It is an insightful essay. I am in broad agreement with Sarmad Sehbai and advance the following points:
- o The devil was in Marx’s idea that the economy ultimately determines social institutions such as art. It was too mechanical and was later morphed into socialist realism by Stalinists. The progressives followed that formulation. In practice, it turned a human being into an economic man. If the economy was to permeate humans’ life it would then also impact their sexual lives, etc. In fact it would impact every aspect of our lives. In fact, Manto is one person among his generation who has been able to see Marx through the prism of man’s instinctual experience.
- o The Western marxists however by and large rejected the socialist realism theory
- o The Communist Party of India was the only party that supported the Pakistan demand.
- o The conflict between the progressives and the people like Askari, Shahab, Altaf Gaughar, Mumtaz Sheerin, Taseer and Javed Iqbal , was over the question of Pakistani nationalism. Manto was driven to the opposition camp only out of spite. He remained an authentic progressive all his artistic life. If I am not mistaken, his camp fellowship did not last long.
- o Of course, the PWA was wrong in imposing a narrow limiting regime on its writers after the partition. This led to disastrous consequences.
Amin Mughal
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