Meditation One

Katie Miller

Kaustav Mukherjee

World Literature

February 9, 2014

Toba Tek Singh, a powerful satire on the relationship of India and Pakistan was written by Saadat Hasan Manto. The story takes place after the 1947 Partition act, when the government of India and Pakistan decided to exchange their prisoners with one another. This story depicts the struggles that the prisoners had to go through during the exchange process. These prisoners had to deal with unjust and unfair treatment because of this transition.

The inmates were called lunatics which means they were not given the respect of even being referred to as a patient or another human. Because they were not respected, they were always left in the dark as to where currently located and where they were going to be transferred to. Often times they would ask whether they were in India or Pakistan and they were given minimal information or answers or answers that would cause them more confusion.

Many of the prisoners had previous ties to their land and wanted to make sure they were going to be transferred to their loved ones. One man became depressed because he believed he was going to be taken away from his beloved; however, upon finding out he was indeed going to be transferred to India where his beloved reside, he opted out expressing the need to say in Lahore. Many of the men became confused whether or not they wanted to leave Lahore or stay. This confusion caused an up rise of men going mad.

Some of the men went mad because they were not given answers. They never knew if they where they were located nor did they have a choice. Men were forced into either India or Pakistan but some men did not want to choose either locations. One inmate went as far as climbing a tree and refused to get down stating that he wished to live in the tree and not India nor Pakistan. It was symbolic that he was in the tree because it declared that he was not a part of Pakistan or India so he was above the conflict.

Bishan Singh, a Sikh inmate of the asylum, shared the inmate’s distress between living in either India or Pakistan. Guards tried to force him into India, however, he refused to move. After fifteen years of standing, he fell on a small patch of land between India and Pakistan known as Toba Tek Singh. His refusal to move proved that he belonged to no country or flag. Bishan Singh refused to be controlled and he asserted his independence.

Most of the inmates fell under unjust treatment. They were constantly in fear for they did not know where they were, or where they were going. The confusion led to some of the inmates going mad. The asylum stripped away their independence. They were controlled and told where they would belong. Bishan Singh broke away from getting his independence stripped by lying in a no man’s land. He lived fifteen years in the asylum and was left in the dark, but was a free man, free from injustice and corruptness when he asserted his independence back when he chose to lie in Toba Tek Singh.