Toba Tek Singh
Reviewing works of Saadat Hassan Manto
“If you cannot bear these stories then the society is unbearable. Who am I to remove the clothes of this society, which itself is naked. I don’t even try to cover it, because it is not my job, that’s the job of dressmakers.” ― Saadat Hasan Manto
Toba Tek Singh is a small tehsil( administrative division) of the Toba Tek Singh district in the Punjab province, now in Pakistan.
An interesting story goes with the nomenclature .
Tek Singh,a kind hearted religious Sikh man, became a messiah to the worn out and thirsty travelers by offering them water from a toba( pond).The story of his kindness spread large and the area of 1256 sq miles (3252 km2), lying between 30°50’and 31°23’N and 72°20’and 72°54’E constituting the tehsil, came to be known as Toba_Tek_Singh.
But that’s geography.
Toba Tek Singh passed into history in 1955, when it was adopted as a central character, rather metaphorically, as namesake, by Saadat_Hasan_Manto in his now oft read ‘short story’.
The fiction dwells 2–3 years after Partition, wherein it was decided that lunatics housed in the Asylums in both India and Pakistan should also be exchanged as per the laid out norms.
One Sikh inmate, Bishan Singh, lodged in Lahore Mental Asylum, refuses to go to India when he comes to understand that Toba Tek Singh, his original place of residency, is now in Pakistan.
The story ends as,
“There, behind the barbed wires, was Hindustaan.Here, behind the same kind of barbed wires, was Pakistan.In between,in that place that had no name, lay Toba tek Singh”.
Bishan Singh refusing to budge, lay prostate in the ‘no man’s land.’
The most powerful satire on the relationship between these two emotionally and politically charged land masses from the sub-continent, of which I read an English translation, and imagined the impact it has, when read in the writer’s mother tongue, Urdu.
His sharp literary skills came to the fore, when he wrote what Bishan Singh mutters when he gets irritated in a mix of punjabi and Urdu:
“Upar di gur gur di annexe di bedhiyana di moog di daal di of di Pakistan and Hindustan of di der phitey mun”
Which translates into,
” The inattention of the annexe of the rumbling upstairs of the dal of moong of the Pakistan and Hindustan of the go to bloody hell”
How he used a loony to give voice his own anguish on the Act of Partition and the ridiculousness of it.
Saadat Hasan Manto,the maverick wordsmith from across the border, had Ludhiana, in undivided India as his birthplace, but ended up living with the neighbours across LoC, post partition.
Safely called Rwittik Ghatak of theWest ,he was always known for his no-holds-barred, gut-wrenching narrations of the Partition, its absurdity and its aftermath.
The angst, the helplessness of suddenly becoming a refugee in his own homeland, paved way for some very powerful stories, some of which were even banned by the then governments.
But to confine the likes of Manto and Ghatak as a motley group of non- conformists who questioned the status- quo to their own peril, would be grossly unfair.
They brought out the physicality and psyche of ‘Separation’ through their writing or cinema , which was and is unheard of.
Any body trying this subject subsequently, appeared to be a pathetic replica of the fiercely original geniuses, as they were.
Authors become legend and their works classic, when it traverses the lightyears and generations to remain as fresh and alive.
How relevant ‘Toba Tek Singh’ is in today’s time and space?
Very.
Here in Manto’s own words that he wanted to mark his grave with:
“In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful — Here lies Saadat Hasan Manto and with him lie buried all the secrets and mysteries of the art of short-story writing….
Under tons of earth he lies, still wondering who among the two is greater short-story writer: God or He.” ― Saadat Hasan Manto
Thank you Nachi Keta Priyanka Srivastava Somsubhra Banerjee Elizabeth Khan and Literary Impulse for this amazing space for creativity.
Thanking everyone who cares to stop by and eye through my words — Know my gratitude.
