Dhuan (short story collection)


Dhuan is a 1941 collection of Urdu short stories by Saadat Hasan Manto.

Background

Dhuan was first published in 1941 from Delhi. This was Manto’s third collection of original short stories after Atish Paray and Manto Ke Afsanay. It was written during the time Manto spent with All India Radio. The collection also included reprints of Manto’s earlier stories published in Atish Paray, such as Chori, Ji Aaya Sahab and Dewana Shair. An identical collection under the title Kali Salwar was also published in Lahore the same year.

Content

The stories in this collection include:Dhuan Kabutaron wala sain Ullu ka Pattha Namukamal Tahrir Qabz Aiktras ki Aankh Woh khat jo post na kiya gaye Misri ki dali Matami Jalsa Talawwun Sijdah Taraqqi Pasand Naya Saal Cuhe daan Chori Qasim Dewana ShairKali Salwar Lalten Intezar Phoolon ki sajis Garam Sut Mera Hamsafar
  • ''Paresaani ka sabab''

Themes

Dhuan, from which the collection takes its title, was first published in the Urdu magazine Saqi. The story deals with the awakening of sexual urges in a twelve-year old boy, Masud. In Cuhe daan, Manto depicts the early discovery of romantic love by teenagers.
Lalten, Misri ki dali and Namukamal Tahrir are similar tales of attraction of a vacationing young man for a young mountain girl.
Manto explores political issues in Matami Jalsa which is a satire on the reaction of people to the news of the death of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. The story describes an assembly of people gathered to honour Ataturk following his death. Taraqqi Pasand, based by a true incident involving Rajinder Singh Bedi and Devindra Satyarthi, is a friendly ribbing on the Progressive Writers' Movement to which Manto was associated.
He touches on social realism in Kali Salwar through the character of Sultana, a prostitute whose business is falling. First published in Adab-i-Latif in Lahore, it was banned by the British government under section 292 of the Indian Penal Code on grounds of obscenity.
Aiktras ki Aankh, Qabz and Paresaani ka sabab are sketches on the people of the Bombay film industry.