Toba Tek Singh’ - A Heart-Breaking Account of the Partition by Saadat Hasan Manto'

The story starts with the absurd decision of the government to exchange inmates of the mental asylums in India and Pakistan, aiming at sending them home to their own countries after Partition. Inside the asylum, there is utter chaos and confusion among the inmates as to what country they will be sent to.

The inmates are nervous to be leaving as their destinations are uncertain, not to mention whether they will be able to adapt to the change. Some are seen talking about whether they’ll speak the same language. The chaos in the asylum is symbolic of the chaos outside the country.

Among the inmates is an old man called Bishan Singh, who comes from a village called Toba Tek Singh. Bishan Singh is a peculiar character. He never sits down to rest. He never sleeps. Furthermore, he is seen to be extremely anxious about whether his village will be in India or in Pakistan.

Throughout the story, he is seen asking people where his village is after the partition. Bishan Singh’s character is symbolic of the countless dislocated people who must have wandered to look for a home on either side of the line of partition.
At the end of the story, when the inmates are being exchanged on the border and sent to the places they belong to, everyone fails to provide any information regarding Bishan Singh’s village. He is left there lying on the sand between the two countries, failing to find his home in either.
The story is a beautiful representation of the chaos and madness of the times of partition in the most realistic way possible. Minato tells the story of a thousand people, possibly more, who must have felt lost and disoriented because of what a few people in power decided to do with the country.
Whether the Partition was compulsory or not is a whole different debate, one that I do not wish to engage in, but the chaos that it brought about was simply depressing.