by AYESHA JALAL
IMAGE/Open Letters Monthly
On the lines of Sadat Hasan Manto’s facetious letters to Uncle Sam written at the height of the cold war when Pakistan was being wooed by the US as an ally to fight communism, a letter to prime minister Vajpayee, This letter is a spirited assessment of the most recent standoff between India and Pakistan, peppered with rare insightsthat have always b een Manto’s hallmark.
“Uncle Sam”
At the height of the cold war whenAmerica was about to sign a deal by which in return for military assistance Pakistan would commit itself to combating communism in south-east Asia and the middle east, the great Urdu short-story writer, Saadat Hasan Manto, who lived in Lahore, wrote a series of facetious letters to ‘Uncle Sam’. In one of these letters written on February 21, 1954, Manto wrote:
“Regardless of the storm India is kicking up, you must sign a military agree-ment with Pakistan since you are seriously concerned about the stability of the world’s largest Islamic state. And why not. Our mullah is the best counter to Russian communism. Once military aid starts flow-ing, these mullahs are the first people you should arm. They would need American-made rosaries and prayer-mats… Cutthroat razors and scissors should be at the top of the list, and also American hair colouring formulas. That will keep these chaps happily in toe. I think the only purpose of military aid is to arm these mullahs. I am your Pakistani nephew and can see through all your moves. Anyone can now become too clever by half, thanks to your style of politics.”
“Once these mullahs are armed with American weapons”, Manto predicted:
“The Soviet Union with its communist propaganda will have to close shop in this country”. He could visualise the situation clearly. “Mullahs, their hair trimmed with American scissors, wearing pajamas stitched with American machines in con-formity with the Sharia (Islamic law)…and possessing American made prayer mats too. Everyone would then quickly fall into line and read only your name on their rosaries” [Manto 1990:393-94].
Economic & Political Weekly for more