By Intizar Husain 

AT Ajoka Theatre, Manto has become a recurrent theme. Shahid Nadeem and Madeeha Gauhar have discovered in his writings a relevance to present times. Keeping this in view, they have presented his stories one after another on stage. During this time they have researched Manto and now, with the presentation of their new play, they explain their assessment of the writer. Their statements are on the brochure of this play — Kaun Hai Yeh Gustakh — which depicts Manto as he had lived and suffered for the independent thinking which is expressed in his short stories.

Nadeem says that “thought-provoking stories dealing with the theme of sex were not the sole reason for the hostility against Manto. Equally provocative was his sociopolitical awareness, which found its expression in his stories as well as in his articles.” And Gauhar adds that “the Manto centenary provided me with an opportunity to explore the complexity of Manto. His political writings are amazingly prescient. In the early ’50s he predicted a close alliance between the Americans and the Pakistani mullahs to defeat the Soviets, which proved to be the case in the 1980s. In another little-known piece, ‘Darhi, Moonch, Buqa Unlimited,’ he again made prophetic comments about Pakistan’s inevitable drift towards religious extremism and mocked the hypocrisy of the conservative establishment … although he was shunned and boycotted by the communist-dominated Progressive Writers’ Association, in the ultimate analysis he turns out to be more progressive than most progressive writers of his times.”

Both the writer and the producer of Kaun Hai Yeh Gustakh decided to present Manto as he was, independent in his thinking and with the courage to speak the truth: “Manto rediscovered as a humanist, an anti-imperialist, a friend of oppressed people. Yaihi hai haqiqi Manto, gustakh Manto.” According to Nadeem, this assertion should be seen in the background of Manto being “denounced by the leftists as a reactionary, an enemy of the people, while the rightists accused him of being a pornographer and a communist lackey.” Ajoka is out to extricate Manto from these false and vicious accusations.

Kaun Hai Yeh Gustakh starts with a scene of mass migration, an unending row of uprooted people moving on hazardously, at their own risk. The Hindu-Muslim situation in Bombay has turned from bad to worse. Times are ominous. The worsening conditions compel Manto to migrate to Pakistan. He reaches Lahore and joins his family, which had already shifted here. But he soon finds himself prosecuted for his story “Khol Dau”. Soon the progressives, seeing Manto move away from their line of thinking, turn against him. The play is not specific in this respect. In fact, the progressives grew angrier when Manto’s Siyah Hashiay came out with a foreword by Muhammad Hasan Askari.

While Manto deals with these situations he feels dejected seeing his friends foremost in this tirade against him. In fact, his growing financial problems frustrate him more than anything else. Under these circumstances, the play portrays him as an unhappy man, dwelling nostalgically on his happier days in Bombay and his friend Shyam. But despite these problems, he refuses to go back to Bombay and sticks to his commitment to Pakistan. So the play depicts it.

After that we see Manto becoming an alcoholic and his health deteriorating as a result, leading to his death. This last phase of his life, beginning with his arrival in 1948 in Lahore, was creatively the most fruitful and at the same time, the most troubled period of his life.

The play ends at a poem by Majeed Amjad, a tribute by the poet to his contemporary, the great short story writer Manto.