Saadat Hassan Manto

Saadat Hassan Manto (Urdu: ‏‏سعادت حسن منٹو‎; 11 May 1912 – 18 January 1955) was a British Indian-born Pakistani short story writer of the Urdu language. He is best known for his short stories, "Bu" (Odour), "Khol Do" (Open It), "Thanda Gosht" (Cold Meat), and "Toba Tek Singh".

Manto was also a film and radio scriptwriter and a journalist. He published twenty-two collections of short stories, one novel, five collections of radio plays, three collections of essays, and two collections of personal sketches.

Manto was tried for obscenity six times; thrice before 1947 in British India, and thrice after independence in 1947 in Pakistan, but never convicted. Some of his works have been translated in other languages.

Writings

Manto chronicled the chaos that prevailed, during and after the Partition of India in 1947.

He started his literary career translating works of literary giants, such as Victor Hugo, Oscar Wilde and Russian writers such as Chekhov and Gorky. His first story was "Tamasha", based on the Jallianwala Bagh massacre at Amritsar. Though his earlier works, influenced by the progressive writers of his times, showed a marked leftist and socialist leanings, his later work progressively became stark in portraying the darkness of the human psyche, as humanist values progressively declined around the Partition. His final works, which grew from the social climate and his own financial struggles, reflected an innate sense of human impotency towards darkness and contained a satirism that verged on dark comedy, as seen in his final work, Toba Tek Singh. It not only showed the influence of his own demons, but also that of the collective madness that he saw in the ensuing decade of his life. To add to it, his numerous court cases and societal rebukes deepened his cynical view of society, from which he felt isolated. No part of human existence remained untouched or taboo for him, he sincerely brought out stories of prostitutes and pimps alike, just as he highlighted the subversive sexual slavery of the women of his times. To many contemporary women writers, his language portrayed reality and provided them with the dignity they long deserved. He is still known for his scathing insight into human behaviour as well as revelation of the macabre animalistic nature of an enraged people, that stands out amidst the brevity of his prose.

Saadat Hasan Manto is often compared with D. H. Lawrence, and like Lawrence he also wrote about the topics considered social taboos in Indo-Pakistani Society. His concerns on the socio-political issues, from local to global level are revealed in his series, Letters to Uncle Sam, and those to Pandit Nehru. On his writing he often commented, "If you find my stories dirty, the society you are living in is dirty. With my stories, I only expose the truth".

Biography

Early life and education

Saadat Hassan Manto was born in Paproudi village of Samrala, in the Ludhiana district of the Punjab in a Kashmiri Muslim family of barristers on 11 May 1912. His niece is the Pakistani historian Ayesha Jalal.

Saadat Hasan Manto received his early education at Muslim High School in Amritsar, but he remained a misfit throughout in school years, rapidly losing motivation in studies and failing twice to matriculate. His only love during those days was reading English novels, one of which he stole from a book stall in Amritsar Railway Station.

In 1931, he passed out of school and joined Hindu Sabha College in Amritsar, which was already volatile due to the independence movement. This is reflected in his first story, Tamasha, based on the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

After his father died in 1932, he sobered up a bit to support his mother. The big turning point in his life came in 1933, at age 21, when he met Abdul Bari Alig, a scholar and polemic writer, in Amritsar. Alig encouraged him to find his true talents and read Russian and French authors.

Early career

Within a matter of months Manto produced an Urdu translation of Victor Hugo's The Last Day of a Condemned Man, which was published by Urdu Book Stall, Lahore as Sarguzasht-e-Aseer (A Prisoner's Story). Soon afterwards he joined the editorial staff ofMasawat, a daily published from Ludhiana. His 1934 Urdu translation of Oscar Wilde's Vera won him recognition amongst the literary circles. At the continued encouragement of Abdul Bari, he published a collection of Urdu translation of Russian stories asRussi.

Afsane

This heightened enthusiasm pushed Manto to pursue graduation at Aligarh Muslim University, which he joined in February 1934, and soon got associated with Indian Progressive Writers' Association (IPWA). It was here that he met writer Ali Sardar Jafri and found a new spurt in his writing. His second story, "Inqlaab Pasand", was published in Aligarh magazine in March 1935.

In 1936, aged 24, he published his first collection of original short stories in Urdu, Atish Pare (Sparks; also Quarrel-Provokers).

He left Aligarh within a year, initially for Lahore and ultimately for Bombay.

"A writer picks up his pen only when his sensibility is hurt."

-- Manto to a court judge 

After 1936, he moved to Bombay where he stayed for the next few years editing Musawwir, a monthly film magazine. He also started writing scripts and dialogues for Hindi films, including Kishan Kanhaya (1936) and Apni Nagariya (1939). Soon he was making enough money, though by the time he married Safia on 26 April 1939, he was once again in dire financial crisis. Despite this, he continued writing for films until he left for Delhi in January 1941.

Saadat Hasan Manto had accepted the job of writing for Urdu Service of All India Radio in 1941. This proved to be his most productive period as in the next eighteen months he published over four collections of radio plays, Aao (Come), Manto ke Drame (Manto's Dramas), Janaze (Funerals) and Teen Auraten (Three women). He continued to write short stories and his next short story collectionDhuan (Smoke) was soon out followed by Manto ke Afsane and his first collection of topical essays, Manto ke Mazamin. This period culminated with the publication of his mixed collection Afsane aur Drame in 1943. Meanwhile, due to a quarrel with the director of the All India Radio, poet N. M. Rashid, he left his job and returned to Bombay in July 1942 and again started working with film industry. He entered his best phase in screenwriting giving films like Aatth Din, Chal Chal Re Naujawan and Mirza Ghalib, which was finally released in 1954. Some of his best short stories also came from this phase including "Kaali Shalwar", "Dhuan" (1943) and "Bu", which was published in Qaumi Jang (Bombay) in February 1945. Another highlight of his second phase in Bombay was the publication of an important collection of his stories, Chugad, which also included the story 'Babu Gopinath'. He stayed in Bombay until he moved to Pakistan in January 1948 after the partition of India in 1947.

Migration to Pakistan

Manto arrived in Lahore sometime in early 1948. In Bombay his friends had tried to stop him from migrating to Pakistan because he was quite popular as a film writer and was making reasonably good money. Among his friends there were top actors and directors of that age – many of them Hindus – who were trying to prevail upon him to forget about migrating. They thought that he would be unhappy in Pakistan because the film industry of Lahore stood badly disrupted with the departure of Hindu film-makers and studio owners. Manto had already sent his family to Lahore and was keen to join them. Manto and his family were among the millions of Muslims who left present-day India for the newly created Muslim-majority nation of Pakistan.

Life in Lahore

When Manto arrived in Lahore from Bombay he lived near several prominent intellectuals and thus found a stimulating atmosphere around him. His only problem was how to cater for his family. Lahore at that time did not have many opportunities to offer.

Literary beginnings

After the writers who had migrated from various Indian cities settled in Lahore, they started their literary activities. Soon Lahore saw a number of newspapers and periodicals appearing. Manto initially wrote for some literary magazines. These were the days when his controversial stories like Khol Do (Urdu: کھول دو "Open it") and Thanda Gosht (Urdu: ٹھنڈا گوشت "Cold Meat") created a furore among the conservatives. People like Choudhry Muhammad Hussain played a role in banning and prosecuting the writer as well as the publishers and editors of the magazines that printed his stories. Among the editors were such amiable literary figures as Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, Hajira Masroor and Arif Abdul Matin. Soon the publishers who were more interested in commercial aspects of their ventures declined Manto's writings. He, therefore, started contributing stories to the literary supplements of some newspapers. Even this practice could not go on for long. Masood Ashar who was then editing the literary page of "Daily Ehsan" published some of his stories but the conservative owner of the paper soon asked him to refrain from the practice.

Newspapers

During those days, Manto also tried his hand at newspaper column writing. He started off with writing under the title Chashm-e-Rozanfor daily Maghribi Pakistan on the insistence of his friends of Bombay days, Ehsan Ba and Murtaza Jillani, who were editing that paper. After a few columns, the space appeared blank under the column saying that due to his indisposition Manto couldn't write the column. Actually, the owner was not favourably disposed to some of the content.

The only paper that published Manto's articles regularly for quite some time was Daily Afaq, for which he wrote some of his well known sketches. These sketches were later collected in his book Ganjay Farishtay (Bald Angels). The sketches include those of famous actors and actresses like Ashok Kumar, Shyam, Nargis, Noor Jehan and Naseem (mother of Saira Banu). He also wrote about literary figures including Meera Ji, Hashar Kashmiri and Ismat Chughtai. Manto's sketch of Muhammad Ali Jinnah was also first published in Afaq under the title Mera Sahib. It was based on an interview with Haneef Azad, Jinnah's driver of Bombay days who after leaving his job as driver became an actor. The article included some of the remarks related to the incident when Dina Jinnah married Wadia. Later when the sketch was included in the book these lines were omitted.

Manto created a new tell-all style of writing sketches, as described in his own words: "I have no camera which could wash out the small pox marks from Hashar Kashmiri's face or change the obscene invectives uttered by him in his flowery style".

Literary circles

Manto once tried to present the sketch of Chiragh Hasan Hasrat in a literary gathering organised in the YMCA Hall Lahore to celebrate the scholar's recovery from heart attack. The presiding dignitary stopped him reading and ordered him to leave the rostrum. Manto, however, was in "high spirits" and refused to oblige. He squatted on the floor, and was with difficulty prevailed upon by his wife, Safia, to leave the stage.

Financial troubles

Manto began writing to provide for his family and be able to drink every evening. For writing, he demanded cash in advance. In later days, he started writing for magazines like Director. He would go to its office, ask for a pen and paper, write his article, collect the remuneration and go away.

A changed man

In a few years, his complexion became pale and his hair turned grey. He was seen reading his story "Toba Tek Singh" at YMCA Hall at the annual meeting of Halqa-e Arbab-e Zauq. He looked older than his years, but he read his story in his usual dramatic style and when he finished reading it there was pin drop silence in the hall and there were tears in everyone's eyes.

In later days, Manto regularly appeared in the Pak Tea House and other literary functions, but he seemed to be in great stress. Whereas he was once known for his witty remarks in literary gatherings, in later days he would not tolerate any criticism. He had become extremely touchy and would shout back at his critics. People started avoiding him because he would not hesitate from borrowing money from them.

His famous literary works

Manto lived in Laxmi Mansions, The Mall, Lahore for seven difficult years. In Lahore he wrote some of his most praised works, including Thanda Gosht, Khol Do, Toba Tek Singh, Iss Manjdhar Mein, Mozalle, and Babu Gopi Nath.

Death

The substandard alcohol that he consumed destroyed his liver and in the winter of 1955 he fell victim to liver cirrhosis. He was 42 years old at the time of his death. He was survived by his wife Safiyah and three daughters.

On 18 January 2005, the fiftieth anniversary of his death, Manto was commemorated on a Pakistani postage stamp.

Bibliography

• Atishparay (Nuggets of Fire) – 1936 
• Chugaad 
• Manto Ke Afsanay (Stories of Manto) – 1940 
• Dhuan (Smoke) – 1941 
• Afsane Aur Dramay (Fiction and Drama) – 1943 
• Lazzat-e-Sang-1948 (The Taste of Rock) 
• Siyah Hashiye-1948 (Black Borders) 
• Badshahat Ka Khatimah (The End of Kingship) – 1950 
• Khali Botlein (Empty Bottles) – 1950 
• Loud Speaker (Sketches) 
• Ganjey Farishtey (Sketches) 
• Manto ke Mazameen 
• Nimrud Ki Khudai (Nimrod The God) – 1950 
• Thanda Gosht (Cold Meat) – 1950 
• Yazid – 1951 
• Pardey Ke Peechhey (Behind The Curtains) – 1953 
• Sarak Ke Kinarey (By the Roadside) – 1953 
• Baghair Unwan Ke (Without a Title) – 1954 
• Baghair Ijazit (Without Permission) – 1955 
• Burquey – 1955 
• Phunduney (Tassles) – 1955 
• Sarkandon Ke Peechhey (Behind The Reeds) -1955 
• Shaiytan (Satan) – 1955 
• Shikari Auratein (Women of Prey) – 1955 
• Ratti, Masha, Tolah-1956 
• Kaali Shalwar (Black Pants) – 1961 
• Manto Ki Behtareen Kahanian (Best Stories of Manto) – 1963 
• Tahira Se Tahir (From Tahira to Tahir) – 1971 

Manto's works online

• Toba Tek Singh in Urdu and English, plus essays in translation
• Toba Tek Singh in Hindi
• Thanda Gosht (Cold Meat) in English
• A collection short stories in Hindi
• My Sahib
• First Letter to Uncle Sam
• Second Letter to Uncle Sam
• Third Letter to Uncle Sam

MAY HIS SOUL REST IN PEACE

Posted in: Writer