Abid Hassan Minto - Family and Family Name

Family and Family Name

The family name "Minto" was originally "Manto" or "Mantu" and is still used as such by most of the "Mantu" family. "Mantu" like Kichlu, Sapru, Nehru, and Kaatju, signifies a caste of Hindu Brahmin pandits from Kashmir a number of whom migrated to Amritsar, now in the Indian Punjab and then to Rawalpindi. Minto's father Khawaja Ahmad Hassan (1896—1982), a well known civil lawyer in Rawalpindi was a leader of the Indian National Congress until 1943 later joining the Muslim League to play a role in its local politics during the Pakistan movement. Javaid Ahmed Minto was a nephew of the Indian Nationalist Leader Saifuddin Kichlu who was also the paternal uncle of Minto's mother, Aziz Begum (1895—1981). The Urdu short story writer Saadat Hassan Manto (1912—1955) was Minto's great-grand uncle. In 1961 Minto married Tasnim Minto née Kausar (1935--), herself a writer who has published a collection of short stories "Zara si Baat ذرا سی بات" ("A Small Matter"). They have three children, two daughters and a son, from the marriage.