"Don't say that a hundred thousand Hindus and a hundred thousand Musalmans died. Say (instead) that two hundred thousand human beings died. But this is not the biggest tragedy. The real tragedy is that both the murderers and the murdered count for nothing at all. By killing a hundred thousand Hindus, Musalmans thought they had killed Hinduism but it is alive and will remain so. By killing a hundred thousand Musalmans, Hindus were happy that they had killed Islam. But those people who think religions can be hunted with guns are stupid..."

- from Manto "Saha-ay"

Manto met Abdul Bari Aleeg shortly after failing for the second time in F.A. Bari Sahib was a teacher, writer and journalist and an active member of Hindustan's new All India Progressive Writers Movement. Manto explains his devotion to him:

"Whatever I am today, the first person to make me so is Bari Sahib. If I had not met him in Amritsar and had not spent three consecutive months in his company, I would have been on some other path in life." ('Bari Sahib')

Bari Sahib quickly recognized Manto's natural intelligence and advised him to read French and Russian literature. Under his influence, Manto began to write for the newspaper Mussawat and eventually took over the film column for the newspaper. He studied Gorky, Chekhov, Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoyevsky and the French writer Maupassant. It was Bari Sahib's desire that Manto translate Victor Hugo's novel 'Les Miserables', but given its size Manto chose to translate 'The Last Days of a Condemned Man' instead, which he published under the name 'Sarguzasht-e-Aseer'. Bari Sahib edited it himself and helped in its publication. Manto's next translation was Oscar Wilde's play 'Vera', which is about the activities of Russian anarchists. Bari Sahib helped with this as well. When Mussawat shut down, Manto wrote for the weekly Khalq for a brief time. His first short story 'Tamasha' was published in it. He was also involved with the monthly Humayun, the monthly Alamgir and the daily Paaras, all of which were published from Lahore. Like Prem Chand, Manto had no interest in the lives of the rich. He preferred to write about the workers in their filthy tenements who went out daily to earn their living and returned, exhausted, at night to sleep.

Critics have pointed out many deficiencies in Manto's writings, such as "the total lack of any local detail whatsoever. His sense of geographical space (is) vague and undefined. He was born in Amritsar, yet the only reference you get in his stories based in Amritsar is possibly Jallianwala Bagh. Kucha and gali, lane and muhalla, street and road-everything is nameless, paved with anonymity." In contrast, when Manto is talking about a favorite character, his minute attention to details is remarkable. Witness the description of the living room of a poor prostitute:

"The room was very small in which several items were scattered around in a disorderly manner. On a small shelf, make-up products were placed. Rogue to blush the cheeks, red lipstick, powder, comb and an iron pin which she probably used in her hair.

Nearby a green parrot's cage was suspended via a long chain, in which the parrot was sleeping with his neck hidden in his feathers. In the proximity of the bed was a chair made of cane whose back was extremely dirty from repeated use. On its right was a small table, on which was placed a His Master's Voice portable gramophone. Exactly above the table, four frames were suspended on the wall with pictures of different men. A little distance away from the pictures, that is, immediately after entering the door and towards the corner of the left wall, was a colorful picture of Ganesh which was decorated with fresh and dried flowers. Beside this picture, on a small oily shelf, there was a small container of oil, which had been placed for lighting the lamp." ('Hatak' or The Insult)

In 1935, Manto moved to Bombay where he lived until 1947 with a brief sojourn in Delhi to work for All India Radio. Bombay was (and still is) a large center for film production and this was Manto's "golden" period and the happiest phase of his life. Manto wrote stories and dialogues for several feature films including 'Apni Nagarya' (Our Community), 'Chal Chal Ray Naujawan' (Walk On Young Man) and 'Aath Din' (Eight Days). Manto also wrote the story for 'Mirza Ghalib', which was released after he shifted to Pakistan and was a great success. It was in Bombay that he married Safia Begum and although Manto's life in Bombay was relatively prosperous, his inner restlessness in Bombay's socially peculiar film environment led to indiscriminate drinking. He was slowly becoming an alcoholic.

In 1947 Manto decided to migrate to Pakistan. But moving to Lahore was not a fortunate development for him. Pakistan's film industry had been decimated by the migration of non-Muslim artists to India. There was no work for Manto in Lahore and no way to earn a living. In addition, the horrible event of India's partition had affected him deeply. His psychological agitation had worsened manifold.

"Who was responsible for the blood being shed mercilessly every day? Where were they going to inter the bones that had been stripped of the flesh of religion by vultures and birds of prey?" ('Murli Ki Dhun' or Krishna's Flute). A few months after arriving in Pakistan, his short story 'Khol Do' (Open It) was published in the monthly Naqoosh and led to his first obscenity trial in Pakistan. A couple of months later, 'Thanda Gosht' (Cold Meat) was published in a special issue of Javed in March 1949 and Manto was arrested again. Even though Manto was honorably released from all these trials - he had already been subjected to obscenity trials for his short story 'Kaali Shalwar' in 1942, and for 'Bu' and 'DhuwaN' in 1944 - the latest legal proceedings were especiaslly trying for a man with no income.

Despite all his problems, in his 7 years in Lahore he wrote 127 short stories. Apart from these, two collections of essays, two collections of sketches, a collection of the account of his trials and a novelette titled 'Baghair Unwaan Kay' (Untitled) were published in this period, which shows that despite his growing mental and physical weakness, Manto's creative faculties remained intact till his last breath. Available information about Manto's life reveals that in the last few years his alcohol intake had reached dangerous levels. This was aggravated after he shifted to Lahore from Bombay. He had a literary reputation in Bombay, a good income, and many friends and well-wishers. Not so in Lahore. In his last years his economic troubles escalated along with his restlessness and distress. Often he would go to a newspaper office, write a short story while sitting there, and buy a bottle of alcohol with the money. The newspaper staff knew of this habit, so often they would hand him a cheap bottle of alcohol instead of money. He was admitted to hospital several times. His liver was badly affected and doctors declared alcohol to be a poison for him. And yet he kept drinking the poison.

Signs of madness began to appear. (Alcohol also affects the brain.) He hallucinated, saw ghostly faces and talked nonsense. His wife Safia tried to get him treated several times and even got him admitted to a mental hospital (after which he wrote his great story 'Toba Tek Singh') but all in vain. He wrote: "If an essay of mine gets published in the newspaper, and if I earn twenty, twenty five rupees based on the rate of seven rupees per column, I hire a tonga and go buy locally distilled whiskey. Had this whiskey been distilled in your country, you would have destroyed the distillery with an atom bomb, because in just one year this stuff is guaranteed to send a man to kingdom come." ('Chacha Sam Kay Naam Khat' [A Letter to Uncle Sam].) He died from inflammation of the liver soon after.

Manto and Sexuality

Sexuality occupies a central place in Manto's writing. All the trials he was subjected to were based on accusations that Manto was a pornographer. Reading Manto's stories, one is immediately struck by the unflinching treatment of sexual matters.

"Faris road is actually the name of a street but this whole area is known by that name. This is where prostitutes live. There are hundreds of shops with shutters in front where women of different colors and ages sit and sell their bodies. Different prices, from eight annas to eight rupees to a hundred rupees, you can find women of any price here. Jewish, Punjabi, Kashmiri, Gujarati, Bengali, Anglo-Indian, French, Chinese, Japanese, you can find any kind of woman here." ('Mamd Bhai')

"The door opened and Khushiya went inside. When Kaanta closed the door, Khushiya turned. He was taken aback to see Kaanta stark naked. Well, almost naked because she was wrapped in a towel which was not hiding much. Everything that should be hidden was in front of his eyes. "I was just about to take a bath; sit, sit. Why didn't you bring a cup of tea for yourself?" Khushiya, who had never seen a naked woman like this, all of a sudden, was nervous. He could not decide what to do. His eyes, which had encountered nudity abruptly, wanted to hide somewhere. He said, quickly, 'Go, go on, take a bath'. Then his tongue loosened. 'But if you were naked, why open the door? You should have just said so, I would have come back later, but... go now, take a bath'. Kaanta smiled. 'When you said it's Khushiya, I thought what's the harm, let him come in'." ('Khushiya')

Here is how Manto explains his focus on sexual matters: "The world's biggest problem, the father of all problems, was born when Adam felt hunger, and a lesser but equally interesting problem emerged when the world's first man met the world's first woman." ('Afsaana Nigar Aur Jinsi Masail' or The Short Story Writer and Sexual Issues)

Manto was well aware of the centrality of the sexual instinct in human life. He wanted to shake up the rigid, frozen attitudes pervading his society and unmask this truth. The uncounted cases of rape and sexual abuse that took place at the time of India's partition were a validation of Manto's belief.

What does Manto say about this? "People who believe that this new literature has created sexual problems are mistaken because the reality is that sexual problems have created this new literature. Attempts have been made in every age to traverse the distance between Man and Woman. Those who consider this obscenity should be ashamed of the barrenness of their emotions."

"Men are not so different from each other. If one man can commit a mistake, another can as well. If one woman can prostitute herself, so can any other woman in the world. But it is not humans who are at fault, but rather those social conditions, in which man sows and reaps his mistakes." ('Afsaana Nigar Aur Jinsi Masail')

Manto's writings shook up the decaying, rusty values of his age and opened the eyes of many people. Like all great artists, Manto had the last word with the epitaph that he himself wrote for his grave: "Buried here is Saadat Hasan Manto in whose bosom are enshrined all the secrets of the art of short story writing. Buried under mounds of earth, he continues to contemplate who is the greater short story writer: God or he."

Ali Madeeh Hashmi is a Psychiatrist and a trustee of the Faiz Foundation Trust. He can be reached at ahashmi39@gmail.com.

Comments (2 comments)

there is a story that Manto's death bears an event. He met a half naked raped woman's corpse and her few month's old child was suckling her breast. this pathetic scene made manto to drink liquor till the last breath of his life? is it true?

Posted: Monday, February 11, 2013 by Syed Zafar Najmi from Patna

A well researched and insightful article; brings forth the truth about Manto and his writing in a non- judgmental manner. Manto's work remains as relevant today as it was half a century ago. The issues of sexuality, depravity and orthodox values still cause much mayhem in our society.

Posted: Wednesday, February 06, 2013 by Atiya Kazi from Singapore