Mantu, Sa’adat Hasan
Mantu, Sa’adat Hasan (Sa'adat Hasan Mantu) (Saadat Hassan Manto) (May 11, 1912 – January 18, 1955). Urdu short-story writer, was born in Sambalpur, in the Amritsar district of Panjab, India, and educated at Amritsar and later at the Muslim University, Aligarh. Mantu then worked in Lahore, Bombay and Delhi in journalism, films and broadcasting. His literary activity began early. His first works included translations from Victor Hugo, Tolstoy, Gorki, Oscar Wilde and other Europeans. But most of his work was original.
Short stories comprise the greater part of Mantu’s work. From 1940 until his death, Mantu published more than 20 collections of short stories. However, Mantu also wrote numerous radio dramas, sketches and essays.
Mantu’s preoccupation with sexual themes and with eccentricities of behavior led to prosecutions for obscenity, but most were unsuccessful. There is little which European taste would find obscene. His best writing is frank, realistic and informed by a deep but unobtrusive sympathy. After the formation of Pakistan, Mantu settled in Lahore. Heavy drinking in his later years hastened Mantu’s death.
Saadat Hassan Manto migrated to Pakistan after the Partition of India. He is best known for his Urdu short stories, Bu (Odor), Khol Do (Open It), Thanda Gosht (Cold Meat), and his magnum opus, Toba Tek Singh.
Saadat Hasan Manto 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, two collections of personal sketches.
Saadat Hasan Manto was tried for obscenity half-a-dozen times, thrice before 1947 and thrice after 1947 in Pakistan, but was never convicted. Some of his works have been translated into other languages.
Combining psychoanalysis with human behavior, he was arguably one of the best short story tellers of the 20th century of the Christian calendar, and one of the most controversial as well. When it comes to chronicling the collective madness that prevailed, during and after the Partition of India in 1947, the work of Saadat Hassan Manto is most profound.
Manto started his literary career translating works of literary giants, like Victor Hugo, Oscar Wilde and many Russian masters like Chekov and Gorky. The collective influence of these writers made Manto search for his own moorings. This search resulted in his first story, Tamasha, based on the Jallianwala Bagh massacre at Amritsar.
Though his earlier works, influenced by the progressive writers of his times, Manto showed 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 that came out in the dismal social climate and his own financial struggles reflected an innate sense of human impotency towards darkness that prevailed in the larger society, cultivating in satirism that verged on dark comedy, as seen in his final great work, Toba Tek Singh, that not just showed a direct influence of his own stay in a veritable mental asylum, but also a reflection of 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 ever so isolated. No part of human existence remain 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 far from being obscene brought out the women of the times in realism, seen as never before, and provided them with the human dignity they long deserved. Unlike his fellow luminaries, he never indulged in didacticism or romanticized his character, nor offered any judgment on his characters. No matter how macabre or immoral they might seem, he simply presented the characters in a realistic light, and left the judgment on to the reader's eyes. This allows his works to be interpreted in myriad ways, depending on the viewpoint of the reader. They would appear sensationalist or prurient to one, while exceedingly human to another. Yet it was this very non-judgmental and rather unhindered truism of his pen that put him in an opposite camp from the media censors, social prejudices and the legal system of his times, so much so that he remained banned for many years and lost out on many opportunities to earn a healthy living. He is still known for his scathing insight into human behavior as well as his revelation of the macabre animalistic nature of an enraged people.
Saadat Hasan Manto is often compared with D. H. Lawrence, and like Lawrence he also wrote about the topics considered social taboos in Indo-Pakistani Society. His topics range from the socio-economic injustice prevailing in the pre- and post- colonial era, to the more controversial topics of love, sex, incest, prostitution and the typical hypocrisy of a traditional male. In dealing with these topics, he doesn't take any pains to conceal the true state of the affair - although his short stories are often intricately structured, with vivid satire and a good sense of humor. In chronicling the lives and tribulations of the people living in the lower depths of the human existence, no writer of 20th century, came close to Manto. His concerns on the socio-political issues, from the local to the global level are revealed in his series, Letters to Uncle Sam, and those to Pandit Nehru.
In many ways, Manto's writings can be considered a precursor to the minimalist writing movement. Instead of focusing on composition, Manto created literary effect through narration of facts, often mini-stories, often gritty. Characters are not defined exclusively by the way they look, but by what they have done in their lives. Places are not described as a collection of sensory observations but as settings for events, sad, poignant, happy or otherwise.
Saadat Hassan Manto was born in a Kashmiri Muslim family of barristers. He received his early education at Muslim High School in Amritsar, but he remained a misfit throughout in school years, rapidly losing motivation in studies, ending up failing twice in matriculation. His only love during those days, was reading English novels, for which he even stole a book, once from a Book-Stall in Amritsar Railway Station.
In 1931, he finally passed out of school and joined Hindu Sabha College in Amritsar, which was already volatile due to the independence movement, soon it reflected in his first story, 'Tamasha', based on the Jallianwala Bagh massacre
After his father died in 1932, he sobered up a bit to support his mother. The big turning point in his life came, when in 1933 at age 21, he met Abdul Bari Alig, a scholar and polemic writer, in Amritsar who encouraged to him find his true talents and read Russian and French authors.
Within a matter of months, Manto produced an Urdu translation of Victor Hugo's The Last Days of a Condemned Man, which was published by Urdu Book Stall, Lahore as Sarguzasht-e-Aseer (A Prisoner's Story). Soon afterwards, he joined the editorial staff of Masawat, a daily published from Ludhiana. His 1934 Urdu translation of Oscar Wilde's Vera won him due recognition amongst the literary circles. At the continued encouragement of Abdul Bari, he published a collection of Urdu translations of Russian stories as Russi Afsane.
This heightened enthusiasm pushed Manto to pursue graduation at Aligarh Muslim University, which he joined in February 1934, and soon became associated with the Indian Progressive Writers' Association (IPWA). It was here that he met writer Ali Sardar Jafri and found a new impetus to his writing. His second story 'Inqlaab Pasand' was published in Aligarh magazine in March 1935.
His first collection of original short stories in Urdu, Atish Pare (Sparks; also Quarrel-Provokers), was published in 1936, at age 24.
Manto left Aligarh within a year, initially for Lahore and ultimately for Bombay.
After 1936, he moved to Bombay where he stayed for the next few years editing Musawwir, a monthly film magazine. He also started writing scripts and dialogues for Hindi films, including Kishan Kanhaya (1936) and Apni Nagariya (1939). Soon he was making enough money, though by the time he married Safia on April 26, 1939, he was once again in dire financial crisis. Despite financial ups and downs he continued writing for films until he left for Delhi in January 1941.
Saadat Hasan Manto had accepted the job of writing for the 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 (Manto's Dramas), Janaze (Funerals) and Teen Auraten (Three women). He continued to write short stories and his next short story collection Dhuan (Smoke) came out soon 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 Drame in 1943. Meanwhile, due to a quarrel with the then director of the All India Radio, poet N. M. Rashid, he left his job and returned to Bombay in July 1942 and again started working with the film industry. He entered his best phase in screenwriting giving films like Aatth Din, Chal Chal Re Naujawan and Mirza Ghalib, which was finally released in 1954. Some of his best short stories also came from this phase including Kaali Shalwar, Dhuan (1943) and Bu which was published in Qaumi Jang (Bombay) in February 1945. Another highlight of his second phase in Bombay was the publication of an important collection of his stories, Chugad, which also included the story Babu Gopinath. Manto continued to stay in Bombay until he moved to Pakistan in January 1948 much after the partition of India in 1947.
Saadat Hassan Manto arrived in Lahore sometime in early 1948. In Bombay his friends had tried to stop him from migrating to Pakistan because he was quite popular as a film writer and was making reasonably good money. Among his friends there were top actors and directors of that age — many of them Hindus — who were trying to prevail upon him to forget about migrating. They thought that he would be unhappy in Pakistan because the film industry of Lahore stood badly disrupted with the departure of Hindu film-makers and studio owners. But the law and order situation post-partition of British India was such that many Muslims felt insecure in India, just as many Hindus felt insecure in newly created Pakistan. That was the reason that Manto had already sent his family to Lahore and was keen to join them. Manto and his family were among the millions of Muslims who left present-day India for the newly created Muslim-majority nation of Pakistan.
Manto had at least one consolation. His nephew Hamid Jalal had already settled his family in a flat next to his own in Lakshmi Mansions near the main mall. The complex was centrally located. From there every place of importance was at a stone's throw. These flats were occupied by families of some of the people who were destined to become important in the intellectual and academic fields. Manto's next door neighbor was his nephew Hamid Jalal who later became an important mediaman. In another flat, lived Professor G. M. Asar who taught Urdu at Government College, Lahore. Hailing from Madras, he wrote and spoke excellent English as well. Then there was Malik Meraj Khalid who was to play an important role in the politics of Pakistan. Thus when Manto arrived in Lahore from Bombay he found an intellectual atmosphere around him. His only problem was how to care for his family. Sadly for him, Lahore of that period did not have many economic opportunities to offer.
After the writers who had migrated from various Indian cities settled in Lahore, they started their literary activities. Soon Lahore saw a number of newspapers and periodicals appearing. Manto initially wrote for some literary magazines. These were the days when his controversial stories like Khol Do (Open it) and Thanda Gosht (Cold Meat) created a furor among the conservatives. People like Choudhry Muhammad Hussain played a role in banning and prosecuting the writer as well as the publishers and editors of the magazines that printed his stories. Among the editors were such amiable literary figures as Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, Hajira Masroor and Arif Abdul Matin. Soon the publishers who were more interested in commercial aspects of their ventures, slammed their doors shut to Manto's writings. He, therefore, started contributing stories to the literary supplements of some newspapers. Even this practice could not go on for long. Masood Ashar who was then editing the literary page of Daily Ehsan published some of his stories but the conservative owner of the paper soon asked him to refrain from the practice.
During those days, Manto also tried his hand at newspaper column writing. he started off with writing under the title Chashm-e-Rozan for daily Maghribi Pakistan on the insistence of his friends of Bombay days Ehsan BA and Murtaza Jillani who were editing that paper. But after a few columns one day the space appeared blank under the column saying that due to his indisposition Manto could not write the column. Actually Manto was not indisposed, the owner was not favorably disposed to some of the sentences in the column.
The only paper that published Manto's articles regularly for quite some time was Daily Afaq, for which he wrote some of his well known sketches. These sketches were later collected in his book Ganjay Farishtay (Bald Angels). The sketches include those of famous actors and actresses like Ashok Kumar, Shyam, Nargis, Noor Jehan and Naseem (mother of Saira Banu). He also wrote about some literary figures like Meera Ji, Hashar Kashmiri and Ismat Chughtai. Manto's sketch of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah was also first published in Afaq under the title Mera Sahib. It was based on an interview with Haneef Azad, Quaid-e-Azam's driver of Bombay days who after leaving his job as driver became a well known actor. The article included some of the remarks related to the incident when Dina Jinnah married Wadia. Later when the sketch was included in the book these lines were omitted.
Manto created a new tell-all style of writing sketches. He would mince no words, writing whatever he saw.
Manto once tried to present the sketch of Maulana Chiragh Hasan Hasrat in a literary gathering organized in YMCA Hall Lahore to celebrate the Maulana's recovery from a heart attack. The sketch entitled Bail Aur Kutta was written in his characteristic style exposing some aspects of Maulana's life. The presiding dignitary stopped him from reading the article and ordered him to leave the rostrum. Manto, however, was in high spirits. He refused to oblige and squatted on the floor, and only with difficulty was he prevailed upon by his wife, Safia, to leave the stage.
Those days Manto was writing indiscriminately in order to provide for his family and to be able to drink every evening. For everything he wrote, he would demand cash in advance. In later days, he started writing for magazines like Director. He would go to its office, ask for pen and paper, write his article, collect the remuneration and go away. This Manto was different from the one who arrived in Lahore in 1948.
The necessity to earn his livelihood consumed Manto very fast. In a few years, his complexion became pale and his hair turned grey.
Manto lived in Laxmi Mansion, The Mall Lahore for seven years. For him those years were full of a continuous struggle for his survival. In return, he produced some of his best writings. It was in Lahore that he wrote his masterpieces that include Thanda Gosht, Khol Do, Toba Tek Singh, Iss Manjdhar Mein, Mozalle, Babu Gopi Nath.
Simultaneously, he had embarked on a journey of self-destruction. The substandard alcohol that he consumed destroyed his liver and in the winter of 1955 he fell victim to liver cirrhosis. During all the years in Lahore he waited for the good old days to return, never to find them again.He was 42 years old at the time of his death. He was survived by his wife Safiyah and three daughters.
On January 18, 2005, the fiftieth anniversary of his death, Manto was commemorated on a Pakistani postage stamp.
The works of Manto include:
* Atishparay -1936 (Nuggets Of Fire)
* Manto Ke Afsanay (Stories of Manto)-1940
* Dhuan (Smoke) -1941
* Afsane Aur Dramay (Fiction and Drama)-1943
* Lazzat-e-Sang-1948 (The Taste Of Rock)
* Siyah Hashiye-1948 (Black Borders)
* Badshahat Ka Khatimah (The End of Kingship)-1950
* Khali Botlein (Empty Bottles)-1950
* Nimrud Ki Khudai (Nimrod The God)-1950
* Thanda Gosht (Cold Meat)-1950
* Yazid-1951
* Pardey Ke Peechhey (Behind The Curtains)-1953
* Sarak Ke Kinarey (By the Roadside)- 1953
* Baghair Unwan Ke (Without a Title)-1954
* Baghair Ijazit (Without Permission)-1955
* Burquey-1955
* Phunduney-1955 (Tassles)
* Sarkandon Ke Peechhey-1955 (Behind The Reeds)
* Shaiytan (Satan)-1955
* Shikari Auratein - 1955 (Women Of Prey)
* Ratti, Masha, Tolah-1956
* Kaali Shalwar (Black Pants)-1961
* Manto Ki Behtareen Kahanian (Best Stories of Manto)-1963
* Tahira Se Tahir (From Tahira to Tahir)-1971
Saadat Hassan Manto see Mantu, Sa’adat Hasan
Manto, Saadat Hassan see Mantu, Sa’adat Hasan
Sa'adat Hasan Mantu see Mantu, Sa’adat Hasan
Mantu, Sa’adat Hasan (Sa'adat Hasan Mantu) (Saadat Hassan Manto) (May 11, 1912 – January 18, 1955). Urdu short-story writer, was born in Sambalpur, in the Amritsar district of Panjab, India, and educated at Amritsar and later at the Muslim University, Aligarh. Mantu then worked in Lahore, Bombay and Delhi in journalism, films and broadcasting. His literary activity began early. His first works included translations from Victor Hugo, Tolstoy, Gorki, Oscar Wilde and other Europeans. But most of his work was original.
Short stories comprise the greater part of Mantu’s work. From 1940 until his death, Mantu published more than 20 collections of short stories. However, Mantu also wrote numerous radio dramas, sketches and essays.
Mantu’s preoccupation with sexual themes and with eccentricities of behavior led to prosecutions for obscenity, but most were unsuccessful. There is little which European taste would find obscene. His best writing is frank, realistic and informed by a deep but unobtrusive sympathy. After the formation of Pakistan, Mantu settled in Lahore. Heavy drinking in his later years hastened Mantu’s death.
Saadat Hassan Manto migrated to Pakistan after the Partition of India. He is best known for his Urdu short stories, Bu (Odor), Khol Do (Open It), Thanda Gosht (Cold Meat), and his magnum opus, Toba Tek Singh.
Saadat Hasan Manto 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, two collections of personal sketches.
Saadat Hasan Manto was tried for obscenity half-a-dozen times, thrice before 1947 and thrice after 1947 in Pakistan, but was never convicted. Some of his works have been translated into other languages.
Combining psychoanalysis with human behavior, he was arguably one of the best short story tellers of the 20th century of the Christian calendar, and one of the most controversial as well. When it comes to chronicling the collective madness that prevailed, during and after the Partition of India in 1947, the work of Saadat Hassan Manto is most profound.
Manto started his literary career translating works of literary giants, like Victor Hugo, Oscar Wilde and many Russian masters like Chekov and Gorky. The collective influence of these writers made Manto search for his own moorings. This search resulted in his first story, Tamasha, based on the Jallianwala Bagh massacre at Amritsar.
Though his earlier works, influenced by the progressive writers of his times, Manto showed 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 that came out in the dismal social climate and his own financial struggles reflected an innate sense of human impotency towards darkness that prevailed in the larger society, cultivating in satirism that verged on dark comedy, as seen in his final great work, Toba Tek Singh, that not just showed a direct influence of his own stay in a veritable mental asylum, but also a reflection of 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 ever so isolated. No part of human existence remain 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 far from being obscene brought out the women of the times in realism, seen as never before, and provided them with the human dignity they long deserved. Unlike his fellow luminaries, he never indulged in didacticism or romanticized his character, nor offered any judgment on his characters. No matter how macabre or immoral they might seem, he simply presented the characters in a realistic light, and left the judgment on to the reader's eyes. This allows his works to be interpreted in myriad ways, depending on the viewpoint of the reader. They would appear sensationalist or prurient to one, while exceedingly human to another. Yet it was this very non-judgmental and rather unhindered truism of his pen that put him in an opposite camp from the media censors, social prejudices and the legal system of his times, so much so that he remained banned for many years and lost out on many opportunities to earn a healthy living. He is still known for his scathing insight into human behavior as well as his revelation of the macabre animalistic nature of an enraged people.
Saadat Hasan Manto is often compared with D. H. Lawrence, and like Lawrence he also wrote about the topics considered social taboos in Indo-Pakistani Society. His topics range from the socio-economic injustice prevailing in the pre- and post- colonial era, to the more controversial topics of love, sex, incest, prostitution and the typical hypocrisy of a traditional male. In dealing with these topics, he doesn't take any pains to conceal the true state of the affair - although his short stories are often intricately structured, with vivid satire and a good sense of humor. In chronicling the lives and tribulations of the people living in the lower depths of the human existence, no writer of 20th century, came close to Manto. His concerns on the socio-political issues, from the local to the global level are revealed in his series, Letters to Uncle Sam, and those to Pandit Nehru.
In many ways, Manto's writings can be considered a precursor to the minimalist writing movement. Instead of focusing on composition, Manto created literary effect through narration of facts, often mini-stories, often gritty. Characters are not defined exclusively by the way they look, but by what they have done in their lives. Places are not described as a collection of sensory observations but as settings for events, sad, poignant, happy or otherwise.
Saadat Hassan Manto was born in a Kashmiri Muslim family of barristers. He received his early education at Muslim High School in Amritsar, but he remained a misfit throughout in school years, rapidly losing motivation in studies, ending up failing twice in matriculation. His only love during those days, was reading English novels, for which he even stole a book, once from a Book-Stall in Amritsar Railway Station.
In 1931, he finally passed out of school and joined Hindu Sabha College in Amritsar, which was already volatile due to the independence movement, soon it reflected in his first story, 'Tamasha', based on the Jallianwala Bagh massacre
After his father died in 1932, he sobered up a bit to support his mother. The big turning point in his life came, when in 1933 at age 21, he met Abdul Bari Alig, a scholar and polemic writer, in Amritsar who encouraged to him find his true talents and read Russian and French authors.
Within a matter of months, Manto produced an Urdu translation of Victor Hugo's The Last Days of a Condemned Man, which was published by Urdu Book Stall, Lahore as Sarguzasht-e-Aseer (A Prisoner's Story). Soon afterwards, he joined the editorial staff of Masawat, a daily published from Ludhiana. His 1934 Urdu translation of Oscar Wilde's Vera won him due recognition amongst the literary circles. At the continued encouragement of Abdul Bari, he published a collection of Urdu translations of Russian stories as Russi Afsane.
This heightened enthusiasm pushed Manto to pursue graduation at Aligarh Muslim University, which he joined in February 1934, and soon became associated with the Indian Progressive Writers' Association (IPWA). It was here that he met writer Ali Sardar Jafri and found a new impetus to his writing. His second story 'Inqlaab Pasand' was published in Aligarh magazine in March 1935.
His first collection of original short stories in Urdu, Atish Pare (Sparks; also Quarrel-Provokers), was published in 1936, at age 24.
Manto left Aligarh within a year, initially for Lahore and ultimately for Bombay.
After 1936, he moved to Bombay where he stayed for the next few years editing Musawwir, a monthly film magazine. He also started writing scripts and dialogues for Hindi films, including Kishan Kanhaya (1936) and Apni Nagariya (1939). Soon he was making enough money, though by the time he married Safia on April 26, 1939, he was once again in dire financial crisis. Despite financial ups and downs he continued writing for films until he left for Delhi in January 1941.
Saadat Hasan Manto had accepted the job of writing for the 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 (Manto's Dramas), Janaze (Funerals) and Teen Auraten (Three women). He continued to write short stories and his next short story collection Dhuan (Smoke) came out soon 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 Drame in 1943. Meanwhile, due to a quarrel with the then director of the All India Radio, poet N. M. Rashid, he left his job and returned to Bombay in July 1942 and again started working with the film industry. He entered his best phase in screenwriting giving films like Aatth Din, Chal Chal Re Naujawan and Mirza Ghalib, which was finally released in 1954. Some of his best short stories also came from this phase including Kaali Shalwar, Dhuan (1943) and Bu which was published in Qaumi Jang (Bombay) in February 1945. Another highlight of his second phase in Bombay was the publication of an important collection of his stories, Chugad, which also included the story Babu Gopinath. Manto continued to stay in Bombay until he moved to Pakistan in January 1948 much after the partition of India in 1947.
Saadat Hassan Manto arrived in Lahore sometime in early 1948. In Bombay his friends had tried to stop him from migrating to Pakistan because he was quite popular as a film writer and was making reasonably good money. Among his friends there were top actors and directors of that age — many of them Hindus — who were trying to prevail upon him to forget about migrating. They thought that he would be unhappy in Pakistan because the film industry of Lahore stood badly disrupted with the departure of Hindu film-makers and studio owners. But the law and order situation post-partition of British India was such that many Muslims felt insecure in India, just as many Hindus felt insecure in newly created Pakistan. That was the reason that Manto had already sent his family to Lahore and was keen to join them. Manto and his family were among the millions of Muslims who left present-day India for the newly created Muslim-majority nation of Pakistan.
Manto had at least one consolation. His nephew Hamid Jalal had already settled his family in a flat next to his own in Lakshmi Mansions near the main mall. The complex was centrally located. From there every place of importance was at a stone's throw. These flats were occupied by families of some of the people who were destined to become important in the intellectual and academic fields. Manto's next door neighbor was his nephew Hamid Jalal who later became an important mediaman. In another flat, lived Professor G. M. Asar who taught Urdu at Government College, Lahore. Hailing from Madras, he wrote and spoke excellent English as well. Then there was Malik Meraj Khalid who was to play an important role in the politics of Pakistan. Thus when Manto arrived in Lahore from Bombay he found an intellectual atmosphere around him. His only problem was how to care for his family. Sadly for him, Lahore of that period did not have many economic opportunities to offer.
After the writers who had migrated from various Indian cities settled in Lahore, they started their literary activities. Soon Lahore saw a number of newspapers and periodicals appearing. Manto initially wrote for some literary magazines. These were the days when his controversial stories like Khol Do (Open it) and Thanda Gosht (Cold Meat) created a furor among the conservatives. People like Choudhry Muhammad Hussain played a role in banning and prosecuting the writer as well as the publishers and editors of the magazines that printed his stories. Among the editors were such amiable literary figures as Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, Hajira Masroor and Arif Abdul Matin. Soon the publishers who were more interested in commercial aspects of their ventures, slammed their doors shut to Manto's writings. He, therefore, started contributing stories to the literary supplements of some newspapers. Even this practice could not go on for long. Masood Ashar who was then editing the literary page of Daily Ehsan published some of his stories but the conservative owner of the paper soon asked him to refrain from the practice.
During those days, Manto also tried his hand at newspaper column writing. he started off with writing under the title Chashm-e-Rozan for daily Maghribi Pakistan on the insistence of his friends of Bombay days Ehsan BA and Murtaza Jillani who were editing that paper. But after a few columns one day the space appeared blank under the column saying that due to his indisposition Manto could not write the column. Actually Manto was not indisposed, the owner was not favorably disposed to some of the sentences in the column.
The only paper that published Manto's articles regularly for quite some time was Daily Afaq, for which he wrote some of his well known sketches. These sketches were later collected in his book Ganjay Farishtay (Bald Angels). The sketches include those of famous actors and actresses like Ashok Kumar, Shyam, Nargis, Noor Jehan and Naseem (mother of Saira Banu). He also wrote about some literary figures like Meera Ji, Hashar Kashmiri and Ismat Chughtai. Manto's sketch of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah was also first published in Afaq under the title Mera Sahib. It was based on an interview with Haneef Azad, Quaid-e-Azam's driver of Bombay days who after leaving his job as driver became a well known actor. The article included some of the remarks related to the incident when Dina Jinnah married Wadia. Later when the sketch was included in the book these lines were omitted.
Manto created a new tell-all style of writing sketches. He would mince no words, writing whatever he saw.
Manto once tried to present the sketch of Maulana Chiragh Hasan Hasrat in a literary gathering organized in YMCA Hall Lahore to celebrate the Maulana's recovery from a heart attack. The sketch entitled Bail Aur Kutta was written in his characteristic style exposing some aspects of Maulana's life. The presiding dignitary stopped him from reading the article and ordered him to leave the rostrum. Manto, however, was in high spirits. He refused to oblige and squatted on the floor, and only with difficulty was he prevailed upon by his wife, Safia, to leave the stage.
Those days Manto was writing indiscriminately in order to provide for his family and to be able to drink every evening. For everything he wrote, he would demand cash in advance. In later days, he started writing for magazines like Director. He would go to its office, ask for pen and paper, write his article, collect the remuneration and go away. This Manto was different from the one who arrived in Lahore in 1948.
The necessity to earn his livelihood consumed Manto very fast. In a few years, his complexion became pale and his hair turned grey.
Manto lived in Laxmi Mansion, The Mall Lahore for seven years. For him those years were full of a continuous struggle for his survival. In return, he produced some of his best writings. It was in Lahore that he wrote his masterpieces that include Thanda Gosht, Khol Do, Toba Tek Singh, Iss Manjdhar Mein, Mozalle, Babu Gopi Nath.
Simultaneously, he had embarked on a journey of self-destruction. The substandard alcohol that he consumed destroyed his liver and in the winter of 1955 he fell victim to liver cirrhosis. During all the years in Lahore he waited for the good old days to return, never to find them again.He was 42 years old at the time of his death. He was survived by his wife Safiyah and three daughters.
On January 18, 2005, the fiftieth anniversary of his death, Manto was commemorated on a Pakistani postage stamp.
The works of Manto include:
* Atishparay -1936 (Nuggets Of Fire)
* Manto Ke Afsanay (Stories of Manto)-1940
* Dhuan (Smoke) -1941
* Afsane Aur Dramay (Fiction and Drama)-1943
* Lazzat-e-Sang-1948 (The Taste Of Rock)
* Siyah Hashiye-1948 (Black Borders)
* Badshahat Ka Khatimah (The End of Kingship)-1950
* Khali Botlein (Empty Bottles)-1950
* Nimrud Ki Khudai (Nimrod The God)-1950
* Thanda Gosht (Cold Meat)-1950
* Yazid-1951
* Pardey Ke Peechhey (Behind The Curtains)-1953
* Sarak Ke Kinarey (By the Roadside)- 1953
* Baghair Unwan Ke (Without a Title)-1954
* Baghair Ijazit (Without Permission)-1955
* Burquey-1955
* Phunduney-1955 (Tassles)
* Sarkandon Ke Peechhey-1955 (Behind The Reeds)
* Shaiytan (Satan)-1955
* Shikari Auratein - 1955 (Women Of Prey)
* Ratti, Masha, Tolah-1956
* Kaali Shalwar (Black Pants)-1961
* Manto Ki Behtareen Kahanian (Best Stories of Manto)-1963
* Tahira Se Tahir (From Tahira to Tahir)-1971
Saadat Hassan Manto see Mantu, Sa’adat Hasan
Manto, Saadat Hassan see Mantu, Sa’adat Hasan
Sa'adat Hasan Mantu see Mantu, Sa’adat Hasan
Manucihri, Abu’l-Najm
Manucihri, Abu’l-Najm (d. c. 1041). Third and last (after ‘Unsuri and Farrukhi) of the major panegyrists of the early Ghaznavid court. Unlike his contemporary Persian writing poets, he was enthusiastic for Arabic poetry, and his engaging lyricism is remarked upon by all commentators.
Manucihri, Abu’l-Najm (d. c. 1041). Third and last (after ‘Unsuri and Farrukhi) of the major panegyrists of the early Ghaznavid court. Unlike his contemporary Persian writing poets, he was enthusiastic for Arabic poetry, and his engaging lyricism is remarked upon by all commentators.
Mappila
Mappila. Name generally used to identify the Muslims who reside along the Malabar coast of southwestern India. The word Mappila is of uncertain origin and is not used by these people to refer to themselves, they prefer to be known simply as Muslims. The Hindus of Malabar originally employed the term as a label for the three foreign mercantile communities of Jews, Christians, and Muslims who permanently settled in the area, but during the European colonial period the term came to be applied exclusively to Muslims.
Mappila is the name of the dominant Muslim community of southwest India, located mainly in the state of Kerala, primarily in its northern area, popularly known as Malabar. The Mappilas comprise what may be the oldest Islamic community in the South Asian subcontinent, one that was founded by Arab-speaking Muslim traders perhaps as early as the end of the seventh century of the Christian calendar. These Muslims initially settled in port towns such as Calicut, where some of them intermarried with and/or converted local Hindus. By 1500 of the Christian calendar, the Mappilas were estimated to make up twenty percent of the population of the northern Malabar coast.
The Muslims of Malabar, estimated at ten percent (10%) of the population by the middle of the sixteenth century, lived generally in harmony with the surrounding Hindus until the arrival of the Portuguese in Calicut in 1498. During the ensuing period of “pepper politics,” the Portuguese were replaced by the Dutch (1656), the British (1662) and the French (1725), the position of the Mappilas deteriorating rapidly. The British assumed full power in 1792, which was continued until 1947. In 1921, the Malabar Rebellion, frequently called the Mappila Rebellion, broke out with disastrous results. Theological reform was inaugurated by Wakkom Muhammad Abdul Khader Maulavi (d. 1932), devotion to Islam remaining the key element in Mappila character. At present, many Mappilas are employed in the oil production centers of Southwest Asia.
In post-independence India, they represent more than eleven percent (11%) of the population of the entire coast, which is now incorporated into the modern Kerala State. The contemporary Mapilla community is made up of both merchants and agriculturalists. The majority of the population speaks Malayalam, although some still know the hybrid Arabi-Malayalam dialect, a mixture of Arabic, Malayalam, Tamil, and Sanskrit that uses a modified Arabic script. The community is especially well-known for its long resistance to European commercial imperialism and for its turbulent history during the colonial period, culminating in the Mappila Rebellion of 1921-1922, one of the most serious outbreaks of violence in British Indian history.
The Muslims of Kerala along the Malabar coast in south India are known as Mappilla, often transliterated into English as Mopiah. The term is variously interpreted, but is taken by Kerala Muslims as deriving from maha pillai, “great person”, referring to the respected status of the early Muslim settlers. The nearly 5.8 million Mappilla traditionally trace their origin in Kerala to the ninth century when Arab traders brought Islam to the west coast of India. The community has been characterized as consisting of those of pure Arab ancestry, of the descendants of Arabs and Hindu women of the country and of converts to Islam, mainly from among the lower castes.
At the beginning of the sixteenth century, when Portuguese and Arab chronicles provide the first descriptions of the Malabar coast, the Mappilla were largely a mercantile community concentrated along the coast of what is now northern Kerala in urban centers, dominating inter-coastal and overseas trade. Segregated from the Hindu population in separate settlements, the Mappilla had considerable autonomy, and under the patronage of the Zamorin of Calicut, they enjoyed prestige as well as economic power. With the rise of Portuguese power in challenge to Mappilla commercial interests, many Mappilla moved inland in search of new economic opportunities, and in time, through intermarriage and conversion (especially from the most depressed Hindu castes), they increasingly came to be agricultural tenants, low in status and desperately poor. Reduced to insecure tenancy and vulnerable to rack renting and eviction at the hands of Hindu landlords, the Mappilla responded in a series of violent outbreaks during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, culminating in 1921 in the Mappilla Rebellion. Extending over some 2,000 square miles of Malabar District, the rebellion, nurtured by the ideology of the Khilafat movement, was carried on for six months by peasant bands in what was described by British authorities as open war against the king.
The Mappilla today remain concentrated in those areas of northern Kerala which were the scene of the rebellion. In 1969, in response to the demands of the Muslim League in Kerala and as a reward for its political support, the government of the state redrew district boundaries so as to carve out the new, predominantly Muslim district of Malappuram.
Mappila. Name generally used to identify the Muslims who reside along the Malabar coast of southwestern India. The word Mappila is of uncertain origin and is not used by these people to refer to themselves, they prefer to be known simply as Muslims. The Hindus of Malabar originally employed the term as a label for the three foreign mercantile communities of Jews, Christians, and Muslims who permanently settled in the area, but during the European colonial period the term came to be applied exclusively to Muslims.
Mappila is the name of the dominant Muslim community of southwest India, located mainly in the state of Kerala, primarily in its northern area, popularly known as Malabar. The Mappilas comprise what may be the oldest Islamic community in the South Asian subcontinent, one that was founded by Arab-speaking Muslim traders perhaps as early as the end of the seventh century of the Christian calendar. These Muslims initially settled in port towns such as Calicut, where some of them intermarried with and/or converted local Hindus. By 1500 of the Christian calendar, the Mappilas were estimated to make up twenty percent of the population of the northern Malabar coast.
The Muslims of Malabar, estimated at ten percent (10%) of the population by the middle of the sixteenth century, lived generally in harmony with the surrounding Hindus until the arrival of the Portuguese in Calicut in 1498. During the ensuing period of “pepper politics,” the Portuguese were replaced by the Dutch (1656), the British (1662) and the French (1725), the position of the Mappilas deteriorating rapidly. The British assumed full power in 1792, which was continued until 1947. In 1921, the Malabar Rebellion, frequently called the Mappila Rebellion, broke out with disastrous results. Theological reform was inaugurated by Wakkom Muhammad Abdul Khader Maulavi (d. 1932), devotion to Islam remaining the key element in Mappila character. At present, many Mappilas are employed in the oil production centers of Southwest Asia.
In post-independence India, they represent more than eleven percent (11%) of the population of the entire coast, which is now incorporated into the modern Kerala State. The contemporary Mapilla community is made up of both merchants and agriculturalists. The majority of the population speaks Malayalam, although some still know the hybrid Arabi-Malayalam dialect, a mixture of Arabic, Malayalam, Tamil, and Sanskrit that uses a modified Arabic script. The community is especially well-known for its long resistance to European commercial imperialism and for its turbulent history during the colonial period, culminating in the Mappila Rebellion of 1921-1922, one of the most serious outbreaks of violence in British Indian history.
The Muslims of Kerala along the Malabar coast in south India are known as Mappilla, often transliterated into English as Mopiah. The term is variously interpreted, but is taken by Kerala Muslims as deriving from maha pillai, “great person”, referring to the respected status of the early Muslim settlers. The nearly 5.8 million Mappilla traditionally trace their origin in Kerala to the ninth century when Arab traders brought Islam to the west coast of India. The community has been characterized as consisting of those of pure Arab ancestry, of the descendants of Arabs and Hindu women of the country and of converts to Islam, mainly from among the lower castes.
At the beginning of the sixteenth century, when Portuguese and Arab chronicles provide the first descriptions of the Malabar coast, the Mappilla were largely a mercantile community concentrated along the coast of what is now northern Kerala in urban centers, dominating inter-coastal and overseas trade. Segregated from the Hindu population in separate settlements, the Mappilla had considerable autonomy, and under the patronage of the Zamorin of Calicut, they enjoyed prestige as well as economic power. With the rise of Portuguese power in challenge to Mappilla commercial interests, many Mappilla moved inland in search of new economic opportunities, and in time, through intermarriage and conversion (especially from the most depressed Hindu castes), they increasingly came to be agricultural tenants, low in status and desperately poor. Reduced to insecure tenancy and vulnerable to rack renting and eviction at the hands of Hindu landlords, the Mappilla responded in a series of violent outbreaks during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, culminating in 1921 in the Mappilla Rebellion. Extending over some 2,000 square miles of Malabar District, the rebellion, nurtured by the ideology of the Khilafat movement, was carried on for six months by peasant bands in what was described by British authorities as open war against the king.
The Mappilla today remain concentrated in those areas of northern Kerala which were the scene of the rebellion. In 1969, in response to the demands of the Muslim League in Kerala and as a reward for its political support, the government of the state redrew district boundaries so as to carve out the new, predominantly Muslim district of Malappuram.
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