Trama

Seen from the eyes of Hukum Chand the District Magistrate it is an account of the turmoil faced by the inhabitants of village Mano Majra in Punjab on the Indo-Pak border during the period of partition after India attained independence.

Seen from the eyes of Hukum Chand the District Magistrate it is an account of the turmoil faced by the inhabitants of village Mano Majra in Punjab on the Indo- Pak border during the period of partition after India attained independence. Sikhs and Muslims live in harmony in the village till a train full of dead people arrives from Pakistan. Some refugees also troop in from the border. Government plans to evacuate Muslims from the village to Pakistan to ensure their safety against the wishes of even the Sikh villagers. Some hotheaded Sikhs from outside the village hatch a plan to kill the Muslims on the train before it it sent to Pakistan. The Muslim lover of the village baddie Juggut Singh is supposed to be on the train. He single handedly foils the plan to butcher the train passengers sacrificing his own life in the process.

Tensions run high near the Indo-Pak border immediately after independence of India in August 1947 when the country is being partitioned with a new country called Pakistan. Sikhs living in this border town have heard numerous stories of Muslims killing, raping, and looting other Sikhs, Hindus, and Christians, and many of whom are their friends and relatives. Enraged at the loss of law and order, they plan their own attack on a trainful of Muslims leaving British India. The train is overcrowded with thousands of migrating passengers, who are even perched on the windows and the roof of this train. The plot is to fell those seated on the roof of the train with a rope tied across the start of the bridge and kill them. But there is someone among the villagers to foil this horrific plan.—rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)