Pakistan
What was the nationality of Saadat Hasan Manto from Aug 1947 to 1955?
Saadat Hasan Manto Saadat Hasan Manto ( ; , ; 11 May 1912 – 18 January 1955 ) was a writer , playwright and author born in Ludhiana active in British India and later , after the partition , in Pakistan . Writing mainly in the Urdu language , he produced 22 collections of short stories , a novel , five series of radio plays , three collections of essays and two collections of personal sketches . His best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics . Manto was known to write about the hard truths of society that no one dared to talk about . He is best known for his stories about the partition of India , which he opposed , immediately following independence in 1947 . Manto was tried for obscenity six times ; thrice before 1947 in British India , and thrice after independence in 1947 in Pakistan , but was never convicted . He is acknowledged as one of the finest 20th century Urdu writers and is the subject of two biographical films : Manto , directed by Sarmad Khoosat and the 2018 film Manto , directed by Nandita Das . Biography . Early life . Saadat Hassan Manto was born in Paproudi village of Samrala , in the Ludhiana district of the Punjab in a Muslim family of barristers on 11 May 1912 . His father was a judge of a local court . He was ethnically a Kashmiri and proud of his roots . In a letter to Pandit Nehru he suggested that being beautiful was the second meaning of being Kashmiri . The big turning point in his life came in 1933 , at age 21 , when he met Abdul Bari Alig , a scholar and polemic writer who encouraged him to find his true talents and read Russian and French authors . Early career in Bombay . Within a matter of months , Manto produced an Urdu translation of Victor Hugos The Last Day of a Condemned Man , which was published by Urdu Book Stall , Lahore as Sarguzasht-e-Aseer ( A Prisoners Story ) . Soon afterwards he joined the editorial staff of Masawat , a daily paper published in Ludhiana . 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 1934 , Saadat Hasan Manto first came to Bombay ( now Mumbai ) and started to write for magazines , newspapers and writing scripts for the Hindi film industry . During this time , he became good friends with Noor Jehan , Naushad , Ismat Chughtai , Shyam and Ashok Kumar . During this time , he lived in Foras Road , in the center of Bombays red light area of Kamathipura . What he saw then around him had a profound impact on his writings . Subsequently Manto had also 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 ( Mantos Dramas ) , Janaze ( Funerals ) and Teen Auraten ( Three women ) . He continued to write short stories and his next short story collection Dhuan ( 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 Dramey in 1943 . Meanwhile , due to a quarrel with the director of 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 , Shikari , Chal Chal Re Naujawan and Mirza Ghalib , which was finally released in 1954 . Some of his short stories also came from this phase including Kaali Shalwar ( 1941 ) , Dhuan ( 1941 ) and Bu ( 1945 ) , which was published in Qaumi Jang ( Bombay ) in February 1945 . Another highlight of his second phase in Bombay was the publication of a 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 . As a resident of Bombay , Manto had intended to stay in India after partition . In 1948 , his wife and children went to Lahore to visit their relatives and friends . During this time , as stories of the atrocities of partition riots reached him , in the midst of occasional communal riots in Mumbai itself , he decided to migrate to Pakistan , and left for it by ship . Manto and his family thus found themselves as muhajirs ( refugees from India ) and were among the millions of Muslims who left present-day India for the new Muslim-majority nation of Pakistan . Life in Lahore . When Manto arrived in Lahore from Bombay , he associated with several intellectuals at Lahores Pak Tea House . According to one commentator : There was absolutely no external influence and people would share their opinions on any subject without fear even during the military dictators regimes . In Lahore , Manto lived with his wife and family in a room in Lakshmi mansion , located near Butt Tikka . The three storied building was built by Lala Lajpat Rais Lakshmi insurance company in 1938 , inaugurated by Sarojini Naidu , and was at one time the residence of K.Santhanam , an eminent lawyer and the family of a jeweler called Girdharilal . However , it was abandoned during the partition riots of 1947-48 . The mansion is currently dilapidated and uninhabited , though its façade still exists , renovated and painted . Death . In his later years , Manto had become increasingly alcoholic , which eventually led to cirrhosis of the liver . He died on 18 January 1955 , in a mental asylum off Hall Road in Lahore . His death was attributed to the effects of alcoholism . He was survived by his wife Safia and daughters Nighat , Nuzhat and Nusrat . His daughter Nighat Bashir Patel still lives in the vicinity of the house where Manto lived . Legacy . Manto was a writer whose life story became a subject of intense discussion and introspection . During the last two decades , many stage productions were done to present his character in conflict with the harsh socio-economic realities of the post-partition era . Danish Iqbals stage Play Ek Kutte Ki Kahani presented Manto in a new perspective on occasion of his birth centenary . On 18 January 2005 , the fiftieth anniversary of his death , Manto was commemorated on a Pakistani postage stamp . On 14 August 2012 which is Pakistans Independence Day , Saadat Hasan Manto was posthumously awarded the Nishan-e-Imtiaz award ( Distinguished Service to Pakistan Award ) by the Government of Pakistan . In 2015 , Pakistani actor and director Sarmad Khoosat made and released a movie , Manto , based on the life of Manto . In 2018 , the British Broadcasting Corporation named the work Toba Tek Singh among the 100 stories that shaped the world , alongside works by authors like Homer and Virginia Woolf . The 2018 film Manto , made by Nandita Das and starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui , is a Bollywood film based on the life of Manto . On 11 May 2020 , Google celebrated his 108th birthday with a Google Doodle . Writings . Manto chronicled the chaos that prevailed , during and after the Partition of India in 1947 . Manto strongly opposed the partition of India , which he saw as an overwhelming tragedy and maddeningly senseless . He started his literary career translating the works of 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 satire 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 the enraged people , that stands out amidst the brevity of his prose . At least one commentator compares Saadat Hasan Manto to D . H . Lawrence , partly because he wrote about taboos of Indo-Pakistani Society . His concerns on the socio-political issues , from local to global 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 . Controversies . Conservative critique : charge for obscenity . Manto faced trial for obscenity in his writings in both India ( then under British rule ) and Pakistan , including three times in India before 1947 ( ‘Dhuan’ , ‘Bu’ and ‘Kali Shalwar’ ) and three times in Pakistan after 1947 ( ‘Khol Do’ , ‘Thanda Gosht’ and ‘Upar Neeche Darmiyaan’ ) under section 292 of the Indian Penal Code ( by the British Government ) and the Pakistan Penal Code in Pakistan’s early years . He was fined only in one case . Regarding the charges of obscenity he opined , I am not a pornographer but a story writer . Progressive critique : migration to Pakistan . While the conservative or right-wing section of the society criticised him on moral grounds , the progressives or Marxists and leftists criticised him for ideological reasons , namely for his migration to Pakistan and embrace of Pakistani nationalism , Manto then being championed by traditional minded literary critics such as Hasan Askari and Mumtaz Shirin . Bibliography . - Atish Paray ( Nuggets of Fire ) – 1936 آتش پارے - Chugad – چُغد - Manto Ke Afsanay ( Stories of Manto ) – 1940 منٹو کے افسانے - Dhuan ( Smoke ) – 1941 دُھواں - Afsane Aur Dramay ( Fiction and Drama ) – 1943 افسانے اور ڈرامے - Khol Do ( Open It ) – 1948 کھول دو - Lazzat-e-Sang – 1948 ( The Taste of Rock ) لذتِ سنگ - Siyah Hashiye – 1948 ( Black Borders ) سیاہ حاشیہ - Badshahat Ka Khatimah ( The End of Kingship ) – 1950 بادشاہت کا خاتمہ - Khali Botlein ( Empty Bottles ) – 1950 خالی بوتلیں - Loud Speaker ( Sketches ) لاؤڈ سپیکر - Ganjey Farishtey ( Sketches ) گنجے فرشتے - Manto ke Mazameen منٹو کے مضا مین - Nimrud Ki Khudai ( Nimrod The God ) – 1950 نمرود کی خُدائی - Thanda Gosht ( Cold Meat ) – 1950 ٹھنڈا گوشت - Yazid – 1951 یزید - Pardey Ke Peechhey ( Behind The Curtains ) – 1953 پردے کے پیچھے - Sarak Ke Kinarey ( By the Roadside ) – 1953 سڑک کے کنارے - Baghair Unwan Ke ( Without a Title ) – 1954 بغیر عنوان کے - Baghair Ijazit ( Without Permission ) – 1955 بغیر اجازت - Toba Tek Singh – 1955 ٹوبہ ٹیک سنگھ - Burquey – 1955 بُرقعے - Phunduney ( Tassles ) – 1955 پھندنے - Sarkandon Ke Peechhey ( Behind The Reeds ) – 1955 سرکنڈوں کے پیچھے - Shaiytan ( Satan ) – 1955 شیطان - Shikari Auratein ( Hunter Women ) – 1955 شکاری عورتیں - Ratti , Masha , Tolah – 1956 رتی ماشہ تولہ - Kaali Shalwar ( Black Pants ) – 1961 کالی شلوار - Manto Ki Behtareen Kahanian ( Best Stories of Manto ) – 1963 منٹو کی بہترین کہانیاں - Tahira Se Tahir ( From Tahira to Tahir ) – 1971 طاہرہ سے طاہر - Mottled Dawn : Fifty Sketches and Stories of Partition - 1997 Further reading . - Manto Naama , by Jagdish Chander Wadhawan.1998 , Roli Books . - Manto Naama : The Life of Saadat Hasan Manto , English translation of the above by Jai Ratan , 1998 , Roli Books . - Life and Works of Saadat Hasan Manto , by Alok Bhalla . 1997 , Indian Institute of Advanced Study . . - The Life and Works of Saadat Hasan Manto . Introduction by Leslie Flemming ; trans . by Tahira Naqvi . Lahore , Pakistan : Vanguard Books Ltd. , 1985 . - Another Lonely Voice : The Urdu Short Stories of Saadat Hasan Manto , by Leslie A . Flemming , Berkeley : Centre for South and South east Asian Studies . University of California . 1979 . - Madness and Partition : The Short Stories of Saadat Hasan Manto , Stephen Alter , Journal of Comparative Poetics , No . 14 , Madness and Civilization/ al-Junun wa al-Hadarah ( 1994 ) , pp . 91–100 . - Bitter Fruit : The Very Best of Saadat Hassan Manto , edited and tr . by Khalid Hassan , Penguin , 2008 . - Naked Voices : Stories and Sketches by Manto , Ed . and tr . by Rakhshanda Jalil . Indian Ink & Roli Books , 2008 . - Stars from Another Sky : The Bombay Film World of the 1940s , tr . by Khalid Hasan . Penguin India , 2000 . - Manto : Selected Stories , tr . by Aatish Taseer . Vintage/Random House India , 2008 . . - The Pity of Partition : Manto’s Life , Times , and Work across the India-Pakistan Divide . Ayesha Jalal . - Dozakhnama - A Novel : A biography of Manto and Ghalib and history of Indian culture combined into one by Rabisankar Bal , translated by Arunava Sinha . Random House India . External links . - Manto and his stories - Toba Tek Singh . Translated by Frances W . Pritchett . - Saadat Hasan Manto | Kavishala Sootradha