View source for Toba Tek Singh (short story)

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2019}}
{{Use Pakistani English|date=April 2019}}
{{Infobox short story <!--See [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels]]-->
| name              = Toba Tek Singh
| image             = <!-- include the [[File:]] and size -->
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| title_orig        =
| translator        =
| author            = [[Saadat Hasan Manto]]
| country           = [[Pakistan]]
| language          = [[Urdu]]
| series            =
| genre             = [[Satire]]
| published_in      =
| publication_type  =
| publisher         =
| media_type        =
| pub_date          = [[1955 in literature|1955]]
| english_pub_date  =
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"'''Toba Tek Singh'''" ({{langx|ur|{{Nastaliq|ٹوبہ ٹیک سنگھ}}}} <small>[[ALA-LC]]:</small> {{transliteration|ur|ALA-LC|''Ṭobah Țek Sin&#x331;gh''}} {{IPA-ur|ʈoːbəh ʈeːk sɪŋɡʱ|IPA}}) is a [[short story]] written by [[Saadat Hasan Manto]] and published in [[1955 in literature|1955]]. It follows inmates in a [[Lahore]] asylum, some of whom are to be transferred to [[India]] following the [[Partition of India|1947 Partition]]. According to a personal essay hosted at Columbia University by a scholar-in-training of Urdu literature, the story is a "powerful satire, and also a bitter indictment of the political processes and behavior patterns that produced [India's] Partition".<ref>[http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00urdu/tobateksingh/storynotes.html Toba Tek Singh – About the story] – ''columbia.edu'' (Columbia University). Retrieved 2 June 2021.</ref>
==Plot summary==
The story is set two or three years after the 1947 partition, when the governments of India and Pakistan decided to exchange some Muslim, Sikh and Hindu lunatics, and revolves around Bishan Singh, a Sikh inmate of an asylum in [[Lahore]], who is from the town of [[Toba Tek Singh]]. As part of the exchange, Bishan Singh is sent under police escort to [[India]], but upon being told that his hometown Toba Tek Singh is in Pakistan, he refuses to go. The story ends with Bishan lying down in the no man's land between the two barbed wire fences: "There, behind barbed wire, was Hindustan. Here, behind the same kind of barbed wire, was Pakistan. In between, on that piece of ground that had no name, lay Toba Tek Singh."<ref>{{cite journal |author=Saadat Hasan Manto |author-link=Saadat Hasan Manto |others=Frances W. Pritchett (trans.) |year=2006 |title=Toba Tek Singh |journal=Pakistani Literature |volume=11 |issue=2 |page=83 |location=Islamabad |publisher=The Pakistan Academy of Letters |editor1-first=Iftikhar |editor1-last=Arif |editor2-first=Mohammad Anwar |editor2-last=Khan |editor3-first=Khurram Khiraam |editor3-last=Siddiqui}} (Translation available on-line on [http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00urdu/tobateksingh/translation.html Pritchett's website])</ref>
==Bishan Singh's mutterings==
In the story, whenever Bishan Singh gets irritated he mutters or shouts a mix of [[Punjabi language|Punjabi]], [[Urdu]] and English which, though nonsensical, is indirectly pejorative of both India and Pakistan. For instance, "Upar di gur gur di annexe di bedhiyana di moong di daal of di Pakistan and Hindustan of di durr phitey mun", which means: "The inattention of the annexe of the rumbling upstairs of the [[dal]] of [[Mung bean|moong]] of the Pakistan and India of the go to bloody hell!"<ref name="ref23yuyuj">{{Citation | title=Blooming through the ashes: an international anthology on violence and the human spirit | author=Clifford Chanin, Aili McConnon | date=January 2008 | publisher=Rutgers University Press, 2008 | isbn=978-0-8135-4213-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r9gQa6lo21AC | quote="Bashan Singh walked away muttering: 'Upar di gur gur di annexe di bedhiyana di mung di daal of di Pakistan and Hindustan of di durr fitay munh!'"}}</ref><ref name="tobateksinghmanto115">{{Citation | title=ٹوبہ ٹیک سنگھ (Toba Tek Singh) | author=Saadat Hasan Manto | year=2008 | publisher=Four Corners, 2008 | isbn=978-81-907633-5-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RQJESQAACAAJ | quote="اوپردی گڑگڑدی اینکس دی بےدھیانادی منگ دی وال دی پاکستان اینڈ ھندوستان آف دی درفٹےمنھ"}}</ref>
== Adaptations ==
A film based on a play adaptation of this story was made in 2005 by [[Afia Nathaniel]].<ref>{{IMDb title|0486495|Toba Tek Singh}}</ref> A short film named ''[[Toba Tek Singh (film)|Toba Tek Singh]]'' was released in 2018 in India. This film is directed by [[Ketan Mehta]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.thehindu.com/books/mottled-dawn-by-saadat-hasan-manto-the-absurdity-of-violence/article30460265.ece |author=Sudipta Datta|title='Mottled Dawn' by Saadat Hasan Manto: The absurdity of violence|date=4 January 2020|newspaper=The Hindu (newspaper)|access-date=3 June 2021}}</ref>
==In popular culture==
On the 60th anniversary of Partition, the Pakistani [[Ajoka Theater|theatre group Ajoka]], as part of a series of plays and performances, performed a play adaptation in India. It was described as a "commentary on the state of affairs between the two countries, where sub-committees, committees and ministerial-level talks are the panacea for all problems".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/theatre/sutradhar-will-present-sadat-hasan-mantos-siyaah-haashiye/article32334900.ece |title=Manto's musings on Partition| date=13 August 2020| newspaper=The Hindu (newspaper)|author=Sangeetha Devi Dundoo|accessdate=3 June 2021}}</ref>
In 2017, Naatak, America's Biggest Indian Theater, staged<ref>https://www.naatak.org/portfolio/toba-tek-singh-2017/ Toba Tek Singh (stage show)</ref> a grand musical based on the story. Staged at the Woodside Theater, with original music composed by Nachiketa Yakkundi of the RSV School of Music and dance choreographed by Shaira Bhan and Snigdha Singh of Dance Identity.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://danceidentity.com/ |title=Discover the dancer in YOU! |publisher=Dance Identity |date= |accessdate=2023-06-26}}</ref> The musical was written and directed by Sujit Saraf and is available to stream anytime.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i60rgGJmU4w Toba Tek Singh (stage show) on YouTube, Published 22 September 2017, Retrieved 2 June 2021</ref>
In 2018, the British Broadcasting Corporation named the work among the 100 stories that shaped the world, alongside works by authors like Homer and Virginia Woolf.<ref>[https://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20180521-the-100-stories-that-shaped-the-world Stories that shaped the world | Literature: The 100 stories that shaped the world] BBC CULTURE website, Retrieved 2 June 2021</ref>
The 2018 biographical film [[Manto (2018 film)|Manto]] featured the popular rant of the main protagonist in Toba Tek Singh. It is one of the five short stories by Manto that are featured in the film.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.dnaindia.com/entertainment/report-look-who-s-playing-nawazuddin-siddiqui-s-friend-in-manto-2334317|title=Look who's playing Nawazuddin Siddiqui's friend in Manto|work=[[Daily News and Analysis|DNA]]|date=25 February 2017|accessdate= 2 June 2021}}</ref>
In 2020, [[British Pakistani]] rapper [[Riz Ahmed]] released a song titled "Toba Tek Singh" on his album ''A Long Goodbye'', and there are multiple references in his film ''[[Mogul Mowgli]]''.
==References==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
{{Portal|Literature|Pakistan}}
*[http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00urdu/tobateksingh/translation.html Frances W. Pritchett's 2005 English translation.]{{dead link|date=November 2023}}
*[http://www.sacw.net/partition/tobateksingh.html An English translation] from The South Asia Citizens Web.{{dead link|date=November 2023}}
*[http://www.lehigh.edu/~amsp/2006/07/saadat-hasan-mantos-letters-to-uncle.html A review of Saadat Hasan Manto's stories.]
{{Saadat Hasan Manto}}
[[Category:1955 short stories]]
[[Category:Pakistani short stories]]
[[Category:Black comedy]]
[[Category:Political fiction]]
[[Category:Short stories about the partition of India]]
[[Category:Saadat Hasan Manto]]
[[Category:Short stories adapted into films]]
[[Category:Short stories adapted into plays]]