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Global Peace and Humanity: We, the People are Victims of Failed Global Leadership

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By  Mahboob A. Khawaja, PhD.

Looking Beyond the Obvious Lens of Human Consciousness

Cop 27 has just ended in Sharm el-Shaikh (Egypt) without any candid measures to deal with a readily available “Time Bomb”, of climate change affecting all and everything that is living on Earth. Nations and leaders made promises at COP 26 Glasgow Conference but never took practical steps to lower the fossil fuel emissions, greenhouse effects and depleting lifelines of sacred Earth. The media would call this perversion from reality – ‘politics of broken promises’, business as usual. Do they not understand the vitality of a healthy Earth and functional systems of Nature within a splendid Universe?  Do they know how the Earth, the seas, water, air and life and all other beings were created?  Have they talked about how the Earth functions, how the water flows and how the seas exist and how the oxygen generates and sustains human life?  

Human beings are blessed with thinking, knowledge and intellect. To avoid any conflict between Man and the Nature of things, the leaders, scientists and climate experts must understand how the Heavens and Earth exist and are structured in balance; how they are ordained by the commands of God to serve mankind and provide all the resources needed for human survival, life and sustainability. To deal with man-made follies of climate change and greenhouse effects, they must know how the Earth moves at its axis and rotates at 1675 km per hour or 465 meters per second that is 1,040 miles per hour. The Earth’s circumference at the equator is 40,075 km. And the length of time the Earth takes to complete one full turn on its axis is 23.93 hours. And how all the living beings get lifelong nourishment within the splendid Universe? When leaders and experts obsessed with ignorance and wickedness prefer to simply talk and listen and do nothing to avert the catastrophic consequences of their own failure, they operate in conflicting time zones without finding any workable solutions.  Is that not what happened at the COP 26 too? Not to mention the COVID-19 Pandemic and its ongoing critical impacts on all aspects of human affairs. The G20 show case galvanized the media coverage of the few who could speak and impress others with persuasive voices of ingenuity but without any rationality to console the mankind with substantial remedies, be it the climate change, war between Russia and Ukraine, supplies of gas and oil from Russia, food scarcity and global peace, conflict resolutions or future-making. It is repulsive to suppose universal harmony can be enhanced by profligacy, malevolence and horrors and miseries of unthinkable multitudes.

Sanctity of human life is grounded in realization of peace, dialogue and co-existence. The ongoing conflict between Russia, Ukraine and the West is one of the single most factors in perpetuated global disharmony, socio-economic and political disorder. Recently, this author proposed a rational worktable solution to all concerned: “https://www.uncommonthought.com/mtblog/archives/2022/04/19/ukraine-russia-and-the-easter-of-insanity.php and https://english.pravda.ru/opinion/151200-easter/ 4/19/2022:

To stop the war in Ukraine, the US, the EU, NATO should have a direct face to face communication with President Putin. …….It is logical when people of diversity and opposing ideals come to talk directly, tensions and evil mongering is reduced to reason and mutual interest. This has not happened except military options for weapon supplies and enlargement of the scope of regional conflict.  Time and history will not forgive nor forget any of the leaders if they failed to agree to an immediate ceasefire and peace deal

Are we living in an era of false truth, feigned piety and alternate transient facts of human affairs? Those occupying positions of influence generate ideas and narratives which are often drawn from people who are ideologue of self-interest, contradictions and misrepresentations across global landscape.  Dr. Rudolph Hansel (“Returning Man to Nature. Paul Thiry d’Holbach. “The essence of man is to feel, to think and to act” Part II” Global Research: 11/08/22),  shares an in-depth look of Paul-Henry Thiry d’Holbach (1723-1789), one of the leading figures of the French encyclopaedists, in his book “System of Nature”, published in 1770:

Let man, therefore, cease to seek beings outside the world he inhabits, which are to provide him with a happiness which nature denies him: let him study nature, learn its laws, and contemplate its energy and the unchanging way in which it acts; let him use his discoveries for his own happiness, and tacitly submit to laws from which nothing can escape him; let him refrain from inquiring into the causes which are surrounded for him with an impenetrable veil, let him bear without grumbling the decisions of a universal power which can neither turn back nor ever deviate from the rules which its nature prescribes for it.

Global Leaders Must Listen to Voices of Reason and Intellect for Peace and Conflict Resolution

Effective leaders are people who know their strength and weaknesses and are always open to listening and learning from the masses. Those who pretend to be wise and super beings are on the wrong side of time and history. Leaders must recognize the limits to time and place for change. Our conscientious culture, hopes and ambitions are evolutionary and continue to be changing and evolving for a sustainable future. Truth is ONE, it cannot be divided into numbers of votaries, that is, We, are One People, We are One humanity under the dreadful impacts and consequences of an invisible enemy set to dehumanize all the mankind on this planet. We should be looking for an informed conscience not default of an enlightened conscience to restore trust and societal confidence that COVID-19 pandemic is medically and spiritually treatable, War between Russia and the West (NATO and the EU), Ukraine being the object can be stopped, supplies of natural resources can be restored to normalcy, climate change can be understood and remedies can be implemented, Kashmir and Palestine -Israel future can be resolved peacefully, and we can be reconnected as One People and One Humanity without egoistic politics of the few.  

Most contemporary leaders of the world appear to rejoice self-centered evil-mongering, not wisdom and truth of people-oriented political systems of governance. Ideas and ideals that defy reasoning and truth are gushingly operative in aerial bombing of the innocents in Syria and inhuman displacement of civilians, forced confinement and torture of masses in Kashmir by Indian occupied forces, Palestinians under Israeli occupation, Saudi Arabian-UAE led war against the poor people of Yemen, and almost a million forcibly evicted Rohinga Muslims from Mynamar (Burma). The UNO is just a symbolic title, not a force to transform conflicts into peacemaking optimism. We, the People of the globe ask all nations on Earth to recognize our strengths and weaknesses for unity of minds for change and adaptability to the making of a people-oriented future in peace and living together as people of reasoned conscience

We can do it, we are One Humanity – we cannot be divided into segments of geography and history as numbers. We the People, We the Humanity are connected to all other things within the God-given Earth and the Universe to serve the mankind. This gives knowledge, soundness and power to reason and forbidden truth in the current global affairs.

We, the Humanity Look for Peace, Solidarity and Security

The planet Earth is not a dead orbiting object but a living entity providing continuous nourishment to human life, change and progress and existence of all other living beings. The Heavens and Earth exist and ordained in balance by the commands of God, not by any human construct or order. When nations and leaders subscribing to political absolutism start acting like God and challenge the sanctity and limits of the Laws of God; historically speaking they become an object of unthinkable natural calamities- earthquakes, wildfires, floods, deaths and destruction. The Divine Revelations (The Qur’an: 40: 64), remind us, who we are and what relationship do we enjoin to Earth and its sustenance that supports our life and existence:

It is God Who made for you  the Earth as a resting place and the sky as a canopy; And has given you shape and made your shapes beautiful,  And has provided for your Sustenance, of things pure and  Such is God your Lord. So Glory to GOD.,                                                                                                                                                 The Lord of the Worlds.

We must connect people to people across the globe to be active participants in delivering a new and more viable common future of unity, happiness and future-making. They used to export weapons to wage wars, now exporting wars and media propaganda and are profiteering from the emerging crises all over the globe. Replacing human consciousness of peace and security by repulsive ideas of despotism, the warlords are corrupting the human values, new-age visions and concepts of healthy standards of peaceful co-existence as they see it a threat to their plans.

Caitlin Johnstone (“We never really had a chance to build a healthy world” Information Clearing House: 09/11/22) is a courageous Australian thinker and writer and author of Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers. https://caitlinjohnstone.com.  She outlines a candid message of human sufferings:

And we wonder why everyone’s so dysfunctional and self-destructive. ….We never really had a chance to build a healthy world. Our ancestors went from running away from monsters with sharp fangs to burning witches and heretics to fighting world wars to giving birth to us, and that wave of fear and chaos carried forward right into our own psyches and into the psyches of everyone else on this planet without skipping a beat. If you look at where we came from and how we got here, it’s amazing we’re even as functional as we are.

So we’re all innocent, in the end. Again, we must of course push to bring consciousness to the parts of humanity that have taken a wrong turn — to the war criminals and plutocrats and managers of empire, and all other abusers and the abusive systems which elevate them. But underneath that fierce burst of light there can also be a deep compassion and understanding born of a lucid seeing of how we got here in the first place.

We know fossil fuel emissions, oil spill-overs, deforestation and technological destruction of life and earth can be reduced and managed but none will dare to initiate the remedial measures for change. We know global political problems can be resolved through dialogue but none will take action to communicate to perceived enemies. We know COVID-19 Pandemic could be managed as did Ibna Sina (Avicenna: Canon of Medicine), during the 10th century of herbal medicine. Why the global leaders, scientists and so called smart experts shame of not exploring other workable remedies for sustainable future? “If you THINK intelligently, you could find workable remedies to human problems.” Knowledge and sciences are not fixed entities. We the People must reason for an instinctive recognition of social, economic and political injustice across the globe and logically try to transform the world of political wickedness, disharmony, socio-economic and political deprivation and exploitation into a world of moral, intellectual and  spiritual reasoning and be passionate  and hopeful for constructive changes in thoughts and behaviors – be it the policing or the masses march on streets and halls of fame, our aim and wisdom must be focused on purpose – a different and a better world of tomorrow and continuous change to be monitored and assessed by the people of knowledge and reason to ensure that we do not cross-over the limits of the Laws of Nature  deserving punishment from God –  the Creator and Sustainer of all the lives, the Earth and the Universe that matter to us all as human beings.

(Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in international affairs – global security, peace and conflict resolution with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including the latest: One Humanity and the Remaking of Global Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution. Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany, 12/2019).

War Poisons Everybody

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“War Poisons Everybody ” Howard Zinn

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“War Poisons Everybody”: Remembering Legendary Historian Howard Zinn on His 100th Birthday

Pakistan in Search of Freedom and Security

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Pakistan in Search of Freedom and Security

Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja

People and nations once colonized by the European Empires remain colonized in thoughts, behavior and practices for ever. Pakistan is no exception in contemporary global affairs. Its systems of political governance, public institutions, legal systems and delivery of services if any to public are a replica of the British colonial systems. The concept of national freedom and sovereignty was written on paper with dried ink and the masses unable to understand why there was no planned movement for nation-building with new public institutions, new systems of political governance, new and educated leadership to make the future happen out of planned ideas and ideals of the Pakistan Freedom Movement.

Today, the nation is crippled with catastrophic events of floods, insecurity and socio-economic and political exploitation. The Pakistani ruling elite and the Generals are not open to reason and accountability. They cannot realize the imperatives of hopes and expectations of a new generation of educated and morally and intellectually competent people. Future belongs to the new generation of educated people, not to the naive and obsolete Generals. They view “power” and “Pakistan” as their own property. The authoritarian leaders played with its destiny and future without being questioned. They are the wrong people, with wrong thinking and doing the wrong things. If there was any fair system of accountability, some of the Generals and accomplice politicians could well have faced firing squads for their crimes against the nation. Pakistan is continuously being incapacitated so much so that we lost one of our best neighbor friends – China. We, the People aspire for friendly relationships with all nations – America, the EU, Russia and China and others.

The established forces of evil and destruction are within Pakistan, not outside. Imperial doctrines of governance and control of people led to moral and intellectual decadence, repression, tyranny, conflicts and socio-economic and political miseries. An elected legitimate government of PM Imran Khan was hurriedly dismissed by military intervention and a hoax legal judgment which violated the constitution. How can you restore normalcy in a rigged and naïve political culture of systematic corruption? The quest for political change lacks the existence of public institutions to sustain reasoned politics, educated and intelligent leaders and proactive visions for change and adaptability to a critical future-making. The dream of a Progressive Pakistan was lost by conspiratorial Generals and accomplice wealthy landlords dating back to British colonialism. The Generals and affluent landlords were the product of elusive manifestations rooted in longing to the British colonialism, not to Islamic thoughts and values. A snapshot of critical moment in time and history unfolds dark imagery of political governance and military coups. During the 75 years after the British Raj, Pakistan was morally, politically and intellectually dehumanized by FIVE military coups. All coups were individualistic, conspiratorial and defied the aims and purposes of the national freedom movement.The Generals and ZA Bhutto conspired to lose East Pakistan, and India was allowed to occupy Kashmir, and we continued to lose more in socio-economic and political domains because of the dishonesty and failed leadership of Bhuttos, Sharifs and the Generals. These monsters stole billions and billions to own palaces in UK, France and Spain. The Thinking People of New Generation of Pakistanis view the Bhuttos, Zardari, Sharifs and Musharaf –  all in one slot – the most corrupt, crime riddled people who will never come to terms with reason and honesty to reflect on their own wrongdoings. They never imagined–how the present and future generations will remember them? Is Pakistan becoming a dead-ended moral and intellectual landscape? Military generals do not build the nation or its socio-economic and political infrastructures, principles, values and standards or anything to Logo Description automatically generateddo with future-making.  Their one-track mental microscope cannot imagine prevalent injustice, corruption and calamities unleashed by those that they collaborated to put into power.

The Nation Needs Soul-Searching

If the Generals and accomplice politicians were to realize the tensions of reasoned possibilities for a “progressive Pakistan”, they should have abandoned the primitive and redundant longings and be adaptable to change and participation of new age educated and honest people. Most dreadful tragedies were orchestrated by design and dishonest figures. They played with its destiny and broke it as they were never part of the freedom movement and no relationship to the ideals of Pakistan.  The country was defeated by India in 1971 war as a part of conspiracy by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and General Yahya Khan. Altaf Qureshi (Editor, Urdu Digest) wrote “Skoote –Dahaka Say Purdah Uttha Hey” (1972), in which he described the details how Bhutto and Yahya Khan betrayed Pakistan and stabbed the nation and deserved firing squads but were not held accountable for their crimes. Are the Pakistanis still living in any rational denials of their own chapter of history?  (See “British Colonialism and How India and Pakistan Lost Freedom.” Global Research.org: 1/01/2022). ZA Bhutto sought help from Mrs. Indira Gandhi (PM of India) and agreed to defeat and surrender of Pakistan at Dhaka to become the next President, Martial Law administrator and chief minister. Ayub Khan had ousted him as a minister because of his conspiracy to defeat Pakistan in 1965.

Ms. Benzair Bhutto and her mother Nusrat Bhutto were alleged to be involved in the killing of General Zia ul Haq and 12 Pakistani Generals and 100 of others in a C-130 Bahawalpur plane crash, August 1988, and when she became PM, they traded-in lists of Sikh and Kashmiri freedom fighters with Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi (Lahore meeting), and thousands of them were targeted and killed by Indian security forces. Ms. Benazir Bhutto and Asif Zardari were indicted by a Swiss court on $60M money laundering crime but they still returned to political power. Nawaz Sharif hijacked the PIA plane with General Musharraf on board and 265 or so passengers returning from Sri Lanka and wanted it to go to India. He was also involved in money laundering and twice dismissed on corruption charges, still became PM a third time. Sharifs, Ms. Bhutto and Zardari stole billions of dollars from the national treasury to buy properties in London, Paris and Spain. Ms. Bhutto and Zardari owned a palace in Dubai worth approximately $10B, and Sharif brothers have several apartment complex in London valued at $30B to $40B. Why can’t this stolen wealth be recovered to help the flood victims of Pakistan?  Why should Pakistan beg to foreign masters for$28B flood aid? In a highly corrupt culture of politics, no one dares to ask such rational questions. According to George W. Bush, General Musharraf and 12 other Generals were gifted with $2B to – “Pakistani Generals are paid” to do the job, wrote the NYT (07/2007) during the war in Afghanistan. No wonder, how Musharraf bought a $1.4 M villa in London’s suburb and allowed a retired US General to monitor the Pakistan’s nuclear arsenals. Pakistanis NEED soul-searching to realize the gravity of political corruption, national security and how the nation continued to flop in a global context.

Pakistan in search of Navigational Change

Young generations are disillusioned and are increasingly leaving Pakistan to Western countries. The brain-drain problem afflicts Pakistan adversely in socio-economic and political future-making as old and former subservient of British legacy run the country. With new generation migration, Pakistan is fast losing its best talents and energies for the present and future. In 2019, this author offered Imran Khan a logical plan for sustainable change (“Pakistan: How to change political culture of corruption and rebuild the future” Media Monitors Network, USA,2019). Most of his associates were uneducated and former loyalists of the current political opposition parties. None of them had any knowledge or experience in critical thinking, strategic planning and change or future-making. Why did Khan waste almost four years in fantasy of New Pakistan and failed to live up to his imagination. What Bruce Riedel, Brooking Institute, USA (“Battle for the Soul of Pakistan” ) former Obama’s advisor said a decade earlier, is now repeated by President Joe Biden, “most dangerous nation in the world.”

The recent floods ravaged Pakistan and devastated millions of poor masses and it was happening frequently but no one took any planned steps to protect life and habitats. There is an irresistible manifestation of new age, educated leadership to safeguard the nation, its freedom and security. But Pakistan is obsessed with political cynicism and corruption. Reason and revulsion will not restore normalcy but a moral reformatory revolution could save the future of the beleaguered nation. At the edge of reason, the turbulent Pakistan desperately needs new and honest people of educated generation to plan and reconstruct political change. Imran Khan if allowed to contest national elections has a challenge to THINK and plan for a navigational change and sustainable future-making. Pakistan urgently needs a savior, a person of proactive vision, honesty to pursue a navigational change for future-making; not Shahbaz Sharif, not Bhutto or the few Generals. The solution must come from the critical thinking hubs of the new educated generation – the intelligent Pakistanis to facilitate hope and optimism for a sustainable future of the beleaguered nation. You may find it relevant to see: “Pakistan- Leaders or Criminals” Uncommon Thought Journal, USA 2014. Under the present chaotic affairs, a new Government of National Unity should be formed under a non-partisan and non-political leader of moral and intellectual integrity for a period of two years; a New Constitution for a Presidential form of government should be framed with new public institutions under leadership of new generation of educated and honest people; and then a new election could give meaning and clarity to the purpose of democracy and to transform the ideals of a progressive legitimate functional democracy.  The Need is desperate for the Pakistani nation to think critically and see the mirror.  We ask the retired and conscientious Generals to come out and launch a peaceful march for political change and democratic stability. We ask the Ulemas / Islamic scholars to hold public protests and symbolic funerals of the corrupt leaders. What We, the people are rationalizing could be ridiculed by thugs and indicted criminals currently in power. But on the contrary those enriched with knowledge, logic of honesty and planned change for future-making will view it critically and seriously a genuine and timely pursuit negating fanaticism to ensure the national freedom, security and sovereignty of a stable Pakistan.

Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in international affairs-global security, peace and conflict resolution with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including the latest: One Humanity and the Remaking of Global Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution. Lambert Academic Publications, Germany, 12/2019.

The Idea of Manto

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The Idea of Manto

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Saadat Hasan Manto, born on May 11, 1912 in Ludhiana in British India, is an enduring literary icon and one of those few people that both India and Pakistan see as their own. India claims him because he lived here for the better part of his life, 36 years to be precise. Pakistan also claims him because after the Partition he migrated to Lahore and lived there for seven years until he took his last breath there. However, in reality, Manto belonged nowhere, even whilst his art is poignantly treasured on both sides of the border.

After the Partition, when he moved to Pakistan, his heart yearned for his precious Bombay (now Mumbai), the place he had called home all along. Within a span of a year, his life was altered completely and, ironically, while the world would know him as an icon claimed by both Pakistan and India, Manto himself suffered the agony of being displaced. Soon after he moved to Lahore from Bombay, he spiralled into depression and found solace in alcohol, which eventually became the cause of his death. Manto may have died eight years after the Partition, but it is no revelation that it was the Partition that killed him. Devastated and disappointed, Manto’s loneliness in a foreign land that he couldn’t call home engulfed him and sucked the life out of him.

Saadat Hasan Manto is a testament to the human tragedy that the Partition was and a reminder that it was not a political, religious or practical ‘solution’ as we are taught to believe. It was a heinous crime that went on to become not only one of the greatest human tragedies in history, but also one of the most prolonged. After all, 75 years is a long time to suffer at the hands of an atrocity, but the Partition is a gift that keeps on giving.

Even today, religious polarisation, which was the foundation of the Partition, continues to poison our country. Kashmir continues to grapple with territorial disputes that the Partition has left as its legacy. Every day, as our peace and security is threatened and disrupted, it is Manto who firmly reminds us to not let ourselves get lost in statistics. He represents the agony of individual trauma and implores us to mourn for singular losses because the only end to violence and hate is the ability to repent and regret, but if every catastrophe is measured by a number, then how fickle will a human life become?

Had Manto been alive today, I wonder what he would have said after looking at our state of affairs? I suppose he would be anguish, just like he was then. On his 110th birth anniversary, we must celebrate the idea of Manto, the writer, his rebellion and unwavering legacy he left behind.

Manto was known as a Punjabi writer but he belonged to a Kashmiri family that had settled in Amritsar. He didn’t write in Punjabi, but in Urdu and, therefore, he was also an Urdu writer. In 1936 he moved to Bombay, the only place he would ever call home. During the Partition, he migrated first to Karachi and then to Lahore in 1948. He wasn’t very religious, but he was still known as a Muslim writer, an identity that forced him to move to the Muslim-majority country unwillingly because as he solemnly says in the film Manto by Nandita Das, “itna musalman toh hoon ki mara ja sakoon (I am Muslim enough to get killed)”..

So, then who was Manto? If we call him an Indian, he was also a Pakistani. If we call him Punjabi, he was also Kashmiri, with the streets and corners of Bombay also an integral part of his identity. Manto himself, I believe, would have preferred to be all of this, but in the society he lived in, and we continue to live in, such identities that are complex and inclusive in equal parts are frequently frowned upon. He threatened conformity and the establishment when he was alive and continues to threaten it even today through his legacy, which is why rereading Manto in a contemporary light in a crumbling nation is imperative.

In contemporary society, divisive politics is more rampant than ever and in such a state of affairs, Manto symbolises all the things that do not get along well with the establishment. The easiest way to rule for the establishment is to categorise people in different brackets that are reductive and convenient. However, Manto fails to fall into these brackets, not just because of his complex identity, but also because of his radical choices and work. That said, divisive politics is crude and intransigent and seeks to box people in the barricades of “us” and “them” and all who challenge the status quo naturally fall in the latter category. It is no surprise that Manto was tried six times for obscenity, thrice in British India and thrice in Pakistan. He was never convicted.

Manto’s work, primarily short stories, is known to be gut-wrenching and disturbing. They are not just a commentary of the times he lived in, but also of the broader ‘human failings’ as Naseeruddin Shah puts it, and that is why it is painstakingly relevant even today. Partition is a common theme in most of his works, such as ‘Toba Tek Singh’.

The story takes place two-three years after 1947 and focusses on the inmates of a mental institution in Lahore. Its main character, Bishan Singh, is a Sikh who is being sent to India, in an exchange of Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims between Pakistan and India. Bishan Singh is from the village of Toba Tek Singh and is distraught trying to understand whether his home is in India or Pakistan. When a soldier tells him that Toba Tek Singh is in Pakistan, but he has to go to India because he is a Sikh, he defiantly stands in the no-man’s land between the two countries and eventually dies there. Through ‘Toba Tek Singh’, Manto demonstrates how there’s more insanity in the outside world than there is inside a psychiatric ward.

In ‘Thanda Gosht’ (cold flesh), a story for which he was tried for obscenity and pornographic content, he talks about how during communal violence a man named Ishwar Singh abducts a Muslim girl after killing her family and then attempts to rape her, only to find out that she is dead.. Similar to most of his work, this story, too, dwells on how the Partition brought out the worst in mankind. Manto’s work, whether ‘Kali Salwar’, ‘Hattak’, ‘Khol Do’, is mainly focussed on uplifting and acknowledging the trauma that the downtrodden go through every day. From prostitution and sexual peversion to religious discrimination and political propaganda, Manto held up a mirror to society, a sight that many squirmed at. However, as Manto believed and often said, if his writings reeked of obscenity and impropriety, then it was only because reality was worse.

Alas, Manto’s India isn’t all that different from contemporary India that still finds itself rooted in the same prejudices and mindsets. Which is why reading Manto today teaches you to challenge authority and the status quo whenever it’s needed. It also tells you that as a species we’ve always sought ways to discriminate, and that hate is the easiest of human emotions. Had Manto been alive today, he would have turned 110 years old, and he remains an integral part of both India and Pakistan’s cultural landscape. He lives on through his readers, who attempt to make sense of their reality today by diving into the discourse of the past as documented by him.

“Hindustan had become free. Pakistan had become indepedent soon after its inception but man was still slave in both these countries—slave of prejudice, slave of religious fanatcisim, slave of barabrity and inhumanity”, writes Manto. A man with love in his heart and compassion in his pen, Manto is a reminder to the best of us, and the worst of us to be empathetic humans.

(Takshi Mehta is an independent journalist who believes that we are what we stand up for, & therefore she writes. Courtesy: Frontline magazine.)

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