We need Manto more than ever

Like most local writers whose works strike a rude face-off with the state’s jealously guarded values, Saadat Hasan Manto was humiliated and threatened in his lifetime and scorned and shunned in his death. The 59^th death anniversary of one of South Asia’s most gifted, globally revered and widely translated fiction writer passed by quietly on January 18. There were no inaugurations for any ‘Manto academies’, no ‘Manto Literary Award’ was bequeathed to any men of letters and no prominent city square was christened ‘Manto Chowrangi’. After featuring the writer’s image on an inch-long postal stamp 50 years after his death and honouring him with a Nishan-e-Imtiaz after a grudging 58 years, the state has exonerated itself of sustaining the richness of Manto’s pen. A suffocating and essentialist value system — carved and moulded by extremist religious discourse — is imperilled by Manto’s spirit of openness and uncompromising humanism. Clearly, a writer who places ‘sinful characters’ on morality pedestals will not be celebrated by a state which has propagated values of an exact opposite nature to preserve its statehood — compromising on tolerance and pluralism as a result.

It is true that Manto’s fiction puts out some very unorthodox ideas, but the claim that such ideas aim to damage moral sensibilities is questionable. Manto made no secret of being averse to didactic fiction. His training as a journalist meant that he had a penchant to tell it like it was, with no intention of preaching. Hence, arguing that the writer sought to advocate anything is problematic. Countless critics have argued that the unorthodox content in Manto’s works did not serve to weaken moral fibres as most of it was strictly matter-of-factly and devoid of the ponderous metaphors which were characteristic of Urdu fiction produced during the time: it was all simply a mirror of reality. The need of the time is to embrace the legend that Manto was. Curricula at universities must include his writings and an active effort must be made to salvage his legacy.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 19^th, 2014.

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