ISLAMABAD: The birth anniversary of Sa’adat Hasan Manto – renowned Urdu story, film, radio scriptwriter and journalist – was observed on Saturday (11th May).
Manto was born in 1912 in a Muslim Kashmiri family of Paproudi village (Ludhiana) that settled in Amritsar.
His father Khawaja Ghulam Hasan, a session judge, migrated to Lahore with family following the partition of 1947.
His writings plunged him into trouble a number of times. In India and later in Pakistan he was charged with obscenity half a dozen times: “I am no sensationalist. Why would I want to undress a society that is already naked?
“Yes, it is true I make no attempt to cover it but that’s not my job… my job is to write with a white chalk, so that I can draw attention to the darkness of the board.”
Many of his writings focus on the Partition of India (which he incidentally opposed).

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He created masterpieces like Thanda Gosht, Khol Do, Toba Tek Singh, etc. but financially he was never well-off.

His chef d’oeuvre Toba Tek Singh is a symbolic story of a loony. The scene was set in Lahore asylum from where a number of Hindu patients were to be sent to India in return many Muslim loonies were to be transferred to Pakistan. (Interestingly, during the years 1951 and 1952 Manto was twice admitted for treatment to the anti-alcoholic ward of the Punjab Mental Hospital!)
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Overall Manto penned 22 collections of short stories (harboring 250 pieces), a novel, five series of radio plays, three collections of essays and two collections of personal sketches.
In recognition of his works Govt. of Pakistan bestowed upon Sa’adat Hasan Manto Nishan-e-Imtiaz (the highest civilian award of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan).

Manto died on 18th January, 1955 in Lahore.
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