Second Letter to Uncle Sam

Re: # 84

hi so sorry to post a random reply like this..but it seems that people here might help me...has anyone here heard of a novel called KAGAZ KI NAO by krishen chandar?
can anyone help me with what the book is about etc...i need the info desperately and the book is out of print...and in mumbai it seems there are no libraries that keep hindi books....:(

Khamkhwa:94
we would still love you for what you are...;))

---

``t00 pyaar kaa saagar hai, tiri ikk boond kay pyaasay hUm
Lautaa jo diyaa t00 ney, chalay jaaeN gey jahaaN sey hUM``

Yeh loa, bhateejay kyaa yaad kroagey.

hUm haiN,
tumhaaray chachay,
chusni/echo boom/farangi-kush/hamzaad afaqui

#89 on #85...

chacha...
koi mishtake nahin hua...entire chowk knows chusni/echo boom/farangi-kush/hamzaad afaqui...even chacha meer taqi meer knows about it and says...

patta patta boota boota haal hamara jaanay hai
janay na janay gul hi na janay bagh tou sara janay hai

come clean... we would still love you for what you are...;))

Echoboom #89:

Talking of Maulana Kausar Niazi some books of him I read before my Matriculation and I didn`t find them interesting even the travellogues...one of which was I think...``Koh Qauf Kay Dais mai.n``... anyways his son rizwan niazi ` appeared a cool actor in some dramas i saw in my teens.

A comparitive study analysis of socialist and moderated writers after a consumed time came up with a very less known writer, worker, socialist ``Ahmed Daud``. Not I recommend him as more matured than Manto`s Level because I knew him . But I read his sensitive social writing depicting urban culture, the corruption, spoiled law and justice is factual and very much inspiring in his short stories. His some work got published after his much early death in mid 40`s. Coming from Mansehra a remote background status Ahmed Daud wrote which even shocked his close companions.

Re: # 84

manto was independent, irreverent and his own man ... and not one easy to pigeon hole



`Cause he`s indian.He should never have left his motherland.He would have been celebrated here just like all our other curmedgeons.

Re: kurasach# 80

Very true! I agree with you! I cannot speak of the same in India, but in Pakistan this is a reality as we seem to crave new and shiny things. It seems that we actually think that all that glitters is gold.

Ciao

Nadia:

tegh ilahbadi later mustafa zaidi was a good poet...amist a lot of good poets of his time...not an outstanding urdu poet by any means...in fact in any history of urdu poetry of 1940-1970 he would be termed at best as a footnote...more for the way he died than for what he wrote...(when police burst open into his KDA flat they found two naked bodies, suicide notes and drugs...the other person was shenaz gul who was the wife of a pathan contractor... he succumbed to the drug overdose..she survived)

t

#85: chusni
:)
As Manto wrote ``Mishtake ho gaya`` :)

---

Nadia_Zehra:88

Manto ``killed`` Taigh-Allahbadi long before he migrated to Pakistan. Those were his ``atheist`` years and he, as he admitted later, was quite embarrassed about that `jahilya` phase in his life.
The parallel I drew was simply in the personality of both to be fearlessly, in fact dangerously, frank & forthright and, in the process, a unique ability to cultivate enemies.

The two ``friendly-adversary`` organisations those days were the Haqua-i-Arbaab-e-Zauque ( the `conservatives`) and The `Anjumna-Tarraqui-Pasand``. The former had a monthly meeting at Paki Tea House and the latter at YMCA building --just a few steps away. Writers frequented both places but Manto & Quasmi were identified with the Halqua.( In fact the brother owners of
Pak Tea House made ``full arrangements`` for Quasmi`s wedding).

Manto`s address to the students ( post #73) is perhaps one of the best insight into his mind.
Nothing that I say would add or takeaway anything. I urge evryone to read that `written` speech again & again. Few short sentences contain a world of information & emotions in them.

Breaking Islamic tenets does not necessarily make one a ``progressive`` or communist and performing all the rituals does not make one necessarily a ``mullah`` or a Jamaat-i-Islami .

Maulana ``Whisky`` Kausar Niazi , the second highest office-holder of Jammat-Islami, when became a member of the `socialist` Peoples Party (in fact Information Minister--and Bhutto`s closest confidante) was quite at home with his Whiskey & his Wazoo.

`` Rind kay Rind rahay, haath sey jannat naa gaee``

He was a great writer of prose & poetry as well. A few ``greats`` in Urdu iterature could learn a thing or two from him.

Maulana Abul Kalaam Azaad is another one. How about Maulana Chiraagh Hasan Hasrat?
..Manto`s sketch about the fun they had when they pushed the Maulana to have a few with the gang. Incidentally, Maulana Chiraagh Hasan hasrat was also the editor as was Quasmi of Mian Iftekhar`s paper--Imroze.

Echoboom’s Sahib strikes a chord by naming Mustafa Zaidi who didn’t get required recognition of chunks of his poetry neither at governmental level nor much in literary circles. Being a professional careered civil servant Mustafa Zaidi didn’t become a part of the prevailing grossing corrupt culture. His extremely emotional poetry is an artifact of his commotions of acute love affairs one after another. The one which got lot exposure was with a woman named Shehnaz who was accused for his murder which was later revealed to be suicide. He was an ahl-e-zaban and used the name “Taigh-Alahabadi” in his poetry. His poetry is pure portrayal of his percepts of love, life and his state in the country of endurance. And definitely Manto cant be termed in the lines of Mustafa Zaidi.

Re: # 84
Yes Temporal,they were the four ``pillars`` of urdu afsana-nighari.
While other three were part of the ``taraqqi pasand tehreeq``, Manto was more of a ``freelancer``,which suited most to his mast-malang nature and style of writing.

The so called cultured intellectuals tried their best to prove Manto to be a crude,jaahil type of man with no real artistic touch,but always failed because common reader always found Manto to be closer to them.Even today people respect Krishan Chander, Bedi and Chugtai,but they LOVE Manto.

He alone was (and is) larger than any literary movement.
Manto did not spare anybody.He wrote whatever he felt.He was basically a writer of emotions and he never let any``ism``come between his emotoions and his writing or the expression of emotions.He was the Baadshah of urdu story writing.

His story ``Chughd`` was his befitting reply to the so called cultured intellectuals.

#81 by Raw_Dust

Echoboom posts lots of inane stuff here and I skip over them. His knowledge of Urdu literature is rudimentary. (Only a total jahil and a person with no knowledge of Urdu literature would call Mustafa Zaidi another Manto!) The attempt by the Jamaat Islami Gadhaa brigade to promote Manto as the top Urdu writer which he clearly was not irks me. He was good and genius at times but he was not what they are trying to promote. Manto was resurrected in the last 5/6 years because he was a Muslim, spent his last days in Lahore, and supposedly was against the progressive and the supporters of Secularism. Manto was pretty much non political and never had any affiliation with any particular school of thought. They find it easy to use his dead body for their political purposes. In fact what they are doing to Manto is the same stuff they did to Jinnah when they decided to turn Jinnah into Hazrat Jinnah aliahussalm Rehamtulllah wah barkathoo and a champion of Islam which Jinnah was not!

Manto’s worst years were in Pakistan from 1948 to 1955. Before that he was in okay financial shape. He worked for All India radio and then he moved to Bombay and those were probably his best years financially. Once he moved to Pakistan the whole Mullah brigade was after him. He was not given any job and made to beg for pennies and had to deal with court cases on top of that.

#85 by chusni Aka Echoboom

Qasmi was of a conservative family but he was a part of the progressive movement and worked for Main Iftikahr’s papers. He is still alive so your lies are not going to fly very far. Akhtar Shirani was not exactly your model Muslim. Shirani and Manto both were in Halqa arbab e zooq and often had drinks together. Patras Bukhari was a big name but he was a government servant and never was close to Manto. He might actually have given Manto a job in All India radio before partition but after partition, Patras moved on to different areas.
Patras was never in any kind of ideological grouping.

Quit lying!

Urstruly:83
Do you remember reading Quasmi`s account about how Manto tried to get hiim employment in the studios.

Keeping that in mind we should know something about Manto. Ahmad Nadeem belongs to an ultra-conservative Peer Khanvaada. and yet Manto was real friends with him. His mentor, Malana Bari, who taught Manto how to write and took him under his wings after Manto failed twice in Urdu and I`m not sure if he completed his Intermediate or not.

Manto was more on friendly terms with Aktar Shirani etc, the Arab restaurant Islamia college crowd rather than the Pitras gang of the Government college.

The socialist cabal in India and Pakistan co-opted him because they would have looked stupid if they did not praise someone who wrote on ``their`` subjects. The fact is that it was the westernised ``freedom-fighters`` [ London chhaap--progressives of Sajjad Zaheer and Mulk Raaj Annand] who had no use of self-employeds like Manto and Hafeez Julludri.

I know you must have but please read again the last paragraph in that speech at #73. See how cleverly he delivers the message during war emergecy & British tryrrany.

It is stuff like this where he excelled.
.

R-D:

in their bombay days the four of them were known as the four musketeers:

krishn chandar, ismat chugtai, rajinder singh bedi and saadat hasan manto

urstruly:

manto was independent, irreverent and his own man ... and not one easy to pigeon hole...only one other contemporary urdu writer comes close...intezar hussain... though he is not irreverent!

Re: # 73 echo

From all the works that I have read of Manto, I gather that he did not have any ideological bend on any side. As it is evdent from the letter in this article he was approached for recruitment from the Imperialists as well. But in fact the kind of subject matter he wrote could only be published in so called ``progressive`` press only. No God fearing conservative magazine would dare publish him. For that he had to keep contacts with so called progressives just to get published; but progressives used his weakness to claim an ownership over him. I think that these to letters (one in the aricle) and one in your post make it very clear that he was a man of his own and accepted no ones ownership over him.

Saadat Hasan wrote the script for the first movie made about Mirza Ghalib. Some `fiction` was added for commercial reasons but the movie & the music is far superior to the one made decades later with Naseeuddeen Shah.

Those who did not see this one would really enjoy these eight videosongs.

Best viewed at 2x framw. Please move cursor to top left of screen. when the icon appears click 2x and you`ll get it.

Hope you`ll find it rewarding.

Mirza ghalib: Videosongs. Script by Manto

HP: i think from what i have read of Manto`s writings - the guy had this irreverent air.. his life was probably in a constant state of flux: court battles/kasmapursi/poverty - until these things claimed him prematurely... i suspect he would have cared for any sort of approval by the Urdu establishment or Pak. establishment or indian est. etc. His act IMO was strictly of a trouble-maker and along the way he had some interesting bits to say.

Krishan Chandar and Bedi were probably more devoted writers. Manto could have cared less.

79,

One can be modern AND preserve the past. The characterless and inferiority complexed SAs cannot comprehend it. Look at European states and now the Eastern and Central Europeans, accompalishing both with a balance.

This is what happens when monkeys are leaders and they have a razor in their hands (Bandar they hath ch ustara). Most sikh architecture in E Punjab was and is being destroyed by these monkeys.

Re: amrita # 70

I am sure that there a few books about Lahore. Secondly, you are welcome to come to Lahore, because there is a lot to see in Lahore and Lahore, whether one likes it or not, does leave a deep impression on the visitor.

As to Delhi, I am certain that the sentiment is real because my mother also remembers parts of Lahore, which do not exist anymore, but I guess that is the price we all have to pay to keep abreast of modernity and modern times.

Thanks for your comments!

Ciao

HP # 64.

Every story by Krishan Chandar is a gem... if Bedi had written it it would have been something else.... !! What is all this unsubstantiated ranting ? You have some kind of an instrument of measurement of literary excellence from which you take these readings ?? Ridiculous.

I dont think you are not Ahle Zaban. I think you are. You only said you are not to make your argument (??) look unbiased. But if you really are not....then I feel really really sorry for your humble submission before those self trumpeted thaikaydaars of urdu. What low self esteem!

For god`s sake.... both sentences are correct. The use of ``ghanton`` has ABSOLUTELY no relevance to whether its ``ham`` or ``main``. Are you crazy or what ?

73 echoboom,
well done.

Anyone read ``Bajang Aamad`` by Colonel Mohammed Khan?? He used to be my father`s immediate boss at one time, and had a sad home life that is nowhere reflected in the humor in the book. But a great book that I plan to read cover to cover soon as I can get hold of a copy (it is still in print). I still vaguely remember when it came out first time. Read a bit of it then, and still remember some neat little pieces: How he saw an old woman saying prayers next to him in a mosque in Egypt (he was there as part of the British Indian Army contingent in WWII) - as if the sight of a woman saying prayers in a mosque was not a culture shock enough for him, the old woman was also puffing at a cigarette as she said her namaaz. My father had a very high regard for this gentleman, and that says a lot about a man if his immediate subordinates respect him and think of him as a friend rather than a boss.

Gill sahib:

``Tiraa Ishque meiN kaisay chhoRRe dooN, miri umr bhhUr kee talaash hai``

uuS kay Ishque kai kayee raastay haiN, aur yeh koi upnay bUss meiN toa hai naheeN kay raastay kaa taa`uN kraiN. Aray jubb aaghaaz-i safar hee upnay bUss meiN naa thhaa aur jubb pehla pehla qadam utthha, girtay pURrtay, toa koee soach kay toa naheeN uthhayaa thha naa? ubb Voh jahaaN lai jaaey.

HaaN jo qadam bhhee ,b-zaum-e khuud, upnee soach sey uthhayaa vaheeN ta`asuf ka mauquaa mila.

``sunee hikayat-e hastee, toa drmiyaaN sey sunee
naa ibtidaa kee khabar hai, naa intihaa maa`loom``

Echoboom Sahib:

My misfortune that I didn`t read much of Mustafa Zaidi although I knew that he was a first class Urdu poet. I read him here and there but not consistently. I didn`t own any of his books. His poem that you posted is enchanting.

Life is a mixture of strange things. There was a time when I was knee-deep (goday-goday) into Urdu literature. Then a time came when I found beauty in `sediment transport in river flows.` I got involved in studying and analyzing the profiles and properties of sand dunes in rivers. What a contrast? There is indeed beauty in river mechanics and those who are doing it, they`re hooked by it. I was hooked by it but now I am into other things; the things in which I was always interested but didn`t have time and had saved them for my retired life. Life is good; it has been very kind to me so far.

Thanks for your good feelings about me. I only express my views (aazaad taffakarat); I do not try to convert anyone. Wishing you well and ``Allah karay zor-e-sukhn aur ziaadah``,

Mohammad Gill

Manto`s views on ``modern`` literature & about progressives. This was published in Jan `41.

I hope everyone will benefit from it.

HindustanTimes.com » Infotainment » Cinema » Story






Manto set for rebirth on screen

WIDE ANGLE | Saibal Chatterjee

New Delhi, March 18, 2005|18:41 IST














C.P.Dwibedi brinig Manto to Big Screen

Chandraprakash Dwivedi, who made his big-screen directorial debut in 2003 with the award-winning adaptation of Amrita Pritam’s celebrated Partition epic, Pinjar, is now working on a script woven around the life and work of Urdu short story writer Saadat Hasan Manto

Manto chronicled the anguish and madness of the post-Independence communal riots better and more starkly than anybody other writer.

According to producer Anish Ranjan of Talking Pictures, the proposed film will weave together elements from Manto’s life with four of his best-known stories, including the one that brought him much posthumous fame, Toba Tek Singh.





“The film begins at the point where an ailing Manto is in an asylum and then it fans out in different directions,” he explains.

Manto was as much a chronicler as a victim of the Partition. The division of the subcontinent caused him great emotional agony and he poured his feeling on to the pages of his books.

Manto, who began his career in All India Radio in Delhi before shifting to Mumbai to make a career as a film scriptwriter, died in Lahore exactly 50 year ago a few months shy of the age of 43. He left behind a sizeable body of work that said a lot about him personally and about the times he lived in.

Says Anish: “I had initially envisaged a film based on three Manto stories to be directed by three different directors. When I contacted Dr Dwivedi, he was already working on a script inspired by Manto’s life. So we decided to get together.” The script is almost ready and work on the yet to be titled film is due to begin later this year.

In an interview before the release of Pinjar, Dwivedi had mentioned Manto as one of the writers he had read while researching for a Partition-era subject. “He has written some of the most meaningful stories about the pathos of Partition,” the physician-turned-filmmaker had said.

Pinjar was a commercial failure, so Dwivedi’s fame still rests primarily on the successful television serial Chanakya, which he scripted and directed. His interest in serious literature and history is well known and explains his attempts to mine serious writing for the purpose of understanding the politics and social realities of our times.

Manto lived a short but extremely eventful life. In an amazingly fecund writing career spanning a little over two decades, he produced 22 collections of short stories, one novel, five collections of radio plays, three books of essays, two anthologies of personal sketches and numerous film scripts, including Mirza Ghalib, which was made after Manto moved to Lahore in 1948.

Although Manto spent many years working with film studios in Mumbai, not too many screen adaptations have been made of his stories. Veteran Bengali filmmaker Mrinal Sen based his mid-1990s film Antareen on a Manto story, while more recently debutante filmmaker Fareeda Mehta crafted Kali Salwar out of multiple tales authored by the Urdu writer.

For someone like myself,a product of urban, cosmopoiltan, westernized india all this is downright fascinating.I have now changed my opinion of Mumbai and other indian cities.I am conditioned to think that NOW is the happening time in the lives of urban indians.NOT SO!!!.THEN was when it was all happening, the wine , women/men and the song.There is a certain innocence lost that we can never retrieve.Writers like Manto remind us of those times.When people were human.They lived, loved, wined , dined, procreated and died.

Re: # 66
feroz - that was a lovely post... i think that feeling of nostalgic loss is something that everyone can relate to. i have never been to lahore although i would like to and reading what you wrote makes me want to all the more. a few years back i came across a collection of essays on delhi edited by khushwant singh and i loved it... i could see the city as it used to be centuries ago and i could see the city my father knew as well as the one i knew/know. is there a similar collection or book on lahore?

Another Manto, as far as intensity & boldness is concerned, but his forte was poetry.....Mustafa Zaidi.

This I am writing here to badal the zaiquaa of Ahl-e ZuubaaN and ahle-bUdzuubaan alike (not necessarily immigrant-citizens! Haaa Haa Haa).

Gill Sahib`s attention is sought very especially here because if he has not read this before, he would truly truly appreciate it. Some of it has been ``corrected`` from memory but one word still eludes me ( I put `` ..?..``). Gill Sahib may or may not realise but I ``understand`` him more than he realises (a lot of stuff I write here for public consumption) and I may not be ``that`` what he might be thinking.

Suffice it to say that I am fully in-tune with the sentiments expressed in this very
excellent piece of art.

FIRAQUE

HUM NAY JIS TARA-H SABOU TORA HAI HUM JANTAY HAI(N)

Dil-e pur khooN kee maiy-i-naab ka qatra qatra
joi-y almas tha, darya-e shab-e nisaN tha
Aik ik boond main ``...?..`` thhee mooj-e kausar
Aik ik aks had-deese harm-e eemaN thha
aik hee rah pohanchtee thee tajjalee kay hazoor

HUM NAY uUS RAH SAY MOU(n) MORRA HAI HUM JANTAY HAIN

Mah paroo(n) kay talismaat main tara afsoo(n)
shaivaa-h o shObda-h O rasam O ravayaat main tu
khaa`b kee bazm teri, deeda-h-e bay-khawab tira
Suba-h kay noor main tu, neend bhari raat main tu
dil kee dharkan kaa taray qurb kay lamhoo(n) pay madar

HUM NAY JIS TARAH TUJHHAI CHHOARRA HAI HUM JANTAY HAI(N)
...........................................................
Mustafa Zaidi

The story is so fresh and it gives one a clear picture of bombay during the 40s.

What makes Manto so charming is his honesty and lack of fear in telling it like he sees and feels it. Few have this ability.

``At Bombay Central, I saw a Negro soldier who was so muscular that at his very sight I shrank to half my size... He flashed a big smile at me. His dark lips looked so attractive that I wanted to kiss them. End of story. ``

Khalid Hasan Saheb:

Both this and the earlier letter show the power of Manto`s writing and the limits of translation, which you have done very well. Not having read the original, I was constantly wondering things like: did the original use `kala` or `habshi` for black?
It`s a tribute to Manto that much of what he wrote is still relevant today for the U.S, although millet is no longer the staple of even poor desis and Bollywood girls can compete quite well with Hollywood girls in the matter of percentage of exposed skin.

re: rozaiba and Mantolives

I need to clarify a few points.

The house, which Manto used to live in and in which his daughter lives in presently, was re-modeled about 5 years ago. Both the exterior and the interior of the original 31 Laxshmi Mansions was re-designed. The original house and its layout was, in actual terms, much like the inside of Meraj Khaild`s house, which we all visited. In case of Nighat Manto`s house, the inside walls were demolished to increase the size of the living and the dining rooms and the kitchen was re-modeled and made more modern.

Still, all these changes do not lessen the history associated with house, but most people passing by, hardly realize that the brick footpath they are walking on was once walked upon by Manto, Meraj Khalid and Sir Zafarullah Khan. Little do they realize or know that maybe in the garden, which is situated in the middle of Laxshmi Mansions, Mani Shanker Aiyar might have played as a young boy. The history of Lahore is disappearing before our eyes so quickly, that we better preserve it in pictures because soon, the Lahore of today will only exist in our memories.

Within my own lifetime, Lahore has changed. The area, where the Crow Eaters is now located, there used to be toy stores, where my grandfather used to buy me toys and now, it is lined with jewelry stores. The Crow Eaters itself is owned by M. P. Bandhara, who happens to be the brother of Bapsi Sidwa and in the 1960, it used to be a wine store. Tollington Market was still a place to shop and it used to be filled with stores of all kinds. It was not uncommon to see girls on bicycles and scooters breezing past Charing Cross on the Mall. Opposite Charing Cross, there was a small garden filled with trees and later the trees were chopped down and in their place, a needle of marble was erected to commemorate the Islamic Conference of 1974, which was held in Lahore that year. In the same garden, there used to a granite statute of Queen Victoria which was removed and in its place, there was a glass case installed encasing a Qu`ran.

My most early memories of Lahore are of our house in Gulberg numbered 4R. Now, the house is an office of a denist and sits nearly opposite Cafe Zouk and next to Cafe Alyanto. I remember that I used to have a white Russian terrier, who was killed one day by a speeding car and the park, where I used to play, is still there; people still play there now. 4R was the house, I was living in when the war of 1965 started and during the war, in evenings, we used to take our Fiat and drive to my grandmother`s house in Laxshmi Mansions to spend the night. My mother tells me that the nights used to be warm and since ACs were not that common in those days, we used to sleep in the veranda. I am told, though I confess that I do not remember it, that my uncle used to take me to the rooftop and show me the ``dogfights`` in the skies over Lahore. There used to be tongas in Beadon Road, and now there is nothing there but a gridlocked and congested traffic screaming its impatience.

Change is invitable, but it is also bittersweet and we may forget what has changed from the old to the new, but we seldom forget the saddness, which tinges our memories of the past.

Ciao

Echoboom Sahib:

I am impressed of your interest in, and your knowledge of Urdu literature. I also read quite a bit of it but after 1970s, I moved on to some other things and didn`t have much time for Urdu literature nor any easy access to it.

I was very much imressed of Manto`s unique skills of story telling. Unfortuately he was born in a wrong country. I wanted to write a piece in his memory althoug I didn`t know him well from close quarters. I had read so much of him and about him that occasionally I had the feeling as if I knew him personally. I published a piece ``Bald Angel`` at chowk on December 8, 2003, and I felt very much relieved afterwards, in the same way like how one feels when he has cleared a heavy debt. In that essay, I had given the correct year, i.e., 1955, when he read his story at Lahore College of Engineering. Wishing you well,

Mohammad Gill

echoboom
“I am glad you are reading my posts.”

I am human and I make mistakes too!

Normally I would not have bothered but I can very well see your game here. Buddy! I have known likes of you very well and you cannot hoodwink me. That agha Jaan Kashmiri guy was a liar and never was seen in Manto’s company. He was a Chamcha, bootlicker mullah and a brown nose and never was allowed near Khaja Abbas and Manto. What to talk of Josh. Josh took care of Modoodi in Hyderabad and there was no way he would have allowed minions like Agha Jaan Kashimiri come near him!

#62 by echoboom:

Though I have heard Upinder Naath Ashk`s name which being aquainted with Manto`s era of writers...But his work is still unseen by me...

anyways long time back I read Majeed Amjad nazm on Manto which is quite remarkable.

HP: 60
The edicts of a High-Priest ( not a mullah , but priest) are pretty informative--about the HP.
I am glad you are reading my posts.

and perhaps others are reading your stuff as well. No argument there!

AS Tees-Maar-Khan rebutted ( Ha Ha Ha) Sheikh Chilli:``Jann-nay vaalay jaantay haiN``!

After the clandenstine tryst on a dogday afternoon; followed-up by the gloating pronouncement of his version of the incident by Sheikh Chilli.

Nadia_Zehra:
Thanks for participating.
The best write-up on Manto, for me, is by Upinder Naath Ashk `` Manto--meraa , Duushman``.
Did you read it. What do you think?

#58 by echoboom:

The said dilemma of ‘Alcohol Addiction’ of the writer is taken as he being a Holy Pope John Paul though the holy saint might be taking sips of Fine ‘heavenly syrup’ in his solitary states of might perplexity.
Manto was aggravated for liquor in his meager state. And he has stated his satire of accessibility to ‘cheap distilled poison... (Spirited Alcohol)’ which is more the cause of his death.

Anyways,

This letter I have found very interesting and his obvious dislikeness to Colonial Monarchs is more poising then him being as adherent Narcotically.

#35 #36 #37 by wasif2
First I am not Ahle Zaban either. So forget that line of argument. I did not compare Manto to writers from Delhi or Lucknow. Though, if I wanted to I could have easily done that. Ismat Chughtai, Dr. Rasheeda Jehan wrote some beautiful pieces and in chaste urdu too. Even Sindhi Writers Sheikh Ayaz and Amar Jalil wrote great urdu pieces. Kirshan Chandra like Manto was from Kashmir and Rajandra Singh Bedi was a Punjabi and both wrote chaste Urdu and often better than many writers from Urdu centers.
But let me take Ghantay and Ghantoon out of the way.

Hum “aath Ghantoon” main wapas Aingay CORRECT!

Main “aath ghantoon” main wapas Aongaa- beep! Incorrect!

Now go back and read the line in Urdu and see the grammar for yourself. There are more errors. All you got to do is to read the story again carefully.

Ghalat ul Awam does not make it correct and writers of some standing have to pay attention to it. Kirshan Chandra, Bedi, Sahir, Hafeez, Ahmed Nadeem and many others did. Manto was careless and did not refine his stories. The story in question “Khool Do” must rank very high in terms of idea and the underlying message but it was poorly written.

Manto was genius in terms of ideas, concepts, and some characters but he lacked the skills to develop characters and refine his ideas. Khool Do barely has 1500 words in it. Had Bedi come up this idea, this story would have ranked very high in the world literature.
Imo, Bedi was much better writer and some of his stories about partition were whole lot better than what Manto wrote.
Obviously, we cannot compare Manto to Kirshan Chandra as Kirshan was in his own league. Manto may be had five or six stories that rank high but Kirshan’s every story was a gem. His language was beautiful and he developed his characters well.
Borrowing the cricket analogy Sehwag and Shahid are tukka baaz, when you compare them to Gavasker or Maindad.


Echoboom,
Don`t even attempt to twist history. Mullahs like you are the enemy of creativity in Pakistan and your bogus attempts to come out in favor of Manto are nothing but ``Magarmach kay aansoo``.

Every frigging mullah in Pakistan called Manto Fahish. It was on mullah`s insistence that cases were filed against him and it was Jammat Islami the led the charge against him. He was the first victim of Mullah conspiracy in Paksistan. After they destroyed him, they went after Ahmedi. Don`t rile me up and stop posting incorrect stories. You don`t know diddly about Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi and what happened to him.

Re: # 58

Resurrect YLH how??

As for the rest... will do.

Thank you Gill Sahib: 51

Manto was almost exhausted both financially and emotionally. His dependence on liquor made him write these ``letters`` as well as the ``sketches`` & some other trash. sometimes only for a bottle or two as payment. The magazine printers took full advantage of his situation because they knew that no one else would print his stories anymore. Quasmi was charged for printing Ooper neechay aur darmiyaan [ I do not recall now if he jailed, I do know that he was jailed for 3 months under the `safety act`, but on this one? maybe]

Manto was crying. He was so helpless. He despised the alcoholism and has written about it `that alcohol has now become his only medicine to cure the disease which was because of alcohol itself`. It is a horrendous and gut-wrenching scream which could be an eye opener for anyone singing the praise of the stuff--even the `moderation advocates--for who does not know that like smoking this disease strikes only those who start with a single puff or a single `taste`. He begged to seek a cure for it.

In fact his write up on alcohol which had become his nemesis could be great material to be included in school-texts as an early warning to the budding ``moderate`` & ``enlightened`` ones. To talk such, to our rulers, is Fahaashi; to talk about the evil which the ruling class gloats about. The ruling class wants to insist that Manto and other greats precisely because they drank; they were not mullahs. It was this ``fahaashi`` which Manto wrote about. Manto would have thoroughly approved for including this material in the textbooks; even at the expense of his masterpieces.


He was also suffering from T.B . I am intrigued & fascinated by the fact that Manto knew a lot about the `inside` of the seamy side of life & filmdom yet there has never ever been a murmur of a scandal about him. In fact, his relationship with Ismat is frank and at the same enriched in `eastern` values. I know not many instances where the friendship between a writer, his wife, and another well-known and `open` writer has been so close...yet so `traditional`.

Agha Jaani Kashmiri--filmmaker with Mehboob, who spent a lot of `good` old days with Manto, Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, Josh & Mahirul Quaadri mentioned to me that it was Manto`s TB which was eroding him away cell by cell, drop by drop and his Bombay ``friends`` were really his unwitting enemies--they liked the show Manto put up after `enjoying` their company. Such company, of course, was not possible outside.

Manto, in his latter days, was reduced to begging for a drink. His family, especially his wife, had no use for him. Shahab Sahib had alloted an ice-facory to them, a gold mine always, on the condition that Safiya would not help Manto with money--otherwise everything would again be drunk away.

Yasser: Could you please interview Nighat and try to get as much as possible out of her about the Ice-factory--as also her memories about her father & mother. Is Safiya alive? Could you talk to her?

Could you please resurrect YLH? Just an earnest plea.

Mantolives:

Thanks for the correction When I wrote this post, I was struggling with 1956 and 1955 in my mind. I stand corrected.

Mohammad Gill

Is Manto crude? Or, is it that the people are crude and vulgar - whom he wrote about. Is he a villain to some because he didnt sugar coat the misdeeds of these kanjars? You hijras can clap all you want and create as much din as possible; Manto will live forever in the literary world - long after the din of hijras has died.

Re: # 54

Dear Kaurasach,

Had you read what I had written above... you would see that nothing I have said contradicts your assessment of Mr Saadat Hassan Manto... he was unsparing to all involved... sikhs muslims hindus you name it.

However ... as far as your accusation about me politicizing him ... I am afraid I am not politicizing him... he was himself quite political... read his letter to Pandit Nehru. He is clearly a major influence on Ayesha Jalal... who has overturned history as we see it.

As for my name ... it will stay... but you should consider changing your name because what you write here often is nothing but a complete disservice to ``truth``. In other words you are ``Kaura`` no doubt, but there is nothing ``sach`` about you.

I don`t know how Jinnah suddenly became relevant to this discussion... but since we are on the topic... Manto also wrote what is perhaps the most terrific tribute to Jinnah in Urdu. So maybe you will call him all the names you call me too.


-YLH

It is pathetic how some superficial people are dissecting his `writing skills`. It is the message conveyed in the story not the diction that is important.

Yaseer,

I stand by my earlier comment - you are a slur to his name. change it.

He did not align himself with any community. He did not spare any community. KHOL DO is the reflection of muslims` misdeeds if THANDA GHOST is of sikh`s.

And here you are trying to politicize his works. trying to take the higher moral ground. you are pathetic fool who is brainwashed to worship Jinnah or may be trying to put up a show to get accepted in anti Ahmedi Paksatan. How pathetic! living a lie!

Re: # 51

Sir... your memory might be playing tricks...

Manto died in 1955... he must have read the story then.

Urstryly # 50,
I made opinion on my own basis of knowledge of the two writers whereas Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi is a good more poet. And they both were in the same era and had same association to thought and liberty.

Manto wrote a lot, some of which lacked his usual luster and flair. I don’t know under what circumstances he wrote these letters (I have read the two posted at Chowk. I might have read others in Urdu but I don’t remember now), they ar just ordinary pieces of writing at the usual Manto standard. True his sarcasm and satire are there but they are largely pointless.

His stories such as Khol Dau, Mozel, Thanda Ghosht, Toba Tek Singh and many others and his sketches entitled “Gunjay Frishtay” are unique and unexcelled.

In his last days, he read a story “Malbay ka Dher” at the then Lahore College of Engineering and Technology, in 1956, when I was a student there. The story was okay and typically Mantoish but his questions and answers session was quite unrestrained and blunt.

He was a great Urdu short story writer, the greatest of his time.

Mohammad Gill

Re: # 48

I wouldn`t put Qasmi and Manto in the same league (and I didn`t); I dont know how to say it, but Manto is too urban and usually writes about a civic society that HAS transitioned from an agrarian one into an Industrialized, urban, and capitalist one. Whereas, Qasmi is a link between the transitioning agrarian, feudal culture and that of semi urban sociaty. That is the reason Manto may be compared with Krishan and Qasmi with bedi or Munshi Prem Chand.

the discussion over manto`s language usage is irrelevant imho...(also amusing the points made over manto and ahl e zabaan in english;))

the guy is dead and is still read...that should quell any misgivings...living languages evolve continuously... lahore is as much a centre of urdu today as karachi or hyderabad deccan or patna...and shall continue so long as people talk and write in it

In my opinion the comparison between ` Manto` and `Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi` is like comparing Polished Rice [mostly called as naia Chawal] and UnPolished Rice [mostly Purana Chawal]. The rice if old enough tastes and smells good. Qasmi Sahab being originated from ``Wadi-e-Soon Sakaisar`` beautiful mountain area of Pakistani Punjab gives a definite touch of village life and essence of his life-force. Though Qasmi Sahab can be rated as a ground-breaking `Adeeb` of his time and space expressing things as a matter of nature and puts them powerfully whereby Manto writes as seen..jaisay ``mai.n wohi likhta hoo jo main mashraa daikhta hoo``

Re: # 45

You like Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi... awesome!

Re: # 12

Rozaiba.... I highly doubt that those mugs were that old... they looked pretty new... now that is a thought... whiskey in coffee mugs...

I am not a big fan of Manto. For me he is mediocre, crude and too obvious (comparatively). As compared to him his contemporary, Krishan Chandar is a work of art. However, there is no parallel with Manto for writing personal profiles and biographical sketches. He is just superb. Similarly, I like Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, better than Bedi and Amarta Preetam better than Asmat Chughtai. But regardless of my personal chioce I think they all are literary giants of their time; Urdu literarture wouldn`t be the same without them. May God give long life and good health to Qasmi; he is Pakistan`s greatest asset.

Re: # 43

Point taken...

My point above was not addressed to you.

Re: # 42

All i said was he should have not have moved to Pakistan.One can detect a lot of angst in him regarding partition.He is an indian by birth.He should have stayed one.He is an honorable man.Having ended up in pakistan, he showed his loyalty to his adopted land.Something ,many who ended up in india don`t do.

I see a bunch of lunatics on both sides fighting to claim Manto, a man who died quite voluntarily a Pakistani, whether people from across the border want to admit it or not.

Manto was a secularist. He hated Hindu-Muslim violence... and as for partition, I don`t think one can put him together with the Indian National Congress supporters... his story ``Price of Freedom`` is cruel castigation of Congress/Gandhian politics... if there was any. What was his view of partition then? ... when his grand niece Ayesha Jalal wrote her famous book, she credited it to the discussions she had with her father Hamid Jalal... a man whose entire worldview was shaped largely by his association with Saadat Hassan Manto.

Thanks to ferozk, I, along with Rozaiba, met Nighat Manto, the great man`s daughter, and she said that Ayesha Jalal`s thought was very similar to her father`s... especially on that historic period... we refer to as partition period. Hamid Jalal, the nephew, writes that Manto would especially sober up for Pakistan Day and put up little flags from the rooftop of both his house and Jalal`s...

Manto died a Pakistani quite voluntarily... though he did not agree with any state sponsored ideology.

Re: # 11

Kaurasach...

I wouldn`t be commenting on the man if I were you...

Read his ``Price of Freedom`` in which he cuts down Indian Independence Movement to size.

Manto is an indian.He should never have left Bombay.He would have thrived in the new India.Our diversity and freedom of expression would have inspired him to write even more eloquently.Especially in Bombay, where the occident meets the orient in a beautiful collage of cultures.That he was born in India should be good enough, but his writing gives him away .As `HN` in #38 put it so well, `` the coarse language of daily living, more suited his visceral themes and earthy treatment of everyday living. In that sense, he found the form to match his content``.Only in India, more so in Bombay/Mumbai will one find the form that matches the content of the mind of writers like Manto.I have become a fan.

HP:

Perhaps Manto’s Urdu was poor. I am not in a position to say it one way or another. Perhaps most people don’t realize what you have and prefer to overlook the form for the substance.

And such a thing is possible – at least many believe it is. For example, most history books say the Prophet was an illiterate. Others say Koranic verses are poorly constructed. Yet the book is considered by nearly all Muslims to be a masterpiece.


“it was hard for the core group of Urdu daan from UP, Bihar and MP to accept him as a top notch writer.”

More than anything else, these ‘core group of Urdu daan” seem to be a very jealous lot. It seems once the center of Urdu in the subcontinent shifted to Lahore (and Punjab), many could only be jealous. Take a look through the 20th century. Ol’ man Bala, Faiz, and Manto (despite his ‘poor’ Urdu)…they tower over anyone else in their works in the Urdu language. So this ‘core group of Urdu daan’ should instead learn to appreciate the works in the Urdu language by those who spoke other tongues as well.

The issue of Manto`s place in the Urdu writer`s pantheon is interesting. I remember an English critic David Daichess??? saying that TS Eliot was a ``major minor poet`` of English.

Manto, to some extent would be that. While I am familiar with some issues of Manto`s language not being upto puritanical standards, it is also to manto`s eternal credit that he despoiled Urdu with the mud and grime of the streets of Bombay, and later the bloodied soil of the no-man`s land between India and Pakistan. What he did is that he killed the beauty or artifice of the overly elaborate / ornate language, which seemingly was not his strength either. But in the process, he also found the coarse language of daily living, more suited to his visceral themes and earthy treatment of everyday living. In that sense, he found the form to match his content. His content was what was shockingly new to the writing establishment. That the language best
suited for his theme made stretching the language, or as his critics said, murdering the language, was also the reason they were so effective.

After all, a regulation B-chod or M-chod sounds rather regular in daily speech, but were a puritan Urdu speaker to use it in his speech, it would seem blasphemous.

So Manto is more influential than many other writers in the language because he stretched the language, thereby opening a door, which presumably, made the space available for the growth of literature in the language for more modern themes. However, I would love to know some names among the current crop of Urdu writers of promise and of standing. In that sense, Manto to urdu is like Eliot to modern English poetry; in hindsight his daring seems less colossal, but having achieved it as a pioneer is to his eternal credit.

Remember Sunil Gavaskar being cornered after Allan Border caught up with the Bombay maestro`s record by Ritchie Benaud perhaps, who asked him, whether he was feeling a little low. The response was a classic, `` Sorry Ritchie. A lot of people have conquored the Everest, but I only remember Tenzing and Hillary.``

HN

HP...More for you. Both ghanton and ghantay is correct. Ghanton is correct because Manto wrote it. But Ghantay is not correct because of what you say. It is not because ``Aath`` (Eight) is singular and therefore its ``Ghantay`` which you apparently think is singular. For God`s sake ``Ghantay`` is not singular. ``Ghanta`` is singular. So will you say ``Aath Ghanta`` ??? Aaath Ghanta ??? Gora sahib aath GHANTA main aana maangtta ?? LOL. And you know what you have done here unwittingly ? You have accepted that if ``aath`` were plural, (which by the way it is) then ``Ghanton `` would be correct.

Actually, Iqbal did a wonderful thing once. Responding to an ``Ahle Zaban`` (God..the word is so ridiculous) who had objected to the use of a phrase in a verse of his and had asked for a ``sannad`` (authority) for the same, Iqbal said oh sure, here is the sannad: And wrote one of his own verses. Quite a slap. That did shut him up.

Oh and by the way, wasnt it your ahle zaban Daagh Dehlvi, who wrote to Iqbal saying there is very little room for ``islaah`` in his verses and he need not remain his ``shagird`` (pupil) ? And wasnt it the same Daagh Dehlvi who is on record for expressing great pride that for a short period of time he had the privilege of having Iqbal as his pupil ?

HP: 27 & 33. There has not been a single urdu writer of any significance in the last hundred years from Delhi, Lucknow or Hyderabad. The only exception is Qurrat ul Ain Haider. There have been second raters like Josh or Majaz, but second raters only. Iqbal, Noom Meem Rashid, Meeraji, Faiz, Manto, Bedi and more and more to this day... all non ``urdu speaking``. And mostly Punjabi. This obviously bugs the so called Ahle Zaban who can be small minded and small hearted enough to question Iqbal`s language (but then Mirza Yagana died questioning Ghalib`s language). Lahore has been and remains the centre of urdu literature. You say Karachi is the new centre of urdu literature. Really ? More literary magazines come out of Lahore, a city with less literacy and half of Karachi`s population, than Karachi. You say Karachi, clearly because of your obsession with this ridiculous ``Ahle Zabaan`` thing... since Karachi is where most of these ``urdu speaking`` folks live in Pakistan. Despite what you say, the fact is that it is these non urdu speaking writers who have kept urdu language and literature alive and not some urdu speakig cynics struggling with their hangover of days gone. I only agree with you on one thing that Bedi`s language was better than Manto`s. But thats neither here nor there. Some writers` language is better than others.... and then Bedi too was not urdu speaking.

Thanx khalid Hasan you wake up to give tribute to Manto.
Alive manto was known as a vulgar writer.But realities are always bitter.

Tahmed’s observation is accurate!

Going by Urdu version of the letter above, it is a pathetically written piece by Manto. As I said his Urdu language skills were questionable. His famous story “Khool Do” posted below by echoboom #8 is poorly written. The story survived because of the idea was powerful and it was written during a time when sanity had given way to Echoboom types.
Example of Poor Urdu in the story below: First line!

“Amritsar say train dopahr doo baja chali aur “aath ghantoon” kay ba’ad Moghalpura phunchi.”

This should have been “Aath Ghantay” the Word Aath(eight) is singular and Ghantoon is plural. For a puritan it is a big No! No! There are more errors and I am not going to go into that.
Echoboom Post #31. It is an irrelevant post. It does not prove any thing. Mullah hated Manto and called him “Fahish Nigar” “Fahshiat phalaanewala” and now they are praising him because he, at some point in time, wrote a few things against people who supported secularism in Pakistan. Manto was a second tier Urdu writer. He could have done better had he paid attention to language and craftsmanship.

tahmed32:26
...but the above piece comes across whiny (he seems to be really in thrall of uncle here) to me. And what`s with this weird part where he expresses admiration for the black guy`s muscles?....

---

Beebay tahmed, feeling little jealous?
Someone loves your Uncle more than you do. Now what is it more that you expect from the one in original Urdu. The translation is ok...it conveys the essence, and that`s fine.

And yeah what is this with the black guys muscles? Is it the black, or guy, or muscle which suddenly got your ears perking.

It is not your urdu/english comrehension skill that is the issue here. You are a simple, honourable, staight-thinking right-brained person and are able to solve complex problems merely by rising early and going to bed at sundown.

For Blasphemer & HP: The ``modern`` ``enlightened`` and the ``progressive`` Neanderthals.

Let me entitle it : Manto & the Mullahs: the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

The following is a composite of what I could translate & abridge from PanchwaaN Muqadma, by Jagdesh Wadhwaan, recall some of the stuff from Manto himself, and some gleanings fro Afzal Mirza.

One thing good about Manto was that he wrote a commentary on the legal proceedings against him in every book that contained those stories. In those statements Manto would also spells out his reason for writing on those subjects as well as the details of the court proceedings and the treatment meted out to him.


It is interesting that sessions judge Durrani a bearded man who heard his appeal in case of Thanda Gosht set him free although Manto was expecting a strict action from him. The soft spoken judge was none other than the father of well known physicist and writer Dr Saeed Akhtar Durrani of Cambridge University who did a lot of research on Iqbal’s date of birth.


Similarly the additional district magistrate of Karachi Mehdi Siddiqui, a bearded Jamaati_Islami member, who heard his case on Ooper Neeche aur Darmayan let him go after paltry fine of twenty five rupees. In the latter case Manto described proceedings in these words,’ I had faced many cases in Lahore and I knew how to behave in district courts. I stood respectfully before the magistrate. He looked towards me and asked ‘What do you want?.” His amiability surprised me .I told him, ’Sir I am Saadat Hasan Manto. Today you have summoned me under section 292 for writing an obscene story. ’He looked at me intently and then said, ’Please sit down’. I thought I don’t know whom he has asked to sit down because it never happened in the courts of Lahore. So I kept standing. When the magistrate saw that I did not sit down he said it again, ’Manto Sahib please sit down”. I sat down on the bench next to his desk..”

The magistrate told him politely that since he had not read his story so he would read it tonight and announce the judgment the next day.



Interestingly the magistrate who now lives in America also wrote an article on the same subject. Here is his version how he announced the sentence, “Next day while holding my court I wrote a short sentence. Manto had come with his colleague (Nasir Anwar) to listen the verdict. I asked him, ‘Manto Sahib how is your financial position.?’ He said,’ very bad’ I asked him, ’What is the date today?’.Somebody said ‘25th’.I said, ’Manto sahib you are fined twenty five rupees.’ At first Manto did not understand it.( manto was hard of hearing). He asked his colleague whether I was asking the date or announcing the verdict’. But his colleague was smarter than him and immediately rushed to deposit the fine.

After some time they came back and told me that they had come to invite me for a chat in the evening. I regarded Manto as the biggest story writer after Munshi Prem Chand. and I was also keen to meet him so in the evening I went straight to Zelin Coffee House from my office…..We had long chat . He asked, ’You don’t drink?’ I said, ’No…” He said, ’Are you a Mullah…’.No a Musalman.’He started laughing. What I inferred from that evening’s meeting with Manto was that his each word was soaked in sincerity and he was clearheaded and in his talk he did not try to intimidate me with his superior knowledge or something like that. He had no hesitation in calling spade a spade. The standard of good or bad that he had created for him self was rigid. In my life first time I met a great artist who was a realist and free from hypocrisy and I shall remember it for the rest of my life….” (Zavia ) Manto through out the meeting was trying to find out from Siddiqui as to why did he sentence him to a fine thereby confirming the accusation of the prosecution. Siddiqui promised him that he would give the reasons in writing some day.



Thereafter Manto remained in touch with Siddiqui writing to him letters in connection with some favours for his friends.

With a cruel twist of fate Siddiqui`s first letter arrived on the exact date Manto was being carried to his final resting place.

Siddiquis views on censorship


But several years later after Manto’s death Siddiqui has written a few words in answer to former ’s question. Siddiqui has conceded that from literary point of view he thought that the story was obscene but at that time it was not the proper occasion to go into the details of it. He is of the opinion that “ The law does not want that literature should not fulfill the constructive purpose for which it had been written. The law wants that the purpose should be useful for human being. If the purpose was not useful and it is only to arouse the sexual instincts or the purpose was not to arouse those feelings but the subject or the words are such that immature or sick minds could draw sexual pleasure by reading them then law considers such a writing as obscene and useless. In case of Manto’s story Ooper Neeche aur darmayan the sexual behavior in the three sections of society has been discussed. The author has given its details. In the eyes of law this detail is not of any use to the society. The writers and intellectuals might disagree with me in it but I can not explain the obscenity laws in clearer terms than what I have written earlier.”



I do not know how Manto would have reacted to this statement had he been alive but in many of his articles written in defense of his stories he had touched the points raised by Siddiqui..

Manto`s views on censorship


Manto wrote in his article Writer and Sexual Problems ,”In every age efforts were made to bridge the gap between man and woman. Intellectuals have tried to strengthen or break down the fragile wall separating man and woman. Those who consider it obscenity they should feel sorry for their lack of feelings. Those who consider it as a means to judge the standard of morality they should know that morality is a rust accumulated on the razor of society because it has been used without caution. Those who think that the new literature has created sexual problems are wrong. Because the fact is that the new literature is the product of sexual problems. So in this new literature when they some time see their own reflection they get upset. How much we may sugar- coat the reality its bitterness would not go. Our writings appear bitter to you because so far you have been served with sweets. What has humanity gained out of them? The leaves of Neem are bitter but they do clean the blood.”

I cannot comment on the Urdu writing skills of Manto since I have not read the originals - only translations in English and Punjabi.

Still, his few lines tug and shake the heart. They capture the human tragedy in a peerless and unique way.

Manto was very upset about partition.Thats why he says in Tobha Tek Singh,``paRdi giR giR di ex di vindhiana di moong di daal of the laaltain....hindustan and the pakistan...dur fittay muNh..``
He was hapy to stay in Bombay post partion,till his closest friend`s(Shyam,the famous hero of that time) close relatives arrived from Pakistan and narrated their woes/Some of Shyam`s close relatives had been killed by fanatics in Pakistan.Shyam was totally shaken on this and he told his closest friend(Manto)to leave for Pakistan elst he(Shyam) goes mad over all this and kills him.This was the bare bodied reality of partition and the resultant madness which made Manto think that even what his closest friend says may become a reality.He boarded the next ship to Karachi.How close he was to Shyam,one can read the pen sketch of Shyam which he wrote after hearing his death in an accident while shooting for a movie.Manto was undergoing treatment for Alcoholism in a mental hospital at that time.

#27

``Echoboom is probably familiar with Anti Manto JI literature.``

JI literature = Jamaat Islami literature!

Manto wrote powerful stories but his language skills were not really up to the par. His Urdu was not idiomatic and it was hard for the core group of Urdu daan from UP, Bihar and MP to accept him as a top notch writer. In terms of language skills alone, Rajender Singh Bedi and Kirshan Chander had miles on Manto. For this simple reason Kirshan Chandra and Bedi were readily accepted as top notch Urdu writers but Manto never got this acceptance. In his lifetime, he failed to get recognition from Delhi and Lucknow, and to some extent Hyderabad; three most important centers of Urdu language.

Manto’s bitterness against the communists or progressives was also caused by his non acceptance as top class writers by the progressive movement. The progressive writers union was dominated by the communists at that time and was also owned by Urdu writers from Delhi, Lucknow and Hyderabad. Manto for a long time tried to work with the progressive writers union and the communists but failing the litmus test of language skills left them to badmouth them later in his life.
Allama Iqbal’s language skills were also not considered adequate by the old Udru School. Iqbal tried to compensate that by using Arabic and Persian words. His recognition came only after he became prominent in Lahore political circles and “Saara Jehan sa Achha Hindustan hamara” became popular.

The Punjabi poet who was accepted by the Lucknow/Delhi group was Faiz Ahmed Faiz. That too after Pakistan and he became the most prominent member of the Progressive Writers Union. Most of the Progressive Writers Union members never left India as they did not believe in TNT.

For the last several years the short story writing has declined in Urdu and other Pakistani languages. The Urdu writers from Lahore have been promoting Manto to bring that genre back into Urdu literature. You would not hear a word about Manto from Karachi, the new center of Urdu language in the subcontinent.
The other factor in Manto’s sudden acclaim is that all prominent Urdu Short Story writers were from India. From Munshi Prem Chand to Krishan Chandra to Bedi to many others. They were certainly a notch above Manto in their talent and craftsmanship.

Now it has fallen on Manto’s shoulders to prop the champions of Urdu language and Pakistan from Lahore. Manto is now conveniently a Muslim, a Pakistani, an anti secularist, anti progressive and fits all the requirements of the Mullah Brigade and the pseudo Pakistani Nationalists.

Even echoboom is taking pride in Manto stories. The same group of people just a few years ago was pronouncing Manto a Fahish (vulgar) writer and Fahashi ka alambardar. (Flag bearer of vulgarity!) Echoboom is probably familiar with Anti Manto JI literature. Soon we may see Qazi Hossain Ahmed honoring Manto and reading “Khool doo kazi ki Shalwar” out loud!

something definitely lost in the translation above. I shudder in fear when saying this in the company of so many Manto-lovers, but the above piece comes across whiny (he seems to be really in thrall of uncle here) to me. And what`s with this weird part where he expresses admiration for the black guy`s muscles?!! Nothing uplifting or even particularly funny here. Gimme a break. If the emperor was wearing any clothes to begin with, they got taken off in the translation by Khalid Hasan.

Why not post the original in urdu so perhaps one can fairly see what Manto had to say??

echoboom

Yeah, but he world have hated you for your own ideology just as much as he saw through the lickspittle stupidity of the commies he knew...

22

..Manto would have hated a religious...

But he didn`t whereas the commies left no stone unturned to berate religion. Infact it was to be very ``enlightened`` and ``modern`` to do this and assured one employment wherever angraiz ruled the roost. These wage earners & welfare bums could not move a finger without grants & susidiaries.

Lokraj: tusi Lok Lehar lai likhde si? My father was a teacher`s union activist....specifically the left left wing...both or many groups (now) were left wing but there was one left left left wing:-)..they used to send Lok Lehar to our home daily and free of charge...it was the first newspaper I read regularly for years in my school day.

echoboom

Excuse me sir, but just reading the article you pasted below, I cant help but observing, that by all accounts, Manto would have hated a religious ideologue toilet-messer like yourself. So why are you orgasming because he said some bad things about doctrinaire commies?

Manto`s dislike of Communists and Progressives: Quite a feat in those days when the Reds had monopolised literature, like today even after the collapse of communism & russia they have become the inquisition and applaud whatever suits their heinous Rushdick-agenda.

Crawling in the academia and rife in the civil service ( wherever taxpayers` money is, there is their bread and butter), these Multi-Rationals ( just coined it; use it freely) spare no effort to collude, contrive, and coerce to establish that unless perversion & taboo is the theme, no literature can emerge.

These self-congratulatory do-gooders have taken upon the onerous but minimum-wage & welfare-worth task of fitting every square peg in a round-round hole.

The squares insist upon being squares and they don`t like to be rounded-up.

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Manto on Communism & progressives: This after Faiz Ahmed Faiz et al were the principle defence witnesses for him.

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Manto abhorred all ideologies, religious or political. His ``Student Union Camp``, ``Sharabi``, ``Do or Die--Mein Langot Ka Pakka Rahoonga``, ``contemptuous references to dervishes and leftists (whisky to Aise Gale Se Utar Kar Pet Me Inquilab Zindabad Likhti Gay`) `assiduously created an absolute disbelief in any ideology of power of salvation`.

The great writer often crossed swords with high priests of progressive Urdu literature. In Jaib-e-Kafan, he writes : `I felt sorry for the activists of the progressive movement who unnecessarily meddled in politics. These charlatans were using the prescription proposed by Kremlin and were busy preparing a mixture of literature and politics. Nobody bothered about the temperament or the pulse of the patient for whom the mixture was prepared. The result for everyone to see. We are brooding over the stagnation in our litterature`.

In Gunah Ki Baityan, Gunah Ke Bap, he again takes up the communists : `I greatly detested the so-called communists. I could not appreciate people who talked about the `sickle and the hammer` while sitting in comfortable arm-chairs. In this connection, comrade Sajjad Zaheer who sipped his milk in a silver cup, always remained a clown in my eyes. The true psychology of working labourers is manifested in their sweet. May be, the people who used this sweat to earn wealth, and used it as ink to write detailed manifestoes, are sincere people. However, you will pardon me, if I consider them to be impostors``.

Faiz Ahmed Faiz, once while absolving his `Thanda Ghosht` of the charge of obscenity, said the story did not fulfill ``those higher objectives of literature because in this (story) there is no satisfactory solution to the basic problems of life.`` Bhisham Sahani says, ``If the progressives found fault with Manto, it was on this score. During the forties, when the progressive movement in literature had over-zealous adherents, the main emphasis on literature was not on character realisation but on protest...The progressives therefore expected that a sensitive artist like Manto, who was writing about the lives of the prostitutes, would also show the nature of exploitation to which the prostitute was being subjected. It would not have been idealistic or romantic on the part of Manto to show a character in the throes of a struggle to free herself from the shackles of this slavery...they were also critical of his total lack of interest in the cruel subjection of the poor to exploitation.``

Manto rebutted the charge. He said, ``I do not consider myself to be either a preacher or a teacher of morals...We diagnose diseases but don`t run a clinic`. Elsewhere he remarks : `I don`t whip up the emotions and ideas of people. How can I undress culture and civilisation when they already have no clothes on. I also don`t try to dress them up since it is not my job but that of drapers`.

On partition, Manto took no sides and wrote with detachment and passion about the brutalities committed by Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs in the name of religion and nationalism. He also did not make any attempt to establish parity between the monstrosities committed by all. `Mozel` is his only story that describes the cultural visibility of his characters, otherwise he steers clear of all stereotypes.

Political Views :

Manto lived in momentous times and was aware of the great changes taking place. He was very alive and sensitive to political currents. KN Daruwala observes, ``unless they referred to either the freedom struggle on the subcontinent, or the stupidity of the partition, they never made an appearance in his fiction``............
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For Manto, partition was an overwhelming tragedy. If his first set of partition stories are derisive tales of a degenerate society, his second set (1951-55) of stories are both `parables of lost reason and demonic parodies of the conventional history of the national movement`. To Manto, 1947 is not a celebrative, an epiphanic event. Partition was `not an unfortunate rupture in historical time but a continuation of it`.

In his famous story `Toba Tek Singh`, the mad person is none other than Manto. The lunatic asylum around which the entire story revolves, alludes to the abode of millions of sensible and dignified people, who were unable to understand the basic logic of the partition. In the same story he asks, `Moulvi Saab, what is this Pakistan`` After deep contemplation, he replied, ``It is a place in India where blades are manufactured``. In the `Dog of Tetwal`, Manto `mocks at the follish gullibility and mindlessness of people vis-a-vis discourses of power and authority`. There is constant tension: would those who killed the dog die as patriots or would they die the death of cruel fools for their country, religion or cause.

Manto was completely confounded, not as much by the geographical divide as by the cultural chasm created by it. This is reflected in his `Zahmate-Mihre-Darakhshan`. He ironically asks : Will Pakistani literature be different, and if so, how? Will literature be partitioned also? What I could never resolve was the question : What country did we now belong to, India or Pakistan...``

Pakistan :

Saadat Hasan could not reconcile with the reality of Pakistan. In `Khol Do` he depicts how the Pakistani society, from the moment of its inception, had turned brutal despite the theological ideals held forth in its defense. `Zaroorat Hai` shows Manto`s feelings on discrimination of being an outsider. He summed up his predicament : ``You know me as a short story writer and the courts know me an obscene writer. The government sometimes calls me a communist, and sometimes a great literary figure of the country. Sometimes the doors of livelihood are closed on me and sometimes they are opened for me. Sometimes I am declared a persona non grata and considered an outsider, sometimes, when the powers-that-be are pleased, I am told that I can be an `insider`. I am still troubled, as I have often been in the past, over the questions like : Who am I? What is my status? What is my role in this country which is regarded as the largest Islamic state?``

The Indian national movement too found an echo in his stories--`It happened in 1919 (second story on Jallianwala Bagh massacre), `Naya Kanoon` and `Swaraj Ke Liye`.

`Uncle Same`:

In his last years, Manto increasingly becomes political. He wrote a series of facetious letters (nine) to uncle Sam when US was about to sign a military agreement with Pakistan. Manto was not satisfied with American influences on the society and polity of Pakistan. He strikes a note of satire : ``....our mullah is the best counter to Russian communism....I think the only purpose of military aid is to arm these mullahs`. He thanks the mullahs who kept the alcohol available, despite prohibition, due to their weakness for it. In his own ways Manto evolves a critique of US imperialism. He argues that Americans intended to dump all the discarded arms and ammunitions from second world war on the two countries. Manto says he had also heard that the US had made a hydrogen bomb so that there could be lasting peace in the world. Yet he wondered, ``how many countries will need to be removed from the face of the earth for this lasting peace to be established``. His niece had asked him to draw a map of the world for her. He had told her that he would draw the map after consulting with his uncle to ``find out the names of the countries that were going to survive`` (fifth letter).

Manto also drew himself into the vortex of Indo-Pak conflict and at times behaved as a Pak chauvinist. In August 1954 he wrote another facetious letter Dibacha, this time to Nehru, which turned into the preface of a book of short stories called Beghair Unwaan Ke (Untitled). Manto was deeply disturbed over the piracy of his works in India and that Nehru, fellow Kashmiri was doing nothing to stop it. Manto writes : ``....you can find right away how many publishers in Delhi, Lucknow, and Jalandhar have pirated my books. Several lawsuits have already been filled against me on charges of obscenity. But look at the injustice of things, that in Delhi, right under your nose, a publisher brings out the collection