Born over a century ago, the relevance of one of the greatest fiction writers of all times Saadat Hasan Manto is increasing with every passing day as all the leading publishers and book dealers are selling the literary work of the acclaimed writer. Manto, who was born some 105 years ago on 11th of May, has contributed immensely to Urdu literature through short stories, novels, essays, plays, translations and personal sketches during his short literary career, as he died at the age of 43, in 1955.
Best known for his short stories, Manto faced six trials on charges of writing obscene material, however, he was never convicted. He received severe criticism from the retrogressive segment of the society because of his bold and blunt style of writing.
In the views of the noted playwright Asghar Nadeem Syed, Manto is, undoubtedly, one of the greatest writers, and was best known for writing on the hypocritical nature of the society. “His short stories on the subject of partition are matchless and it will be fair to say that Manto has affected many generations through his audacious pen,” Asghar said while talking to Pakistan Today. He further stated that the characters that Manto included in his stories are always present in the society; cruel and judgmental individuals are still fraught in here. He was of the view that the writers of Manto’s stature do not need any publicity from the government. He added that Manto’s work has been translated into many different languages.
‘Khol Do’, ‘Kali Shalwar’, ‘Thanda Gosht’, ‘Toba Tek Singh’, ‘Hatak’ are some of the greater works of Manto. Moreover, he is also known for memorable essays, plays and sketches that he had written in his literary career.
Writer and critic Dr Amjad Tufail told this scribe that to get an idea of Manto’s brilliance, one can simply see how even the contemporary generation is passionate about his work and how the stories that he wrote remain relevant to this day. “The characters used in the work of Manto are universal as he writes about the existence, psychology and the surroundings of a human being and that is the very reason that he is still relevant even today,” Tufail said. He was of the view that it is wrong to say that Manto has written on negativity only as he has also discussed, through various works of his, some positive characters, as well. “Manto was the only writer after Iqbal who was highly eulogised at the larger level by both the readers and critics,” Tufail said, who has compiled all the literary work of Manto in seven volumes. It can rightly be claimed that the significance of Manto is increasing with every passing day as more than 25 new books having great authenticity were written during the last decade on Manto, he said.
In the words of Dr Khalid Mahmood Sanjrani, head of Department of Urdu at Government College University Lahore, the literary work of Manto could not be explored during his lifetime as people were busy in only discussing the ‘obscene’ aspect of his stories. “Letters to Uncle Sam that Manto had written by addressing America have had an everlasting impact on the readers and it seems that these letters were written on recently as much that is a state in the letter is very relevant,” he said. According to Khalid, Manto is becoming more relevant by the day as is evident by the fight between India and Pakistan over water that was predicted in one of his short-stories: Yazid. “We all often say that the world of literature is silent today and it was the basic feature of Manto’s writings that he never opted for staying silent during his lifetime,” Sanjrani said.
Despite Manto’s great standing as a literary intellectual the greed of some rapacious businessmen will soon overtake the long-standing symbol of the man’s brilliance: the house of Manto in Lahore’s Lakshami Mansion. The said building will be converted into a commercial plaza where mobile phones will be sold. Not only is this an insult to the man’s great ideas that were antithetical to the very nature of corporate show-offs, but is also a blatant disregard on the part of the government for the man’s service for the nation’s youth, be it the one that has passed or be it the one that ages today. Any well-informed and enlightened nation would have turned this building into a museum and not a paltry mobile phone plaza.