Contesting Orientalism in Khushwant Singh's �...

Contesting Orientalism in Khushwant Singh's “Train to Pakistan”: A Postcolonial Discussion

Author Name : Somnath Shankhari

ABSTRACT

Khushwant Singh’s “Train to Pakistan”, which is a sensational representation of the tormenting agony, menacing anxiety, bewildering confusion, mammoth carnage and unstable nature of life, refutes 'Orientalism', which is a fictional brainchild of Occidental colonisers to corroborate their unjust domination and incursion of the East, by highlighting the feigned inferiority of the colonised population and proclaiming their noble responsibility to uplift them to the norms of civilization. “Train to Pakistan” delineates with utmost severity and magnitude the trauma as well as inhuman brutality that millions of common people had to withstand because of the partition of the then undivided India, and consequently postcolonial suffering and tribulation becomes one of the compelling specifics of the novel. The character of Juggut Singh with his magnanimous humanity, courage and daredevil impetus to bring for than end to the postcolonial counter massacre, turns out to be a Oriental hero, who confutes all the concocted negative conjectures about the intrinsic laxity and lacunae of the Eastern people, while the foreign educated Iqbal with all the enlightenment and civilized illumination of the West, ambivalently mimics the Occidental ethics and values, as he fails to exhibit that impulse needed to dedicate oneself for the philanthropic welfare of society, though he is an appointed social worker by his political party.

Key Words: Orientalism, postcolonial, welfare, anxiety, trauma, concocted, ambivalence, mimicry.