Juggut Singh, also known as Jugga, is one of the major characters in the book. A local criminal and the son of a robber and murderer, he is viewed with suspicion by most of the people in Mano Majra. His love for his widowed mother, and for the Muslim girl Nooran, motivates him to try to do the right thing, but his rage at the gang leader Malli turns him back towards anger and violence. Mistakenly arrested for a robbery and murder in the village, his fate becomes entangled with the young activist, Iqbal, until they return to the village shortly before the planned attack on the train to Pakistan. As one of the four main male characters of the book, his fate is left unknown, and it is unclear if his love for, and determination to protect, Nooran led him to make the ultimate sacrifice on the railway bridge.

A young Sikh who was educated abroad, Iqbal Singh is now a left-wing political activist who comes to the rural village of Mano Majra to educate and organize the people there. From the moment of his arrival, he is viewed with suspicion by the people of the village, with the exception of Sikh leader Meet Singh.