Manto, Saadat Hasan
(1912–1955), Indian writer. Saadat Hasan Manto, the much acclaimed and controversial South Asian Muslim literary figure, was born in Sambrala, in the Ludhiana district of the Punjab. As a young man, Manto began his literary career with an Urdu translation of Victor Hugo's The Last Days of a Condemned Man. Early in his career, Manto was deeply influenced by French and Russian realist writers such as Hugo, Guy de Maupassant, Anton Chekhov, and Maksim Gorki. During the 1930s, Manto was also peripherally involved with the Indian Progressive Writers Association, a literary movement committed to articulating the ideals of social uplift and justice through literature.
During his career, Manto wrote more than two hundred stories and a number of essays, film scripts, and radio plays. However, his greatest contributions to Indian literature were his mastery of the short story genre and his use of the Urdu language. Some of his well-known Urdu short stories include "Bu" ("Odor"), "Khol Do" ("Open It"), "Thanda Gosht" ("Cold Meat"), and "Toba Tek Singh," translated into English after Manto's death.
After the partition of India in 1947, Manto left his home in Mumbai (Bombay), where he had lived since 1936, and returned to Lahore, Pakistan, in January 1948. Although Manto's last years in Pakistan were filled with financial hardship, failing health, and relative obscurity, they were also witness to some of his greatest literary achievements. Manto was survived by his wife Safiyah and three daughters.
Further Reading
Manto, Saadat Hasan. (1985) The Life and Works of Saadat Hasan Manto. Introduction by Leslie Flemming; trans. by Tahira Naqvi. Lahore, Pakistan: Vanguard Books Ltd.
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