Many of Manto’s stories derive conflict from one source- the partition of India. In his stories, Manto explores the theme of communal conflict and many of his characters face extreme situations of ruthlessness, which are generally expressed through murder, rape or other forms of violent conduct. Women are most of the times the victims of the onslaught of communalist madness that Manto brings to the fore but there are times when they rise up against the hypocrisy of gender beliefs and show defiance in different forms. They at times are righteous and not easily dominated. Today in my presentation I will examine the defiant positions that women take up in different ways in stories of Manto in times of conflict.
I will be looking at four stories
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The four stories are Colder than Ice, Mozail, The room with the Bright Light and The Wild Cactus.
First up is Colder than Ice. Here, we have Kalwant Kaur as the wife of Ishwar Singh. In the beginning itself Manto describes Kalwant Kaur as, “ A big woman with generous hips, fleshy thighs and unusually high breasts. Her chin suggested great strength and resolution.” Immediately, the reader is alerted to the fact that she is a femme fatale, an attractive woman who charms men with her irrepressible aura of charm and mystery. These lines reveal certain strength about her character; she is a woman who is defiant and not dominated. But if she is not being oppressed like the other women then what is the conflict she is facing? Later on in the story, when she is aroused and Manto says and I quote, “Kalwant Kaur began to boil with passion like a kettle on a high fire. But there was something wrong.” The something wrong was that Ishwar Singh was not getting aroused despite all the attempts from Kalwant Kaur. She was at once disgusted and saddened. She then says, “I am Sardar Nihal Singh’s daughter I will cut you to pieces.” This is testament to her position of strength over Ishwar Singh who
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The first story I will talk about now is The Wild Cactus. In the Wild Cactus, there are three women and all of them very different personalities. Shahina is similar to Kalwant Kaur from Colder Than Ice in the sense that she is also a femme fatale, in a truer sense of the term. I will look at Nawab’s stature, in the story. Nawab, the lover of Haibat Khan is used as an object of consumption. She is objectified as good enough to only satisfy men’s desires and she feels the need to develop a strong relationship with someone. So despite the fact she is not treated harshly her conflict is borne out of her desire to do justice to both her personal and professional space. Nawab knows nothing of the outside world and she is a conformist, one who adheres to what is expected of her. Manto writes and I quote, “There was a physical sincerity about her. She used to give herself completely, without reservations, to the men who were bought to her. She had come to believe that it was a woman’s duty to make love to men, tenderly and without inhibitions.” Soon, she was in deep love with Haibat Khan and in this state she can be described as a damsel in distress. A damsel in distress is essentially a young woman who is troubled. Nawab is troubled by Haibat Khan’s
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The major cause of the theme of betrayal in Manto’s stories is the frenzy caused during the partition. Partition caused communal conflict and mass dislocation. There is violence all around, accompanied by inhumane practices such as riots and rape. Ironically Manto himself was a victim of dislocation and the frenzy of the partition. During the time of the partition he began to drink excessively. He was met with extreme poverty and depression. Manto in his writing has been extremely blunt and has written about the bitter reality of the time. Perhaps this is why his main characters were mostly deprived and lonely people including prostitutes and beggars. Also his description is vivid which in turn reflects his state as well. He penned down most of what he observed around him from a very neutral perspective. In most of Manto’s stories the characters do not completely meet their closure. Death is the ultimate end. This notion is important in the way how loyalty between characters plays its part to meet this final end - death. In ‘The Assignment’ the story ends with Santokh Singh remaining loyal to his ancestors yet betraying Mian Sahib. Manto has written talking of the partition "were the times when philosophy, argumentation or logic had lost their meaning;they were nothing but an exercise in futility"(Manto 103). As mentioned previously madness and betrayal go hand in hand. When people live as if there is no tomorrow, when people have literally nothing to lose there is chaos. This chaos leads to bestiality which is very much evident in stories like ‘Bitter Harvest’. When there is bestiality people lose control, people lose rationality.This lose of rationality leads to irrational decisions which eventually lead to betrayal. This is s...