2 His family migrated into the Indian plains at some point near the beginning of the nineteenth century (Wadhawan, 13).
3 Flemming, Leslie A. Another Lonely Voice. Berkeley, CA: Center for South and Southeast Asia Studies, UC Berkeley, 1979, 4. Or Hasan, Khalid. ‘Saadat Hasan Manto: Not of Blessed Memory.’ Annual of Urdu Studies 4, (1984): 85.
4 Hasan, 85–95.
5 Manto, Saadat Hasan. ‘Pundit Manto’s First Letter to Pundit Nehru (That Has Become the Foreword to a Novel)’ [‘Pandit nehru ke nam pandit manto ka pahla khat (jo is kitab ka dibachah ban gaya)’]. Untitled. (Baghair unwan ke.) Lahore: Zafar Brothers, 1956. Republished in Manto Baqiyat. Lahore: Sang-e-Meel, 2004. 411.
6 Flemming, 2.
7 Ibid., 2.
8 Ibid., 14.
9 Ibid., 3.
10 Manto, Saadat Hasan. ‘Two Encounters with Agha Hashr’. (‘Agha hashr se do mulaqaten’.) Bald Angels. (Ganje farishte.) Lahore: Gosha-e-Abad, 1955. Re-published in Mantonuma. Lahore: Sang-e-Meel, 2003, 31.
11 Flemming, 2.
12 Ibid., 4.
13 Ibid., 4.
14 Ibid., 4.
15 Ibid., 3.
16 In Urdu, ‘Musawat’.
17 Hugo’s Le dernier jour d’un condamné was first published in 1829. The fourth edition, published in 1832, was prefaced by a short drama, which served as Hugo’s literary response to the criticism and controversy the novella had elicited. Manto translated both the dramatic foreword and the novella.
18 Wadhawan writes that Manto finished translating Hugo’s novella in a mere fifteen days. Were this true, Manto’s effort here would be characteristic of the fast work rate he demonstrated later. But Wadhawan does not cite any sources for us to verify whether this detail is factual or rather, stands as another example of how literary scholars have mythologized Manto as a sort of enfant terrible and Romantic genius. For an interesting look at how Manto has been used by literary scholars both in America and in South Asia, read Richard Delacy’s ‘Sa’adat Hasan Manto: The Making of an Urdu Literary Icon’. MA Thesis. Monash University (Clayton, Australia), 1998.
19 See ‘Bari Sahib’. Bald Angels. Re-published in Mantonuma, 71.
20 Vera, or the Nihilists, Wilde’s first play, was first produced in New York in 1882.
21 Wadhawan suggests that Manto knew Russian, French, and English but does not provide evidence to corroborate this (Manto Naama, 178). Alain Désoulières writes that Manto translated the Russian and French texts through English translations (‘Vie et œuvre de Saadat Hasan Manto (1912–55).’ Toba Tek Singh et autres nouvelles, Saadat Hasan Manto. Trans. Alain Désoulières. Paris: Buchet-Chastel, 2008, 11–12.) Lastly, in his essay ‘Babu Rao Patel’, Manto confesses that his English was mediocre: while it was good enough for basic comprehension, he found translating the English of Babu Rao Patel, the editor of a Bombay magazine Film India, very difficult (‘Bari Sahib’, 213).
22 In Urdu, ‘Khalq’.
23 ‘Bari Sahib’, 73.
24 ‘Red Revolution’. (‘Surkh inqalab‘.) Manto’s Essays. (Manto ke mazameen.) Lahore: Maktaba-e-Urdu, 1942. Re-published in Mantonuma, 685–94.
25 Bari Sahib published Manto’s short story ‘A Show’ (‘Tamasha’) in the inaugural edition of Creation.
26 ‘Several Encounters with Akhtar Sheerani’ (‘Akhtar sheerani se chand mulaqaten’). Bald Angels. Lahore: Gosha-e-Adab, 1955. Re-published in Mantonuma, 46. See also ‘Bari Sahib’, 85.
27 Flemming, 6.
28 Ibid., 7.
29 Chandavarkar, Rajnarayan. Imperial Power and Popular Politics: Class, Resistance and the State in India, c. 1850–1950. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998, 234.
30 Batot is in Jammu near the Kashmiri border. See Manto’s ‘My Wedding’ (‘Meri shadi’) for a brief accounting of this stretch of Manto’s poor health. [Above, Below, and in Between. (Upar niche aur darmiyan.) Lahore: Gosha-e-Adab, 1954. Re-published in Mantorama. Lahore: Sang-e-Meel, 2004, 276–92.]
31 In Urdu, ‘Musawwir’.
32 Wadhawan, 46.
33 ‘My Wedding’, 279.
34 Ibid., 281.
35 Ibid., 285.
36 Flemming, 14. Manto and Safiya had three more children, daughters Nighat, Nuzhat, and Nusrat. Manto would go on to write the short story ‘Khalid Dear’ (‘Khalid mian‘) in honour of his dead son. [Empty Bottles, Empty Cartons. (Khali botalen khali dibbe.) Lahore: Maktaba-e-Jadeed, 1950. Re-published in Mantorama, 72–81.]
37 ‘My Wedding’, 277 and 285.
38 The room represented a considerable upgrade as it cost thirty-five rupees per month as opposed to the previous room’s nine rupees (Ibid., 278 and 287).
39 ‘Babu Rao Patel’. Bald Angels. Re-published in Mantonuma. 215.
40 Ibid., 216.
41 Sparks. (Atish pare.) Lahore: Urdu Book Stall, 1936. Re-published in Mantorama. And Manto’s Short Stories. (Manto ke afsane.) Lahore: Maktaba-e-Urdu, 1940. Republished in Mantorama.
42 Rajadhyaksha, Ashish and Paul Willemen, ed. Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999, 272.
43 ‘My Wedding’, 278.
44 Ibid., 278.
45 ‘Babu Rao Patel’, 214.
46 Ibid., 215. See also ‘My Wedding’, 288.
47 Flemming, 11.
48 The first four volumes of his radio plays were the following: Come On. (Ao.) Lahore: Naya Idarah, 1940; Three Women. (Tin auraten.) Lahore: Maktaba-e-Urdu, 1942; Funerals. (Janaze.) Lahore: Zafar Brothers, 1942; and Short Stories and Plays. (Afsane aur drame.) Hyderabad: Sayyid Abdul Razzaq Tajir Kutab, 1943. Flemming provides these dates in Another Lonely Voice. The first two dates are corroborated by short forewords Manto wrote and dated, both of which are included in Manto’s Plays. (Manto drame.) Lahore: Sang-e-Meel, 2003. 265 and 481. In private correspondence, Sang-e-Meel lists the publication date of Funerals to be 1955, evidently a later edition of the original work.
49 Smoke. (Dhuan.) Delhi: Saaqi Book Depot, 1941. Re-published in Manto Kahaniyan. Lahore: Sang-e-Meel, 2004.
50 Flemming, 14.
51 Ibid., 14.
52 Ibid., 16.
53 Ibid., 16.
54 ‘The Trouble of the Shining Sun’ (‘Zahamat-e-mihr-e-darakhshan’). Cold Meat. (Thanda gosht.) Lahore: Maktaba-e-Jadeed, 1950. Re-published in Mantonamah. Lahore: Sang-e-Meel, 351.
55 Wadhawan, 143.
56 Flemming, 18.
57 Rangoonwalla, Firoze. A Pictorial History of Indian Cinema.
London: Hamlyn, 1979, 10.
58 Ibid., 11.
59 Ibid., 12.
60 Joshi, Lalit Mohan, ed. Popular Indian Cinema: Bollywood. London: Dakini, 2002. 15.