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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Iqbal refuse to do that causes an outburst from one of the officers?

2. What is Chand doing to the girl when they hear a shot?

3. What happens in the night at the station that turns the sky orange?

4. What wakes Chand, following the discussion of the monsoon?

5. What sounds interrupt the couple's love making?

Short Essay Questions

1. Explain the situation between Muslims and Hindus and Sikhs, as discussed by Chand and the Subinspector in Chapter 1, section 2.

2. Tell the story Jugga recites on the way to the police station.

3. Explain why Iqbal is angry that the police are arresting him in Chapter 1, section 4, and what he believes they are arresting him for.

4. Describe Meet Singh's appearance.

5. Explain how Imam Baksh became the mullah of the mosque.

6. Describe the summer monsoon.

7. What is the plan for the police, in terms of what to do with Malli and his gang, and who to ask villagers about in Chapter 2, section 3?

8. Describe the morning routine of Mano Majra, in terms of the Muslim mosque and the Sikh temple.

9. Explain why the police let Malli and his gang go free, why they claimed Iqbal was a Muslim, and why they sought to convey an idea that Sultana may have been to blame for the murder?

10. What does Imam imply when he comments on the 'incidents' with trains?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In the book, everyone fails to do what is right, except for Jugga Singh, the budmash. Explain in detail the responses by Jugga, Iqbal, Meet Singh and Hukum Chand to the knowledge that a train of Muslims will be slaughtered. Compare their responses with their supposed positions in life. What does this indicate, in terms of which character is truly a man of values?

Essay Topic 2

In the beginning of the novel, how do the trains of Mana Majra play a part in the lives of the villagers? What activities coincide with the trains? What do the trains, at first, represent? As the novel goes on, how does the role of the train change? What does the train symbolize by the middle of the novel, as it is used to bring in corpses? What does it symbolize at the end of the novel? Is the symbolism different between Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs? Why?

Essay Topic 3

In the middle of the novel, a group of Sikh soldiers come to Mano Majra. In the same section, a train full of dead bodies is burned right outside the village, with the help of the wood and kerosene of the villagers. How do you think these events helped frame the rest of the story? If the train had not come through and the soldiers had not arrived, do you think the rest of the novel would have gone as it did? Would there have been a feeling of a need to retaliate? Would the villagers have remained brotherly? How else could the military have handled the trainload of deceased bodies? Was the government way of dealing with issues part of the problem in the novel? Why?

(see the answer keys)

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