Imagining the Nation Through Madness and Borders: A Study of Manto's Toba Tek Singh and The Dog of Tetwal

Abstract

Partition of India in 1947 is one of the most traumatic event in the history of South Asia in relation to mass displacement, communal violence and formation of new national identities. One of the most influential literary voices of the Partition era, Saadat Hasan Manto critically explores its repercussions in his short stories, The Dog of Tetwal and Toba Tek Singh. Both stories undermine the validity of state lines and reveal nationalistic ideas and the human factory that results from them. In the story of a free-spirited dog that roams with a military border, and Bishan Singh, a Sikh man who is locked in a mental hospital, Manto's disassociates from the logic of nation states and the arbitrary nature of borders between countries. This paper tries to see Manto's satire, allegory and irony are used to expose the harrowing consequences of Partition as they defined human identity, belonging and human relationship over the horizon of belief system. By referring to the notions of 'imagined communities' by Benedict Anderson and 'liminality' by Homi Bhabha, the paper considers Manto's representation of border areas as places of exclusion and displacement. Manto focuses on marginalized protagonists, existing outside the central/mainstream strands of power, uncovering the inconsistencies of nationalism, and he is a strong critique of political boundaries – the problems in the world. These themes abound in his stories, and continue to resonate today in the discussion of migration, citizenship, and national identity and the human consequences of exclusionary nationalist notions of nation. He is a believer of 'inclusive society'.