Saadat Hasan Manto: Toba Tek Singh

Toba Tek Singh

       An Introduction
‘Toba Tek Singh’ first published in 1953 in an Urdu magazine Savera, was
written at a time ‘when Manto’s energies were at their lowest ebb’ in
more ways than one. He had migrated to Pakistan in 1948 and since then
had been leading an agonized existence. Constantly plagued by memories
of the past, Manto could never bring himself to feel that he really
belonged to Pakistan. In addition to this, his increasing poverty and
failing health drove him to alcoholism and there came a time in his life
when he almost got himself admitted to a mental asylum because his
circumstances coupled with his attitude to life had pushed him into a
deep depression.
Manto locates his story ‘Toba Tek Singh’ in a lunatic asylum and thus
takes the theme of Partition to the world of the insane highlighting the
political absurdity of the Partition itself and at the same time lodges a
note of protest against the powers that be, who take such momentous
decisions as splitting a country into two, without ever thinking of the
consequences.
       The Theme of Partition
Partition of the subcontinent into two separate geographical entities was
that calamitous event in its history that changed not only its physical
boundaries forever but also altered the lives of its people in an
irrevocable manner. The horror, the madness, the bestiality, the
violence, arson, looting and rape that followed in the wake of the
political decision was unprecedented. Suddenly, overnight, all those
secure walls of a shared tradition, shared culture, shared history came
crumbling down. People of different communities, who till then had led a
harmonious and peaceful co-existence, now turned into enemies. Reason
was the first casualty and fear and then rage were its first.outcome.
Neighbours who till yesterday would have died for each other now
thirsted for one another’s blood simply because they belonged to
different communities. Scenes of senseless carnage were witnessed
everywhere. A communal frenzy, a hypnotic obsession with violence
overtook the people on both sides of the dividing line. It was ironical that
the people of the same country who had set an example of winning a
struggle in a non-violent manner, following the ideals of Gandhi and had
thrown off the yoke of British subjugation, would now turn against each
other. Certainly these were demented times when people had no
consideration for either young or old, child or woman and all suffered a
horrifying fate. If any managed to escape physical violence or torture,
the memory of what they witnessed scarred their minds forever and none
emerged unscathed from the holocaust.
For writers who wrote around that time it became almost an inward
compulsion to write about the Partition of the country. For most of them
the memory of what they had suffered or witnessed was too recent to
allow for objectivity in their writings about it. There was an obsessive
preoccupation with violence as they had been sufferers, eye-witnesses
and tragic participants in the horrendous events. The horrors suffered
and witnessed had become a part of their experiential world. They were
too near and too much involved in the holocaust. The stories that were
written immediately after the Partition therefore, tend to recreate the
horror in all its details without many attempts at objectivity or an
imaginative rendering of the events being described. These stories could
not even offer any historical explanation nor see any political necessity
for the suffering. They are marked by a sense of rage and helplessness
and also a sense of incomprehensibility of it all due to its utter
meaninglessness.  Writers like Rajinder Singh Bedi, Krishan Chander,
Bhishm Sahni, Ibne lnsha, Kamleshwar, Umm-e-Ummara, Kulwant Singh
Virk, Sant Singh Sikhon, Khushwant Singh, Ibrahim Jalees, S.K. Vatsayan
and many more; all gave expression to their tormented souls through the
medium of fiction. History thus entered the realm of Fiction but a
rendering of the same event brought into focus the human face of the
tragedy.  What were merely some figures and statistics in the historical
chronicles of the time now assumed human identities through the works
of these creative writers. Instead of just numbers --- so many dead, so
many wounded, so many raped, so many homeless—these fictional
historical narratives tried to show the actual suffering that lay behind
each face, each number. For a historian the holocaust of 1947 can
perhaps be covered in two volumes of objective recording. For the fiction
writer, however, the sad event threw up unlimited possibilities of
delineation and treatment as there were innumerable faces of grief and
an equally limitless number of questions that erupted from the sudden
barbarism and bestiality of man to man. The writers tried to grapple with
their fractured psyches with the basic question ‘why’? Why did the shared
social, cultural, traditional and historical fabric collapse? Why did we turn
killers and violators? Why did we forget the past? Why did we give in to
rage rather than reason—the questions are endless. The fictional writings
took up these questions in one story after another, in one novel after
another, looking for answers but failing to find any.
Fictional historical narratives about the Partition developed basically on
two lines. There were those who re-evoked the senseless carnage, the
horrifying brutalities and the numbing meaningless violence that the
different communities perpetrated on each other. Then there were those
narratives that focused on the fear, the agony, the insanity which
resulted from the sudden dislocation of people, uprooting them cruelly
from places which had been home to them for generations, only to be
thrown into a strange alien land and told that henceforth this was their
home. The suffering and anguish that resulted from being wrenched away
from familiar surroundings forever, is sensitively delivered in these
stories.
Manto’s ‘Toba Tek Singh’ also falls into this category of stories that deal
with the theme of Partition concentrating on the tragedy of dislocation
and exile. The madman Bishan Singh who hails from a small village in
Punjab, Toba Tek Singh, is unable to take in the fact that the division of
the subcontinent requires him to cross the border line and forget his
homeland forever. In the story, we shall see shortly, how the man
becomes the place and Bishan Singh refuses to comply with the orders,
preferring to give up his life instead.
All these writers who wrote about the tragic uprooting of people
emphasized the same point over and over again. What emerges from a
reading of these stories is the realization that geographical divisions are
possible but how can one divide a shared history, a shared memory and a
shared consciousness? It is obvious that the decision makers never took
the ordinary man into account and what the Partition would do to him.
Thus they could never anticipate the great human tragedy that followed
in the wake of their political decision.
Manto has written extensively on the theme of Partition with stark
realism and powerful evocation of the shocking horror of those times. As
Alok Bhatia observes, these stories ‘are written by a man who knows that
after such ruination there can neither be forgiveness nor any forgetting.’
Stories like ‘Thanda Gosht’ (‘Cold Meat’), ‘KhoI Do’ (Open It)J ‘1919 Ki
Baat’ (‘It happened in 1919’), ‘TobaTek Singh’ and ‘Titwal Ka Kutta’
(‘The Dog of Titwal’) are just a few of the nerve shattering stories which
recreate the honor of the Partition. What is remarkable in these stories is
the completely detached tone of the narrator as well as an evocation of
the event through suggestiveness rather than details. We are just given a
tip of the iceberg, as it were and left to imagine the rest. This mode of
working through suggestiveness increases the horror of the stories
manifold and at the same time saves them from being merely a perverse
indulgence in violence on the one hand and sentimentalization and
thereby dilution of the real human tragedy on the other. Siyah
Hashiye or Black Margins was a full length work on the Partition
theme, brought out by Manto. This book consists of short fragments,
sketches on the events of the Partition. It is notable for its black humour
and also for Manto’s determination not to name the religion of any of the
perpetrators described in these brief sketches. For him all were equally
responsible. It was not just a Hindu, Muslim or Sikh who was the question
but man who had turned into a beast having lost all his tolerance.
       Detailed Analysis
The story begins in the manner of a historical narration and the opening
line itself places it in its historical context: ‘A couple of years after
Partition it strikes the government of Pakistan and Hindustan that even as
they had exchanged ordinary prisoners, so they should also have an
exchange of madmen as well.’ The style is that of newspaper reportage
but the tone is mock-serious, dispassionate and somewhere along the line
a hint has been placed about the absurdity of it all when Manto takes the
theme of Partition to the madhouse.  Whether it was right to exchange
madmen or not, no one knew, but the decision made by ‘those who know
best,’ after some high level meetings had been held on both sides. No
one thought of asking the madmen what they wanted. Probably because
lunatics cannot make out what is right for them. Only madmen who still
had their families living in Hindustan were allowed to stay and the rest
had their fate sealed. As for Hindus and Sikh madmen, the question of
staying did not arise as there were no Hindu families living in Pakistan so
all would have to be dispatched.
     Narrative Style
Thus in two short paragraphs, Manto sets the tone of the story and
displays the scene of action with a strong suggestion that the madhouse
we are about to enter is in fact going to be a mirror of the world outside.
The omniscient narrator remains distanced from the scene and records
objectively the events subsequent to the pronouncement of the decision.
Though grounded in a particular historical context and begun in a
deceptive style of reportage, we must notice the difference that will
gradually emerge between the rendering of history through a chronicling
of facts and through a fictionalization of the same. The irony and satire
at play become effective devices for exposing the horrible reality of the
historical situation.
     Madness as Metaphor
In ‘Toba Tek Singh’ the lunatic asylum becomes a microcosm of the 
world outside and Manto focuses on the anguish of one man to bring out
the trauma and tragedy of dislocation and exile faced by those
innumerable others who were forced out of their hearths and homes.
Even in the world of these madmen the realization of a division of their
country has gradually percolated through. This small world is peopled by
men belonging to the various communities of the subcontinent and the
narrator gives us short, though vivid, descriptions of the same. Thus,
there is a Muslim madman who has been religiously reading the Urdu
daily Zamidar, there is the Sikh madman who wants to know why they
are being sent to Hindustan when they cannot even speak their language
and there is again that Muslim madman who is overtaken by a nationalist
zeal while bathing and shouts ‘Pakistan zindabad’ only to slip and fall and
pass out. The madman who climbs a tree to deliver a two- hour lecture
on ‘the most ticklish matter of Pakistan and Hindustan’ lends poignancy
to the plight of those who were now forced to make a choice. Thus he
declares ‘I want to live neither in Hindustan nor in Pakistan. I had rather
live on this tree.’ The fact that he is a Muslim is revealed only when he is
persuaded to come down and hugs his Hindu and Sikh friends because
they would soon be going away. This implies that he must be a Muslim for
he will stay back.
     Insane or Sane?
Two things are happening here simultaneously. On the one hand there is a
note of protest in this madman’s declaration that he would rather live on
a tree than be forced to make a choice between two parts of the same
country. This protest simmered in the breasts of most common people
who were driven out from their homes when sudden political decisions
were thrust on them. Thus gradually we see the madhouse becoming a
microcosm of the outside world. We have a similar situation here as that
in the world outside A political decision has been made without
consulting the people concerned and it has been thrust upon them leaving
them with no choice but to comply This note of protest appears again
when the young Hindu lawyer from Lahore ‘heartily abused all the Hindu
and Muslim leaders who had got together to have Hindustan divided’
The second noteworthy fact which emerges from the protest of the
madman whe prefers to live on the tree, is located in the manner in
which he embraces his Hindu and Sikh friends and begins to cry. At this
point Manto writes: ‘his heart grew heavy at the very thought that they
would leave him and go away to Hindustan.’ For him they are still his
friends and it does not matter that they are not Muslims. We might well
ask ourselves who in fact is mad here -- the madmen in the asylum or the
sane men outside the madhouse? Humanity seems to be still intact in this
madhouse, in these madmen. Ironically the mad seem to be saner than
the so called sane predators prowling the streets in the world beyond the
confines of the asyIum. The ‘madmen’ in the madhouse still value
friendship despite differences of religion or community.It is the
apparently sane people who have gone berserk and are killing their
friends and neighbours. It is they who are saying that the place that has
been your home since birth is no longer your home.
Confusion about their status is now rampant in the madhouse. The
suddenness of the change is  underlined because even those madmen who
were not completely mad were perplexed as to where they actually were
at that moment They knew that a person called Muhammad Ali Jinnah,
who was known as Qaide Azam, the great leader, had created a separate
nation for Muslims and had named it Pakistan. But where it was and what
its geographical dimensions, no one had any idea. Manto is highlighting
here a very important aspect about the gap between decision makers and
the affected people. For the political leaders it was easy to run a dividing
line through the country and have clear cut physical boundaries drawn
between Hindustan and Pakistan. But for the common people the words
remained mere territorial abstractions. For them home was where they
had been born, lived and would havc died had history not played such a
cruel trick. For them it did not matter whether that home was in Pakistan
or Hindustan but if in the name of division of the country they were
driven out of that home then they would rather they did not belong to
any of those countries as long as they were allowed to live there. This
hopelessness and this despair is evoked in the mild protest of the
madman who would prefer to live in the tree rather than in Hindustan or
Pakistan and be separated from family and friends in the process.
     A Parody of the World Outside
A travesty of the political struggle in the outside world occurs when a
Muslim madman from Chiniot declares himself to be the Qaid e Azam only
to have a Sikh madman promptly turn into Master Tara Singh and
challenge him. Both, writes the narrator, are removed to solitary cells as
bloodshed seemed imminent. If only it were possible to have done the
same in the real world, a lot of bloodshed could have been avoided which
resulted from real life political confrontation. This seems to be the
implied comment.
     Breakdown of Language
Having set the scene of his story, the narrator then shifts his focus to the
central character Bishan Singh, who has been in the asylum for fifteen
years. We are told that in those fifteen years he has never laid down to
rest and had never slept a wink. He stood on his feet all the time because
of which his calves were distended and his feet swollen. The first
noticeable thing about him, however, is the gibberish he speaks all the
time: ‘Opar di rumble tumble di annexe of the thoughtless of the green
lentils of the lantern.’ As the story progresses, you will notice that new
words are added to this gibberish which seems to be a curious mixture of
sense and nonsense. What could be Manto’s intention here apart from the
obvious fact that this gibberish is coming out of a madman’s mouth? In
the utter nonsense that Bishan Singh speaks, Manto seems to be
commenting on the breakdown of all communication in these times of
sheer devastation. Language which should enable people to connect,
often betrayed. Those who migrated and came to their new home felt
that they could neither understand the language there nor make
themselves understood. (This point is effectively brought out in Umme-
Ummara’s story ‘More Sinned against than Sinning’ and Ibrahim Jaleez’s
‘Grave Turned Inside Out’). Thus the language was reduced to gibberish
as it failed to communicate. In addition to this Manto seems to be
implying that division of the country had led to a fracturing of the
language too. Till the Partition happened, the various languages of the
subcontinent had a common repository of tradition and culture to draw
upon from. What would happen to language now when such a shared
repository was also divided? Would it not lead to language being reduced
to unintelligible gibberish? Bishan Singh voices this apprehension in his
constant, apparently meaningless speech.
     The Sense of Place in One’s Identity
Manto next gives us some information from Bishan Singh’s past and
informs us how he came to be there in the mental asylum. This ferocious
looking though mild mannered and harmless Sikh had been a wealthy
landlord in Toba Tek Singh, a small town in Pakistan about 150 kilometers
South-West of Lahore. We are told that his brain had tripped suddenly
and his family had brought him to the asylum, all tied up in chains and
had him locked up in the madhouse. Now he listens attentively whenever
there is a discussion about the formation of Hindustan and Pakistan and
about ‘their imminent transfer from one to the other.’ When asked for his
opinion he replies in the same meaningless gibberish but gradually ‘the
green lentils of the lantern’ get replaced at first by ‘the green lentils of
the government of Pakistan and subsequently by ‘of the government of
Toba Tek Singh.’ It is at that moment that the other madmen start asking
him where this Toba Tek Singh was. How could one be certain where it
was now for such were the times that one moment Sialkot was in Pakistan
and the next instant it was in Hindustan? How could anyone tell where a
place was when the next instant it could be transferred like a plastic
block. The chaos and confusion evident in the actions of these madmen is
merely a reflection of what was actually happening in the larger world
outside.
Manto takes the credit fbr recreating the chaos, the bewilderness and the
pathos of the situation outside through his short and deep strokes of the
events in the madhouse subsequent to the news of the Partition.
Narrating the reaction of the madmen, in a tone laced with black
humour, brings out the absurdity of the state highlighting the underlying
irony.
     The Trauma of Dislocation
The omniscient narrator then proceeds to give us a short glimpse into the
past telling us about the only times when Bishan Singh would almost as if
wake up from his general stupor to prepare for his ‘visitors’ i.e. his family
members and friends who would come once a month to inquire about his
well being, bringing him sweets and fruits from home. This was the only
time when this ‘frightful looking’ Sikh would clean and scrub himself, oil
and comb his hair nicely and would wait for his visitors all dressed up. If
at any time of the year he was asked what day it was he would have been
unable to tell. But ‘he always knew unprompted and exactly when it was
time for his family to come and visit.’ With the Partition of the country,
however, their visits had come to an end and the narrator tells us that
‘now it was as if the voice of his heart which had earlier signalled their
visits to him had fallen silent.’ From the general, the focus has now
shifted to the particular and individual. Manto is now going to work
towards highlighting the trauma of dislocation and exile through the
anguish of this one man and he moves towards it step by step. He begins
by first creating a basic desire to know which side of the dividing line
one’s place of origin now existed. So the need to know where Toba Tek
Singh was intensifies in the heart and mind of the mad Bishan Singh. He
now waits for his visitors especially because he is certain that they would
be able to tell him where Toba Tek Singh was for he was sure they
themselves hailed from that place.
Gradually this need to know drives Bishan Singh to a madman in the
madhouse who calls himself ‘Khuda’ or ‘God.’ Bishan Singh’s question
only makes the ‘Khuda’ laugh with a loud guffaw and say that Toba Tek
Singh is neither in Pakistan nor in Hindustan, ‘for we haven’t passed our
orders yet!’
     Arbitrariness of Political Decisions
Notice how in this short exchange Manto has highlighted the
unpredictability of political decisions which affect millions of lives. For
the decision makers who remain unaffected, it is simply a matter of
saying a few words. But these few words can turn the lives of some
people completely upside down making them vagabonds and aliens in the
land which till then had been their home. Manto is being intensely
ironical when he makes this madman call himself ‘khuda’. There is a
similar appropriation by the political decision makers, the self styled
godmen,  who hold the strings of millions of lives in their hands -- those
lives whose fate hinges so precariously on one word from the lips of these
arbitrary Gods of the strife torn world.
 When Bishan Singh is not answered by this ‘khuda’ about where Toba Tek
Singh was he immediately launches into his gibberish which interestingly
includes few new words in it. This time he says ‘Opar di rumble tumble di
annexe of the thoughtless of the green lentils of Wahe Guruji da khalsa
and Wahe Guruji di Fateh and God Bless him who says Sat Sri Akal!’ The
narrator tells us that what he probably meant to say was that ‘this God
was the God of the Musalmans and would surely have heeded him had he
been the God of the Sikhs instead.’ The significance of this apparent
nonsense lies in the fact that even in the madman’s consciousness the
realization of new boundaries is filtering in. The God who refuses to
answer must be from the enemy camp of the Musalmans according to
Bishan Singh.
Lest we may think that Manto is beginning to get judgemental and critical
of particular communities here we are immediately told in the paragraph
that follows, about a Musalman friend of Bishan Smgh, who now comes to
meet him and bring him favourable news of his family having safely,
crossed the border. This man is Fazaldin, who also lives in Toba Tek Singh
and had been Bishan Singh’s friend for years. He now tells the latter how
he had done whatever he could to help his family to escape. All had
crossed over but the slight hesitation before taking the name of Roop
Kaur, Bishan Singh’s daughter, speaks volumes for what the girl might
have endured. It is in suggestive strokes like these that Manto avoids
definitiveness and limitation and also the perverse indulgence in violence
so evident in writings about the Partition. Here it is all left to the
imagination of the readers. The writer merely leaves it at the level of
suggestion rather than imposing a limitation on feelings and response.
This device opens the floodgates as it were for the readers to imagine the
horrors that the innocent girl might have faced. When Fazaldin haltingly
adds ‘... she too... is very well’ the words ring hollow for they are
immediately followed by the information that ‘she too had gone with
them.’ Speaking of her in past tense can only mean one thing that the girl
is probably lost to her family now either through abduction or death or
both combined.
The manner in which Fazaldin refers to Bishan Smgh’s brothers and wife,
calling them ‘bretherens’ (‘Bhai’ in the original) and ‘sister’ (‘Behan’ in
the original) respectively, points to a crucial fact of shared community
life and kinship amongst people of various communities. This fact was
overlooked conveniently by a handful of political decision makers.
Fazaldin feels a closeness towards his Hindu friends This voice from the
outside world which had intruded into the world of the madhouse only
reinforces the same closeness we had witnessed earlier in an apparently
ridiculous but actually poignant scenes when a Muslim madman had
embraced his Hindu friend and had cried because of the knowledge that
they will be separated from him soon. The same peacefiul co-existence is
shared in the world of the mad and the world of the sane as well.
Fazaldin too, however, is thrown into confusion when Bishan Singh asks
him the same question ‘where is Toba Tek Singh?’ This time Manto points
out the similarity of confusion shared by the mad as well as the sane for
Fazaldin too is unable to answer his friend. At first he says with some
surprise that Toba Tek Singh is ‘right where it always was.’ But when
asked whether it was in-Pakistan or Hindustan, he can only stammer. ‘In
Hindustan—no, no, I mean in Pakistan,’- as if out of his wits.
What we see emerging from this short exchange is different perceptions
about the same place. For Fazaldin, Toba Tek Singh is right where it
always was because being a Muslim he will not be thrown out of his
home. He will continue to live in Toba Tek Singh where he always has.
Thus the question whether it is in Pakistan or Hindustan has probably not
occurred to him. The situation however, changes drastically for the
person who will be driven out of his home on the basis of his different
faith, different religion. Therefore it is crucial for Bishan Singh to know
which side of the dividing line is Toba Tek Singh now, for if it is in
Pakistan then he will lose his home for ever, to be thrown into the
oblivion of uncertain and unfamiliar surroundings
Fazaldin is unable to answer his friend and calls upon him the latter’s
wrath who leaves muttering, ‘Opar di rumble-tumble di annexe of the
thoughtless of the green lentils of Pakistan and Hindustan and shame on
the lot of you.’ Bishan Singh’s apparent gibberish seems to be getting
increasingly politically conscious. Not only have the two difficult
boundaries of Hindustan and Pakistan interjected into his perception but
he is holding both equally responsible for the fate of people like him.
Thus his angry mutterings about ‘shame on the lot of you’ are almost akin
to an authorial intervention where Manto seems to be speaking through
this mad character that is much wiser than the sane.
     Identity of a Person Linked to Place
The last section of the stoiy is a logical progression of the plot. Having
familiarised us with the situation Manto is now going to work towards a
climax and then a resolution. In the preceding sections Manto has been
able to bring out the intensity of feelings that a man can have towards
the place where he belongs and comes from. Even though Bishan Singh
has been locked up in the asylum for the past fifteen years, yet it is
crucial for him to know where TobaTek Singh lies now; here or there, in
Pakistan or Hindustan and he asks the same question to the concerned
official when the Hindu and Sikh madmen are taken to Wagah, the border
between the two countries for an exchange with those Muslim madmen
who wait on the other side to be transferred to Pakistan.This time,
however, Bishan Singh gets a definite answer and the official laughs and
says that Toba Tek Singh is in Pakistan. The description that follows is
almost heart rending even though the narrative tone remains
dispassionate and detached. Like a trapped animal Bishan Singh refuses to
go to the other side and runs back to where his friends were. When the
Pakistani policeman catches hold of him and tries to lead him back to the
other side he starts shouting at the top of his voice, ‘Opar di rumble-
tumble di annexe of the thoughtless of the green lentils of Toba Tek
Singh and Pakistan.’ As Aiok Bhalla rightly observes: ‘in this last
incantation are encoded all the slogans which were used to beguile and
befool a people into believing that they had religious identities which
were also national identities.’ The two however are divided here because
though Toba Tek Singh is in Pakistan yet Bishan Singh cannot be a
Pakistani since he is a Sikh, notwithstanding the fact that all his life he
has lived in Toba Tek Singh. For some Muslims their reIigious identities
did become their national identities but what about those countless
millions like Bishan Singh for whom the same didn’t happen?This is the
very crucial question being implicitly asked in the apparent gibberish of
the mad Bishan Singh.
     The Person Becomes the Place
Notice also the very skillful and inobtrusive manner in which Manto has
succeeded in investing the identity of a person with the identity of a
place. Bishan Singh and Toba Tek Singh have almost become synonymous
and interchangeable by the time we come to the last two paragraphs of
the story The plot is gradually moving towards its climax whereinafter
should also lie a resolution The climax does take place but the resolution
which should have followed inevitably in its footsteps evades the dialectic
of the story. Bishan Singh refuses to be coaxed into believing that Toba
Tek Singh will be moved where he wants it to be moved. He runs and
stands firmly at a spot in the middle of the two countries refusing to be
stirred. The narrator observes that since he was a harmless enough
fellow, the officials let him remain where he was and carry on with the
rest of the proceedings. It is just before dawn that everyone hears a
piercing cry coming out of Bishan Singh. The man, who had stood on his
legs day and night for all of fifteen years spent in the asylum, now lies
face down on the ground. On one side of him lay Hindustan and on the
other lay Pakistan. ‘In the middle on a strip of no man’s land lay Toba
Tek Singh.’
In his death Bishan Singh succeeds in avoiding the exile that stares him in
the face. In his death too he is able to determine where Toba Tek Singh
lay for him. The person and the place merge into one.
     The Unresolved Questions
The person ultimately becomes the place! But does anything get resolved
in the larger contest of things? Can everyone have the freedom of making
a choice and a decision as that available to Bishan Singh? Is he the one
who is mad in choosing death over uprootment and humiliation and a
severance from all that was familiar or are those mad who choose to flee
to a strange land to turn into refugees just to escape the slaughter. As
Sukrita Paul Kumar observes, ‘Toba Tek Singh offers a fine perception
of the thin line between what’s regarded as lunacy and sanity. Is the
ultimate resolution only death? If that is so then what kind of a resolution
is it for people who are anyway leading a death like existence or for
those who choose life but are forced into a terrorised and death like
existence in a strange land which remains theirs only in name.’ These are
the questions that the ending of the story leaves unanswered. Partition
itself is rejected completely in the protest lodged in the physical death of
Bishan Singh. Madness thus becomes a metaphor for sanity in one sense
and for Partition itself in the other because the incomprehensibility that
attends dementia is the same as the one that was ubiquitous in the
division of the two countries. The whole Partition was an act of insanity
which undoubtedly undoubtedly damaged the psyche of the people
driving some to despair while others to rage which blinded them to all
feeIings of compassion and kinship. A severance from ones roots, a
sudden displacement from familiar surroundings was enough to drive a
man insane because a place was not just physical surroundings of the four
walls of one’s house or the lanes and bylanes of ones’ neighbourhood. It
was much more than that. It was the security of the known and the
familiar, it was the deep roots of tradition and culture that one carried
wherever one might go. It was impossible to sever these ties overnight.
Such a severance can only lead to madness. Manto himself went through
this experience when he migrated to Pakistan against his will. Recounting
his experience in a memoir he writes: ‘I lived in Bombay for twelve years.
And what I am, I am because of those years. Today I find myself living in
Pakistan. It is possible that tomorrow I may go to live elsewhere. But
whereverI go I will remain what Bombay made me. Wherever I live, I will
carry Bombay with me.’