Khushwant Singh has portrayed women in his novel Train To Pakistan just the way they were at the time of the partition - the forties. They were treated as mere objects of ownership, mute, passive and docile. In keeping with the times depicted in the novel, they don't have much of an active role in the plot, and they exist as secondary characters. They defer to their men and as a whole lead quiet and subservient lives. Jokes are made at their cost.
Various symbols are associated with the women in the novel like antimony and glass bangles. The use of adornments is meant to deify womanhood, and bangles represent auspiciousness in marriage, however, the breaking of bangles and the smearing of antimony or kohl represents the despoiling of the sanctity of a woman. The tragic story of Sundari describes the smashing of her bangles as a symbol of the taking away of her sanctity. The story about Sundari is tragic enough and what happens to her describes the abysmal levels to which respect for women dropped during the partition. It is said that in times of war and civil conflict, it is the women and children who suffer the most. Women are either deified lionized in the novel, or else they are vilified and demeaned. Western women are "houris from paradise," while " All we have are black buffaloes," according to Juggat Singh.-P 113
However, it can not be said that the women in Khushwant are completely dormant. Ironically, they are more effective in a subtle sense, somehow changing the way their men behave, their outlook towards life or their worldview. The women in the novel have a lasting impact on the men they are associated with. Nooran, Juggat Singh's beloved, an object of desire, pure and innocent, a partner in crime during their nightly furtive excursions outside the village of Mano Majra has influenced Juggat Singh's actions and behaviour as a whole. She brings out the good in him. It is because of her that he leaves his bad company. In the end, it is for her that he sacrifices his life to cut the rope that had been strung at rooftop height. Juggat Singh is a hero because he wants Nooran to safely escape with their unborn child.
Even Haseena, the dancing girl has an important role to play in the novel. She is a paid companion for Hukum Chand, a plaything and yet she brings about a change in him. First and foremost she reminds him of his own daughter who 'would have been sixteen, seventeen, or eighteen if she had lived.' His initial impression of the dancing girl brings in disturbing thoughts to his mind. 'The thought that she was perhaps younger than his own daughter flashed across his mind.'-p30 Hukum Chand requires quite a few glasses of alcohol to get to gain the courage to continue his dalliance with the dancing girl. Haseena makes Hukum Chand feel 'uneasy' -p29 and he drinks more whiskey to dismiss his 'conscience'. It is only after many meetings that Hukum Chand realises that Haseena belongs to another religious community and that there is a possibility of her being killed by members of the dominant community. She revives his sense of duty towards saving the lives of the refugees fleeing the country. She revives his guilty conscience, and his ability to feel for others. When informed by the subinspector that the Chunndunnugger refugees will be travelling by the night train he realises that Haseena will be on it and that her life is in danger. He decides to free Juggat Singh and Iqbal from jail so that one of the two might help in "preventing the attack on the train". Though this is a rather selfish decision, to save Haseena's life, it does end up in saving the lives of many people on the train.
Women, especially entertainers like the dancing girl, are meant to serve others. They are like objects that need to be sacrificed for the pleasure of men. Their own consent in the matter of service has no meaning in the patriarchal fabric of society. Haseena's guardian, an old woman urges her ward to "Go to the Government",-p31 meaning Hukum Chand even as he shows her a currency note. Women like the dancing girl have been nurtured for the pleasure of men, men who have a lot of money to spend, or else men who have a powerful position in the Government like a magistrate. In the words of the older woman, "She is hardly sixteen and completely innocent. She has never been near a man before. I have reared her for your honour's pleasure.'-p31.
Juggat Singh's mother also has a rather strong presence in the initial pages of the novel. She has a stabilizing impact on the principal character, Juggat Singh. The ever-complaining and fussy mother remonstrates with her son when he tells her he needs to go to the '"fields" to check on the damage done by some pigs, she replies, " Have you forgotten already that you are on probation - that it is forbidden for you to leave the village after sunset?... They will send you back to jail."-p12 She is the only parent he has and she tries her level best to guide her son.
The novel Train to Pakistan describes a typical patriarchal society in which women are portrayed as objects of desire and it is only their physical attributes that are described. Living in an unequal society, women have been relegated to a position of trophies to be won and displayed with pride that others envy. In a conversation with Iqbal while in the lockup, Juggat Singh describes his sense of wonder about Iqbal's experiences with women abroad. He exclaims with wonder, "Wah, wah...you must have had lots of fun. The memsahibs are like hours from paradise-white and soft, like silk. All we have here are black buffaloes."-p113 However, Indian women too are treated either as goddesses or for that effect objects that have been discarded. One is either a goddess or else a discarded object like Sundari, who after being targetted by a mob is left metaphorically smashed like the 'auspicious' bangles she had worn as a bride. One of the five bandits who enter the village of Mano Majra to rob the money-lender, the spearman describes Nooran in the words, "Did you see that tight shirt showing off her breasts and the bells tinkling in her plaits and the swish-swish of silk? Hai" he goes on to describe her makeup when he says, "at night, she puts black antimony in her eyes" to which his companion replies, "Antimony is good for the eyes" and the other man replies, "It is good for other people's eyes too." - p7
The helplessness of women in a patriarchal society ruled by violence and lawlessness is brought out in the description of the two women who live in the moneylender's home, his mother and his wife. They are defenceless in the face of the attack by the five bandits who enter the courtyard in search of Lala Ramlal. Their cries for help go unheeded and 'not a villager stirred from his house.'-p10. After the shooting of Lala Ramlal and the firing of two shots in the air by the bandits, the 'Women stopped wailing.'-p11. It is clear that all the women in the novel, Train to Pakistan are caught in the crossfire of violence, and bloodshed, actions committed by men. Nooran and Haseena have to flee from what is probably their birthplace because of the violence taking place between members of two religious communities. Sundari loses the possibility of starting a family because of the depredations of a violent mob of men, a life of possibilities cut short in its prime.
References are taken from:
Singh, Khushwant. TRAIN TO PAKISTAN. Gurgaon: Penguin Ravi Dayal, 2009
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