Google celebrates Manto s 108th birthday with doodle
May 11, 2020 02:31 PM
Google paid homage to celebrated Pakistani writer, playwright and poet Saadat Hasan Manto on his 108th birthday with a doodle.
The illustration features Manto scribbling something on a page with a pen in his hand, dressed in white.
Manto was born on May 11, 1912, in Samrala in the British Indian state of Punjab. He matured and evolved as an author at a time when calls for the British to leave the subcontinent were gaining ground and with it, a rise in civil unrest.
He became an established author in India before partition after discovering a fondness for literature.
By the 1940s, Manto’s Urdu literature was a tour de force. Through his unfiltered exploration of marginalized characters and social taboos, he charted controversial territory that few writers dared to explore.
The partitioning of India in 1947 prompted Manto’s migration to the newly formed Pakistan, and he is perhaps best remembered for his work examining this tumultuous historical moment. Manto published 22 collections of short stories throughout his prolific career, but he wasn’t limited to the medium; he also wrote a novel, three collections of essays, over 100 radio plays, and more than 15 film scripts.