ISLAMABAD: The 61st death anniversary of legendary writer, playwright and author of short stories, Saadat Hasan Manto was observed on Monday across the country and abroad as his fans remembered him
Manto was known among the greatest writers of short stories in South Asian history. He produced 22 collections of short stories, 1 novel, 5 series of radio plays, 3 collections of essays, 2 collections of personal sketches and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics.
Born on May 11, 1912, Manto chronicled the chaos that prevailed, during and after the Partition of India in 1947. He started his literary career translating work of literary giants, such as Victor Hugo, Oscar Wilde and Russian writers such as Chekhov and Gorky. His first story was "Tamasha", based on the Jallianwala Bagh massacre 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.
His final works, which grew from the social climate and his own financial struggles, reflected an innate sense of human impotency towards darkness and contained a satirism that verged on dark comedy, as seen in his final work, Toba Tek Singh.
Manto's concerns on the socio-political issues, from local to global are revealed in his series, Letters to Uncle Sam, and those to Pandit Nehru.
On 18 January 2005, the fiftieth anniversary of his death, Manto was commemorated on a Pakistani postage stamp. On August 14, 2012, Saadat Hasan Manto was posthumously awarded Nishan-e-Imtiaz award (Distinguished Service to Pakistan Award) by the Government of Pakistan and on January 18, 2005, Government of Pakistan issued a postage stamp honoring him. This postage stamp reads "Saadat Hasan Manto(1912-1955) Men of Letters".
"Manto was a great and contemporary writer whose writings will remain alive in every era. To pay him tribute, National Book Foundation (NBF) has created a scultpure of Manto in its National Book Museum and dedicated a special corner for him," said Managing Director NBF, Dr Inam ul Haq Javed while talking to APP.
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