The Sampark Kranti Express is travelling from Thiruvananthapuram to Chandigarh. It’s pulling a vintage steam engine called the Wanderer, which will be exhibited in the Republic Day parade in Delhi. This train travelling across the length of India carries a cross-section of the Indian populace. One of its travellers, Karamchand (named so after Mahatma Gandhi), through the intersection of his observations along the journey, his memories, and the history of the places the train passes through creates a fantastic, parallel journey along the one he is already on.
Landmarks in the history of India—the construction of railways in India by the British, the notorious Portuguese sailor Almeida’s attacks on ports in Kerala, the 1857 mutiny, the Chauri Chaura incident, the Godhra riots find mention in the novel.
Among the travellers on the train are John, a British wildlife photographer; three TTEs; an Indian woman carrying a Pakistani man’s child; a sex worker who is a rape victim; Gujarati pilgrims returning from Rameshwaram; even Narendra Dabholkar, with whom Karamchand discussion the ideas of nation and nationalism, though Dabholkar is killed en route.
V. Shinilal’s award-winning political novel, The Wanderer talks about reservation, farmer suicides and many other burning issues. The themes of caste, class and gender are depicted through different characters as well as the structure of the train. Karamchand’s statement, ‘a train is a small biopsy section of India’ perfectly sums up this very pertinent novel.