MANTO : AN ALTER EGO OF THE SUBALTERN

humanities

Can the Subaltern speak?1 –this phrase itself questions the marginalised sections who have been demoted to the periphery of the society and fails to have their voices heard. The subaltern segment has been silenced since ages, and the mainstream have reached inside their soul and turned down the dial on self confidence. The entire sect has been denied of the hegemonic power. For the women, it is way more difficult because both colonialism and patriarchy makes sure that she remains suppressed, and this structure prevents her from speaking. Manto is a celebrated story teller. He is a writer of new locale. One of the common specialties of the new milieu’s literature is that it is diasporic in nature which deals with race relations and a strong urge for re-identification. This dislodgment is a very unkind realism and authenticity of the new habitat, which is the fate of millions of the people in India and its subcontinent. Manto was independent, rebellious and had the weird interest in ripping down the façade that the phallocentric society wore, and he was guileless in his approach in doing so. He was not scared of exposing the blatant truth which wafts around the partition times about the people, who lounge around the edges of the marginalised circle such as the daily wage labourers, whores, wagers, pimps, thugs and intoxicated souls. He has, unambiguously, demonstrated the repulsive and vile side of the treatment met out to these women in, rather glorifying them.

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