KARMA

The British Empire stretched over almost the entire world, and one of the
greatest and most important colonies was India. India was colonized in 1858,
while in 1947 it got its independence.
Karma is a short story written in 1950, which has captured this frustration,
whether the Indians should embrace the British culture.
The main character, Sir Mohan is a middle-aged Native Indian. He is ashamed to
be an Indian. He is a very self-conscious person, who is probably in the upper
class. He forgets his native values.
Sir Mohan has earlier studied at the universe of Oxford for five years (his golden
age), and these five years are meant more to him than the 45 years, he has been
in India. He could never forget his glorious life in England. He hates everything in
India. India is a dirty place to him. Mohan even dislikes his wife Lachmi, because
she fails to impart foreign culture into her life.
On the other hand, Lachmi is purely a traditional Indian woman, who does not
know English and a complete opposite of him. As a result of the differences, Sir
Mohan and his wife do not have a sweet married relationship. He does not care
about her.
Mohan speaks English fluently and he is very obsessed about how other people
think of him: he opened the copy of The Times he had read several times before.
He folds so the passengers will be able to see that he is a well-educated man.
He seeks acknowledgement from others.
The important event occurs during a journey of the couple on a train. Sir Mohan
made his wife sit in the general compartment, while he arranged his seat in the
first class compartment, which was meant for the British. Suddenly he finds two
English soldiers, who start to abuse him in the compartment, and they even
called him a nigger, and after they put him out of the train. Mohan is very
shocked. The soldiers cannot see that he is one of them. He is now in identity
crises. Who is he; Indian or Englishman? This ending is very terrible to Sir
Mohan, maybe the world ending. He simply sees that the English is not his
friends.
This action is presented as a victory for a simple Indian woman over a well
educated, arrogant and proudly Indian man.
The theme in the text is karma as the title suggests. Sir Mohan gets what he
deserves. Karma is an Indian thing, and Mohan rejects being one, and when two
British soldiers kick him out, the Indian thing Karma is biting him.
This story is an excellent example of the English forces at work inside an Indian.
The author, Khushwant Singh reveals the irony of a man (Sir Mohan) who suffers
at the hands of those whom he tried to imitate, but it results only in humiliation.
Singh does not certain believe in Karma, he is trenchant secularism, which means
humanist and a rationalist.
Personally I hate people like Sir Mohan. He feels like he is better among others,
and this is a very arrogant thing.