Open It

by Saadat Hasan Manto

"Open It" is a story about a traumatic father desperately looking for his missing daughter. He describes her features to a group of boys and they find the girl. But the old man only sees his daughter many days later, on a hospital stretcher, having been retrieved from a railway track. What happens next with a simple word like "Open It" is heart-wrenching. This has been translated from the original story "Khol do" written by Saadat Hasan Manto. Saadat Hasan Manto was the most widely read and the most controversial short-story writer. He was known to write about the hard truths of society that no one dared to talk about.

Genres: Short Stories

Unknown Binding

About the author

Saadat Hasan Manto (Urdu: سعادت حسن منٹو, Hindi: सआदत हसन मंटो), the most widely read and the most controversial short-story writer in Urdu, was born on 11 May 1912 at Sambrala in Punjab's Ludhiana District. In a writing career spanning over two decades he produced twenty-two collections of short stories, one novel, five collections of radio plays, three collections of essays, two collections of reminiscences and many scripts for films. He was tried for obscenity half a dozen times, thrice before and thrice after independence. Not always was he acquitted. Some of Manto's greatest work was produced in the last seven years of his life, a time of great financial and emotional hardship for him. He died a few months short of his forty-third birthday, in January 1955, in Lahore.

Reviews

[sam☆ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hope you're shining somewhere brightly my dear sakina

[Aly Shah · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Open It", these words is the title of the story but only this thing doesn't make them significant. The words "OPEN IT" has different meanings for different peoples in the story. For instance, for Sakina's father who lost his daughter during partition of India interpret these words that he'll open a window a will able to see his lost daughter after a long time. On the other hand, for the volunteers, who promised Sakina's father that they'll find his daughter, these words symbolise something different than her father. They use OPEN IT to meet or achieve their desires through her body. For Sakina, contrasting to previous two, her body is battlefield, where all man fight to fulfil their sexual desires before others. OPEN IT means for her that she has to endure one more monster.

Must read for subcontinent people.

[Akshay · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Open It” by Saadat Hasan Manto

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Saadat Hasan Manto’s short story “Open It” (_Khol Do_) is a searing, unforgettable piece of Partition-era literature. At just a few pages long, it delivers more emotional and moral weight than many novels. First published in the aftermath of the 1947 India-Pakistan Partition, the story pierces through the numbness of statistics and history, forcing us to confront the raw, personal cost of communal violence.

The plot revolves around a father, Sirajuddin, who is frantically searching for his teenage daughter, Sakina, in the chaos following Partition. As he navigates refugee camps and police outposts, he finally enlists the help of a group of young men to find her. Days pass. When the authorities eventually bring a barely conscious Sakina to a hospital, the attending doctor asks for a window to be opened. What follows is one of the most gut-punching final lines in all of South Asian literature: Sakina, lying seemingly unaware, obeys the command: “Open it.”

The moment is devastating—not only because of the trauma it reveals, but because of the brutal irony and humanity it captures. Sakina has been so violated and broken that she now responds automatically to male commands. That one simple response encapsulates the unspeakable violence inflicted on women during Partition—not through sensationalism, but through silence, obedience, and the absence of dignity.

Manto’s genius lies in his restraint. He doesn’t spell out what happened to Sakina in detail. He trusts the reader to understand, and in that trust, the horror deepens. There’s no melodrama—only stark, matter-of-fact reporting, which makes the story even more haunting. Manto’s prose is sharp, unadorned, and brutally honest. He does not take sides politically; his allegiance is to the suffering individual.

“Open It” is not easy to read—but it must be read. It confronts us with uncomfortable truths about gender, war, and what is lost when humanity gives in to hatred. It also challenges us to reckon with silence—not just the silence of Sakina, but the silence of society that allows such atrocities to happen.

Final Verdict: This is a story that leaves you with a lump in your throat and a heavy silence in your mind. “Open It” is a literary masterstroke—chilling, minimal, and profoundly human. A shining example of Manto’s unflinching voice and the painful beauty of short fiction at its most powerful.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ – An absolute essential from one of the greatest storytellers of the 20th century.

[Abhidev H M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just one word..Khol do (Open It), tells everything.

[Viv · Rating 5 out of 5]

yo what the fuck actually
that ending got me bad

[KHUSHI K · Rating 5 out of 5]

brutal.