I’ve grown up hearing horrific stories of 1947 from my grandparents and when shows like Dastaan make it seem like that the partition was always the only option, it seems unfair. This was when I realized what subtle propaganda was capable of. But it was inspiring to read about Jugga, the local “badmash” with a big heart, who sacrificed himself to save the lives of Muslim refugees. For the longest time, I expected Train to Pakistan to show the same fate of Muslim refugees. In one terrifying part of the show, a train of Muslim refugees is attacked by a Sikh mob as they are heading off to Lahore. I will never be able to forget the beautiful love story, nor the gruesome violence this show captured. They would later find that regardless of their political beliefs, moving to Pakistan is inevitable. It follows a family which is pro- Pakistan, and the other which has always been a supporter of Congress. What does the class think about this? Were Hindus, Muslims and other religious communities always separate …show more content… This show was about the disruption which the partition caused in the lives of two Muslim households. And if that was true, this meant that Jinnah and the Muslim League were in the right to demand a separate nation for the Muslim majority as this supported their “Two Nation Theory” that Hindus and Muslims have always been two separate identities. Therefore, if that is the case, does that mean that the village acting violently was not only the result of the ghost train or the horrific stories shared by the refugees? There had to be internal thoughts, prejudices and preconceived notions that would have fueled the violence. Our mind may be a box, but it is not an empty one.

Logically, this theory is often criticized because it does not take into account the internal thought process already going on inside the human mind so our reactions to those external stimuli are not a direct response of it. It is their belief that external factors go inside the box and our observable responses come out.

Mano Majra cherishes friendship, family and …show more content… Behavioural learning theorists characterize the human mind as a “black box”.

If there really was a blood lust which we inherited from our ancestors, we would have all been dead a long time ago. But then the rational part of me questions why there are millions of Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and other religious communities living in peace today. The cynical part of me says that religious feuds and riots have always been a reality of South Asia – even before the medieval times, so this should not be shocking. Approximately one million men, women and children died as a result of communal violence during that time. Though the characters and the village of Mano Majra are both fictitious, the reality of the 1947 Partition is not. Khushwant Singh’s Train to Pakistan is a horrific read.

Train to pakistan analysis