as a resident of bombay, manto had intended to stay in india after partition. in 1948, his wife and children went to lahore to visit their relatives and friends. during this time, as stories of the atrocities of partition riots reached him, in the midst of occasional communal riots in mumbai itself, he decided to migrate to pakistan, and left for it by ship. manto and his family thus found themselves as ""muhajirs"" (refugees from india) and were among the millions of muslims who left present-day india for the new muslim-majority nation of pakistan.