ABSTRACT
In this research work, Saadat Hasan Manto’s short stories are textually analyzed using a Habermasian lens. Manto’s ideas on female subordination, societal supremacy, and freedom are stressed in this paper. The main goal of this qualitative study is to demonstrate the applicability of Manto’s discovery in the modern day within the context of Habermas’ critical social theory. This study illustrates unequivocally how social institutions’ instrumental rationality colonizes and rationalizes the lifeworld. According to Habermas, societal structures like political and economic systems are encroaching on our daily lives. He is worried about the lines separating the lifeworld and the system. Additionally, Habermas’ realistic objective for critical theory is for human liberty to be unhindered by any superfluous shackles. The short stories of Saadat Hasan Manto are drawn from Mottled Dawn: Fifty Sketches and Stories of Partition translated by Khalid Hasan and Manto’s Selected Short Stories
translated by Aatish Taseer. According to the study’s findings, Manto and Habermas both reject social structures that oppress people and exert unjust dominance or colonization. The goal of maximizing human emancipation is shared by both. According to the results of the textual analysis, Manto’s characters like Saughandi, Nesti, Raadha, and Mozail do not accept submission and advocate for independence from ideological, political, and social restraints.
