Mahfil. vol. 19 no. 1 12 Shastry^ S. L. "Faiz Ahmad Faiz^1 Cortemporary Indian. Literature 9 June 9 19629 p, 3» Tariq, A. S, "The Javedname9jl Pakistan quarterly, vol. 69 no, 49 29-32. Vahid<, S. A, "Iqbal As a Poet./1 Pakistan, vol. 19 no, 19 September 9 19489 12-23• A SHORT STORY BY SADAT HASAN MANTO A Biographical Sketch Sadat Easan Hanto was born on May 119 1912^ he attended college at both Amritsar and Aligarh.9 and published his first volume of short stories in 1938, Between the publication of this first volume and his death in 19??? Manto wrote over twenty-five volumes of short stories and brought prose writing and the short story form to an unprecedented height in the Urdu language• Before Manto9 Urdu literature could point only to Premchand (1830-1936) as its one truly successful short story writer and novelists Premchand was primarily interested in writing as a vehicle for social criticism rather than artistic expression, Within this frameworl^ he was able to dedicate his literary abilities to the tenets of the leftist Progressive Writers Associations to arrest bourgeois and antiquarian ideas and thoughts with regard to the family 9 reliyion9 sex9 var9 and society c; to write of the basic problems that face everyday "Life not onJLy in India 9 but all over 1'ie world 5 to bring literature nearer to the people and maize it an interpreter of life and a tool with which to build the future.; in short 9 to accept "socialist realism11 as tlie foundation of all literature, Thus 9 a stringent didacticisn permeates Premchand's works 5 we also note a marked tendency on his part to sermon-. ize and preach to the reader within the narrative of the story, Although Manto shared many of Premchand's views 9 he differed with his senior in respect to the ends of writing. For Mant09 the writer was an observer, and the job of wrrting^ h3 stated in a letter to a friend^ "is to write about ll^e as it is 9 not as it was 9 nor as it will '039 nor as it should be," Thus 9 Manto is not given to didacticisn^ nor does he tell the reader what to think of a given character 9 situation9 or action in the story. Manto observes his characters 5 they act and speak for themselves, While Promchand was primarily concerned vith Indian village life 9 Manto was the first Urdu writer to concern himself exclusively vith Indian middle-class urban life and to deal with the hypocrisy and ei/tptiness of many middle-class ideals and values, Eis earlier stories are primarily conceriied with middle-class sex mores 9 and in these tales 9 we find the