The collection attempts to mirror the author's concerns and passions-his love of nature, his anguish over the situation in Punjab, his interest in religions of the world and his scholarly research on the one into which he was born, Sikhism. The highlight of this book, however, is the expansive, autobiographical opening piece written in Khushwant's characteristically candid style and perhaps the most complete self-portrait he has yet painted.

"In the summer of 1947, when the creation of the state of Pakistan was formally announced, ten million people--Muslims and Hindus and Sikhs--were in flight. By the time the monsoon broke, almost a million of them were dead, and all of northern India was in arms, in terror, or in hiding. The only remaining oases of peace were a scatter of little villages lost in the remote reaches of the frontier. One of these villages was Mano Majra."
It is a place, Khushwant Singh goes on to tell us at the beginning of this classic novel, where Sikhs and Muslims have lived together in peace for hundreds of years. Then one day, at the end of the summer, the "ghost train" arrives, a silent, incredible funeral train loaded with the bodies of thousands of refugees, bringing the village its first taste of the horrors of the civil war. Train to Pakistan is the story of this isolated village that is plunged into the abyss of religious hate. It is also the story of a Sikh boy and a Muslim girl whose love endured and transcends the ravages of war.

It is the summer of 1947. But Partition does not mean much to the Sikhs and Muslims of Mano Majra, a village on the border of India and Pakistan. Then, a local money-lender is murdered, and suspicion falls upon Juggut Singh, the village gangster who is in love with a Muslim girl. When a train arrives, carrying the bodies of dead Sikhs, the village is transformed into a battlefield, and neither the magistrate nor the police are able to stem the rising tide of violence. Amidst conflicting loyalties, it is left to Juggut Singh to redeem himself and reclaim peace for his village. First published in 1956, Train to Pakistan is a classic of modern Indian fiction.

First published in 1963, this remains the most comprehensive and authoritative book on the Sikhs. The new edition updated to the present recounts the return of the community to the mainstream of national life. Written in Khushwant Singh's trademark style to be accessible to a general, non-scholarly audience, the book is based on scholarly archival research.

Sikhs Unlimited deals with the fifth largest religion of the world. Emigrating to the west from the beginning of the twentieth century, the enterprising Sikhs have carved out an exclusive place for themselves in the world. The book showcases the inimitable successes of Sikhs in the UK and the US; and there could be no better time for this commemorative book, when the Sikh Diaspora is set to complete a century of its existence in the west. 'Its still early for book reviews to start pouring in, but if the 254 page Sikhs Unlimited is anything like its author, it should be one heck of a read.' - Rajan Chakravarty, senior journalist on Sikhchic.com .

"Khuswant on Khuswant is irresistable...such is his skill as a writer, simple, lucid, unpretentious, This book has been well worth the wait." India today