Multiculturalism and Conflict in Khushwant Singh's Train to Pakistan

The concept of integration is a benchmark for a future multiculturalism. This paper intends to focus on the political crisis that a multi-cultural India faces in spite of its great effort to promote national integration amidst cultural mosaics.India is a multiethnic, multilingual, multicultural and multireligious society and she has been able to retain its unity in diversity. But in such a place where diversity prevails, the idea of separate geo-political national entities has become inevitable, the minorities being concerned for their future under the larger ethnic group. The partition of India in 1947 is the greatest setback in the history of India's integrity. It has been attributed to the British's 'Divide and Rule' policy. The British had kept the communities apart to perpetuate their rule. As a result, in 1906 the All India Muslim League was founded. It propagated the theory that Hindu and Muslim were two separate nations which could therefore, never live together. Thus, it resulted in the creation of Pakistan followed by the worst communal violence in the history of mankind. Khushwant Singh's Train to Pakistan is replete with conflicts arising out of the partition of 1947. In this novel we will see how communal frenzy engulfed the remote village of Mano Majra where Sikhs and Muslims had lived in peace for years.