Nirmal Verma

Saadat Hasan Manto is one of the greatest short story writers in Urdu literature who has produced twenty two collections of short stories dealing with different subjects such as partition, human life, social taboos, communal violence, so on and so forth. His stories revolving round the subject of partition of the subcontinent after independence in 1947 are more famous and more known than his other stories. Toba Tek Singh is one such story, a masterpiece, which is interwoven with the theme of partition and its emotional and psychological effects on the human psyche. Manto very realistically depicts the division of society into different sects after the partition in the name of the religion. Toba Tek Singh tells a story of migration of Hindus and Muslims to India and Pakistan respectively after partition in the name of religion. The paper attempts to critically analyze the story as a political satire and criticize the political regimes of both India and Pakistan which divided the nation both religiously and geographically. Key words: Partition, Religion, Division, Political Satire, India, Pakistan, Migration. Introduction Saadat Hasan Manto is one of the renowned and prolific short story writers in Urdu literature, whose stories move around the social, political and cultural happenings of pre, during and post partition of India. He was born on 11th May, 1912, in Sambrala at Punjab. Manto’s stories deal with the different subjects such as partition, man-woman relationship,…