Prophet or Renegade: An Assessment of Sa’adat Hasan Manto as a ‘Progressive’ Writer
Girija Suri
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16879602
Abstract. This paper proposes to examine a variety of Manto’s writings and his comments about the role and nature of art in society to arrive at an understanding of what it means to be a “progressive” (writer) in an overtly ideological and socially-committed literary movement. It attempts to view the fraught and tenuous relationship between Manto and the Progressives as offering an insight about how Manto undermines the narrow and political definition of the ‘progressive’ in favor of an all-encompassing, complex and literary response that could faithfully portray the conflicts of his times. It offers a brief historical and cultural contextualization of the Progressive Writers’ Movement documenting its beginnings, popularity, and gradual fading, while assessing Manto as a ‘progressive’ both in the sense of Progressive Writers of the 1940s and Manto’s own commitment to the progressive ideals of living life and representing it through literature. The paper concludes that Manto’s status as a “Progressive” writer must be reassessed to account for the fissures within the Progressive Writers’ Association, the pitfalls of a radical movement arrogating to itself the right to determine standards of literariness, and to locate within these fraught relationships a profound, albeit marginalized worldview of an author that deserves to be read in its own terms.
Keywords. Progressive, Political, Obscenity, Sa’adat Hasan Manto, Partition, Psychological, Literary Poetry, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Love, Resistance, Politics.
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Dr. Girija Suri is an Assistant Professor of English at Amity School of Liberal Arts, Amity University, Haryana. She has pursued Bachelor’s in English Honors from Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University, and Master’s in English Honors from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University. Owing to her passionate interest in Indian Literature in English and in Translation, and Popular Culture, she went on to complete her doctorate thesis on Saadat Hasan Manto’s radio dramas, from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She has published several research essays on Partition literature, Punjabi Diaspora, Indian Literature and popular culture in various journals of repute. In addition, she has presented papers at various international and UGC-sponsored conferences and seminars such as MMLA and IACLALS held at reputed institutions viz. Loyola University (Chicago), BITS Pilani, Hyderabad, Avadh Degree Girls College (Lucknow), Dibrugarh University, Assam, Amity University (Gurgaon), Guru Nanak Dev University (Amritsar), Jawaharlal Nehru University, GGN Khalsa College (Ludhiana) and Zakir Husain College (Delhi University). She is also the recipient of the Posco Asia Fellowship for Academic Excellence (2010). Her latest edited anthology of critical essays titled Representations of Contemporary India in Digital Popular Culture (Authorspress, 2023) has been well-received by academicians and critics of media, literature and culture studies. Owing to her diverse interests and expertise, she has been invited as a resource person to DAV University, Jalandhar, Lovely Professional University, and Amity International School.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8777-2091
Email: girijasuri131989@gmail.com
Prophet or Renegade: An Assessment of Sa’adat Hasan Manto as a ‘Progressive’ Writer © 2025 by Girija Suri is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
