Toba Tek Singh by Saadat Hasan Manto; performed by Ritwik Verma

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When it comes to stories about the Indo-Pak partition of 1947, one stands out almost instantly, Toba Tek Singh by Saadat Hasan Manto.

A powerful satire on the relationship between India and Pakistan, Toba Tek Singh presents a unique view of the lunacy of the times from the point of view of the lunatics of the Lahore asylum. The story is set two or three years after the 1947 partition, when the governments of India and Pakistan decided to exchange some Muslim, Sikh and Hindu lunatics. The central character of the story is Bishan Singh, a Sikh inmate of an asylum in Lahore, who is from the town of Toba Tek Singh. As part of the exchange, Bishan Singh is sent under police escort to India, but upon being told that his hometown Toba Tek Singh is in Pakistan, he refuses to go.

A film by Ketan Mehta starring Pankaj Kapur in the titular role was released in 2018. In 2017, Naatak also staged a grand musical based on the story. 

Read and edited by: Ritwik Verma

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