Örkény Manto EPW 1997

8/12/2019 rkny Manto EPW 1997

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Telling Stories of Partition and War: Saadat Hasan Manto and Istvan OrkenyAuthor(s): Margit KovesReviewed work(s):Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 32, No. 33/34 (Aug. 16-29, 1997), pp. 2147-2153Published by: Economic and Political WeeklyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4405763.

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T e l l i n g t o r i e s o artition a n d a rSaadat Hasan Manto and Istvan Orkeny

Margit KovesThis article looks at the short stories of Saadat Hasan Manto in Urdu about the Partition and of Orkeny, a

Hungarian Jewish writer about the Holocaust andfinds that by adopting a critical distance both Manto and Orkenywere able to evolve narrative strategies which invited the readers' response and stimulated agency. By counteringmoralising and sentimentality in their narrative strategies they enabled the reader to deal with and go beyondthe paralysing effects of such traumatic experiences."Stopmakinga fool of yourself ', said Aurora."Everybody here is shocked by the Hindut-Muslim killings. You have no monopoly onthat pain..." - The Moor's Last Sigh

THE decade of the 1940s was the era oftwo major historical catastrophes, thesecond world war with the Holocaust inEurope and the Partition in India. Theexperience shaped the consciousness ofseveral generations both in Europe (inHungary)and in India. The transformationof the historical experience into works ofliterature is reflected in contemporaryliteraturewritten in Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi,Bengali' and Hungarian.2 Many of thewritingsof the Indian,SaadatHasanMantoand the Hungarian,Istvan Orkeny (1912-1979)wererooted ntheeventof thePartitionand the world war.The similarity between some of theirwritings, concretely between Orkeny'sOne minute stories and Manto's SiyahHashye stories, is striking. The closenessbetween their stories provoked the query,as to how narrativeenergy deals with anextreme situation, like the catastrophe ofthe Holocaust and the Partition. Theseevents were not only benumbingexperiences but they also laid bare moral,political and intellectual contradictions,evident only in a crisis.3The narrative strategies employed inmediating these traumatic events areconnectedwith thechanging possibilitiesofrepresentation. The time and historicalcontext of writing,the establishedformsofreceptioninformed Manto's and Orkeny'sworkdifferently.But theirstoriesare rootedin a similarsatirical, ronicalsensibility andcompelledby the awarenessof the need forobjectivity.4There are analogies between Manto andOrkeny n a widerperspective.Theydefinedtheir dentityas Indianand Hungarian,hadto come to terms with their Muslim andJewish identity, as members of minoritycommunities,as defined by the majoritycommunity and law, and this also meantphysicalthreat o their survival.Both wereforcedby the position of their marginality

towards left revolutionary ideology butmaintaineda varying distance from leftistmovements. Their lives were paradigmaticinthe contextof communalisation f politicsin the particular historical situation inHungary ndIndiaand heir ives representedpossible responses to the challenges ofpolitical confrontation.My attempt s to underline he analogouselements nManto'sandOrkeny'swork andsuggest a similar nvestigationof Orkeny'sand Manto's narrative rt,specially the Oneminute toriesandtheSiyah Hashye stories.The works included in these volumesrepresenta new genre in Hungarian andUrduprose relying on a new participationby the reader. Manto's move away fromtraditional ealismmeantaninvestigationofvarious narrative trategies, an explorationof otherformsof reflection.Afterthe novelsandplays n the ate1940s and1950sOrkenyalso movedawayfromtraditionalnormsofrealism n the 1960s andexperimentedwitha new form of short prose lying betweendramaandpoetry.Inthe case of both writerscriticism ound t difficultto define thegenreof work they wrotein. Dramaand film, themedium he two writersadditionallyworkedin, moulded this new form. Orkeny's Oneminute stories found wide response inHungary and initiated a new short fromtakenonbyotherwriters n the 1970s. Whilemany of Orkeny's pieces became part ofurban olkloreManto,'s storiesin the SiyahHashye volume were criticised as a moveaway romrealism5 nd heunconventionalityof the form left his editorswonderingaboutthe definition and the adequate form ofpublishing.6Since I do not know Urdu I worked onthe basis of English translations and Iused Hindi translations wherever it waspossible. Icould also not followan mportantphenomenon, the effect of Punjabi-Urdubilingualism on Manto's language. Theseaspectswouldalso need urthernvestigation.Orkeny's language is standard, urban,literary Hungarian,he uses simple syntax.For obvious reasons, I give Orkeny'sbackground in much greater detail, thanManto' s.

IIstvan Orkeny was born before the firstworld war in a middle class, professionalfamily in the same yearas Manto.He studiedin a school of thePiarists,aCatholic eachingorder.His fatherwas apharmacistndOrkenydecided to follow his profession.Orkeny'sfirst major publication entitled Revolution

publishedin 1937 tells about the escape oflunatics from an asylum, a vision of fascisttakeover. A catastrophic turn of historyassociated with the lunatic asylum bringsManto's Toba Tek Singh to mind.Orkenycame from an assimilatedJewishfamily. Assimilationwas partof the liberalproject of emancipationandmodernisationinHungary incethe19thcentury.7t ncludeda wide range of controversial phenomenasuch as the creationof the neologue JewishChurch and also large-scale conversion ofJews,changingJewishnames ntoHungarianones, purchaseof aristocratic itles, greaterparticipation n public life andthe strugglefora uniformcivil code, thelegal possibilityof intermarriagebetweenJewsndChristians.Aspecificfeatureof Hungarian evelopmentwas thatJewish ssimilationwasnot ollowedby the erasureof distancebetweenJews andothergroups n Hungary.The anti-Jew aws(1938, 1939 and 1941) which acceptedtheNuremberg efinitionof theJew,completelyremovedJews frompublic ife andcontrolledtheiremployment.ThishitOrkeny ikemanywho were earlierconsideredpartof the widespectrum f theHungarianntellectual cenefromChristianCatholicto Communist. Inhis Letters in One Minute Orkeny writesabouthis sense of isolation9and shock overthetreatmentmetedout to him at thebarrackat Nagykata where he was called up formilitary abour."IManto'sexperiences ntheBombayTalkies at the time of thecommunalriots in 1947, his response to the hate mailreceivedby his superiorsWacha and AshokKumar t hetime,and oShyam'sdeclarationthat while he was listening to the accountof a Sikh refugee he could have killed himare comparable in the sheer intensity offeeling suddenlycast out of society for nopersonal mistake of his."

Economic and Political Weekly August 16-23, 1997 2147


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Hungaryparticipatedn the second worldwar on the side of Germany which firstmneanthat ormerHungarianerritoriesweregiven back (by the Vienna Awards 1938,1940) andthe secessionwasfollowed by thedesperate ffortof he ll-equippedHungarianarmy ofightthelosingbattleontheR'ussianfront. In 1943 alone nearVoronezh, at thebend of the Don river 40,000 Hungariansoldiers died and70,000 were wounded, atracdy which affectedalmostevery familyin Hungary. The restrictions of militaryservice imposedeven harderconditions onthose who wereof Jewish origin. For themlike for Orkeny it actually meant forcedlabour without arms, digging trenches orassisting in the maintenance of the mainsupply routes. This is often the visualbackground fOrkenysOnieMinuteStories.His play Voronec7h2 arries the name ofthe place, where Orkeny spent half a yeartill theSecond HungarianArmywas wipedout.Orkeny became a prisoner of war andspent four years in camps, where he gavelectures about Hungarian history andliterature ndmade the acquaintance f thephilosopherGeorg Lukacs,the CommunistParty theoretician Jozsef Revai and thepartysecretary MatyasRakosi. He arrivedback in Budapest in 1946, after the war.Throughouthis later ife Orkenyconfirmedthat the mainexperienceof his life was thewar, he frontand he camps or the prisonersof war.His twodocumentary ovels, published nPeople of the Camps3and heplay Voronezhset out to show those elements ofconsciousnesswhichpermitted generationof Hungarians o supportthe war and thetransformationfconsciousnessastheeventsof the second world war unfolded.

IIThe mythof national dentityis depictedin thepresentation f the variouscharactersof the play Voronezh as they face thecatastropheoftheHungarianArmy n Russia.The self-image of Hungarians s expressedin Pataki's words to the Russian Raya:Hungarians re kind.They aregentle likechildren.Theyhaveaheart,but heyarestillmen.Theyarereckless,but theycan startcrying when they hearmusic.The variouscharactersof the play, armyofficers with an aristocraticbackgroundormiddle lasssubaltems ikePatakiunderstandtheirHungarian dentityto a largeextent assubservience o authorityoften defined bythemasloyaltyto the nation.This is coupledwith a romanticised,feudal understandingof theirresponsibility n thegiven situationasunwillingallies of theGermans n Russianterrtory in the first days of 1943 when theRed Army carries on its offensive against

the Germansand Hungariansat Voronezh.Pataki, a survivor of the death of theHungarian rmy akeson to give anaccurateaccount of the events. The performanceofthe play immediatelyafterthe war did notgeneratemuch interest.It was only later nthe 1960s thatpublic interestwas readytofocus on the war in a changed historicalcontext when Orkenytook up the theme ofthewarandHungariandentitybutelaboratedit differently in absurd drama and in thegrotesque.Manto's stories about the Partitionalsodid not subvert the myth of nationalcommunity based on religion even thoughhis short stories undercutvariouselementsof that deology. In 1948 he was accusedofturning tragedy into sensation in ColderthanIce (ThandhaGhosht)and n TheRetum(Khol-do). Mantoimplied that his responsewas connected with an analyticaldistancefrom the events - an approach inking himwith Orkeny- which also reflected on hisnarrative tyle. He defendedhimself againstthe criticism of the Progressive WritersMovementalso by saying,"..1came o acceptthis nightmarish ealitywithout self-pity ordespair".'4The historical experiencesof the last 55years stimulated n central-eastEuropethetraditional culture of irony to ideas,institutions nd o one'sown self-perception.This has been partof the tongue-in-cheek'style' of speaking and the art of survivalin general. After the 1956 Uprising whenOrkenyparticipatedn theprogramme f thenewly established 'Free Radio' his workswere not published.He had to take up a jobin a pharmaceutical actoryin 1958 whichOrkenycalled a "usefulbreak".Hecametounderstandir.ny stheonlyvalidrelationshipto the world and decided to go back to theplayful, ironical stance of his first shortstories."'Satire and irony were partof the Hindi'6and Urdu literary tradition.'7 n the 19thcenturyAkbarIlahabadi'8 esponded o themodernising trend of Sir Sayyid Khan insatirical verse. Writers like Fikr Tauswi'9andIbnelnsha20 sed satire n theirwritingson the Partition.Manto's writing from thebeginningundercut heconventional ontentnormally attached to values like honour,chastity, freedom, hospitalityand passion.His shortstories writtenbeforethe Partitionreflect a kind of heroic ironyas in The NewConstitution (Naya Kanun) (pp 83-92) orethical ronyas inBabuGopiNath(pp 133-47).2' The stories in the SiyahHashye, suchas 'Modesty' (Kasr-i nafsi) (p 27), 'OutofConsideration' ('Riaayat') (p 31),'Determination' 'Istaklal') p 28)22 rebuilton the contradictionbetween the title andthecontentofthestory.This is inconsistencewithOrkeny' instructions o hisOneMinuteStoriesadvising the reader o take the title

of the story as seriously as the numberofthe tram to be boarded.23The combination of irony with a newstructure f narrative ddeda new dimensiontoOrkeny'swork n the1960s. This structureis built on the dialogue, like before butemploys the form of theparableand s oftensustained by an ethical, aesthetic orexperientialparadox.Ituses descriptionsofthe surroundingsonly to the extentof bareminimum and the starting point is often adocument, a photograph ('Catsplay') or aletter ('The Tot Family').A similarmethodof using anewspaperclippingendsManto'sstories 'Sharabi' and 'By the Roadside'(Sarak-kekenare) pp 231-36). He also builta story on a fictive letter'Ek Khat'24wherethe etterwriter-narrators awomanworkingin an office. This is an effective narratorialmethod to create immediacy between thereader and the expriences of office life asrelatedby a young woman.Orkeny was an admirerof Franz Katkaand followed to a greatextent the narrativeconstruction f Kafka's hort tonres. houghsome of Franz Kafka's writings like'Metamorphosis' were translated intoHungarianas early as the 1920s, in 1957 anew collection of Kafka's short stories waspublished again and in the early 1960sKafka's work exercised great influence inHungary. This influence was particularlyinstrumentaln Orkeny'scase. The paradoxof situations, heparable-structuref Kafka'sstories,25 ndthe narrativeoneof objectivitytogetherwith the presenceof the grotesqueseem obethemost mportantinks,especiallyin the case of Franz Kafka's later storieswhich are collected in the volume DerHungerkunstier.The irrationalelement ofKafka'sstorieswas transformednOrkeny'stories by historicising the narrativeof anabsurd ituation n a concreteframework freference.26Manto's early work was to a greatextentinfluenced by Chekhov whose stories hetranslatedand published in a volume RusiAfsane. The later years also show theinfluenceofMaupassant.BothMaupassant'andChekhov's torieshaveadramaticualitywithmanydialogues.Chekhov'sandGorky'sdepictionof characterrom heworkingclassand the lower middle class, the range ofgenresused by the two Russianwriters, henarrator'srole in Chekhov's short storiesmotivatedManto n a similardirection.Theplot has many unexpectedturns n Manto'sstories similarly to Maupassant' .27WhenOrkeny startedpublishingagain nthe 1960shebroughtout 'Catsplay'2x1963)and 'The Tot Family'291964), whichalongwith the works of the Polish writersGombrowitz, Mrozek, Rozewicz and theCzech Vaclav Havel developed the eastEuropean version of the absurd.30Both'Catsplay' and 'The Tot Family' were first

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writt_n as novels with large sections indialogue and were transformed ater intoplays. Though the theatreof the absurd nthe classicalsense(aspresented n the worksof Beckett,AdamovorJarry) reconsiderednot to be connectedwith concretespace ortime and as a consequence also without alink to history. Camus, in the 1955 editionof the Mythof Sisyphus,the initiatingworkof the philosophyof Absurd,suggestedthatthe awarenessof the absurdityof existencewas historically conditionedby the secondworldwar.Both Orkenyand Mantoconnectthe absurdity of existence to concretehistorical ituationsandbuild literary ormsaround aradoxesoexposetherelativevalueofjudgments n ahistorical ontext.Paradoxemergesin Manto'sworkin the conflict ofreality and illusion.3'Though he timeof 'Catsplay' s the 1960sit goes back to the time of the first worldwar n the formof a photographnterpretedbythe two sistersGiza andErzsi,accordingto their different value systems andsociologicalroles nlife,oneliving nrelativeluxury in West Germany with herbusinessman on and the otherstaying in aBudapest lockof apartmentsn herpension.Depending on the viewer's point of viewErzsi's life and passions, her personality,canbe understood othastragedy rcomedy.Theabsurdity f existenceis complem.entedby Orkeny with the concrete historicalsituation.The problemof fascism, the 'agency ofsmall men', the sudden manifestation ofhuman potentialwas addressedagain in anewform n 'TheTotFamily'.Orkeny pokeabout heconnection betweenthe absurdityof existence andagencyinthe contextof thesecond world war when he said,

It is merely a consequence v? mypsychological construction and nervoussystemthat rom heabsurdphenomena flife I did not conclude thatlife is absurd,hopelessand unbearable. have been in anumber f absurd, opelessandunbearablesituationsanidperhapsbecause I do notapproach his questionfrom the point ofview of thetheoryI alwaysfinda tinty ayof hopewhich makes life worth iving... Ibelieve n man'sagency,and he ife-savingcharacter f action...Insimilarcrisis during hePartitionwhenthe moral otality n society is fractured hechoice between good and bad plays anextreme role.32 Manto's short storiesintroduce protagonists who suddenly seetheircrimesnadifferentmoral-ethical rderand reach the point of awareness that aconscious choice should have been made.MantodedicatesSiyah Hashye to the man,who murderedbut finally after killing anold woman felt that he killed suggestinga new awareness in the ethical order ofthe murderer.

The protagonisLf 'TheTot Family'LajosTot is ready to go along with all the whimsof the Major of his son's unit, because helike the restof his family wants to save hisson's life. But when the Majordecides toextend his stay Tot chops him into fourpieces.Orkenyn his 'Lettero theSpectator'describesTot as an absurdhero ready to goalongwith the humiliations ill he rebelsandkills theMajor.The generationwhich foughtthe war went along to the very end underthe inner commandto obey, even if it wasknown that it will lead to their owndestruction. Tot, unlike them, regains hisautonomy when he kills the Major.

IIIThe OneMinuteStories encapsulate n aminiature orm what the novels and playshad established.In the second half of the1960s the relevant form to deal with theeventsofeastEuropean istoryand hesecondworld war was the grotesquewhich couldtransform he narrative f the second worldwar rom he evel of particularityo the evelof generality.It brought n literaturea newvoice, the language of joke, parody andblack humour.It was part of the culturalrevival whichtook p ace in easternEurope in the 1960s,the renaissanceof Marxismin the LukacsSchool in Hungary,Yugoslavia,PolandandCzechoslovakia. The renewal of Marxisttheory was expected from the connectionbetween heoryandpraxis, he roleof labour,and this had a wide-ranging effect oneconomic reforms, new interpretationsofdemocracy,the analysis of modern history

and the relationship o institutions.In the 1960s visual arts ncluding ilm,artexhibitionsand elevisionbecame mportant.Thiswas thegreatageof eastEuropean ilm.Polish and Soviet film turnedto historyinthecontextof nation like nAndrzeyWajda's'AshesandDiamond') rtradition ndculture(Tarkovsky's AndreyRubljov').Satireandgrotesquewere an important lementof thenew Czech film before 1968 (in Forman's,Menzel's andChytilova's ilms). From1964to 1971 theHungarianMiklosJancso's ilmstook up the problem of history and themasses." Avant-garde n art and theatre nHungaryin the 1960s introducedcollage,abstractnon-figurativeart and mobile art,non-professional experimental theatre,organised happenings all demanding theviewer'sparticipation. aszloReberprovidedthe illustration of Orkeny's One MinuteStorieswhoseclearblack ndwhitedrawings,singleoutlinefiguresandspatialarrangementaddeda neo-primitiveeffect to the stories.Thesimplicityof narration ombinedwiththephilosophicalcontentandthe elementoffantastic (ot surreal) creates that specificaestheticquality34which set aparzhe genreof Orkeny's OneMinute Stories from the

anecdote, the joke, the tale and places itclosest to the parablein the Bible in spiteof the fact that it has taken over variouselements from all. The French title ofOrkeny's 'grotesque' is mini-myths denti-fying the surreal, antasticelement withthecreation of myth. The function of the'grotesque' is the inversionof the myth ofidentityor socialformyetit can be perceivedas anthropocentricmyth. The element offantasticorsurreal hatcreates hegrotesquesets apartOrkeny's shortstoriesdespite theapparentsimilarities from Manto's SiyahHashye stories. The narrativesof both arepresented in clear, transparenteverydaylanguage, the absence of the author, theabsurdityof coexistence of comic andtragicelements.ThefinalpunchoftheSiyahHashyeis providedbyalinguisticelement,a disclos-ureof the truthor a suddeneventin contrastto the fantastic turn in Orkeny's work.BothMantoandOrkenywant ogobeyondthe established iterary radition o provokethe reader to contemplate reality. Theirnarrative trategiesworkrather n signalingsituations, recognising action, than ondetaileddescription f thesurroundings. hisis why the title and recognisingthe paradoxof the title and the content of the story isimportantnthecase of boththeOne MinuteStories and theSiyah Hashyestories.Thereis anobvious analogy with BertoltBrecht'sepic theatrebuildingon the receptionof theaudience, on the process of rationallyreflecting on the action during theperformance ndtakingapositionrelated oboth the contentof theplay and the processof capitalist productionin reality.35Twenty years after the world war andtransformation taking place in HungaryOrkeny could rely on; a more receptiveaudiencethanMantQ mmediatelyafter thePartition.Bythe 1960sa newreadingpublic,a more receptive audience grew up inHungarywith a greateropenness to irony.This was reinforced by an ironicalrelationship oinstitutions,apoliticalcultureof irony, everyday forms of urbanculture,jokes, anecdoteand black humour haredbymany and also importantin channelisingtensions about the practice of 'softdictatorship'36As Orkeny said in an interview his OneMinuteStory s like a mathematical quationto be solved by the readerwith minimuminformation provided by the narrator.Heuses "drastic methods" to achieve "anexplosion in the brain of the reader".Thefantastic element is complemented by acommonplace situationwhich is partof thebeginningof the story.While Orkenycoulddevelop his story into a new small form, anewgenre, hegrotesquewhichearlierexistedat the level of style on the basis of a sharedculture and value system of a receptiveaudience, Manto had to build on reception



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on a differentbasis. His 'avsananch'(thediminutive of Urdu 'avsana' 'short story')also digressesfrom iterary raditionand hisstoryis also built on the recognitionof thevalidity of a certainparadox but he sticksto the realistic element.IV

In spite of a similar critical relationshipbetweenMantoandOrkenyto the mythofmoral and cultural values of certainsocialclasses, the establishedtraditionsof proseaffordedMantodifferentpossibilities o dealwith narrative space than Orkeny. Theintersection f feudalandcapitalistelementsin urban India, and the presence of theindependencemovement promptedMantoto experiment with various narrativestrategies. As an experiment to connectnarrationwith acertain ocialrealityI wouldlike to take up the example of two storieswrittenbyMantobeforethePartitionbeforecoming to a concrete comparison of theSiyah Hashye and the OnieMinuteStories.The stories TheNewConstitution' 'NayaKanun') (pp 83-92) and 'BabuGopi Nath'(pp 133-47) written before independenceshow the clash between the institutionsofthe Raj, the norms of feudal Indiaand theentryof modernity.Theambiguityof valuesin society, theircomic and tragic elements,unfold in the narrativeor in the dialogue.In 'The New Constitution' Mangu, thetongawalaplacesall hopesof ajust society,emancipation with more equal relationsbetweenmanandsociety;ontheGovernmentof India Act of 1935, as something whichhas an internalrelationshipto his life.The only thing he-could compare the newconstitution with was the splendid brass andgilt paraphernaliahe hadpurchasedacoupleof years ago for his tonga from ChaudhryKhudaBux. The new constitution gave himthe same nice, warm feeling.He places all conversations that heoverhears n the context of the change. Onthedaywhen he aw sbroughtn herespondsto the provocationof an Englishman andlandsupinjail. Hisautonomyemerges fromthis ability to take risk and his assault onthe Englishman is justified by hispoliticisation and engagement with issues

like the success or failure of the CongressParty o achieveSwaraj, he cause of Hindu-Muslimriots,Lhe ivil war in Spainandhisunderstandingof history, reflected by thedialogues with the others at the stand orreportednaplayfullyceremonious, ronicalnarrativeby the author."7'BabuGopiNath'depictsfeudalexistencein a semi-modernsurrounding.Characterswithconflictingnormsand nterestsprovidean nsight ntothe simultaneous unctioningof the various ayersof feudal andcapitalistsociety.The realistnovel in the 19thcenturyreflected he changeof generations, he birth

and decline of institutions.In the space theshort story provides Manto describes thetensionsandcontradictionsncontemporaryIndian society by employing two narratorscollecting and sharing information in thecourseof thenarrative.OnenarratorsManto,the authorwho is introduced o BabuGopiNath by Sando, the second narrator.Hisinformationabout the relationshipsof thecharacters,whoprofitsandwhatfromwhomis corrected and modified by Manto, theauthor and first narrator.Babu Gopi Nathis a memberof the landedgentry. He comesto Bombay with Zeenat,a prostitute f greatloyalty, whom he wants to help to befinancially ndependent.Zeenat s used andexploited by everybody, ill she meets a richand handsomelandlord,GhulamHussain,to whom she is marriedoff by Babu GopiNath.Babu Gopi Nath whose two passions inlife are to frequent brothels and share thecompanyof holy men s awareof howpeoplemakeuse of him, but considershimself partof a culturalset upin which he is supposedtofulfila function.Thenarrator'sastmeetingwith Babu Gopi Nath at the wedding, hisunintended nterferenceat the sight of thebridalbed, points o Gopi Nath'ssentimentalvalue system coupled with self-deceptioFand nverts he llusion hroughheacceptanceof reality.The storieswrittenafter hePartition,boththose whcih are partof the Siyah Hashyecollection and those which are directlyconnected with the Partitionexperience orreflecttherelationshipo historybydepictingsome otherhistoricalevent, demonstratenvarious ways the intention to avoidmoralisation.The absenceof the narratornthe Siyah Hashye stories, the alternativeendings in 'It Happened n 1991' ('1991 kiek bat') (pp 47-56), framinga story insidethe story in 'Colder than Ice' ('ThandaGhosht') or linkingtwo stories like in 'ThePrice of Freedom'('Swaraj-ke iye') or ina firstpersonnarrationike in 'Doing God'sWork' successfully protect he reader romcoming under the moral authorityof thenarrator.The authorof the Siyah Hashyevolume is an objective observer whotranscribes he eventswithoutcommentary,as in Orkeny's OnieMinute Stories wherethe author s a silentspectator.The narratoris present n the Siyah Hashyevolume onlyin thed"dicationaddressed o theman,whofinallycomes to the awareness hathekilled.Itshows theconcernMantohad ntheprocessof insight, applyingalso to the readerwhoin thecourse of readingwould be provokedto criticallyexaminehis place, perspectivesand illusions in his everyday activities. Atthis critical moment of history after thePartition, his was a possible way to changethe reader'sassociationwiththe storyfrompassiveemotional dentificationo reflection.

"The sense of shame andhelplessness atbeing a witness" andnot being able to helpthose who were at the receiving end in theriots38or the sheer humiliation at beingreduced to a spectator was the real lifeexperience of even those who were partofthe organisationalmachinery o control thetransfer of power.?9The aesthetics of theSiyah Hashye stories challenges passiveacceptanceas a primary esponse o readil;-6and provokes the analysis and the activeunderstanding f the reader.The reader ikethe narratorhas the status of the spectatorwho makes connections. :blishes linkswith the title, fills the gaps and interpretsthe story. The interpretative movementbetweenthe comic andtragic contentof thestory provokesreaders n various ways andreleases various energies.40Similarly, in Orkeny's short stories thereader is challenged to resolve the linkbetween title and content. The connectionmostlyundercutsvaluesystemsintheSiYahHashye, 'The Sweet Moment' Saat-e hirin)(p 3) is the tragedy of Gandhi'sdeath, in'Out of Consideration' a girl is not killedin frontof her father but strippedandkeptwith theotherwomen.In 'Modesty' ('Kasr-inafsi') (p 27)therioters irstkill themembersof the othercommunity ravelling n the trainand then apologise to the otherpassengersfornot receivingthemwith morehospitality.Apartfrom the Siyah Hashye stories manyof the longer stories are also built on anethical orexistential paradox. The PriceofFreedom' (Swaraj-ke liye) (pp 57-73) theprice orparticipationn the reedom trugglesis the loss of control over one's personallife,4' the protagonistwho claims to spendhis life withcharity n 'Doing God's Work'('Shahid-saz') (pp 39-45) turns out to bedesigningadisaster romwhich he canprofitfinancially.While ronical ensibilitymotivatedMantobefore the Partition to present a clash ofvalues and interests in 'The NewConstitution'and in 'BabuGopi Nath' andthe irony responds to the contradictionswithin the same character he possibility ofbalance s suggested ntherelativeharmonyof presentation.The Partition experienceremained rucial nManto' work.The shortstories 'The Price of Freedom' or 'DoingGod's Work' presentedmainly firstpersondiscourses displaying a disappointmentin history, politics, the generation offreedom fighters and the futility of allaction.Narrative s oftenused to morepoignantlyunderline the paradox. Both Manto andOrkenydismiss detail of description n thesense classical realism. Orkeny disclosedthat he felt

it was no use to describea roombecauseall would dentify tmwithheiruownxperienceof a room.



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This conveys the change in narrativeconcerns.Itis the constructionof the visualspace of the story, spacial or temporalcombinationof locationwhich infringes onthe reader's conventional acceptance ofreality.In 'Jelly' (p 18) -the spacial link ofthepushcart f thedead icecreamseller andthe montageof child andmothergoing by,(the child mistakingblood forjelly, whichis the relevant association with icecream)inverts the effect of the initial scene. Thecombination of comic and tragic detailconnects manyof the ?SivahHashyestorieswith black humour. 'Mistake Removed'('Islah') (pp 16-17), 'Pathanistan' p 20),'Permanent Vacation' ('Hamesha-kiChhutti') (p 22), 'Ritualistic Difference'('Halaal aur Jhatka') (p 23) depend on anunderstanding f social practice,ona shareddiscursive context. Orkeny's One MinuteStorieslike the 'Inquiry nto the Stateof MyHealth' and 'In MemoriamDr GHK', arealso basedonasimilarperception f culturalcontext. Ibn Insha's later stories 'OurCountry'and'Pakistan'utilisethe narrativeformof dialogueand narrational bsence toa simil-niaronicaleffect of puncturing ocialvalues.Manto exploits the source of possibleidentification by the reader in familiarnarrative ituations dialogueduringa trainjourney with a narratorand listener whois the writer, or the protagonist narratinghis story in the first person) only to digressfrom the process of the literaryconventionand provide additional possibilities ofinterpretation.The narrativestrategy usedby Manto undermines he value-system asthe reader is challenged to confront thebanalityand narrownessof norms held bythe community.

VEven after several decades, the warexperience remained central in Orkeny'swork. The realism in the elaborationof themyth of national dentity of Voronezhwentthrough a change in the direction of theabstract.TheOne MinuteStory n thenewlyelaborated form of grotesque, is aphilosophical eflectiononlanguageand heinadequacyof speech in human contacts.

The democraticsource of the grotesque injokes, newspaperarticles and in slang andthe possible element of fantastic setting itapart rom Manto's stories has alreadybeendiscussed. On the one hand he consideredtheshort ormof thegrotesqueas thepossiblefragment f a big artistic orm(thenovel orplay)andoccasionallyused them n his laterplays. On the other hand the reduction ofthe prose form to a minimum raised thequestion of the validity of the form ofgrotesqueand prose as such.In wo OneMinuteStoriesofontemporarythemes he presenceof the fantasticelement

shows how significantthe grotesquewas inOrkeny' prose o writeaboutcontemporaryreality. Inquiry bout heStateof My Health'turnsthe polite formality of inquiryinto asurrealending utilising an expressionfromslang. (Everything s perfectly fine exceptfor that I am pulling my intestines behindme.) The fantastic is also present in the'Ballad about the Power of Poetry' wherethe telephone booth comes to life, falls inlove, walks all over the favouriteparkoflovers in Budapest, after the poet rings uphis editorandreadsout atthe roadsideboothhis newly written poem.'InMemoriamDr GHK' 'Song'and 'TwoCupolas in a Snow-covered Landscape',42all three writings connected with the war,approachhe warfrom hreedifferentangles.All three reduceinformationand languageto the minimum and the links have to beestablished by the reader.While the firststorywith he dialogueandshort nformationbythenarrators one of the classicexamplesof Orkeny's One Minzute tories, the othertwo are recollections of Orkeny's warexperiences.Thedialoguebetween heguardand Dr G H K in 'In memoriamDr G H Kexposes an existentialparadox.Dr G H K'sintellectual iscussionaboutvariousGermanpoets is in direct contrastto his existentialsituation as a prisoner of the camp. Theparadox s resolved by the execution of GH K as barbarism xterminates hose whorepresentcivilisation.43The location in 'Song' and in 'TwoCupolasin a Snow-covered Landscape' issignaled by the names of two villages,Nikolayevkaand Davidovka wo villages inthe Ukraine lying on the route of theHungarianarmyto Voronezh. The 'Song'presents he dualismof physicaldestruction(endless march in the snow, bridges andhouses blown up) and unceasing creativityinthepersonof Janasz, he songwriter.Evenhisdeathunderlines he miracle, he potentialof creativity nevery being. "Eachof us cando something no one else can do the sameway".Event, location, identity of participantsand their complicity in 'Two Cupolas in aSnow-covered Landscape' are establishedby thereaderon thebasis of theinformationsupplied by the narratorwho reduces thereport o external acts, leaving a numberofgaps.Thephotographecorded f twocupolasin the snow and the face of a little girl isa reminderof the execution of a Russianwoman with her daughter ooking on. Theabsurdityof the event, the execution of ayoung woman tried by a German militarycourt, s indicatedbytheabsenceofdialogue.Speech is produced only when the girlmisunderstanding the situation calls hermother wanting her to stop playing. Thefocus is on the surrounding bjectswithoutadjectives: he tree, the girl under he truck,

the onlookers, decreasingin numberas thehanging goes on and on, the Hungarianexecutionerwho hangs the womanfor threeliters of rum.The reductionof the report othe bare minimum shows the author'sdisinclination to pass obvious moraljudgment.The narrator,ike Manto'sabsentnarrator n the Siyah Hashye stories or in'Colder than Ice' rejects the role of moralauthority. The narrative, similar to anobjective report,functions as evidence forthe reader to respond.A product of the interconnection ofmemory,visual recordandhistory,Orkeny'story is an aesthetic statement about thereferentiality between 'facts', 'repre-sentation', 'truth'and the limits of narrativeinthe 1960s, muchbefore herecentacademicdebaterevolvingaround eality,experience,evidence and aesthetic imagination inconnection with the Holocaust."Therearea varietyof literary ormswhichcan serve as a framework or the narrativeof a historical catastrophe:documentaryrecord, drama, short story. These literaryrecords contribute to the revaluation ofhistory,and hereinterpretationftheidentityof a group, highlight a trait of 'nationalcharacter' (conceit, blindness of thearistocracy, servility in Voronezh) oremphasisecertain ointsof the ragedywhichlinks factsto suggest certaindynamics nthehistorical vents.The choiceof formdependson the literary tradition, on the author'schoice and creative potential, and also onthe distance in time from the catastrophe.There is a stretchbetween the objectivityofrecordand the philosophy of the grotesque.In Manto's case the riots of Partitionarepresented ntheform of reportsordialogueswhich allow him to avoid making moralorpolitical judgment.The distance of historyand the conditionsin Hungary n the 1960sprovidedOrkeny hepossibilityto approachthe problem of the second world war andfascism differently.The new genre in shortstory, he grotesque,wasmostlytheadequateform of expression. In Orkeny's narrativeart it was also relevant for the expressionof contemporaryreality.Short stories use not only a multiplicityofsubjectsbutalsoemploydifferentnarrativestrategies.Orkenyusedthe formof dialogue,the 'minimal' report and developed aphilosophy of absurd drawn from thehistorical events of the second world war.Manto experimented with a number ofnarrative trategies n his shortstories aboutthe Partition.In these stories Manto allowsthe dialogues to take over andprovokethereader o a response. By adoptinga criticaldistance both Manto andOrkenywere ableto evolve narrative trategieswhich invitedthe reader'sresponseandstimulatedagency.By counteringmoralisingandlentimentalityin theirnarrative trategies hey enabled he

Economnic nd Political Weekly August 16-23, 1997 2151


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reader to deal with and go beyond theparalysing effects of such traumaticexperiene_sas the Partitionand the secondvwrld war.Notes

I RecentcollectionsofPartitioniterature:AlokBhalla, Stories about the Partition of India,vols I-III, New Delhi 1994 and MushirulHasan,India Partitioned. The Other Face ofFreedont, vols I-Il, New Delhi 1995.2 Miklos Beladi, MagyarIrodalom Tortetnete1945-1975, vol 11/2(History of HungarianLiterature), Budapest 1986 pp 563-654;Miklos Beladi and Laszlo Ronay, MagyarIrodalom Tortentce 1945-1975, vol 111/1(Historyof HungarianLiterature),Budapest,1990, pp 17-73 and pp 771-91. Literatureabout he period n English:TiborKlaniczay,AHistoryofHungarianLiteraitiure,udapest,1983, pp 399-476 and LorantCzigany, ThteOxford History'of HungariacnLiterature,Oxford, 1984, pp 418-84.3 The Partitionwas also the foundingmomentof two nations. There was the possibility toperceive thecatastropheas a apocalypseandits ordealas trialsleading to renewal. In aninterview in July 1977 Intizar Husaincomparedthe migrationat the time of Parti-tion to the Hijra (Mohanmed's flight fromMecca to Medina): "...So thatexperience, Imean the experience of migration, isunfortunatelyost to us and on us. And thegreat expectation we had of making some-thingout of it at a creative level andexploit-ing it in developing a new consciousness,sensibility - that bright expectation hasnow faded and gone." Muhammad UmarMenon,PartitionLiterature:A studyof IntizarHusain,Modern Asian Studies, 14(3), 1980,pp 377-410.4 Criticismof thetermobjectivityis partof thetheoreticaldiscussions today. I still think itis possible to use it to highlight differenceswith debates on realism. cf HaydenWhite.The Questionof Narrative n ContemporaryHistoricalTheory, n Historyand Theoryvol23, 1984, pp 1-33, Paul Ricoeur, Time andNarrative,vols1-11, 984-1988.Forasummaryof the debate n Hungarianee RobertBraun,Holocaust,elbeszeles,tortenelem Holocaust,Narrative,History]Budapest1995. A shorterversion of the summary in English: RobertBraun, The Holocaust and Problems ofHistorical Representation, in History anadTheory,vol 133, 1994, pp 173-97.5 "They thestoriesof SiyahHashye]also showthatManto had yet to deal realistically withthe human emotions and difficultiesengenderedby the upheaval of Partition" npp 72-77 and pp 108-12 in his otherwiseinformativebook,LeslieFlemming(TheLifeand Works ofSaadat HasaniManto, Lahore1985) criticises Siyah Hashye specificallybecause of the lack of realism. Flemmingalso raises this criticism on p 28 referringto Sardar Jaffri's change of opinion aboutManto's short stories and his evaluationconnected with his study of the ProgressiveWriters Movement. The relationship o theProgressive Writers Movement and theirconceptof realism had a wider effect on Urduliterature. It may be useful to recall thetheoretical debate which started in the late1920s in the Soviet Union focused onproletarian iteratureand the "expressionismdebate" n the 1930s sparkedoff afterGeorg

Lukacs publishedhis article about Germanexpressionismdebate" n the 1930s sparkedoff afterGeorge Lukacspublishedhis articleaboutGerman xpressionism.The immediatecontext of thedebatewas GottfriedBenn, anearlierexpressionistwho joined the Nazis.But nthewiderbackgroundherewas Lukacs'workabout the genesis of Fascism. Brecht'stheoryofa newtheatre,EmstBloch's leritageof our Time and Anna Seghers' novel TheSeventh Cross accompanied by variousapproaches to the contemporarynotion ofrealism.Brecht,who was in exile inDenmark,emphasised he role of proletarian lass ethicsand held all forms and methods acceptablefor the reflection of reality.Brecht's articleswere not published at the time. These andother articleswere publishedin Germany n1973.6 Manto,Dastavez, vol 11,Delhi, 1993, BalrajMenra and Sharad Dutt (eds), p 452. In thenote of the editors the genre is calledavsananch from Urdu avsana.7 Viktor Karady,'Asszimilacio es tarsadalmikrizis' [Assimilation and Crisis in Society]in the monthly Vilagossag [Light],vol XXXIV,, 1993, March, pp 33-60 andAndrasKovacs, Identitas es Etinicitais,vidoIdentita(ttasproblemak a haib(oru utaniMagyarorszagon [Identity and ethnicity.Problemsof Jewishidentityin Hungaryafterthe War) in Zviidok, dentitas, Tortenelem[Jews, Identityand History],M M Kovacs,Yitzhak M Kashti,F Eros (eds), Budapest,1992, pp 97-113.8 Ivan Boldizsar, 'A Lost Generation',shortstories and poems by Karoly Pap, MiklosRadnotiand AndorEndreGelleri in TheNewHungarianQuarterly,Autumn1969, No 36,pp 25-60, Janos Pilinszky (1921-1981), apoet, who came to know about the existenceof concentrationcamps at the time of hismilitary service in 1944 in Germany andAustria, wrote about the formation of thisgeneration n his essay "TragicGeneration"in 1965: "People who are in their 40s havenow ripened into a generation through thewar.Dark rame, ragicbeginning. Yet I feel,therewere few generationswhich had a widerand more universal teaching. Personally Ithoughtrealitywas above personalfate, thereality of society and humanityduring thewar...In hevwar e all becamehomelessandthis common tragedybecame our universalhome."9 Orkenywrites n a letter o MilanFust(1886-1967), poet and writer, in 1941 after Fustsends him a dedicatedcopy of his SelectedPoetry:"...Perhapst is in order,that I meetyou only now, "nel mezzo del camis" rightnow, exactly in thesedifficultyearswhen asaresponseomy-once-again-Jewish-existenceloneliness is multiplying and increasingaroundme like ice in theAtarctic";n IstvanOrkeny,Levelekegy percben [Letters n oneminute],ZsuzsaRadnotied),Budapest,1992,p 17.10 Seeing his white officer's uniform- he wasa reserveofficer in the army before the anti-Jew-laws- his superior lappedhim andhadhim tied and hung from a pole, ibid, p 19.II KhalidHasan, Introduction' nSaadatHasanManto, Kingdom's End and Other Stories,transl by Khalid Hasan, New Delhi, 1989,pp 1-10. References to English translationsof Manto's longer stories are all from thisvolume.12 Istvan Orkeny, Draimak Plays], Budapest,1982, vol I, pp 9-77.

13 Istvan Orkeny,Lagereknepe [Peopleof theCampus], Budapest, 1981.14 Mushirul Hasan, op cit, vol 1, p 89.15 Between the writer and reality a numberofdifferent mediations are created. This givesrise to various forms of prose dependingonthe historical conditions. The duality andantagonism of appearanceand reality, theparadoxes of existential, ethical andphilosophicalvaluesarethesourcesofparody,satire, irony and grotesque. The dominantelementof prose(styleorgenre)alsodepei.dson thecontradictionsnsociety. Parody s oneof the elementary forms whic:i imitates itsobjectbut it also includes differentiationandtransgression. Botl differ.ntiation andtransgression represer"n uthcr tree forms,satire, irony and grotesque but they aremodified according to the nature ofantagonisms is society. Satire is aimed at aconcretepersonand the practiceof a certaintype of morality. It is practised in a fairlystablesociety with a common understandingof ethical values by the community.Irony sbased on the loss and antagonismof valuesin a changing society. It has a dialecticalapproachto the object, a mixture of tragedyandcomedywhich oftendependson thepointof view of the reader.The same is trueof thewriter's understanding of himself and thisleads to self-irony. Tragedy and comedy,animateand nanimate, magination ndrealitycan be replacedas fantastic n the grotesquewhich reflects the breakdownof dividinglines in values of a moral totality. Ironyispredominant in Manto's writing whileOrkeny'swork is developmentfrom ronytogrotesque. cf Alvin B Kernan,The Plot ofSatire,New HavenandLondon,1965:GeorgLukacs, A klasszikus szatiraelmelet esfelbomlasa a liberalis esztetikaban [Theclassical theory of satire and its dissolutionin liberalaesthetics]inAdalekokaz esztetikatortenetehez [Contribution o the HistoryofAesthetics], Budapest, 1972, vol I, pp 629-56; LindaHutcheon,ThieTheoryandPoliticsof Irony, London 1994.16 Kabir's inverted representation f norms ofsocial behaviours,his transitionalmockinguse of a differentpersonais directedat thereceptive listener. Charlotte Vaudeville,Kaibir,Oxford, 1974, pp 144-48.17 Mauhammad Sadiq, A History of UrduLiterature,Delhi, 1984 andAsgharWajahat,'Urdu irodalom' [Urdu literature] inVilagirodalmi Lexikon, Vol 16, Budapest,1994.18 Ralph Russel and Kurshidul Islam, 'TheSatiricalVerse of Akbar Ilahabadi' n RalphRussel, The Pursuit of Urdu Literature,London, 1992, pp 129-75 and 'The SatiricalVerse of Akbar Ilabahadi' in RalphRussel,Hidden in the Flute, New Delhi, 1995,pp 200-07.19 Mushirul Hasan, op cit, vol I, p 100-12.20 Alok Bhalla, op cit, vol II, pp 105-08.21 Page numbers n the paperfor longerstoriesby Manto are from Kingdom'sEnd.22 References to short stories from the SiyahHashyevolume are romSaadatHasanManto,Partition Sketches and Stories, transl byKhalidHasan,NewDelhi,1991 pagenumbersin the paper apply to this book); see alsoMushirulHasan n MushirulHasan, bid, vol1,pp88-99;Jai Ratanalso translatedxcerptsin Indian Literature, 1985, vol XXVIII,pp22-36. TheDevanagari ranscriptionsof iyaihHalshyein Saadat Hasan Manto, DalstalvezBalrajMenra and SharadDutt (eds), vol II,



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Delhi, 1993,pp 273-312 and Devendra ssar'scollection Mantonama,New Delhi, 1991, pp271-81. Problemsof philological reliabilityconnectedwith Khalid Hassan's translationswere elaboratedby Asadudinin the seminarThe Life anid Worksof Saadat Hasan MantoheldattheIndian nstitute f Advanced'Study,RashtrapatiNiwas, Shimla May21-23, 1996.They surfaceprominently n theSiyah Hasyetranslations.While the titles in thistranslationrepeat one key-word in the story, thecontradictionsetween hetitleand hecontentis more apparent n the original titles.23 Istvan Orkeny, Egyperces novellak (1968),[Oneminutestories]Jozsef TamasRemenyiandTamasTarjan eds), Budapest 1996, p 8.24 The story is a classic example of Bakhtin'sconceptof heteroglossia.Throughher voicenotonly herthoughtsandimpressionsbut thesurrounding comes to life, the corridors ofthe office, the songs the drunkssing in thenight; Manto, Dastavez, vol II, pp 43-51,Mikhail Bakhtin, Dialogic Imaginiation,Austin 198 1.25 The 20th century payable revaluates thefunction of narrative. It is constructed ona special hypothetical situation, even ifbased on a historical event. The plot takesplace in a special situation in a crisis ofnorms and conventions.As a result he forcesand cracks of the world are exposed andethical or philosophicalaxioms emerge in acondensed orm.Parableswere usedbyBrechtand Sartre.In the 1960s beside the essay-novel and the sociological report-novel,thenovel-parable and the short story-parablebecame a prominent genre in Hungarianliterature. Kafka's stories, especially DerHutngerkunstler,re available to me in thecollection Franz Kafka, Erzahlungen,Frankfurtam Main, 1952.26 Lajos Pok, 'Robinson es a zaszlo,MegjegyzesekKafkanovellaihoz' [Robinsonand the flag. Notes to Kafka's shortstories]in FranzKafka,Elbeszelesek [ShortStories],Budapest, 1973; pp 523-41].27 Manto went througha process (similarto thegreat Russian novelists Dostoyevsky andTolstoy) of assimilating and developingmodels from western literatures alongwith the prosein this own languageto reflecthis own social reality. The developmentofcapitalismin the Punjaband Bombay wereas importantor Mantoas west EuropeanandRussian models of writing.28 Istvan Orkeny, Kisregenyek (Novels),Budapest, 1981, pp 99-203. The Englishtranslationoftheplaysin TheNewHungarianQuarterly,No 44, pp 69-106.29 Istvan Orkeny, Kisregenyek (Novels),Budapest, 1981, pp 205-97. The Englishtranslation of an excerpt is in The NewHungarianQuarterlv,No 28, pp69-106. TheHindi translationof the play is in RaghuvirSahay,TeenHungariNatak,New Delhi, 1983,pp 111-92.30 MartinEsslin, The Theatre of the Absurd,London, 1982, pp 316-26 and pp 392-95.31 This was pointed out by Bisham Sahani inhis paper presentedat the seminar The Lifeand Worksof Saadat Hasan Manto held atthe Indian Institute of Advanced Study,RashtrapatiNiwas, himla(21-23May, 1996)called "the clash between realityand make-belief'.32 The epistemological contradiction and theparadox in choice was addressedby Hegelwho raised the existential paradox of beingequals non-being and suggested a dialectical

solution, the notionof becoming, to transcendthis paradox.Kierkegaard's amousseries ofparadoxes in Either/Ormanifest the futilityof choice. Sartre n Being acndNothingnessattachesenormousmoralresponsibility o theright to choose and defines man's freedomby the mode and style takenby each choice.33 GrahamPetrie,HistoryMustAnswer o Man,The Conttemporary Hungarianii Cinemna,Budapest,1981and IstvanNemeskurty,Wordand Image,HistoryoftheHungarian Cinema,Buidapest1974, pp 187-217.34 B M Eichenbaum, Kak sd'elania 'shin'el'Gogolya[How s Gogol's 'Overcoat'made?],in Poet'ika [Poetics] ed by Gy Kiraly and AKovacs, Budapest, 1982, pp409-21 and AkosSzilagyi, Vazlata groteszkrol [Sketch aboutthe Grotesque] n Nein vagyokkritikutsI amnot a critic], Budapest, 1984.35 See Walter Benjamin's discussion of 'newobjectivity' in the areaof photography ilmand mainly in Bertolt Brecht's epic theatrein UnderstandingBrecht, London, 1977.36 Ervin Csizm,adia,A magya)'r e,nokratikusellenizek 1968-1988)[DemocraticOppositionin Hungary], vol 1-111,Budapest, 1995.37 The comic touch in the characterisationofMangu's 'academic versatility' comes fromthesame sourceashis fault, 'hamartia'whichin Aristotle's definition is the misjudgmentby the tragichero. This wrong interpretationof the act reflects his ambition to take careof the largerissues of India and is also theimmediate cause of his arrest.38 KhwajaAhmad Abbas, 'Who Killed India'in MushirulHasan, op cit, vol II, pp 229-44.

39 W I-l Morris-Jones,'A Transferof Power,1947. A View from the Sidelines', ModcrnAsian Siuilies 16, 1982, pp 1-32.40 Hans Robert Jauss, Towardan Aesthetic ofReception, Sussex, 1982 and Ernst Bloch,Heritage of Our Tiunes,Cambridge 1991,pp 187-250.41 "At this moment,a servantcntered heroom.He was carryinga child who was holding aballoon. Like amadman,GhulamAlipouncedon the bailoon. Therewas a bangand all thechild was left with was a piece of uglyrubber dangling at the other end. With twofingers Ghulam Ali carefull picked up thedeflated balloon and threw it away as ifit were a particularly disgusting piece offilth".42 Istvan Orkeny, Egyperces novellak (1968)ibid:Azutolsovonat [The asttrain],Budapest,1977, pp 408-523; English translations inOne Minute Stories, selected and translatedby LTAndrasandCarlRErickson,Budapest,1992; One Minute Stories, selected andtranslatedby Judith Sollosy, Budapest1994.43 As part of the Austro-Hungarian ducationsystem many Hungarianntellectuals,a greatnumberof hemofJewishorigin,werebroughtupinabilingual,biculturalatmosphere.TheyknewGerman, eadand wroteGermanaswellas Hungarian.German iterature nd Germanculturalvalues were cultivatedby them, theywent to German universitiesandconsideredit a joke of fate that Nazi politics wantedto purify German culture by eradicatingthem.44 History and Theory, 1993. 1994.

The Economy and Budget 1997-98May 17-24. 1997

Macro-EconomicPolicy and Income Distribution:A Note - Prabhat PatnaikEconomic Reforms and Institutioiis - Murali PatibanidlaSAP: Issues and Conditionalities - Biplab DasguptaPolitical Economy of State Intervention n Food Economy - Utsa PatnaikIndia's StructuralAdjustment:An Assessment inComparativeAsian Context - Jayati GhoshForeign Trade and Real Exchange Rate Behaviout, 1980-96 - Prabirjit SarkarBudget 1997-98: Underlining NEP - Arin GhoshIndia'sEconomy: Poised for Take-Off - Kirit ParikhWhy Not Push for a 9 Per Cent Growth Rate? - Sebastian MorrisThe Interest Rate Imbroglio: Monetary and Fiscal Dimensions - D M Nachane,A V Karnik,N R HatekarLow Taxation and High Interest Rates: AdverseConsequences for Growth - Errol D'SouzaDividend Taxation and Harmonisationof Depreciation Rates:Some Policy Suggestions - K C SharmaThe Budget and IndustrialDevelopment - N S Siddharthan,B L PanditBudget 1997-98 and Role of the State - Ajit KarnikHealth Care Budgets in a Changing Political Economy - Ravi DuggalFood Security, Price Stability and the Budget - N A Mujumdar164 pp

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Örkény Manto EPW 1997

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