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It is needless to say that the horrors that the Partition of India brought about into our country were nothing less than complete chaos. Living through the chaotic divide and constant life of uncertainty must have been maddening. Manto’s ‘Toba Tek Singh’ is one such story mirroring the senseless chaos of it all.
Introduction
Name of the Story - Toba Tek Singh
Written By - Saadat Hasan Manto
Genre - Fiction, Alternate Fiction
Language - Originally written in Urdu and translated into English
About the Author
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Born on May 11th, 1912 in Ludhiana in British India, Saadat Hasan Manto was an author, playwright, and writer. Most of his original works were written in Urdu. He has produced 22 collections of short stories, a novel, five series of radio plays, three collections of essays, and two collections of personal sketches.
Manto was famous for writing about the real truths of society. The People and places were often kept away from plain sight. He wrote about life as he knew it and how it existed in India, without a filter. However controversial his stories are held in a quite high regard by modern writers and critics.
Manto moved to Lahore during the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 and wrote several stories on the horrors brought upon by the decision to divide the country. Some of his stories like ‘Khol Do’ and ‘Toba Tek Singh’ talk about the significant Post Traumatic Stress that the people living through the time must have gone through.
The Plot of the Story - Spoiler Alert!
The story starts with the absurd decision of the government to exchange inmates of the mental asylums in India and Pakistan, aiming at sending them home to their own country after Partition. Inside the asylum, there is utter chaos and confusion among the inmates as to what country they will be sent to.
The inmates are nervous to be leaving as their destinations are uncertain, not to mention whether they will be able to adapt to the change. Some are seen talking about whether they’ll speak the same language. The chaos in the asylum is symbolic of the chaos outside in the country.
Among the inmates is an old man called Bishan Singh who comes from a village called Toba Tek Singh. Bishan Singh is a peculiar character. He never sits down to rest. He never sleeps. He is seen to be extremely anxious about whether his village will be in India or in Pakistan.
Throughout the story, he is seen asking people where his village is after the partition. Bishan Singh’s character is symbolic of the countless dislocated people who must have wandered to look for a home on either side of the line of partition.
At the end of the story when the inmates are being exchanged on the border and being sent to the places they belong to, everyone fails to provide any information regarding Bishan Singh’s village. He is left there lying on the sand between the two countries, failing to find his home in either.
The story has also been made into an award-winning short film by Ketan Mehta and stars Pankaj Kapoor and Vinay Pathak. The movie is available exclusively on Zee 5.
The Most Impactful Lines from the Story
Picture Credits- Indian folks
“Over there, behind the barbed wires, was Hindustan. Over here, behind identical wires lay Pakistan. In between, on a bit of land that had no name, lay Toba Tek Singh.”
The Bottom Line
The story is a beautiful representation of the chaos and madness of the times of partition in the most realistic way possible. Minato tells the story of a thousand people, possibly more who must have felt lost and disoriented because of what a few people in power decided to do with the country.
Whether the Partition was compulsory or not is a whole different debate, one that I do not wish to engage in but the chaos that it brought about was simply depressing.
My Ratings for the Story - 5 on 5
Read the Story here Toba Tek Singh
Written By - Sakshi Singh
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