
daughter of the Muslim weaver, Imam Baksh. Juggut’s mother is given no name at all,
though Nooran calls her “beybey,” a reference to her status as a female elder and a
term that reinforces her role as a nurturer. Muslim prostitute Haseena is perhaps
the most powerless female character in the story, whose thoughts and feelings are
filtered through her client, Hukum Chand’s, perceptions of her. These
characterizations of women reinforce the notion that they lack individual agency.
“The mem-sahibs are like houris from paradise—white and soft, like silk. All we
have here are black buffaloes.”
Women are also regarded as objects or vessels for men’s desires. During a
conversation with Iqbal in their shared cell, for example, Juggut speaks of British
women as unattainable sexual objects (“houris”) and calls Indian women “black
buffalos” due to their darker skin. The comparison of English women to houris, or
angels, reinforces a myth, learned through colonial rule, that white women are
superior to darker-skinned women and are more desirable because they were long
forbidden to Indian men.
When women are not rendered sex objects, they become emblems of purity whose
chastity determines their value. Chand says Hindu women are so “pure that they
would rather commit suicide than let a stranger touch them.” This indicates that
Hindu women who become rape victims worry that the crime committed against them
will devalue them in the eyes of Hindu men. Chand’s comment is especially
hypocritical given that he happily uses the services of Haseena, the teenaged
Muslim prostitute, while rhapsodizing about the “purity” of Hindu women. This
indicates grossly disparate standards of behavior for Hindu men and women, which
constrain the latter while ensuring the sexual license of the former.
The novel’s treatment of women and hijras exposes their vulnerability in a country
that does not value them individually, and ultimately highlights how sexism and
gender discrimination were related to the vicious cycle of violence that engulfed
the country. The gendered nature of that violence is evidenced in the novel’s
repeated mention of rape as a weapon of war. For example, Muslims in Mano Majra
speak of rumors “of gentlewomen having their veils taken off” and being “raped in
the marketplace.” The story of Sundari is another horrific account, as Muslims rape
the newlywed and then cut off her husband’s penis—this literal unmanning being the
basest and most humiliating of punishments. This routine denial of humanity to
women and hijras is one of the precursors, Singh suggests, to the wider violence
that overtook India in 1947.
“Toba, toba! Kill my own village banian? Babuji, who kills a hen which lays eggs?
Besides, Ram Lal gave me money to pay lawyers when my father was in jail. I would
not act like a bastard.”
in today's world we are talking about the LGBT unknowingly how it affect the person
who receives all kind of gossips and unavoidable words that comes from the mouth of
the men. this fiction not only traces the partition between India and Pakistan but
also it talks about the sufferings of women in that period.
at first the novel says that the men usually wants to discourage the women by their
cruel words and behaviour towards her. this was undoubtedly proved by the author
Khushwant Singh in his fiction. Jagat Singh has avoided to listen mother's
valuable words because he feels that the mother does not have emotion and feelings
etc.
usually the men thought that the women who does not have right to have love
and reflect her feelings by her behaviour. Jagat Singh has try to have relationship
with a girl without bothering about her own feelings and emotions he feels that the
woman is a kind of the mission that capable for giving birth to the children and
full fill the sexual Desires of the man this was effectively proved by Khushwant
Singh.
later the novel progresses and says that the two Womens are taking effort to
protect her husband from the robberars. they wants to loss everything weather it
may include jewels money asserts and other properties
they only need her husband. through this we can understand that the woman is
longing for love than like anything they are longing for only pure love and
affection from men to get this they want to loss everything.
we are foolishly believes that the justice is equal for everyone at any time but
the real truth is justice is not applicable for women. she does not have the right
to protest for justice. we does not wants to know what are all the sections are
there for womens sexual protection. here, the magistrate is miss using the girl
who is in the age of his own daughter. he does not want to realise all those
things but he wants sleepping companion to squiz tension.
usually we thaught that the men only miss using the women's rights at anytime. in
some time the women is misusing the womens protection she doesn't thought that she
used to destroy her sister, mother, daughter, granddaughter etc. here the 17 year
old girl is misused buy her own grandmother she doesn't feel for doing such a
thing it is undoubtedly proved by the character of grandma in that novel. the
grandma wants to earn money that's why she uses her granddaughter for it.
the culture also projected that woman is capable of receiving and transmitting the
gossips in to others. I already mentioned earlier now we are in 21st century we are
developed in so many fields but we are under nourished when it comes understanding
about women and her emotions. if women comes out of the four walls with surrounded
at first man tries to discorrage her by saying demerits of and action which is
taken by the women if she is not bothering about anything then he uses that tool
that is he starts to comment on her chastity because in that area only the woman is
unable to speak anything that's why most of the men uses bad words that
Muslims sat and moped in their houses. Rumors of atrocities committed by Sikhs on
Muslims in Patiala, Ambala and Kapurthala, which they had heard and dismissed, came
back to their minds. They had heard of gentlewomen having their veils taken off,
being stripped and marched down crowded streets to be raped in the marketplace …
They had heard of mosques being desecrated by the slaughter of pigs on the
premises, and of copies of the holy Koran being torn up by infidels. Quite suddenly
every Sikh in Mano Majra became a stranger with an evil intent … For the first
time, the name Pakistan came to mean something to them—a haven of refuge where
there were no Sikhs.
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 read it in
the advertisements of quacks who proclaimed to possess remedies for barrenness and
medicines to induce wombs to yield male children. One heard about it all the time …
Conversation on any topic—politics, philosophy, sport—soon came down to sex, which
everyone enjoyed with a lot of giggling and, hand-slapping.
Muslims sat and moped in their houses. Rumors of atrocities committed by Sikhs on
Muslims in Patiala, Ambala and Kapurthala, which they had heard and dismissed, came
back to their minds. They had heard of gentlewomen having their veils taken off,
being stripped and marched down crowded streets to be raped in the marketplace …
They had heard of mosques being desecrated by the slaughter of pigs on the
premises, and of copies of the holy Koran being torn up by infidels. Quite suddenly
every Sikh in Mano Majra became a stranger with an evil intent … For the first
time, the name Pakistan came to mean something to them—a haven of refuge where
there were no Sikhs.
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 read it in
the advertisements of quacks who proclaimed to possess remedies for barrenness and
medicines to induce wombs to yield male children. One heard about it all the time …
Conversation on any topic—politics, philosophy, sport—soon came down to sex, which
everyone enjoyed with a lot of giggling and hand-slapping.
in the final part of the novel The magistrate that he is committing mistakes while
he is in a relationship with the girl but his mind does not carry anything he
believe that he needs on companion to relieve him from the tension. irigrey the
famous author says the woman does not need any companion to relieve her from the
sorrow need some companion to relieve him from the tention she says that the women
have auto erotation she does not need anyone and the men does not have auto
irritation that's why he need companion to erase his emotions.
at the end of the novel The author clearly portrays that the people who squizzes
the womens two chest bye showing their cruelties towards Indians. if any problem
occurred usually most of the people wants to disturb the woman because women is
considered as the acid of their family