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Memories Of Madness

Memories Of Madness

Stories Of 1947

Manto
,
Sahni; Bhisham
,
Singh; Khushwant
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Independence for India, in 1947, came with a price: division on the basis of religion. In the communal riots that followed, hundreds of thousands were killed and millions rendered homeless. And the tragic legacy of Partition haunts the subcontinent even today. Memories of Madness bring together works by three leading writers who witnessed the insanity of those months.

Train to Pakistan, Khushwant Singh’s debut novel, tells the story of a village in Punjab, Mano Majra, where Muslims and Sikhs have co-existed peacefully, till one night in 1947, when a ghost train arrives from across the new border, and bearing corpses of butchered refugees. As mistrust grows into hate and the people of Mano Majra lose their humanity, it is left to an outcast, a Sikh dacoit in love with a Muslim girl, to avert carnage.

Bhisham Sahni’s Tamas is a harrowing portrait of a small frontier town in the grip of communal frenzy. Based on the author’s own experience of riots in Rawalpindi, this celebrated novel describes the murder and mayhem triggered off by the discovery of a pig’s carcass outside a mosque.

The matchless stories of Saadat Hasan Manto, the greatest short story writer in the Urdu language, round off this collection. In addition to his most famous story, ‘Toba Tek Singh’, the selection includes ten other sketches and stories in which Manto turns his unflinching gaze on history’s criminals, victims and unlikely heroes.

As moving as they are disturbing, the stories in this volume are of immense relevance in these times, for they constitute a chilling reminder of the consequences of communal politics.

Imprint: India Penguin

Published: Sep/2002

ISBN: 9780143028635

Length : 532 Pages

MRP : ₹599.00

Memories Of Madness

Stories Of 1947

Manto
,
Sahni; Bhisham
,
Singh; Khushwant

Independence for India, in 1947, came with a price: division on the basis of religion. In the communal riots that followed, hundreds of thousands were killed and millions rendered homeless. And the tragic legacy of Partition haunts the subcontinent even today. Memories of Madness bring together works by three leading writers who witnessed the insanity of those months.

Train to Pakistan, Khushwant Singh’s debut novel, tells the story of a village in Punjab, Mano Majra, where Muslims and Sikhs have co-existed peacefully, till one night in 1947, when a ghost train arrives from across the new border, and bearing corpses of butchered refugees. As mistrust grows into hate and the people of Mano Majra lose their humanity, it is left to an outcast, a Sikh dacoit in love with a Muslim girl, to avert carnage.

Bhisham Sahni’s Tamas is a harrowing portrait of a small frontier town in the grip of communal frenzy. Based on the author’s own experience of riots in Rawalpindi, this celebrated novel describes the murder and mayhem triggered off by the discovery of a pig’s carcass outside a mosque.

The matchless stories of Saadat Hasan Manto, the greatest short story writer in the Urdu language, round off this collection. In addition to his most famous story, ‘Toba Tek Singh’, the selection includes ten other sketches and stories in which Manto turns his unflinching gaze on history’s criminals, victims and unlikely heroes.

As moving as they are disturbing, the stories in this volume are of immense relevance in these times, for they constitute a chilling reminder of the consequences of communal politics.

Buying Options
Paperback / Hardback
Ebooks

Manto

Sahni; Bhisham

Singh; Khushwant

Khushwant Singh was born in 1915 in Hadali, Punjab. Today he is
India’s best-known columnist and journalist. Among the works he
has published are a classic two-volume history of the Sikhs, several
novels (the best known of which are Delhi, Train to Pakistan and
The Company of Women) and a number of translated works and
non-fiction books on Delhi, nature and current affairs. His
autobiography, Truth, Love and a Little Malice was published in
2002.

Bhisham Sahni was born in 1915 in Rawalpindi (now in Pakistan).
His first collection of short stories, Bhagya Rekha (Line of Fate)
was published in 1953. Since then he has published five novels,
eight collections of short stories, three plays and a biography of his
late brother, the actor and writer Balraj Sahni. Many of his books
have been translated into various languages. His most famous novel,
Tamas, was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1975.

Saadat Hasan Manto widely regarded as the world’s greatest short
story writer in Urdu was born on 11 May 1912 at Samrala in
Punjab’s Ludhiana district. In a literary, journalistic, radio-scripting
and film-writing career spread over more than two decades, he
produced around 250 stories, scores of plays and a large number
of essays, many of them, controversial. He was tried for obscenity
half a dozen times, thrice before and thrice after Independence. Two
of his greatest stories—‘Colder than Ice’ and ‘The Return’—were
among works considered ‘obscene’ by the Pakistani censors. He
also wrote over a dozen films, including Eight Days, Chal Chal Re
Naujawan and Mirza Ghalib. The last one was shot after Manto
moved to Pakistan in January 1948. Manto’s greatest work was
produced in the last seven years of his life, a time of great financial
and emotional hardship for him. He died several months short of
his forty-third birthday in January 1955 in Lahore.

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