Daily Times

Google pays homage to well-known Pakistani playwright, and fiction writer, Saadat Hassan Manto, on the occasion of his 108th birthday.

Born on May 11,1912 in Samrala in the British Indian state of Punjab, Saadat Hasan Manto is known for his candid and often provocative narratives, Manto has been widely credited as one of South Asia’s most talented modernist fiction writers.

Manto came of age during an era of significant civil unrest amid the growing movement to liberate India from British rule. Despite early troubles in school, he discovered a passion for literature, and by his early 20’s, he had published his own translations of European classics in his native Urdu tongue. He soon progressed to original fiction, channeling his iconoclastic spirit into short stories like the aptly titled “Revolutionary” (“Inqilab Pasand”, 1935).

After the partition of 1947, he migrated to Pakistan. Manto wrote 22 collections of short stories but that wasn’t where he stopped. He also wrote a novel, three collections of essays, over 100 radio plays, and more than 15 film scripts.

However, cases were filed against the writer on account of his fiction, but Manto was acquitted. He was a believer in the concept of literature is life. It is common practice to see sad characters in his stories.