Fall 2022

“Choose any one piece of postcolonial literature (up until present day)

from across the world and discuss its significance through the lense of

political, social as well as, historical themes in creating a unique

identitythrough the use of aesthetics”

By

Esha Khurram

CD-2917-2021

Word Count: 1552

 Post-colonialism is a study that deals with the after effects of western colonisation on

cultures and societies. It covers the ways in which culture, human identity, ethnicity etc are affected

after getting their independence from the colonised countries. Postcolonial literature are literary

pieces that talk about problems and consequences of decolonisation mostly relating to the political

and social independence of the colonised people and a way for post colonial writers to express

theiropposition against colonialism. One such writer who has extensively written on post-

colonialism is Saadat Hasan Manto.

Manto was born in Punjab and then moved to Bombay where his career as a writer really

escalated and he wrote his stories in urdu only, which were later translated into English and other

languages. A few months after the partition Manto moved to Lahore, Pakistan. Manto suffered from

mental illnesses, which without a doubt influenced his work. His short story Toba Tek Singh

provides an observation more openly exploring the role that mental illnesses played not only in his

life and work but also in the Indian subcontinent by the refugees around the time of partition. One

of his mental illness that stands out the most perhaps is his alcohol addiction. His drinking habit

heightened after his move to Lahore after partition and was admitted twice to a mental

hospital.1Saadat Hasan Manto’s short stories are his best known work in which he wrote about the

concerns of the marginalised and voiceless humans as well as non-humans focusing on themes

of partition and its consequences from different angles.2 One of his short stories “Toba Tek

Singh” talks about trading of patients, of a mental asylum in Lahore, between India and Pakistan

after the 1947 partition. He uses the metaphor of madness in the story in order to critique the

Indian Subcontinent’s partition on the basis of religious, national and material interests falsely

and forcefully determining the inmates identities, ideologies and culture. When the news of the

1Tahir Jokinen and Shershah Assadullah, “Saadat Hasan Manto, Partition, and Mental Illness through the Lens
of Toba Tek Singh,” The Journal of medical humanities (Springer US, March 2022), https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
pmc/articles/PMC8901496/.
2Jeet Singh, “Ecocritical Analysis of Manto's 'Toba Tek Singh': Re-Imaging Aesthetics of Place and Person,”
SouthAsia Research (SAGE Publications, September 13, 2021), https://www.academia.edu/52212296/
 partition reached the inmates in the asylum they got confused and angry because they only knew

about one country that was India and were unable to build any emotional or physical relation to a

new country called Pakistan.3 Manto in his story questions this exchange because according to

him the fate of these inmates have been decided by the officials on respective side of the border

without their consent and approval because they are considered a non entity who are not accepted

as political beings and hence their opinion has no political importance in the story and to other

important political beings because they are locked away. It is also worth mentioning here that not

all inmates in the mental asylum were not mad but some were murderers who were perfectly

capable of understanding the situation around them and hence were capable of making a decision

but they themselves were clueless and helpless like the others. One of the madman who climbed

the tree in order to make it known that he wants to live on a tree rather than choosing between

India and Pakistan, which symbolises the sentiments of denial by common man to belong to a

politically separatist nation and also highlights the refusal to accept random communal and

national identity created by the political beings.4 Hence due to the partition these inmates are

caught in the politics of the world and lose their identity as they try to relate to the place they are

being sent.5 Through this story Manto highlights the ignorant decision of dividing a country on

the communal basis.

The protagonist of the story, Bishan Singh, a Sikh inmate from Toba Tek Singh, who is

known as Toba Tek Singh by his fellow inmates combining together the place and the identity of a

person. He has been an inmate in the asylum since the past fifteen years and is described by Manto

to have never lain down or slept in during that time. The language he spoke is called gibberish as

3Jeet Singh, “Ecocritical Analysis of Manto's 'Toba Tek Singh': Re-Imaging Aesthetics of Place and Person,”
SouthAsia Research (SAGE Publications, September 13, 2021), https://www.academia.edu/52212296/
4 “Toba Tek Singh: Manto,” Survivingbaenglish, January 25, 2010, https://survivingbaenglish.wordpress.com/toba-tek-
singh-manto/.

5 Admin, admin on June 4, and Name *, “A Critical Analysis of Toba Tek Singh by Saadat Hasan Manto,” CriticalBuzzz,
June 3, 2022, https://www.criticalbuzzz.co.in/a-critical-analysis-of-toba-tek-singh-by-saadat-hasan-manto/.
 noone understood what he said because it did not sound anything like a linguistic expression rather

it is used by Manto in the story to undermine the hegemonic claims about one superior language. It

also seems to be symbolic of the negligence of language to have any meaning in such times of

turmoil.6 The gibberish used is in three languages combined that are English, urdu/Hindi and

Punjabi, highlighting the fact that even though the Indian subcontinent has gained independence,

the language of the colonisers has become a part of our culture and we fail to move away from it.7 It

should not be referred to as gibberish because it serves the purpose of being used as a tool by a

colonised writer in the colonisers language. As the news reached the asylum Bishan Singh started

inquiring about where his native land Toba Tek Singh is and since there was so much confusion it

was impossible to guess which city was in which country. Even after spending fifteen years in

mental asylum the only place Bishan Singh wanted to go back to was Toba Tek Singh because his

village is the very core of his identity and India and Pakistan seemed meaningless to him. Bishan is

informed of his transfer through a friend who informed him that his family has migrated to India but

Bishan did not seem to be interested in the information he only wanted to know the whereabouts of

his village. The day of the exchange arrived and as narrated by Manto it was hard to control these

men as they were resisting and refused the transfer. It was utter chaos as the men started running in

every direction and tearing off their garments in order to resist and there was complete confusion.

These men had no claim to be heard as their refusal to cross the border is not taken as a meaningful

discourse by other important politically powerful and privileged beings. When it was turn for

Bishan Singh, the official asked his name to be recorded in the register to which he asked “where is

Toba Tek Singh? In India or in Pakistan”. When the official said in Pakistan on which he tried to run

towards Pakistan and every effort was made to push him to the other side of the line, in India but he

6“ISSN Online: Politics of Aesthetics: Reading Saadat Hasan Manto’s ‘Toba ...,” accessed September 25, 2022, https://
www.allresearchjournal.com/archives/2015/vol1issue13/PartF/1-13-134.pdf.

7 Siddiqui, Mohammad Asim. “Saadat Hasan Manto’s Poetics of Resistance.” Social Scientist 40, no. 11/12 (2012): 17–29.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/23338867.
 refused to move and planted himself between the border of India and Pakistan. Manto causes a

sense of opposition in the form of political as his indigenous attachment and relationship with his

village sabotages modern political goals and agendas. His efforts, at an individual level, represents

the efforts of the native people against nationalisation, and religious colonial notion of place and

identity. Bishan does not accept being taken to any other place like many other refugees. For him,

self is not something that is already existent and given, rather an experience relative to individual’s

place and existence. Manto shows how marginalised communities are not given any importance

andare considered non-existent in the face of dominant cultural and political values. Bishan Singh’s

emotions and moral sense has not yet been won over or influenced by the dominant and wrong

narratives of organised religion, nation and culture. He still associates himself with his native home

place, Toba Tek Singh. Bishan opposes to give up his relationship and memories of his village and

his death at a no man’s land signifies the eradication and fear of the millions of refugees during and

after the Partition. Bishan quietly, and peacefully, reunites with his native land as his last stop.8

Manto’s artistic representation, Bishan Singhs dramatic death between the two borders shows

victory of the individual, who refuses to take full be dictated by the people on power by simply

departing at an important hour, on a planned place, between both borders.

Mental illness is an important theme of this story. Manto’s use of madness highlights what

was happening outside the asylum as saddening. The asylum symbolises the whole subcontinent

and the madness of the inmates symbolises the madness of violence due to the partition. This story

was written by Manto after his time in the mental hospital and was possibly influenced by his time

spent there. In a time where mental health was commonly regarded as shameful, Manto’s direct

engagement with the theme drew awareness to the madness of partition.9 The personality of Bishan

8Jeet Singh, “Ecocritical Analysis of Manto's 'Toba Tek Singh': Re-Imaging Aesthetics of Place and Person,” SouthAsia
Research (SAGE Publications, September 13, 2021), https://www.academia.edu/52212296/
9Tahir Jokinen and Shershah Assadullah, “Saadat Hasan Manto, Partition, and Mental Illness through the Lens of Toba Tek
Singh,” The Journal of medical humanities (Springer US, March 2022), https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/
PMC8901496/.
 symbolises the trauma of displacement which many people faced after partition and continue to face

at present. Bishan Singhs repeated demands to know about his village is suggestive of a lost sense

of belonging and fractured identity.Perhaps his character can also be a thinking of Manto’s own

suffering and confusion about identity as the consequence of his migration to Lahore. Manto’s

message through the story highlights that the insanity of the partition of the Indian subcontinent

wasgreater than that of all the patients in the mental asylum combined.10

More than a reflection of his own mental illness Toba Tek Singh highlights the

psychological trauma of human displacement and the uncertainty that revolved around the

identitiesof the individuals affected by the partition. Like many refugees, Bishan Singh’s voice goes

unheardand his death does not make any difference to anyone. Manto made the insane people

represent his resistance to partition hence infusing madness with identity crisis that resistance he

wanted to portray.

10Tahir Jokinen and Shershah Assadullah, “Saadat Hasan Manto, Partition, and Mental Illness through the Lens of Toba
Tek Singh,” The Journal of medical humanities (Springer US, March 2022), https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/
PMC8901496/.
 Bibliography

Admin, admin on June 4, and Name *. “A Critical Analysis of Toba Tek Singh by Saadat Hasan
Manto.” Critical Buzzz, June 3, 2022. https://www.criticalbuzzz.co.in/a-critical-analysis-of-
toba-tek-singh-by-saadat-hasan-manto/.

“ISSN Online: Politics of Aesthetics: Reading Saadat Hasan Manto’s ‘Toba ...” Accessed September
25, 2022. https://www.allresearchjournal.com/archives/2015/vol1issue13/PartF/
1-13-134.pdf.

Jokinen, Tahir, and Shershah Assadullah. “Saadat Hasan Manto, Partition, and Mental Illness
through the Lens of Toba Tek Singh.” The Journal of medical humanities. Springer US,
March 2022. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8901496/.

Singh, Jeet. “Ecocritical Analysis of Manto's 'Toba Tek Singh': Re-Imaging Aesthetics of Place and
Person.” South Asia Research. SAGE Publications, September 13, 2021. https://
www.academia.edu/52212296/
Ecocritical_Analysis_of_Manto_s_Toba_Tek_Singh_Re_Imaging_Aesthetics_of_Place_an
d_Person?show_translation=true.

“Toba Tek Singh: Manto.” Survivingbaenglish, January 25, 2010. https://

survivingbaenglish.wordpress.com/toba-tek-singh-manto/.