Saadat Hasan Manto NI (11 May 1912 – 18 January 1955) was a Pakistani writer, playwright and novelist from Punjab, who is regarded as the greatest short-story author in Urdu literature. He was active from 1933 during British rule till his death in 1955 after independence.
Writing mainly in Urdu, he produced 22 collections of short stories, a novel, five series of radio plays, three collections of essays, and two collections of personal sketches. His best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics. He is best known for his stories about the partition of India, which he opposed, immediately following independence in 1947. Manto's most notable work has been archived by Rekhta.
Manto was tried six times for alleged obscenity in his writings; thrice before 1947 in British India, and thrice after independence in 1947 in Pakistan, but was never convicted. He is acknowledged as one of the finest 20th-century Urdu writers and is the subject of two biographical films: the 2015 film Manto, directed by Sarmad Khoosat and the 2018 film Manto, directed by Nandita Das.
Manto was born in the late British Raj at Paprodi village of Samrala in the Ludhiana district of British Punjab into a Punjabi Muslim family with Kashmiri ancestry on 11 May 1912. His trading family had settled in Amritsar in the early-nineteenth century and taken up the legal profession, with most in his family being barristers at the time of his birth. His father, Khwaja Ghulam Hasan, was a session judge of a local court. His mother, Sardar Begum, was of Pashtun ancestry and was the second wife of his father. Identifying as both Punjabi and Kashmiri, he claimed allegiance to his native Punjab and infamously remarked "Behind my Urdu, it's the Punjabi tongue that speaks" and upon his writing being accused of being obscene, he remarked "We Punjabis are madmen, but pure of heart"; and, in a letter to Jawaharlal Nehru, suggested that being 'beautiful' was the second meaning of being 'Kashmiri'.
He received his early education at a Muslim High School in Amritsar where he twice failed his matriculation examination. In 1931, he took admission at the Hindu Sabha College but dropped out after the first year due to poor results.
The big turning point in his life came in 1933, at age 21, when he met Abdul Bari Alig, a scholar and polemic writer who encouraged him to find his true talents and read Russian and French authors. Bari also encouraged Manto to translate Victor Hugo's The Last Day of a Condemned Man into Urdu which was later published by Urdu Book Stall, Lahore as Sarguzasht-e-Aseer (A Prisoner's Story). He then translated Oscar Wilde’s Vera into Urdu in 1934. He published his first original story in Urdu, Tamasha (Spectacle) under a pseudonym in Abdul Bari Alig's Urdu newspaper Khalq (Creation). It was based on the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. During this period he contributed to the daily newspaper Musawat, (Equality) and Ehsan (Kindness), both published from Amritsar. He also edited and translated Russian and French stories for the journals Alamgir and Humayun. On Bari's encouragement, these Russian stories were then published in Lahore under the title, Rusi Afsanay (Russian Stories). The collection included stories from Tolstoy, Gorky, and Chekhov and two of Manto's original stories, Tamasha (Spectacle) and Mahigir (Fisherman).
This heightened enthusiasm pushed Manto to pursue graduation at Aligarh Muslim University, which he joined in July 1934, and soon got associated with the literary circle who would later become members of the Indian Progressive Writers' Association (IPWA). It was here that he met writer Ali Sardar Jafri and found a new spurt in his writing. His second story, "Inqlaab Pasand", was published in Aligarh magazine in March 1935. His education at Aligarh was cut short when, nine months into joining the university, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. He spent the next three months at a sanatorium at Batote in Kashmir to regain his health and then returned home to Amritsar.
After a brief stay in Amritsar, Manto moved to Lahore in search of employment and joined the newspaper Paras (Philosopher's Stone). In 1936, at Lahore, he published his first collection of original short stories Atish Paray (Nuggets of Fire).
In late 1936, he moved to Bombay when he received an invitation to edit the weekly Mussawir (Painter).
In Bombay, Manto started his work as an editor of Mussawir along with Nazir Ludhianvi and the magazine Samaj (Society). He also started to write dialogues and scripts for the Hindi film industry, working first for the Imperial Film Company and then for Saroj Movietone. His films during this period include the 1940 film Apni Nagariya. He wrote many radio plays including Ao Radio Sunen (Come, Let's Listen to Radio) and Qalopatrah ki maut (Cleopatra's Death). In Bombay, he also came in contact with the Progressive Writers' Association and became friendly with progressive writers like Krishan Chander, Rajinder Singh Bedi and Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi.
In 1940 he published his second collection of short stories Manto Ke Afsanay (Stories of Manto) from Lahore.
In August 1940, he was dismissed from the editorship of Musawwir and started working for another magazine called Karwan (Caravan) at a lower salary. Dissatisfied with his work, he applied to Krishan Chander for a job with All India Radio in Delhi. Subsequently, he moved to Delhi in January 1941 and accepted the job of writing for the Urdu Service of All India Radio.
Manto joined All India Radio in early 1941 and became acquainted with many writers working there, such as Chiragh Hasan Hasrat, Akhtar Hussain Raipuri, Ansar Nasiri, Mahmud Nizami, Meeraji and Upendranath Ashk.
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) was soon out, followed by his first collection of topical essays, Manto ke Mazamin. This period culminated with the publication of his mixed collection Afsane aur Dramey in 1943. Meanwhile, due to growing differences with his colleagues at All India Radio, he left his job and returned to Bombay in July 1942 and again started working with the film industry.
Manto returned to Bombay in July 1942 and rejoined as the editor of Musawwir. During this time, he associated with his Aligarh friend Shaheed Latif and his wife Ismat Chughtai. In 1942, on Latif's invitation, he joined the Filmistan studio. Here he also formed friendship with Ashok Kumar and entered his best phase in screenwriting giving films like Aatth Din, Chal Chal Re Naujawan and Mirza Ghalib, which was finally released in 1954. He also wrote Shikari. Some of his short stories also came from this phase, including Kaali Shalwar (1941), Dhuan (1941), and Bu (1945), which was published in Qaumi Jang (Bombay) in February 1945. Another highlight of his second phase in Bombay was the publication of a collection of his stories, Chugad, which also included the story 'Babu Gopinath'. Dissatisfied with the people at Filmistan, he joined the Bombay Talkies in 1947, after the partition of India.
As a resident of Bombay, Manto had intended to stay in India after partition. In 1948, his wife and children went to Lahore to visit their relatives and friends. During this time, as stories of the atrocities of partition riots reached him, in the midst of occasional communal riots in Bombay itself, he decided to migrate to Pakistan, and left for it by ship. He stayed a few days in Karachi, finally settling at Lahore with his family. Manto and his family thus found themselves as "muhajirs" (refugees from India) and were among the millions of Muslims who left present-day India for the new Muslim-majority nation of Pakistan.
When Manto arrived in Lahore from Bombay, he associated with several intellectuals at Lahore's Pak Tea House. According to one commentator: "There was absolutely no external influence and people would share their opinions on any subject without fear even during the military dictators' regimes." In Lahore, Manto lived with his wife and family in an apartment in Lakshmi Building located in Lahore's famous Lakshmi Chowk (where many Film Distributors had offices) at the juncture of McLeod Road and Abbott Road. Lakshmi Building no longer exists as such, but only its front or facade has been renovated and still faces McLeod Road. Lakshmi Building was abandoned during the partition riots of 1947-48 in Lahore. The mansion is currently dilapidated and uninhabited, though its façade still exists, renovated and painted.