Who Was Manto?

Most of the writings in this collection belong to the last years of his life when Manto was most troubled 8212; steeped in penury and frustration. The subcontinent had plunged into darkness in the aftermath of Partition and it lent a bleakness to his stories that was not visible in his early work. Unfortunately, it is these stories that are perceived to define Manto8217;s oeuvre, says the translator Rakhshanda Jalil.

Even in such a disturbing milieu, when he had to briefly stay in a mental asylum, Manto didn8217;t lose his incisive understanding of human conditions. Though most of the stories in this collection unfold against the backdrop of post-Partition Pakistan, they largely deal with human nature in all its diversity. Naked Voices contains a number of woman-centric stories, which Manto wrote with certain empathy. Such empathy could only come from close interaction and minute observation. 8220;Bismillah8221;, 8220;By the Roadside8221;, 8220;Comfort8221;, 8220;The Candle Tears8221;, 8220;The Rat of Shahdole8221;, 8220;The Hundred Candle Power Bulb8221; and 8220;By God8221; bear testimony to that.

8220;Bismillah8221; exposes the double standards of Saeed who lusts for his friend Zaheer8217;s wife. In the twist at the end of the tale 8212; typical of most Manto stories 8212; the woman turns out to be a Hindu left behind during Partition and forced into prostitution. In 8220;By the Roadside8221;, the great Urdu writer delineates the changes that take place in the body of a pregnant woman and the trauma that follows when she is forced to abandon her newborn. 8220;The Rat of Shahdole8221; depicts the anguish of a mother on giving away her firstborn as well as takes a dig at shrines that exploit the poor and the superstitious.

Manto is a master when it comes to presenting the world of prostitutes and pimps. In 8220;Sahay8221;, he endows a pimp with a heart of gold. But 8220;The Hundred Candle Power Bulb8221; has a pimp who hasn8217;t allowed a prostitute to sleep in a long time. Finally, she clobbers him to death to earn her sleep. Manto, who thrice faced charges of obscenity in his writings, wrote extensively about sex and those obsessed with it, but it wasn8217;t meant to titillate. 8220;Naked Voices8221;, which lends the collection its name, bares the necessity of sex and the travails of communal living. Here, the privacy of couples is shrouded in screens of sackcloths.

Though not an avid political writer, Manto, in a sketch titled 8220;In a Letter to Uncle Sam8221; gives vent to his anti-imperialist views. And the last story of the book, 8220;Slivers and Silvereens8221; exposes the murky politics over Kashmir. More of Manto is revealed in 8220;Zehmat-e-Mehr-Darakhshan8221; as he is hit by the writer8217;s block after leaving Bombay, the city he loved till his death. But, in the end, his pen does grope its way back.

Jalil maintains the stark, spare and staccato style of Manto. With her selection of 16 stories and three sketches, she gives the uninitiated a peek into Manto8217;s literature of a diverse world. For those familiar with Manto, here is yet another proof of a great writer who voraciously documented what he lived and experienced.