My Own Private Country
The climax of Manto's "Toba Tek Singh" is powerful because of Bishan Singh's moment of refusal--he will not travel to Hindustan, he will not accept that he is physically in Pakistan, he will not accept the broader idea of the partition of his country. He declares that Toba Tek Singh is "here"; and while that might simply be interpreted as "on this side of the border", that the narrative itself constantly elides the difference between the man and the land means that the intuitive reading is "here, where I am". Essentially, in that moment, Bishan Singh creates a speculative country of his own; a space that exists outside the border politics of India and Pakistan. Creating a private country of your own is, while difficult, at least theoretically possible: the major obstacle seems to be getting your existence recognised and making other countries (who are likely to be a lot more powerful than you) respect your borders. There is a surprising a...