DASTAVEZ MANTO (Paperback)

 

MANTO was one of the best short story writers of his time. Perhaps of all time..

 

Sa’adat Hasan Manto was a Kashmiri Indian who lived through the partition of India. He witnessed first hand the unfolding human tragedy - the bloodshed and the bestiality that people unleashed on their erstwhile neighbours and friends, instigated by bigoted religious leaders and politicians.

 

Manto was a short story writer par excellence. He was also a film and radio scriptwriter, and journalist. In his short life, 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 a man ahead of his times and his stories were very different from those of his contemporary writers. Not for him the niceties of a bowdlerised and sterile society. Or the narrow minded pretentiousness of bourgeois writers. Nor for him the hypocrisy and sham of the so called intelligentsia.

 

He was a big man who saw the bigger picture and did not let anything as petty as conventions tie him down. He wrote about life as he saw it. His characters led full blown 70 mm lives and did not apologise for it. They endured the most trying human conditions without losing their basic dignity.

 

Manto’s broad humanitarian approach, coupled with his willingness and ability to describe life in all its aspects, made waves. Unsurprisingly, he was tried for obscenity a half dozen times. Thrice before 1947 in Undivided India, and thrice after 1947 in Pakistan. Fortunately, he was never convicted.

 

Manto was never at a loss for words. When asked whether he found the case filed against him in Lahore (he used to live in Bombay back then) irksome, he said, “Not at all. You can buy some great footwear in Lahore.”

 

Even though he is known for his superb short stories, Manto’s personal sketches are extraordinarily perceptive. His sketch of Agha Hashr Kashmiri comes to mind immediately. Manto was never politically correct and this makes his writings and especially his personal sketches extremely readable.

 

Manto lived an extraordinary life in extraordinary times. His life and his writings merit a place amongst the best writers of the 20th century.

Even though Manto wrote in Urdu, his writings have all been transcribed into Hindi and the Hindi editions outsell the Urdu originals by a margin of 20:1. His works have been translated in many other languages as well.

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