PSYCHOANALYTIC EFFECT OF PARTITION IN MANTO’S & ASGAR WAZAHAT’S WRITINGS

ENGISH

Though there have been hundreds of books, short-stories, poems and documentaries written and recorded on partition, to anticipate the real exposure of such a cruelty, remains very little. When the entire nation was becoming one to scrap off the British rule, little did anyone prophesize or foresee the cost of this independence. Manto quoted: “Hindustan had become free. Pakistan had become independent soon after its inception but man was still slave in both these countries -- slave of prejudice … slave of religious fanaticism … slave of barbarity and inhumanity.” Many couldn’t, but those who understood, knew very well about the cold-blooded aftermaths and the eternal animosity among people. The impact of this partition was not just limited to hindus and muslims but anybody and everybody, who fell into the hands of the blood-thirsty fanatics, was not spared. Women and children were the worst sufferers, who were raped, molested and killed, as depicted by Khushwant Singh in ‘Train to Pakistan’, Manto’s ‘Khol Do!’ and many more under the genre of “Partition Literature”. This paper deals with the psychological impact of partition on both the sides of the Radcliffe line which demarcated between the Indian and Pakistani portions of the Punjab Province. Writers, Sadat Hasan Manto and Asghar Wajahat, trails the impact of trauma through their characters of Bishan Singh in ‘Toba Tek Singh’, and Ratan’s mother in ‘Jis Lahore Ni Vekhya O Jamiya hi Nahi’, respectively.

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