Volume : 3, Issue : 6, June - 2014

The Identity Crisis in Saadat Hasan Manto's Short Story Toba Tek Singh

Nafisa Zargar

Abstract :

The Partition of India transformed for millions the very thought of home. People who had certainly not been out of their cut off villages for generations were all of a sudden strained to choose a country and this in addition changed for them the idea of nation. Possibly for many, nationhood became a conscious truth only because of the Partition, when companions became rivals because they were of the other religion and compelled them to escape to a land far away. Under such state of affairs personal identity became a transferable place in itself. People who left their homes and migrated to new land to help the progression of identityformation underwent an identity change themselves. A similar identity crisis has been depicted by Saadat Hasan Manto in his short story “Toba Tek Singh”.