Jallianwala Bagh Massacre through Saadat Hasan Manto’s Stories

Dr. Shashank B. Mane

Asst. Professor
Tuljaram Chaturchand College, Baramati

Recently India commemorated centenary year of the brutal massacre at Jallianwala bagh. The
Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby visited the place recently and said he was deeply
“ashamed and sorry” for the crime which was committed in 1919. Immediately after the carnage
different writers of the time presented the violence through their writings. When this violence
occurred Saadat Hasan Manto was nine years old. The hero of Jallianwala, Dr Saifuddin
Kitchlew, was a close relative of Manto’s and because of him, the Manto family had to face
misfortunes. Due to this, the calamity was preserved in Manto’s memory which he later
described through his short stories such as Tamasha, 1919 ki Aik Baat, Divaana Shayir, Swaraj
ke Liye etc.

The present paper studies the violence as depicted in these stories. These stories are studied in
English translation. The paper is an attempt to tribute to the people who perished in the brutal
firing of April 13, 1919, but also reverberate with the issues of contemporary times.

Key words: atrocities, violence and crime