LANGUAGE IN INDIA

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Volume 24:10 October 2024
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A Thematic Study of Saadat Hasan Manto’s Selected Short-Stories

Suresh Kumar


Courtesy: www.amazon.com

Abstract

This research paper explores Manto’s selected short stories i.e. Toba Tek Singh, The Dog of Tetwal, Ten Rupees, Blouse, Khol Do, Licence, For Freedom, and Smell from thematic perspectives. Manto deftly presents the issues of his time through the sentiments and experiences of his characters. The psychological impact of the partition, people's attitude towards animals after partition whether they belong to which country, how the hunger of stomach compels females to sell their body for survival, adultery, extramarital affairs, morality influencing human relationships, hormonal changes during adolescent period resulting in emotional turmoil, communal riots resulting in bloodshed and loss of families, lust, fear, female victims’ conditioning to surrender their body for survival to the lusty inhabitants, atrocities of the British on native Indians, freedom as a desired dream and female body as a sight for respite are some of the major concerns, Manto addresses in these texts. Thus, the writer unfolds the aftermaths of chaos, and unrest to the world while presenting the picture of society he lived in.

Keywords: Saadat Hasan Manto, short stories, psychological impact, helplessness, survival, bloodshed, human relationships, lust, atrocities.

Saadat Hasan Manto (1912-1955) is regarded as the greatest short-story writer of the Indian subcontinent. Born in 1912 Samrala in Punjab, British India, he became a radio and film scriptwriter, journalist, and short-story writer. Manto moved to Lahore in 1948 and died there in 1955. (Manto 159) Manto's inclination to minute observations and his lived experiences assist him in portraying a realistic picture of society with convincing narrative techniques.

Manto presents how the lunatics react to the government's decision to exchange the lunatics recently living in the mad houses of both the countries, i.e. India and Pakistan to their own countries after the partition of India, through the short-story Toba Tek Singh. Before this, all the citizens and prisoners were settled as per their wish of the country generally Hindus and Sikhs in India whereas Muslims were settled in the newly formed nation, Pakistan. Manto presents one case of a lunatic asylum in Lahore where the news of transfer becomes a hot topic of discussion. They attempt to understand the meaning of Pakistan and its location. All the lunatics are not mad actually, they were imprisoned for some other crimes, but presently all become mad due to overthinking and after living with lunatics for a long time.

Manto writes about the protagonist, Bishan Singh who was in the asylum for fifteen years.

He slept neither during the day nor at night. It was rumoured among the wardens that in the fifteen long years, he had not slept, not even laid down, for a single moment. At most, he would occasionally rest against a wall.

His feet and legs were swollen up from standing up so long, but despite his discomfort, he refused to lie down. Whenever a discussion about India and Pakistan and the exchange of lunatics began in the Asylun, he listened with keen interest. And, if ever, anybody asked his opinion, he gravely replied, ‘opadh di gudh gudh di annexe di bedhayana di mung di daal of the Pakistan government.’ Later, however, in place ‘of the Pakistan government’, he had begun to say, ‘of the Toba Tek Singh government’ and would regularly ask the other inmates if they knew where Toba Tek Singh-his native land-was. (Manto 108)

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Suresh Kumar
Assistant Professor, SLET, UGC-NET
Department of English
Govt. College Indora, 176401
Kangra, Himachal Pradesh, India
vijaysuresh8890@gmail.com
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