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Saadat Hasan Manto’s short story “Yazid” turns a village rumor about India cutting off the river into a debate about blame, war and what people can do when a shared necessity becomes political. Its 1950s setting should not be mistaken for an exact publication date: the available account does not establish when the story first appeared.
What happens in “Yazid”
Manto’s story, translated from Urdu by Rakhshanda Jalil, follows Karimdad and Jeena, whose lives have already been marked by the 1947 riots: Karimdad lost his father, and Jeena’s brother was killed. Later, as fears of renewed conflict spread, the village hears that India will “close” the river that waters its crops.
Jeena asks Bakhto, “What do you mean by closing the river?” The question gives the rumor its force: it is not an abstract diplomatic dispute to the villagers, but the prospect of losing water on which their fields depend.
Why Karimdad resists the villagers’ denunciations
As villagers condemn India, Karimdad challenges the usefulness of their anger. In his reasoning, war is a contest in which each side seeks to defeat the other; calling the other side names will not solve the immediate problem. He urges people to think about a way out rather than spend their energy cursing.
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It is a provocative argument within a fictional village debate, not a simple endorsement of cruelty or a historical witness statement. Karimdad recognizes the scale of what is at stake: “The question is not mine alone; it involves thousands upon thousands of people.” That phrase belongs to the story’s dialogue; it is not a measured count.
His position also complicates easy patriotic certainty. “All I know is this, yaar: that it is wrong to call India unscrupulous, petty and cruel,” he says. Manto lets the disagreement remain alive rather than turning the scene into a straightforward denunciation of one side.
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What the name Yazid means in the ending
When Jeena gives birth to a son, the couple name him Yazid, invoking the figure blamed in the story for closing the river. The choice makes the child’s name carry the village’s anger and its political history. Karimdad then recasts the association in the closing line: “He had closed the river; our son will open it.”
The reversal does not resolve the water dispute. It shifts the story’s final emphasis from inherited blame toward the possibility of a different future, while leaving the material crisis intact.
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In the story, responsibility for the river’s closure is attributed to Jawaharlal Nehru. The historical account accompanying Jalil’s translation makes a distinction: it says the provincial government of Punjab on the Indian side was behind the decision, while describing Nehru as instrumental in negotiations that eventually led to a treaty. These are separate claims—the first is the story’s portrayal, the second the article’s historical framing.
The account places the dispute over water rights in the river system in the context of the 1947–48 India–Pakistan war. It says the Indus Waters Treaty was signed on September 19, 1960, and summarizes its allocations as follows:
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| Rivers | Allocation in the article’s summary |
|---|---|
| Ravi, Beas and Sutlej (eastern rivers) | India |
| Indus, Jhelum and Chenab (western rivers) | Pakistan |
This allocation is the cited article’s summary, not an independent reading of the treaty text. The story’s 1950s setting and the treaty’s 1960 date belong to different moments: the later agreement does not make the fictional village debate a documentary record of negotiations.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What is known about the story’s date
Scroll.in’s April 29, 2025 article describes “Yazid” as a 1950s story, but it does not give an exact first-publication date. It is therefore more accurate to call it a story from the 1950s than to assign it a specific year. The translation and accompanying account are available in Scroll.in’s article on Manto and the 1960 water dispute.
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