Abstract
Amidst the chaos during the days of partition, stories of Saadat Hasan Manto unveil the hypocrisies of the elitist historiography of the Indian subcontinent. His stories not only show a complete roadmap to the horrors of partition but also give a statement about his skill to find instances of resistance even among the lowest of classes of society. Despite all the critical comments and charges of obscenity, Manto did not relent but rather continued to tell stories with an unbiased tone. He gave voice to those whose very existence got the treatment of exclusion, and by doing so, he de-subalternized the eternal subalterns. His turn to resistance speaks against the criminalization of differences where he points out the politics of identity formation. The focus of this paper is a detailed thematic exploration of the resistance shown by Manto’s characters, especially during the days of partition where the author shows how he merges himself with these characters by choosing to tell their stories from an unbiased point of view. It also offers an in-depth discussion that examines the theoretical perspectives of Manto’s stories by reevaluating the discourses of Subaltern Studies and Postcolonialism.