Toba Tek Singh - Sadat Hasan Manto

“Toba Tek Singh” was written in Urdu, Pakistan’s national language, by Sadat Hasan Manto, a Kashmiri who left his home in the month January 1948 and moved to Karachi, Pakistan’s capital. The story recounts the effects of partition on a very particular portion of the population.

The protagonist of the story is a Sikh inmate named Bishan Singh who, fifteen years earlier, had gone mad and was committed by his family. Everyone in the asylum calls him Toba Tek Singh, the name of his village. Almost bald, his legs swollen because he seemed to be standing all the time, he also has the habit of speaking this nonsensical phrase, “Upri gur gur di annexe di be-dhiyana o di mung di daal of di lalteen.”

Family members, who used to visit him, now no longer come. He repeatedly asks his fellow inmates whether Toba Tek Singh, his old town, is in India or Pakistan, but nobody seems to know. One day Fazaludin, an old Muslim friend from his village, visits Bishan Singh, who doesn’t recognize the man. Fazaudin brings word that Singh’s family has safely gone to India. Fazaludin speaks of the water buffalos left behind and the calves they have produced. Singh asks him, “Where is Toba Tek Singh?” To which his old friend replies, “In India … no, in Pakistan.”

The transfer of inmates takes place on a cold winter evening. Hindu and Sikh lunatics are placed on buses and taken to the border. When Bishan Singh steps from the bus and is asked to register, he asks the official, “Where is Toba Tek Singh? In India or Pakistan?” The official tells him it is in Pakistan, the place Singh is leaving. “Bishan Singh tried to run, but was overpowered by the Pakistani guards who tried to push him across the dividing line towards India. However, he wouldn’t move.”

The story concludes as follows:

                “After fifteen years on his feet, he was lying face down on the ground. India was on one side behind a barbed wire fence. Pakistan was another side behind another barbed fence. Toba tek Singh lay in the middle, on a piece of land that had no name.”

In the story there were five lunatic types which stood out:

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1.

“There was one Muslim lunatic who had read the fire eating Newspaper…”

When asked where Pakistan was, he said “It’s a place in India where they make cut throat razors.” This is a pretty stereotypical Pakistani description considering it’s taken as a place which makes blades. Here ‘cut throat’ is used carefully suggesting murder, and shedding light on death. This can be interpreted as the way the people already saw Pakistan as a place where they would make equipment of murder.

2.

                “One lunatic got so involved in this India/Pakistan question …..Told him to come down, he climbed higher.”

               

                This lunatic here symbolizes the wish the people had during this partition. Many people didn’t want the partition to happen and during the partition the society was so tensed that they would feel not like being part of any country and just sit on a tree for the rest of the life.

3.

                “One man held an MS Degree and had been a radio engineer. He kept apart from…. All over the grounds”

               

                This lunatic is a symbol mirroring all the educated people who are brilliant and have received really good education and are still insane. Their acts are disapproved at time but they are left to their own demise as they are considered educated and the know all.

4.

                “In the European Ward there were two Anglo Indian lunatics… Indian chapattis instead of bread? “

               

                This paragraph recites to us the condition of the English lunatics in the ward. They were worried to hear that the English had granted independence and left the country, now they would have to eat bloody Indian chapattis. This tells us that the English people in India hated the country and the food here. Just like the probable disappearance of the European ward, it was thought that India would now have no ties with the Britain anymore after all this. Contrasting that India is still part of the common wealth.

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The theme of lunatics in this story is a predominant one. How everyone else but the lunatics are insane is pointed out here. During this partition process almost no one seems to have an idea of where India is and where Pakistan is. The lunatics being lunatic know that this shouldn’t have happened and opposed this even if they had selfish reasons of not moving to some other place. The story portrays lunatics as psychological elements in human minds. Even after the lunatic transfer it has been shown that nothing has changed and everything is still the same. Humans who are supposed to be sane are acting up against each other like lunatics. The lunatics seemed to have a better idea of what is going on and if we were to follow the lunatics instead of the ‘sane’ humans the product would have been different of course, even slightly better.

The last line of the story brings out the essence of the partition within.

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References:
http://www.choices.edu/resources/documents/Partition_literature.pdf