“saadat hasan manto”

First published in 1947 as Siyah Hashiye, the 32 cameos that comprise this slim volume present horrifying vignettes from the holocaust of the Partition. Rape, murder, loot, pillage, greed and wanton destruction ... every conceivable horror is grist to Manto's mill. These sharply chiseled word-pictur... More

In this collection of sixteen stories and three sketches, translated by Rakhshanda Jalil, Manto brazenly celebrates the warts of a seemingly decent society as well as its dark underbelly - tired and overworked prostitutes in 'The Candle's Tears' or 'Loser all the Way'; ruthless as also humane pimps ... More

‘Manto’s irony and humanity raise him on par with Gogol’ —Anita Desai in The Spectator The most widely read and the most translated writer in Urdu, Saadat Hasan Manto (1912–55) is also the most controversial: he was tried for obscenity no less than six times, both be... More

The most widely read and the most translated writer in Urdu, Saadat Hasan Manto constantly challenged the hypocrisy and sham morality of civilized society. Out of this rebellious streak, and fuelled by the burning restlessness of his imagination, he produced a powerful body of work that continues to... More

Stories about the human cost of Partition Independence for India, in 1947, came with a price: division on the basis of religion. In the communal riots that followed, hundreds of thousands were killed and millions rendered homeless. And the tragic legacy of Partition haunts the subcontinent even tod... More