Saadat Hasan Manto

“एक आदमी का मरना मौत है!

एक लाख आदमियों का मरना तमाशा!” मंटो

Remembering writer, playwright & author Saadat Hasan Manto on his 111th birth anniversary (11/05/1912). In this photo, Manto is with his wife, Safia Manto.

Saadat Hasan Manto and his powerful work chronicling the chaos of the Partition of India in 1947. Manto strongly opposed the partition, seeing it as an overwhelming tragedy and senseless.

His earlier works showed a marked leftist and socialist-leaning, but his later work became stark in portraying the darkness of the human psyche.

His final works, including Toba Tek Singh, reflected an innate sense of human impotency towards darkness and contained satire that verged on dark comedy.

He is still known for his scathing insight into human behavior as well as his revelation of the macabre animalistic nature of enraged people. Manto’s language portrayed reality and provided dignity to contemporary women writers.

He wrote, “If you find my stories dirty, the society you are living in is dirty. With my stories, I only expose the truth.”

In this photo, Manto is with his wife, Safia Manto.