Saadat Hassan Manto (May 11, 1912 – January 18, 1955) was a short story writer of the Urdu language. He is best known for his short stories, 'Bu' (Odour), 'Khol Do' (Open It), 'Thanda Gosht' (Cold Meat), and his magnum opus, '
Toba Tek Singh"Toba Tek Singh" is a short story written by Saadat Hasan Manto and published in 1955. It follows inmates in a Lahore asylum some of who are to be transferred to India following the 1947 Partition. The story is a "powerful satire" on the relationship between India and Pakistan...
'.
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.
Manto was tried for obscenity half-a-dozen times, thrice before 1947 and thrice after 1947 in Pakistan, but never convicted. Some of his works have been translated in other languages.
The writing of Manto
Combining psychoanalysis with human behaviour, he was arguably one of the best short story tellers of the 20th century, and one of the most controversial as well. When it comes to chronicling the collective madness that prevailed, during and after the
Partition of IndiaThe Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...
in 1947, no other writer comes close to the oeuvre of Saadat Hassan Manto.
Since he started his literary career translating works of literary giants, such as Victor Hugo, Oscar Wilde and many Russian masters such as Chekov and Gorky, their collective influence made him search for his own moorings. This search resulted in his first story, Tamasha, based on the
Jallianwala Bagh massacreThe Jallianwala Bagh massacre , also known as the Amritsar massacre, took place in the Jallianwala Bagh public garden in the northern Indian city of Amritsar, and was ordered by Brigadier-General Reginald E.H. Dyer...
at Amritsar. Though his earlier works, influenced by the progressive writers of his times showed a 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. So much so that 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 times in realism, seen never before, and provided them with the human dignity they long deserved. Unlike his fellow luminaries, he never indulged in didacticism or romanticised his character, nor offered any judgement on his characters. No matter how macabre or immoral they might seem, he simply presented the characters in a realistic light, and left the judgement on to the reader's eyes. This allows his works to be interpreted in a 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-judgemental 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 the human behaviour as well as revelation of the macabre animalistic nature of an enraged people, that stands out amidst the brevity of his prose.
Saadat Hasan Manto is often compared with
D. H. LawrenceDavid Herbert Richards Lawrence was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter who published as D. H. Lawrence. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation...
, 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 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 humour. In chronicling the lives and tribulations of the people living in lower depths of the human existence, no writer of 20th century, came close to Manto. His concerns on the socio-political issues, from local to global level are revealed in his series, Letters to Uncle Sam, and those to Pandit Nehru. On his writing he often commented, "If you find my stories dirty, the society you are living in is dirty. With my stories, I only expose the truth".
Early life and education
Saadat Hassan Manto was born in Samrala, in the Ludhiana district of the Punjab in a Muslim family of barristers, on May 11, 1912. His niece is the acclaimed Pakistani historian
Ayesha JalalAyesha Jalal is a Pakistani-American sociologist and historian. She is a professor of history at Tufts University and a 1998 MacArthur Fellow. The bulk of her work deals with the creation of Muslim identities in modern South Asia....
.
Saadat Hasan Manto received his early education at Muslim High School in
AmritsarAmritsar is a city in the northern part of India and is the administrative headquarters of Amritsar district in the state of Punjab, India. The 2001 Indian census reported the population of the city to be over 1,500,000, with that of the entire district numbering 3,695,077...
, 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 the independence movement, soon it reflected in his first story, 'Tamasha', based on the
Jallianwala Bagh massacreThe Jallianwala Bagh massacre , also known as the Amritsar massacre, took place in the Jallianwala Bagh public garden in the northern Indian city of Amritsar, and was ordered by Brigadier-General Reginald E.H. Dyer...
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.
Early career
Within a matter of months Manto produced an Urdu translation of
Victor HugoVictor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
'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 WildeOscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
's Vera won him due recognition amongst the literary circles. At the continued encouragement of Abdul Bari, he published a collection of Urdu translation of Russian stories as Russi Afsane.
This heightened enthusiasm pushed Manto to pursue graduation at
Aligarh Muslim UniversityAligarh Muslim University ,is a residential academic university, established in 1875 by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan as Mohammedan Angelo-Oriental College and later granted the status of Central University by an Act of the Indian Parliament in 1920...
, which he joined in February 1934, and soon got associated with Indian Progressive Writers' Association (IPWA). It was here that he met writer
Ali Sardar JafriAli Sardar Jafri was an Urdu writer, poet, critic and film lyricist from India.-Early life and education:Ali Sardar Jafri was born in an aristocratic family in Balrampur, Uttar Pradesh, where he spent his formative years....
and found a new spurt in his writing. His second story 'Inqlaab Pasand' was published in Aligarh magazine in March 1935.
There was no turning back from there and his first collection of original short stories in Urdu, Atish Pare (Sparks; also Quarrel-Provokers), was published in 1936, at age 24.
Saadat Hasan 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 26 April 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 Urdu Service of
All India RadioAll India Radio , officially known since 1956 as Akashvani , is the radio broadcaster of India and a division of Prasar Bharati. Established in 1936, it is the sister service of Prasar Bharati's Doordarshan, the national television broadcaster. All India Radio is one of the largest radio networks...
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) was soon out 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 a quarrel with 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 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 hightlight of his second phase in Bombay was the publication of an important collection of his stories, Chugad, which also included the story 'Babu Gopinath'. He continued to stay in Bombay till he moved to Pakistan in January 1948 much after the partition of India in 1947.
Migration to Pakistan
Manto arrived in
LahoreLahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
sometime in early 1948. In Bombay his friends had tried to stop him from migrating to
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
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
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
because the film industry of Lahore stood badly disrupted with the departure of
HinduHindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
film-makers and studio owners. But the law and order situation post-partition of British India was such that many Muslims felt insecure in
IndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, just as many Hindus felt insecure in newly created
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
. That was the reason that Manto had already sent his family to
LahoreLahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
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
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
.
Life in Lahore
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 neighbour was his nephew Hamid Jalal who later became an important mediaman. In another flat, lived Professor G M Asar who taught Urdu at
Government CollegeGovernment College refers to various colleges.* Government College University, Lahore, is probably the most frequent college referred to by this name. It may also refer to:* Government College of Technology, Coimbatore, India* Darjeeling Government College...
,
LahoreLahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
. Hailing from Madras, he wrote and spoke excellent
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
as well. Then there was
Malik Meraj KhalidMalik Meraj Khalid was a Pakistani lawyer and politician and the acting Prime Minister of Pakistan from November 5, 1996 till February 17, 1997.-Early life and career beginnings:...
who was to play an important role in the politics of
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
. Writer
Mustansar Hussain TararMustansar Hussain Tarar is a Pakistani author, actor, former radio show host, compere and enthusiast. Having made a name for himself by taking the mantle in Pakistan's mountaineering community, Mustansar Hussain is widely recognized as one of the most famous and well known personalities in both...
s family also lived in one of the flats there after shifting from Gowalmandi, though Tarar's presence cannot be referred to as a contribution to literary ambience as Tarar was just an adolescent at that time and hadn't even started to write. Thus when Manto arrived in Lahore from Bombay he found an intellectual atmosphere around him. His only problem was how to cater for his family. Sadly for him, Lahore of that period did not have many opportunities to offer.
Literary beginnings
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 (Urdu: کھول دو Open it) and Thanda Gosht (Urdu: ٹھنڈا گوشت 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.
Newspapers
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 couldn't write the column. Actually Manto was not indisposed, the owner was not favourably 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 KumarAshok Kumar also fondly called Dadamoni was an Indian film actor. Born Kumudlal Ganguly in Bhagalpur, Bengal Presidency he attained iconic status in Indian cinema...
,
ShyamShyam was a Hindi film actor of the 1940s. He originally hailed from Sialkot and his full name was Sunder Shyam Chadha, but he grew up in Rawalpindi....
,
NargisNargis Dutt , born Fatima Rashid but known by her screen name, Nargis, was an Indian film actress. She is widely regarded as one of the greatest actresses in the history of Hindi cinema. She made her screen debut as a child in Talash-E-Haq in 1935, but her acting carer began in 1942 with Tamanna...
,
Noor JehanNoorjehan or Noorjehan was the adopted stage name for Allah Wasai who was a legendary singer and actress in British India and Pakistan. Her career spanned seven decades...
and Naseem (mother of
Saira BanuSaira Banu , also known as Saira Bano, is an Indian Bollywood actress and the wife of the film actor Dilip Kumar. She acted in many Bollywood films between 1960 and 1980.-Early life:...
). He also wrote about some literary figures like Meera Ji, Hashar Kashmiri and
Ismat ChughtaiIsmat Chughtai 1 was an eminent Urdu writer, known for her indomitable spirit and a fierce feminist ideology. She was considered the grand dame of Urdu fiction, as one of the four pillars of modern Urdu short story, the other three being Saadat Hasan Manto, Krishan Chander, and Rajinder Singh Bedi...
. Manto's sketch of
Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali JinnahMuhammad Ali Jinnah was a Muslim lawyer, politician, statesman and the founder of Pakistan. He is popularly and officially known in Pakistan as Quaid-e-Azam and Baba-e-Qaum ....
was also first published in Afaq under the title Mera Sahib. It was based on an interview with Haneef Azad, Qauid-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
DinaDina Wadia is the daughter of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founding father of Pakistan, and Rattanbai Petit.-Early life:Dina was born in London shortly after midnight on the morning of August 15, 1919...
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. "I have no camera which could wash out the small pox marks from Hashar Kashmiri's face or change the obscene invectives uttered by him in his flowery style," he wrote.
Literary circles
Manto once tried to present the sketch of Mulana Chiragh Hasan Hasrat in a literary gathering organized in
YMCA Hall Lahore to celebrate the Maulana's recovery from 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 was with difficulty prevailed upon by his wife, Safia, to leave the stage.
Financial troubles
Those days Manto was writing indiscriminately in order to provide for his family and 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 Manto in 1950 had a glowing complexion and a thick crop of long brown hair on his head. He was wearing a light brown gabardine shirwanee with a silken trousers and saleem shahi shoes. He came to Government College, Lahore to read his article How Do I Write a Story.
A changed man
But the necessity to earn his livelihood consumed him very fast. In a few years, his complexion became pale and his hair turned grey. He was seen reading his story
Toba Tek Singh at YMCA Hall at the annual meeting of Halqa-e-Arbab-e-Zauq. He looked older than his years wearing an overcoat with collars turned up. The big eyes that darted out of the thick-rimmed glasses looked pale and yellow. But he read his story in his usual dramatic style and when he finished reading it there was pin drop silence in the hall and there were tears in everyone's eyes.
In later days, though Manto appeared in the
Pak Tea HousePak Tea House was an intellectual cafe in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan that has traditionally been frequented by the city's artistic, cultural and literary personalities. Some of the most well-known regulars were Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Ibn-e-Insha, Ahmed Faraz, Saadat Hasan Manto, Muneer Niazi, Mira Ji,...
and other literary functions regularly but he seemed to be in great stress. Earlier, he was known for his witty remarks in literary gatherings. However, in later days he would present his writings in literary meetings but would not tolerate any criticism. He had become extremely touchy and would shout back at his critics. There were days when he was welcomed everywhere and literary organisations clamoured for his participation in their meetings. But then came the days when people started avoiding him because he would not hesitate from borrowing money from them.
His famous literary works
Manto lived in Laxmi Mansion, The Mall
LahoreLahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
for seven years. For him those years were full of a continuous struggle for his survival. In return, he gave some of his best writings to the literary world. It was in Lahore that he wrote his masterpieces that include Thanda Gosht, Khol Do,
Toba Tek Singh"Toba Tek Singh" is a short story written by Saadat Hasan Manto and published in 1955. It follows inmates in a Lahore asylum some of who are to be transferred to India following the 1947 Partition. The story is a "powerful satire" on the relationship between India and Pakistan...
, Iss Manjdhar Mein, Mozalle, Babu Gopi Nath. Some of his characters became legendary.
Some lines from his works
سوری
چُھری پیٹ چاک کرتی ہوئی ناف کے نیچے تک چلی گئی۔ اِزاربند کٹ گیا۔ چُھری مارنے والے کے منہ سے دفعتہً کلمہء تاّسف نک]]۔
ٰ ٰچ چ چ چ ِشٹیک ہوگیاٰ ٰ۔http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/entertainment/story/2009/01/090117_manto_anniversary.shtml
Death
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
cirrhosisCirrhosis is a consequence of chronic liver disease characterized by replacement of liver tissue by fibrosis, scar tissue and regenerative nodules , leading to loss of liver function...
. During all these 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 stampA postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...
.
Manto collection (Books)
- Atishparay (Nuggets Of Fire)-1936
- Chugaad
- Thanda Gosht (Cool Meat)
- 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 http://www.indiaclub.com/shop/AuthorSelect.asp?Author=Saadat+Hasan+Manto
- Tahira Se Tahir (From Tahira to Tahir)-1971
Further reading
- Life and Works of Saadat Hasan Manto, by Alok Bhalla. 1997, Indian Institute of Advanced Study. ISBN 81-85952-48-5.
- The Life and Works of Saadat Hasan Manto. Introduction by Leslie Flemming; trans. by Tahira Naqvi. Lahore, Pakistan: Vanguard Books Ltd., 1985.
- Another Lonely Voice: The Urdu Short Stories of Saadat Hasan Manto, by Leslie A. Flemming, Berkeley: Centre for South and South east Asian Studies. University of California. 1979. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-9118(198105)40%3A3%3C627%3AALVTUS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-%23
- Madness and Partition: The Short Stories of Saadat Hasan Manto, Stephen Alter, Journal of Comparative Poetics, No. 14, Madness and Civilization/ al-Junun wa al-Hadarah (1994), pp. 91–100. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=1110-8673(1994)14%3C91%3AMAPTSS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-O
- Bitter Fruit:The Very Best of Saadat Hassan Manto, edited and tr. by Khalid Hassan, Penguin, 2008.
- Naked Voices: Stories and Sketches by Manto, Ed. and tr. by Rakhshanda Jalil. Indian Ink & Roli Books, 2008.
- Stars from Another Sky: The Bombay Film World of the 1940s, tr. by Khalid Hasan. Penguin India, 2000.
Manto's works Online
External links