Acclaimed writer Saadat Hasan Manto once wrote, “Pakistan had become unbiased quickly after its inception but man was nonetheless a slave in each these countries–the slave of prejudice, of religious fanaticism, of barbarity and inhumanity.”
Whether the above declaration holds any advantage or not is some other debate, the actual question is if the founders of the respective nations could have imagined the promised homelands to be plagued by means of such vices. Did their desires of impartial nations encompass the notions of slavery? Perhaps sure, but neither of them lived enough to peer via the tragedy that spread out after Partition.
Legendary playwright Anwar Maqsood, acknowledged for his Independence special plays Sawa 14 August and Pawnay 14 August, took 10 years to put in writing an end to his trilogy— and with this one, he added again characters from the past to witness the political, monetary, and social turmoil in the nations they predicted and created.
Saadhay 14 August starts offevolved with an allegation–an accusation of homicide towards two big personalities. It sees Winston Churchill, the former foremost of the United Kingdom, stressful Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Omar Kazi) and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Tanveer Gill) to seem in courtroom, and answer for the alleged mass homicide of folks who lost their lives in the course of the Partition of India. But earlier than Jinnah and Gandhi are summoned to London, Maqsood takes them on a walk via Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), Pakistan’s Lahore, and India’s Delhi to have a look at the first-class of existence in 2022.The brilliance of Maqsood’s writing is that it entices laughter even in the course of severe scenes. One such moment takes place in Kashmir, wherein a father is visible defensive his daughter, the most effective own family he has left, for the duration of a cross-fireplace, as Jinnah lighting up a cigar from the ashes of a “freshly” useless individual.
And it’s no longer a haha-that’s-so-humorous form of a hysterical snort. Maqsood throws in a single-liners that do make you snigger but also punch you within the gut, wondering how numb we’ve all come to be approximately the terrible deteriorating kingdom of the united states of america. The audience laughs because they are able to relate to the corrupt, inhumane, blind following on degree.
Nobody appears to realize or admire the two figures in front of them although, in both of the cities they visit. Even when they do, they’re by no means in sync with their “crazy” peaceful reviews. As they go to all three places, curious, they best have one query to ask the population: Are you glad in this united states?As they walk through the loud, hateful, insensitive feelings of humans towards the neighbouring countries, they’re reminded that Partition changed into no longer just an event of the past. Its legacy is threaded into the every day lives of next generations. The two remained unscathed with the aid of the perils of society in both nations– all they cared approximately became which united states was doing higher; although the standard of “higher” no one cared for. It seemed like a opposition, and perhaps it constantly changed into.
After nearly being killed through the squaddies positioned in IIOJK, attacked by using die-hard political birthday celebration fanatics at Minar-e-Pakistan, and by using BJP leaders on what regarded like a state-sponsored movie set in Delhi, the leaders knew that the peace and progress they in all likelihood expected were some distance from fact. Manto’s phrases end up the reality unfolding in front of them.