In this valuable addition to the growing body of literature on the Partition, Muhammad Umar Memon brings together works by the finest Urdu writers of this century . Manto's haunting story ‘Sahae’ is about a pimp who meets with a tragic end while trying to save the belongings of one of his girls during the communal riots in Bombay. Rajinder Singh Bedi’s ‘Lajwanti’ poignantly describes the anguish of Sundar Lal, whose wife has been abducted by the ‘other side’. Ismat Chughtai’s ‘Roots’ is a heart-rending tale of an old matriarch, abandoned by her family, who prefers to lose her life to marauding mobs rather than migrate to an alien land. In addition to these are more recent stories, such as Muhammad Ashraf's ‘The Rogue’ and Illyas Ahmad Gaddi’s ‘A Land Without Sky’, that powerfully evoke the atmosphere of distrust and paranoia among Hindus and Muslims following the resurgence of Hindu nationalism in post-independence India. This volume also includes works by, among others, Ashfaq Ahamad, Altaf Fatima, Intizar Hussain, Salam Bin Razzack and Upender Nath Ashk. Skilfully translated, the stories portray with great realism and sensitivity the human tragedy that follows the collapse of mutual trust in keeping a multi-religious society together.
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