Chapter 4, Karma, Section I Summary

The same day of Malli's looting, the Sikhs look on with dismay, depressed by their inability to stop Malli. However, the rain continues to fall and the nearby river, the Sutlej, continues to rise. Some of the townspeople keep watch over the river's level. When night falls, it is not clear whether the river is still rising and whether their mud dam would hold.

Some of the villagers go out to the riverbank and hear some human yells, though they are hard to make out. After some searching, the villages hear and see a number of large objects floating down the river. A train rushes by with no lights on. When the sun rises, it is revealed that the large objects were human bodies and body parts. There had been a massacre upstream.

When the villagers return...