The year of 2012 happens the birth centenary of a legendary Urdu writer Saadat Hasan Manto (1912-55). He was born on 11 May a century ago. He is great and special in the sense that he had the first hand experience of the partition of India and Pakistan. Though he was a great fiction writer, he is mainly known for his short stories. Unlike his contemporary Urdu writers, his reputation as a writer lies in his depiction of the trauma and bleak realities of the Partition but without being judgemental about the political or religious ideologies. His characters emerge from the common people- tangawallah (Naya Qanoon), mentally challenged person (Toba Tek Singh), prostitute, pimp, laymen, housewife (Kaali Salwar), labourer (Ghatin), helpless teenage poor girl , and so on and so forth. Manto never tried to create any ideal or perfect character, because he strongly held that human beings cannot be perfect at all.
The themes of his short stories range from riot, treachery, raw sexual and biological need, the torture and trauma of the Partition, poverty, sacrifice, communal violences, etc. Some of his short stories were banned alleging they contain sexual content. Cutting across the so called moral compulsion for creating balanced representation of the social problems in the literature, Manto worked on his on terms and exposed the world to the grim world of his writings.
Thus, let us salute the great writer of social consciousness- Saadat Hasan Manto on his centenary. I dedicate my article to my much-loved author for his contribution to us. This article features in the current issue of the literary ejournal Muse India. The link follows:
http://www.museindia.com/featurecontent.asp?issid=43&id=3356
Let us awake to speak up as Manto did in his time.
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| Saadat Hasan Manto (1912-1955) |
The themes of his short stories range from riot, treachery, raw sexual and biological need, the torture and trauma of the Partition, poverty, sacrifice, communal violences, etc. Some of his short stories were banned alleging they contain sexual content. Cutting across the so called moral compulsion for creating balanced representation of the social problems in the literature, Manto worked on his on terms and exposed the world to the grim world of his writings.
Thus, let us salute the great writer of social consciousness- Saadat Hasan Manto on his centenary. I dedicate my article to my much-loved author for his contribution to us. This article features in the current issue of the literary ejournal Muse India. The link follows:
http://www.museindia.com/featurecontent.asp?issid=43&id=3356
Let us awake to speak up as Manto did in his time.
Good.. Keep it up.. Looking forward to more stuff from you Bhavesh!!!
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