"Toba Tek Singh" ( ur,

ALA-LC ALA-LC (American Library AssociationLibrary of Congress) is a set of standards for romanization, the representation of text in other writing systems using the Latin script. Applications The system is used to represent bibliographic information by ...

: ) is a

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

written by

Saadat Hasan Manto Saadat Hasan Manto (; Punjabi, ur, , ; 11 May 1912 – 18 January 1955) was a Pakistani writer, playwright and author born in Ludhiana, who was active in British India and later, after the 1947 partition of India, in Pakistan. Writing m ...

and published in

1955 Events January * January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama. * January 17 – , the first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut. * January 18– 20 – Battle of Yijia ...

. It follows inmates in a

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city ...

asylum, some of whom are to be transferred to

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

following the 1947 Partition. According to a personal essay hosted at Columbia University by a scholar-in-training of Urdu literature, the story is a "powerful satire" on the relationship between India and Pakistan.

Plot summary

The story is set two or three years after the 1947 partition, when the governments of India and Pakistan decided to exchange some Muslim, Sikh and Hindu lunatics, and revolves around Bishan Singh, a Sikh inmate of an asylum in

, who is from the town of Toba Tek Singh. As part of the exchange, Bishan Singh is sent under police escort to

, but upon being told that his hometown Toba Tek Singh is in Pakistan, he refuses to go. The story ends with Bishan lying down in the no man's land between the two barbed wire fences: "There, behind barbed wire, was Hindustan. Here, behind the same kind of barbed wire, was Pakistan. In between, on that piece of ground that had no name, lay Toba Tek Singh."

Bishan Singh's mutterings

In the story, whenever Bishan Singh gets irritated he mutters or shouts a mix of Punjabi,

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' dal In Indian cuisine, ''dal'' (also spelled ''daal'' or ''dhal''; pronunciation: , Hindi: दाल, Urdu: ) are dried, split pulses (e.g., lentils, peas, and beans) that do not require soaking before cooking. India is the largest producer of pu ...

moong The mung bean (''Vigna radiata''), alternatively known as the green gram, maash ( fa, ماش٫ )٫ mūng (), monggo, or munggo (Philippines), is a plant species in the legume family.Brief Introduction of Mung Bean. Vigna Radiata Extract G ...

of the Pakistan and India of the go to bloody hell!"

Adaptations

A film based on a play adaptation of this story was made in 2005 by Afia Nathaniel. A short film named '' Toba Tek Singh'' was released in 2018 in India. This film is directed by

Ketan Mehta Ketan Mehta (born 21 July 1952) is an Indian film director who has also directed documentaries and television serials since 1975. Early life and education Born on 21 July 1952 in Navsari in Gujarat, Mehta did his schooling from Sardar Patel Vid ...

In popular culture

On the sixtieth anniversary of Partition, the Pakistani theatre group Ajoka, as part of a series of plays and performances, performed a play adaptation in India. It was described as a "commentary on the state of affairs between the two countries, where sub-committees, committees and ministerial-level talks are the panacea for all problems". In 2017, Naatak, America's Biggest Indian Theater, staged a grand musical based on the story. Staged at the Woodside Theater, with original music composed by Nachiketa Yakkundi of the RSV School of Music and dance choreographed by Shaira Bhan and Snigdha Singh of Dance Identity. The musical was written and directed by Sujit Saraf and is available to stream anytime. In 2018, the British Broadcasting Corporation named the work among the 100 stories that shaped the world, alongside works by authors like Homer and Virginia Woolf. The 2018 biographical film Manto featured the popular rant of the main protagonist in Toba Tek Singh. It is one of the five short stories by Manto that are featured in the film. In 2020,

British Pakistani British Pakistanis ( ur, (Bratānia men maqīm pākstānī); also known as Pakistani British people or Pakistani Britons) are citizens or residents of the United Kingdom whose ancestral roots lie in Pakistan. This includes people born in ...

rapper

Riz Ahmed Rizwan Ahmed (; ; born ) is a British actor and rapper. As an actor, he has won an Emmy Award and has received nominations for a Golden Globe and three British Independent Film Awards, and as a rapper he has won an Academy Award for the short ...

released a song titled "Toba Tek Singh" on his album ''A Long Goodbye'', and there are multiple references in his film '' Mogul Mowgli''.

References

External links

Frances W. Pritchett's 2005 English translation.
from The South Asia Citizens Web.

{{Saadat Hasan Manto 1955 short stories Pakistani short stories Black comedy Political fiction Partition of India in fiction Saadat Hasan Manto Short stories adapted into films Short stories adapted into plays