Hassan Manto – “A Literary World unto Himself”

Abstract - #Hassan Manto (1912-1955) one of the finest writers of our age, is a short story writer of Urdu language, in addition to being a film and radio scriptwriter and a journalist. he has published twenty-two collections of short stories, one novel, five collections of radio plays, three collections of essays, and two collections of personal sketches. Acknowledge hundred years after his birth, he is one of the most powerful voices of our time. Originally written in Urdu, trifling in style and form, the stories focus on twists and turns of human psychology. Partition and subsequent loss of balance of life form a major ground in his short stories and he creates fabulous characters from among the common. The paper discusses Manto – as a writer and a social philosopher. His best stories are those that tell the awful stories of partition and also depict the so-called fallen women and prostitutes against the backdrop of filthy lanes and slums. He is no doubt a much-criticized nevertheless widely read author.

 

 

Hassan Manto (1912-1955) one of the finest writers of our age, is a short story writer of the #Urdu language, in addition to being a film and radio scriptwriter and a journalist. Manto was born in Ludhiana in British India on 11 May 1912 to a Kashmiri Muslim family. In 1948, after Partition, he moved to Lahore. “My name is Saadat Hasan Manto and I was born in a place that is now in India. My mother is buried there. My father is buried there. My first-born is also resting in that bit of earth,” Manto wrote in one of his iconic Letters to Uncle Sam. He died a few months short of his forty-third birthday in January 1955 at Lahore. Here lies Saadat Hasan Manto and with him lie buried all secrets and mysteries of the art of short story writing… under tonnes of earth he lies, still wondering who among the two is the greatest short story writer; God or he. - the epitaph he wrote to mark his grave on August 18, 1954, a few months away from his death. Ironically, his family, afraid of the conservative mindset, changed the epitaph he wanted. They chose a milder couplet written by Ghalib: Dear God, why does time erase my name from the tablet of the living? I am after all not one of those words that is mistakenly calligraphed twice, and on detection removed. 

 Manto began his career by translating a few of the most popular French and Russian writers. He began his career by translating Victor Hugo's The Last Day of a Condemned Man while in 1934, Manto went on to study further and enrolled himself in the Aligarh Muslim University. Well, he also worked in the Urdu service of the All India Radio in 1941, where he authored most of his radio plays. In all, he has published twenty-two collections of short stories, one novel, five collections of radio plays, three collections of essays, and two collections of personal sketches. Acknowledge hundred years after his birth, he is one of the most powerful voices of our time. Originally written in Urdu, trifling in stylishness and form, the stories focus on twists and turns of human psychology. Partition and subsequent loss of balance of life form a major theme in his short stories and with this background, he creates fabulous characters from among the commons.

Manto was tried for obscenity half a dozen times, thrice before independence and thrice after independence. Nevertheless, not always was he acquitted. His life has been the subject of countless anecdotes and narratives but as such, no one has however written a comprehensive biography on him. Maybe an inclusive biography would explain why his stories are marked by a sense that we are doomed to a life of solitude, agony, and grief. Some of Manto's greatest work was produced in the last seven years of his life, a time of great economic and emotional hardship for him. 

He is no doubt a much-criticized nevertheless widely read author. He ruthlessly exposes the void of middle-class morality and unveils its disreputable aspects. His style of storytelling is simple, but then the treatment of the subject and theme is unique and in a way devastating. The characters in his short stories are mostly the so-called fallen or rejected members of society. His best stories are those that tell the awful stories of Partition and that depict, so-called fallen women and prostitutes against the backdrop of filthy lanes and slums. Blending hard facts with the shards of realistic fiction, Manto was able to document the multifaceted nature of human suffering at the time of partition that had eluded professional historians. His stories bring an incomparable demonstration of human experiences amidst a multitude of themes ranging from innocence to lust, love and hatred, gratitude and devotion, and basic human nature. In them, the readers not only find themes of killing, slaughter, and rape, but also of lust, filth, decadence, and perversion.  The stories are short and crispy and as such the reader easily connects with the characters and empathize with their fortunes. 

He was a rebel, and way ahead of his times. Dragged to court many times and on one such instance he said –

If you cannot tolerate my stories, this means the times are intolerable. there is nothing wrong with my stories. The wrong which is ascribed to my stories, is in fact the rot of the system.  If you are opposed to my literature, then the best way is that you change the condition that motivate such literature. (“Adab-e-Jadeed” 1944, included in Dastaver, p.52)

The first set of his short stories are about partition they are contemptuous tales of a degenerated society. In these stories, Manto questions the very definitions of country, border and sanity. In these stories, Manto does not makes attempt to offer any historical explanation for the hatred and bloodshed. He blames no one and without any ideological covers, he is able to describe an awkward and a corrupt time in which the sustaining norms of a society are erased and as such no ethical, social or political reason is available. For him, 1947 is not an occasion to celebrate, but it is rather an epiphanic moment.

This collection of short stories includes #The Last Salute, a touching and heart-wrenching tale of two friends who are forced to turn against each other in a battle because of the Partition. Here Manto gives his character's emotions and feelings so strong, that they are never in control of their life’s situations. Another equally stunning story is #The Dog of Tithwal. The story is a mockery of the futility of war and how it turns normal humans into suspicious beasts. It personifies the killings and sacrifice of lives through the death of a dog, which belongs to none of the fighting sides. The story depicts the irony of a stray dog that befriends both enemy camps, Indian and Pakistani, at a border post and is then shot. While another story #Toba Tek Singh portrays the anguish of a madman’s refusal and subsequent death, when an attempt is made to return him to his native town, which, after the partition, no longer lay in Pakistan, but is in India.  The central character Bishen Singh has not slept for years, nervous with madness and melancholy, wonders whether his hometown is in Pakistan or India. The last line of the story where the inmate of mental asylum makes the no-man’s land as his divine abode is indeed a thought-provoking and undeniably one of the best endings a writer could give.

Whereas in Khol Do, we see a tormented father who is overjoyed to find his daughter alive on a hospital bed at a refugee camp, unaware of what she has had to endure. It is a story of a girl who loses sight of her father during the partition and ends up being raped and gang-raped again and again by the people of her own religion. The author shows how the India-Pakistan partition provoked inhuman approaches and aroused the negative feeling of eagerness, of satisfying one’s dreadful pleasure irrespective of any religious sentiments. While in Thanda Gosht a Sikh man returns home from a round of killing, confessed to his wife how he raped a beautiful corpse. This story was written before the story #Khol Do but was published later, also asked for legal fury.

Manto’s another collection of short stories contains some of his famous stories such as Bu or odour, Insult or Hatak, Mozail, BabuGopinath, Shiraz and Khushiyan, and others. The exceptional point about these stories is the way in which he appeals to the subaltern subject -designing them out as real flesh and blood characters, capable of stumbling and transcending their physical limitations at the same time. Here he presents a picture of the invisible and silent women, the women fallen from the mainstream of so-called honorable ladies and gentlemen.  He talks about the dehumanization of society which nourishes the cruel male exploitation of female sexuality. His short-stories Kali Shalwar, is a story that revolves around a small-town prostitute Sultana and her disillusionment in Bombay, a city that inspires people to dream. It is a distressing story of identities, disappointment, relationships, and sheer void. His other stories Sharda, FobhaBai, Burmese Girl, etc. are stories where the protagonists are moved by the underlying force of compassion. Deal of Loss raises the question of molestation of women on religious basis. Whereas in Sharifan the rape and murder of Sharifan and Bimla speak of the dreadful crimes against women on the basis of communal bias and the fate meted out to these two victims have symbolic implications so far as the predicament of the woman is concerned.

Time and again Manto lays stress on the maxim that “A veshya is a woman as well, but every woman is not a veshya”. (‘Ismat Furosh’, prostitute, in Destavez, p.92). He further says -

We do not go to the prostitute ‘quarter to offer namaz or dorood, we go there because we can go there and buy the commodity we want to buy (‘Safed Jhoot’, in Dastavez, p.73).

His anxiety is not the commodity, but the pain, sufferings, solitude, and frustration of the human soul that is forced to become a commodity, an object for sale and entertainment. He laments that in the present society this attitude is quite outrageous, awful, and disgraceful. In humanizing women, Manto successively exposed the typical hypocrisy of a traditional male and the nervousness men face in reaching social standards of masculinity. He looked beyond gender distinctions and not playing the blame game. He saw human beings struggling with their instincts within those contexts, gender and otherwise. He says that –

Maybe my writings are unpleasantly harsh. But what have humans gained from sweet homilies? The Neem leaves are pungent but they cleanse the blood (Dastaves, p.83)

The literary works of Manto are spread over a wide canvas making it difficult to cover them in a single paper. The review of his literary works and the study of his social-political philosophy is an equally difficult task. But it is interesting to view the socio-political context of that time. It was the time of India- Pakistan partition. But Manto refuses to endorse any political ideology, yet his stories do possess a sharp political and social consciousness. He does not recognize the political boundaries and he raises questions on the basis of being a humanist writer. He tries to find answers to the problems from his own land and its history. His characters are engaged in the struggle for existence.  His short stories provoke a contradictory response. His approach is difficult to understand as he avoids making any direct references to historical events. In one of his writings, he says –

I am scared of jail. The life that I am leading is no less painful than an imprisonment. If another jail is created within the jail I am already in, I will die of suffocation within seconds. I love life. I believe in action………. however, if somebody breaks my head in a Hindu-Muslim riot, every drop of my blood will cry. I am an artist. I do not like shabby wounds. (‘Lzat-e-Sang’, in Manto Namah. P.621)

Manto stands apart from his contemporaries and his greatest input is that in a society where humanity was divided in cast, county, and religions, he ends that division. And he sympathized with those with whom people were not sympathizing, the down-trodden. He perceives humanity in each and every person. He internalizes, feels, and portrays the pain of partition, not as a Muslim or Hindu or as a speaker of Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, or Marathi but as a human being, and is traumatized and devastated in the process. Manto stands out among the short story writers of that time, basically because he was against any partition on the basis of religion. He could not understand how culture, civilization, art, music, dance, and architecture could be partitioned. Possibly that is why he could write a great story like Toba Tek Singh. Zaheda Hina says -

The Mahabharat of Partition was written on the body of the hapless and helpless women of all religions of the subcontinent. Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs, all can see the images of their own savagery and barbarism in Manto’s ruthless writings. “Khol Do”, “Thanda Gosht”, “Woh Larki”, “Mozail”, “Sahaey”, “Ram Khilawan”, and “Gormukh Singh ki Wasiyat” are stories which put many questions to our collective conscience. Manto has been rightfully called the creative conscience of the subcontinent.( How does Manto stand apart from his contemporaries?’ From InpaperMagazine 06 May 2012)

While Fahmida Riaz says –

Manto stands apart from other writers because there is no ambiguity in his message. He conveys it to the reader directly and forcefully, hitting the nail on the head, as one says…. It was quite a galaxy of writers in those days. But Manto had to suffer much more than others for his literary creations. That too sets him apart.( How does Manto stand apart from his contemporaries?’ From InpaperMagazine 06 May 2012)

Manto was a literary world unto himself. Although he is remembered as a writer of short fiction, Ayesha Jalal, his grandniece, and a historian, described him as a "terrific writer of the memoir" Riveting and enthralling, many of his pieces leave you feeling almost exploited, but there is no way one can stop reading. Truly a legend, he deserves more credit for his progressive and honest writing.

 

 

Reference

1.      heprint.in/theprint-profile/saadat-hasan-manto-lover-of-fountain-pens-shoes-alcohol-who-was-the-voice-of-partition/233983/

2.      https://www.dawn.com/news/716117/manto-centenary-how-does-manto-stand-apart-from-his-contemporaries

3.      https://www.indiatoday.in/amp/education-today/gk-current-affairs/story/saadat-hasan-manto-best-short-story-writer-322865-2016-05-11

4.      https://www.economist.com/prospero/2012/05/14/a-writer-of-fierce-candour

 

 

Published in

         Vidhayana – An International Multidisciplinary referred E-Journal

                                 (ISSN 2454-8596) Issue 3, Volume  6, December 2020                                                                                                            

Contradictions of life!!

 🎇🎈🎉🎆Contradictions of life!!🎄🎃🎅🎆

1 - Inspite of so many colours - White is considered Class

2 - Inspite of so many voices and sounds - Silence is considered ultimate

3 - Inspite of so much to eat - Fasting is considered healthy

4 - Inspite of so much to travel & explore - Meditating under trees & on mountains is considered superior

5 - Inspite of so much to see - Closing your eyes & looking within is Apex

6 - Inspite of listening to all the outside world - Voice from inside you is Eternal

7 - Inspite of a sweet charming life - A Peaceful Soul is Solace & Divine.

Go by your instincts.  Life is beautiful.

10 best jokes that need to be retold as 2020 draws to a close

Goodbye 2020 Welcome 2021

 10 best jokes that need to be retold as 2020 draws to a close ...😂😆😜

1.  The dumbest thing I ever bought was a 2020 planner.

2.  2019: Stay away from negative people. 2020: Stay away from positive people.

3.  The world has turned upside down. Old folks are sneaking out of the house & their kids are yelling at them to stay indoors!

4.  This morning I saw a neighbor talking to her cat. It was obvious she thought her cat understood her. I came to my house & told my dog....   We had a good laugh.

5.  Every few days try your jeans on just to make sure they fit. Pajamas will have you believe all is well in the kingdom.

6.  Does anyone know if we can take showers yet or should we just keep washing our hands?

7.  I never thought the comment, “I wouldn’t touch him/her with a 6-foot pole” would become a national policy, but here we are!

8.  I need to practice social-distancing from the refrigerator.

9.  I hope the weather is good tomorrow for my trip to the Backyard. I’m getting tired of the Living Room.

10. Never in a million years could I have imagined I would go up to a bank teller with a mask on and ask for money.

   👆forwarded and shared by friends 😊

 #The Law of Wasted Effort

Do you know that lions only succeed in a quarter of their hunting attempts —

which means they fail in 75% of their attempts and succeeds in only 25% of them.

Despite this small percentage shared by most predators, they don't despair in their pursuit and hunting attempts. 

The main reason for this is not because of hunger as some might think but it is the understanding of the “Law of Wasted Efforts” that have been instinctively built into animals, a law in which nature is governed. 

Half of the eggs of fishes are eaten...

 half of the baby bears die before puberty...

 most of the world's rains fall in oceans... 

and most of the seeds of trees are eaten by birds. 

Scientists have found that animals, trees, and other forces of nature are more receptive to the law of "wasted efforts". 

Only humans think that the lack of success in a few attempts is failure... 

but the truth is that: we only fail when we "stop trying".

Success is not to have a life free of pitfalls and falls... 

but success is to walk over your mistakes and go beyond every stage where your efforts were wasted looking forward to the next stage. 

If there is a word that summarizes this world, it will simply be - 

continue all over again.

#Be Inspired

😅☝ forwarded by a friend 

The Rabbit and the Tortoise - Retold

 #The Rabbit and #the Tortoise - Retold 

Actually, everyone throughout the world has kept giving the example of Tortoise…Saying that slow and steady wins the race and emphasizing the value of persistence and dedication.

Well ! No one has ever bothered to ask the Hare his side of the story…

So let me tell you the story from a different point of view…

I met the Hare and sat down with him for a heart to heart talk.

This is what he had to say after we spent the better part of a balmy summer afternoon getting to know one other.

It was a wonderful experience, believe me..

“Yes, I am the hare who lost.No, I did not get lazy or complacent.

Let me explain.

I was hopping over the meadows near the hills and looked back to realize that the tortoise was nowhere to be seen.

Assured of my healthy lead, I decided to take a short nap under the large banyan tree near the pond.

The anticipation of the race had kept me up all night.

For days, that old silly tortoise had boasted about his ability to plod for hundreds of miles without stopping.

Life is a marathon, he said, not a sprint.I wanted to show him that I could run both far and fast.

The shade of the tree was like an umbrella.

I found an almost oval rock, covered it with grass, and turned it into a makeshift pillow.

I could hear the leaves rustling and the bees buzzing – it felt they were collaborating and even conspiring to put me to sleep.

And it didn’t take them long to succeed.

I saw myself drifting on a log in a beautiful stream of water.

As I came near the shore, I found an old man, with a flowing beard, sitting on a rock in a meditative pose. He opened his eyes, gave me an all-knowing smile, and asked:

“Who are you?”

“I am a hare. I am running a race.”

“Why?”

“To prove to all the creatures in the jungle that I am the fastest.”

“Why do you want to prove that you are the fastest?”

“So that I get a medal which will give me status which will give me money which will get me food…”

“There is already so much food around.” He pointed to the forest in the distance. “Look at all those trees laden with fruits and nuts, all those leafy branches”

“I also want respect. I want to be remembered as the fastest hare who ever lived.”

“Do you know the name of the fastest deer or the largest elephant or the strongest lion who lived a thousand years before you?”

“No.”

“Today you have been challenged by a tortoise.

Tomorrow, it will be a snake.

Then it will be a zebra.

Will you keep racing all your life to prove that you are the fastest?”

“Hmm. I didn’t think about it.

I don’t want to race all my life.”

“What do you want to do?”

“I want to sleep under a banyan tree on a makeshift pillow while the leaves rustle and the bees buzz.

I want to hop over the meadows near the hills and swim in the pond.”

“You can do all these things this very moment.

Forget the race.

You are here today but you will be gone tomorrow.”

I woke up from my sleep.

The ducks in the pond looked happy.

I jumped into the pond, startling them for a moment.

They looked at me quizzically.

“Weren’t you supposed to be racing with the tortoise today?”

“It’s pointless.An exercise in futility.All I want is to be here.

Hopefully, someday, someone will tell the world my story.

That I lost the race but got back my life."

👍 forwarded by a friend 

Interdependence

 Beautiful Story🍂🍁😊 

#Interdependence👬👭👭

A young girl and her father were walking along a forest path. 

At some point, they came across a large tree branch on the ground in front of them. 

The girl asked her father, “If I try, do you think I could move that branch?” 

Her father replied, “I am sure you can, if you use all your strength.” 

The girl tried her best to lift or push the branch, but she was not strong enough and she couldn't move it. 

She said, with disappointment, “You were wrong, dad. I can't move it.” 

“Try again with all your strength,” replied her father. 

Again, the girl tried hard to push the branch. She struggled but it did not move. 

“Dad, I cannot do it,” said the girl.

Finally her father said, “Young lady, I advised you to use 'all your strength'. You didn’t.

You didn't ask for my help.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Moral of the story 

Our real strength lies not in #independence, but in #interdependence.

No individual person has all the strengths,

 all the resources and all the stamina required for the complete blossoming of their vision.

To ask for help and support when we need it is not a sign of weakness,

 it is a sign of wisdom.

🦋🦋❣️🦋🦋🐥🐣🐕🐓🐗🏄🏃🏇

👆forwarded by a friend 

 Foresight of our Ancestors

CLEAR INSTRUCTIONS TAUGHT 

BY #SANATAN DHARM 5000 YEARS AGO TO PREVENT PANDEMICS BY MAINTAINING PERFECT HYGIENE:

1 

लवणं व्यञ्जनं चैव घृतं तैलं तथैव च ।

लेह्यं पेयं च विविधं हस्तदत्तं न भक्षयेत् ।।

धर्मसिन्धू ३पू. आह्निक

Salt, ghee, oil, rice and other food items should not be served with bare hand. Use spoons to serve.

2 

अनातुरः स्वानि खानि न स्पृशेदनिमित्ततः ।।

मनुस्मृति ४/१४४

Without a reason don't touch your own indriyas (organs like eyes, nose, ears, etc.)

3 

अपमृज्यान्न च स्न्नातो गात्राण्यम्बरपाणिभिः ।।

मार्कण्डेय पुराण ३४/५२

Don't use clothes already worn by you.  Dry them yourself after every bath.

4 

हस्तपादे मुखे चैव पञ्चाद्रे भोजनं चरेत् ।।

पद्म०सृष्टि.५१/८८

नाप्रक्षालितपाणिपादो भुञ्जीत ।।

सुश्रुतसंहिता चिकित्सा २४/९८

Wash your hands, feet, mouth before you eat.

5 

स्न्नानाचारविहीनस्य सर्वाः स्युः निष्फलाः क्रियाः ।।

वाघलस्मृति ६९

Without a bath or Snaan and Suddhi, all Karmas (duties) done are Nishphalam (of no use).

6 

न धारयेत् परस्यैवं स्न्नानवस्त्रं कदाचन ।।

पद्म० सृष्टि.५१/८६

Don't use the cloth (like towel) used by another person for drying yourself after a bath.

7 

अन्यदेव भवद्वासः शयनीये नरोत्तम ।

अन्यद् रथ्यासु देवानाम् अर्चायाम् अन्यदेव हि ।।

महाभारत अनु १०४/८६

Use different clothes while sleeping, while going out, while doing pooja.

8 

तथा न अन्यधृतं (वस्त्रं) धार्यम् ।।

महाभारत अनु १०४/८६

Don't wear clothes worn by others.

9

न अप्रक्षालितं पूर्वधृतं वसनं बिभृयाद् ।।

विष्णुस्मृति ६४

Clothes once worn should not be worn again before washing.

10 

न आद्रं परिदधीत ।।

गोभिसगृह्यसूत्र ३/५/२४

Don't wear wet clothes.

11 

चिताधूमसेवने सर्वे वर्णाः स्न्नानम् आचरेयुः। 

वमने श्मश्रुकर्मणि कृते च।। 

विष्णुस्मृति २२

Take a bath on return from cremation ground. Take a bath after every haircut.

These precautions were taught to every Indian five thousand years ago in the #Sanatana Dharma .We were forewarned about importance of maintaining personal  hygiene, when no microscopes existed, but our ancestors using #Vedic knowledge prescribed these Dharma as Sadhaachaaram and followed these ! 

 See in today's scenario how true these are

 

सनातन ही सत्य है और सत्य ही सनातन है !