Destiny vs. Freewill in Khushwant Singh's Train to Pakistan and Primo Levi's Survival in Auschwitz

Are men able to make their own fate or our fates predestined for us? This question of destiny versus freewill has puzzled philosophers and normal folk alike. Certain practical experiences point out that we are in control of our lives. And yet certain turn of events remind us how insignificant our decisions are in the grand scheme of things. The two novels are set in different locations at almost the same era. The Second World War has affected many nations and numerous people. Khushwant Singh's Train to Pakistan is a fictional story regarding the conflict between Pakistan and India after Britain has separated them after the World War II known as the Partition. During this time, the people are in constant conflict with their neighbors. For the people in India and Pakistan during this time, Britain has made the decision for them: to separate the Muslims from the Hindu as a means to diffuse tension. Primo Levi's Survival in Auschwitz is an autobiographical account of the author's experience in the Nazi camps during the Second World War. Young and skilled, Levi was spared from execution and made to work in laboratories where he witnesses atrocities. From this brief introduction, one may assume that these people are merely victims of their time. They were prisoners of their own destinies.

Free Will versus Destiny in Train to Pakistan

In Singh's novel, there are various characters that interplay during these hard times. However, the author points out that no single group of people is to blame, "Muslims said the Hindus had planned and started the killing. According to the Hindus, the Muslims were to blame. The fact is, both sides killed. Both shot and stabbed and speared and clubbed. Both tortured. Both raped." (Singh 1) The characters in the novel are situated in Mano Majra, a fictitious village setting the story situated on the Pakistan and Indian frontiers. The village consists of people who are Muslim and Sikh. The situation in the village is very different from those happening outside. In Mano Majra, the Muslims and Sikhs coexist peacefully. However, they are susceptible to the information delivered to them by the people from the outer villages. Upon receiving information that the Muslims in Mano Majra were to be transferred to Pakistan for their safely, the Muslims in Mano Majra said, "What have we to do with Pakistan? We were born here. So were our ancestors. We have lived amongst [Sikhs] as brothers" (126). However they were still transferred to a refugee camp before finally settling to Pakistan. In a drastic turn of events, a band of religious dissenters convinced the Sikhs in Mano Majra to hate their Muslim friends. They planned to mass murder the Muslims while they leave for the train to Pakistan.

One of the most notable characters in the novel is Hukum Chand, the regional magistrate. He is probably the most prominent character in the story. It is implied in the story that he was a powerful and corrupt official. The author describes him with filthy characteristics whenever he is doing sinful acts. He washes or tries to cleanse himself from his sins in various points in the story. One particular instance, he chances upon a pair of fighting geckos and the lizards fall onto him. The author describes this scene as, "Hukum Chand felt as if he had touched the lizards and they had made his hands dirty. He rubbed his hands on the hem of his shirt. It was not the sort of dirt which could be wiped off or washed clean." (24) The character saw his chance to get involved and help but he refused so as not to make himself dirty.

Hukum Chand uses alcohol to purify his foul conscience. Through this vice he is able to numb himself from the guilt of all the unlawful things he does during the day. However, he still recognizes the fact that he is powerless to do good deeds despite the pleas of his conscience. He feels powerless over the situation.

Free Will versus Destiny in Survivak in Auschwitz

In 1944, Levi who is Jewish Italian was captured by Germans outside of his native town in Turi. The author expressed his relief that he was confined so late into the war, thus widening his chances for survival. During his time in the camp, Levi, aged 24 when he was captured felt that he would be sent to the gas chambers like most Jews. Most weak, sickly, aged, women, and children were killed as soon as they get off he trains at Auschwitz. He was lucky that he was relatively young and strong. He was spared and made to work. Levi also recounted the methodical the ways in which prisoners were dehumanized by ridding them of the three things that makes us markedly human: (1) humans' perception of time; (2) humans' capacity for thought and self-awareness; and (3) humans' need to express our thoughts though language. Levi shares his thoughts about time:

"For living men, the units of time always have a value, which increases in ratio to the strength of the internal resources of the person living through them; but for us, hours, days, months spilled out sluggishly from the future into the past, always too slowly, a valueless and superfluous material, of which we sought to rid ourselves as soon as possible. With the end of the season when the days chased each other, vivacious, precious and irrecoverable, the future stood in front of us, grey and inarticulate, like an invincible barrier. For us, history had stopped." (Levi 117).

This bleak perspective went on as he struggled to find food and mostly had to make deals or steal food from non-Jewish prisoner who were better fed than the Jews. Because he was a trained chemist, he was able to work in a laboratory instead of doing manual labor like digging and laying bricks. Eventually, Levi caught a strain of scarlet fever. Because of his illness, he was unable to join the forced march as the Germans retreated from the onslaught of the Russian troops. Levi recalled this moment:

"All the healthy prisoners (except a few prudent ones who at the last moment undressed and hid themselves in the hospital beds) left during the night of 18 January 1945. They must have been about twenty thousand, coming from different camps. Almost in their entirety they vanished during the evacuation march: Alberto was among them. Perhaps someone will write their story one day." (155)

As he stayed in the camp, he observed for ten days as corpses piled up in the deserted camp. During this time he endured even worse ordeals as food and water became scarcer and heat was extinguished due to lack of electricity. Eventually, Levi found out that his best friend along with all those prisoners who were forced to join the march had been slaughtered. It seems that certain twists of fate have helped Levi survive this monstrous ordeal against the odds.

Conclusion

These two accounts of history prove that while there are certain obstacles and hardships thrown our way by fate, we still have to make the most out of each situation. Though he lived in a time when there is so much corruption and hatred, Hukum Chand felt that he had the power to do good but refused to do so. The fighting of the two geckos, possibly symbolizing the warring Muslim Pakistan and Hindu India was a calling for Hukum Chand to intervene and make a stand and the magistrate chose not to. Primo Levi on the other hand still struggled to survive despite the seemingly lack of hope in his situation. Fate was on his side, however when he became ill and escaped death during the forced march. Nevertheless, Levi proved that he was capable of still shaping his own life-facing the challenges head on.

References

Levi, Primo. Survival in Auschwitz: The Nazi Assault on Humanity. Trans. Stuart Woolf. New York: Collier, 1961.

Singh, Khushwant. Train to Pakistan. New York: Grove Press, 1956