Power and Corruption Theme Analysis

Iqbal Singh and Juggut Singh are two men of different castes who end up sharing a cell together, both imprisoned on the false charge of conspiring to commit the dacoity against the Hindu landowner Lala Ram Lal. Both Iqbal and Juggut are easy targets of the corrupt local police, who have no justification for imprisoning either man and arrest them simply because it is politically expedient and they can. Iqbal represents a threat to established authority, while Juggut—already a known criminal in the village—is a convenient scapegoat for the avoidance of investigative work. Through the experiences of these men, the novel depicts a country in which police powers are broad, unchecked, and abusive. This corruption is also key to maintaining a caste system in which many Indians are guaranteed to remain poor and powerless.

Iqbal is pegged as a troublemaker due to his work to bring political change to Mano Majra, including attempts to end the unmitigated rule of wealthy Indians over the nation’s poor. The head constable, under the guidance of the subinspector, eventually works to frame Iqbal as a member of the Muslim League. The police do this partly to cover for their initial error in arresting Iqbal for the dacoity; the subinspector forgot that he saw Iqbal arrive in Mano Majra on his train the day after the dacoity, meaning he could not possibly have been responsible. Beyond covering their mistake, however, they also want to prod the Sikh villagers of Mano Majra into sending away their Muslims. The subinspector’s “proof” that Iqbal is a Muslim political meddler is that Iqbal is circumcised. The subinspector plots with the magistrate Hukum Chand to rename Iqbal as “Iqbal Mohammed.” The arrest and intentional misnaming of Iqbal Singh reveals the arbitrary nature of justice in India after Independence, and how people of different social classes and religions are vulnerable to the nation’s police corruption.

A particularly lurid example of this corruption occurs when Juggut Singh is brought in for questioning. Juggut is easily blamed for the crime due to his own criminal past. Additionally, Malli, the actual leader of the dacoity, threw bangles stolen from Ram Lal into Juggut’s courtyard to implicate him. To then force Juggut to talk, the subinspector threatens to whip his buttocks or put “red chilies” into Juggut’s rectum. Juggut, however, has already been through torture and knows what it feels like to have his “[h]ands and feet pinned under legs of charpoys with half a dozen policemen sitting on them” and his “[t]esticles twisted and squeezed” until one goes numb. The subinspector is pleased to watch Juggut wince from the memory of such pain, and his knowledge that he can both inflict harm and use it to “solve” a case gives him a feeling of omnipotence. In each instance, the police assert dominance in India, not through cooperative and legal means, but by imposing physical harm on suspected criminals and suspending any rights to due process.

After Iqbal and Juggut are imprisoned and sharing a cell, Iqbal asks the latter if he is responsible for the killing of Ram Lal, which Juggut firmly denies. Juggut explains that Ram Lal was a source of money for people in the village, and that he had given Juggut money once to help get his father, Alam, out of jail. Iqbal supposes that this will be enough evidence for the police to release Juggut from custody, but Juggut tells him that the police will only release him “when they feel like it” and might even go as far as to “trump up a case of [him] keeping a spear without a license or going out of the village without permission.” Juggut’s explanation of police power over peasants like him demonstrates the ways in which the authorities can control people’s movements and bring false charges against those who have no means to secure their defense. Ironically, Ram Lal was one of few people in power, it seems, who sympathized with those who could not defend themselves against such abuses of authority.

Despite his education and higher social station, Iqbal is no more capable of defending himself against the police’s scheming. The subinspector’s resentment of Iqbal, which influences his wish to frame the social worker, is the result of his envy toward Iqbal’s education, higher social class, and foreign manners, all of which the subinspector first noticed upon their encounter at the train station. The subinspector mocks Iqbal’s expressed desire for habeas corpus, or due process, before being jailed. When Iqbal requests being moved to another cell after Juggut violently attacks Malli, the subinspector again mocks Iqbal, asking if he would also like to have “an electric fan” installed in his cell for greater comfort. This interaction reveals that, in a policing system in which officers can frame and imprison anyone they please, everyone is vulnerable. Iqbal’s education and refined manners serve him no better than Juggut’s six-foot-four frame; both are rendered small and powerless.

The author depicts specific instances of police corruption in A Train to Pakistan to underscore their prevalence throughout India’s political infrastructure, the powerlessness of peasants, such as Juggut, in response to it, as well as the difficulties that political agitators, such as Iqbal, face in transforming a society mired under the weight of its own moral decay.