A brief study of train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh under just war theory
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Date
2021
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UMT, Lahore
Abstract
This paper aims to scrutinize the theme of partition in the book Train to Pakistan (1956) by Khushwant Singh. As a famous partition literary writer, Khushwant Singh has penned down the reality of both nations during and post partition. Being an unbiased narrator, he has openly unveiled the barbaric and animalistic attitude of people. He highlights the religious disputes between Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus living in a village for hundred years and depicts the chaos and bloodshed after the declaration of a separate homeland. However, the incidents and stories presented by Khushwant Singh portray the violation of some basic war principles. Under the paradigm of War Theory, a famous war theorist, Alexander Moseley introduced the Just War Theory in which he further proposed three main laws of a war, i.e. Jus Ad Bellum (reasons for war), Post Ad Bellum (ethics after war) and Just in Bello (war rules). As put together, under the category of Just in Bello he familiarized the three major principles like Discrimination, Proportionality and Responsibility. As partition of 1947 was nonetheless a war, it can be observed how these principles were violated by the people from both sides. Under this very effort, this paper tends to analyze reasons behind the partition chaos. It will further explore the implication and violation of these basic rules by analyzing the plot and characters in the book and the actual situation at the time of partition. It further aims to study the religious dispute and clash between peace-living people that how it was sabotaged by the political conspiracies of the people.