ANALYTICAL ESSAY

Manto was seen as a threat by the other fellow writers. What was he resented for? Was not he

simply using his right of freedom of speech that all the other writers promoted? They all could

not understand him, even sharing the same passion of writing he was on other side of the bridge;

visible but facing another direction. He was discouraged to write, needed to understand and

‘respect the sufferings of the masses’. They forgot that he was also a victim of depression and

anxiety as his decision of migrating to Pakistan resulted in him landing into poverty.

His short story ‘khol do’ accentuates the monstrosity of partition of the subcontinent. In

it, he did not see the perpetrators as Muslims or Hindus or from this side of the border or the

other. As stated by his critic, Ambika Tandon, “Perpetrators were men within their own

communities as often as those of others”. Khol do sublimely depicts the fact that at those times

concept of each man for their own was seen whereas humanity was nowhere to be found. Even

those young volunteers that assured the safety of Sakina, ‘the daughter of their own land’

scumbled to their lust. At that time Sirajuddin was not the only one who was desperately looking

for his loved one, the camps were populated with his like, everyone needed some assurance,

some assistance but no one was willing to help others out first. Some people left their family

behind; dead or alive or unconscious thinking they died and some lost their family on the way.

They all were traumatized from one event or another even the father who lost his daughter was

only able to regain his senses after several days to recall his memories and ask himself the

necessary questions in order to find his daughter.

And when he finally found his daughter, it was then the Manto’s writing teared up all the

readers’ heart including mine. It was the most heart wrenching part of the story when simple

words like ‘Khol do’ had enough power to awaken the half dead Sakina and made her push down

her shalwar subconsciously. It took the doctor by surprise but the poor father was too overjoyed
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with his daughter being alive and failed to understand the severity of the situation. Being the

reader, you surely did not find this scene obscene but cruel and horrifying and inciting you think

more about the dynamics that run such societies where such crimes were taking place. This was

exactly what Manto intended, he being criticized for his ‘dirty’ work was the reality of society

they were living in. As Manto himself said, “If you find my stories dirty, the society you are

living is dirty. With my stories, I only expose the truth”. Concurring with him, it is indeed

sensible to detest the society rather than the writer who brings forth the truth.

But did the society from the time of 1947 changed? ‘Islamic Republic of Pakistan’ that’s

how Pakistan came into being but how come according to the national geographic it is also

awarded with the one of the top 10 worst countries for women to live in? In September 2020, a

mother of two was raped in front of her children. In January of 2020, a 7 years old Zainab was

raped: Zainab being 10 years younger than Sakina does this mean our society has actually gotten

worse? Migrating to this ‘Islamic’ state was supposed to bring protection to our women so why

are they still being harassed? For this question relevant in both the years of 1947 and 2020,

Manto’s Khol do clearly answers that perpetrators are only cruel human beings where no religion

or nationality stops their greed for committing sins. In today’s society, those young volunteers

could be compared with our current politicians. Like them they assure us with protection and

promise of promoting social welfare but in the end they scumbled to their greed for money as

those youngsters did to their lust. Till this day a person in crowd can still fell alone with his

internals trembling with anxiety and no one to help him. Even those willing to help can betray

him without batting an eye. This current generation refuses to acknowledge the sacrifices of their

forefathers and continues to degrade the name of this country for which they laid their lives on
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just so their descendants could live safely. Ironically, it can be said that their own descendants are

not safe from each other.

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References

Conant, Eve. nationalgeographic.com. The best and worst countries to be a woman. 15 October

2019

Ganesh D, Ghalibana.blogspot.com. 8 march 2011

Sehbai, Sarmad. Herald. Why is a threat to progressive writers? 18 January 2017

Tandon, Ambika. Feminism in India. 1 September 2017