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Sher Singh killed a skull. I wanted to be a terrorist. But there was baptism in his blood. He felt the crane. If one crane dies, the other dies of injury. His instigator is Madan. Madan feels that if there is baptism in blood, that blood must be shed. Sher Singh and Madan were training to shoot the English. This short novel by Khushwant Singh is about the Sikh community who created a military brotherhood to fight against the British. The Sikhs were defeated by the British in six successive battles. However, after being defeated, the Sikhs were drafted into the British Army for their valor and honor. The Sikhs believed that ‘God is truth’.

The story is ultimately about love, kindness, and peace despite terrorism, revolt, and militancy. This is represented by the symbol of the angry crane that loses its partner. Even as Sher Singh fills hand grenades and rifles, he thinks of the injured bird. So the story is ultimately about the ineffectiveness of terrorism and violence and the message of peace.

Sher Singh was the son of a high-ranking magistrate and the leader of a gang of terrorists. He had revealed both identities for so long, but now he had to make a decision. The concern was what to choose, security or terrorism.

Sher Singh’s house was a haven of comfort and security. His mother and sister represented feelings of comfort and security. But Sher Singh was at odds with his father Buta Singh politically. They differ in their opinions regarding the British. Buta Singh is basically a supporter of the British. He believes in mutual aid between the British and Sikhs. On the other hand, Sher Singh thinks that there are many Gandhis and Nehrus who should be followed, not the British. Buta Singh can’t change his loyalties at his age. But he is realizing that the nationalists need support. In fact, his loyalty to the British was taken as servility. He was being double-sided accused.

The story is basically about the tension between the British and the Sikhs which the author has brought out through a vivid graph of conversations, revolutionary speeches, meetings and so on. It turns out that there are two parties, the anti-British and the pro-British. The older generation of Sikhs is pro-British. The younger generation is trying to finish off the British. There were Hindus like Madan who were instigators of terrorism. Young aspiring leaders danced to Madan songs and packed hand grenades.

Along with the general political background, the story very simply traces the private lives of Sher Singh, Beena, Champak and Madan. Sher Singh, being a failure in his marital relationship, tries to please his wife by aspiring to a high position in politics, becoming a political leader, hero and terrorist. Bina, her sister, is passionately in love with the tall, handsome and charming Madan, from whom she gets a stinker. Madan, a married man who pretends to be very concerned about the country, has a passionate illicit relationship with his friend’s wife, Champak, and instigates his friend Sher Singh to become a hero and terrorist.

Terrorist attacks are planned, a few bridges are blown up, a few roads are blocked, a few brilliant speeches are made, and finally a murder is committed. Sher Singh is arrested and jailed. There, the spoiled child of the family is tortured, beaten and mocked by the Anglo-Saxon Indians. The would-be hero does some dumb shit and ends up in prison.

Sher Singh’s mother, a profoundly worthy lady in spirit and soul, fasts to near death praying for her son’s release. John Taylor, the British ICS and his wife, both a bit of a different kind of British, sympathetic to the Indians, representatives of British Solidarity, worship Sher Singh’s mother and release her son. Thus, ultimately, history proves that terrorism, violence, and heroism are just children’s fantasies. What really solves is the beauty of the spirit, the spirit of love and prayer, the belief that ‘God is Truth’. Kushwant Singh’s short novel under the cloak of politics, murder, terrorism, revolution and heroism shows the ineffectiveness of all this and the triumph of peace and God.