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Unit 12: The Big Brother by Munshi Premchand

to February 1905. Siegfried Schulz states that “his inexperience is quite evident in his first Notes
novel”, which is not well-organised, features stereotyped characters and lacks a good plot. Prakash
Chandra Gupta says it is “immature work”, which shows a tendency to “see life only white or
black”.

12.1.2 Stay at Kanpur

From Pratapgarh, Dhanpat Rai was moved to Allahabad for training, and then posted at Kanpur
in 1905. Premchand stayed in Kanpur for four years, from May 1905 to June 1909. There he met
Daya Narain Nigam, the editor of the magazine Zamana, in which he later published numerous
stories and articles.
Premchand visited his village Lamahi during the summer vacation, but did not find the stay
enjoyable due to several reasons. He did not find the weather of the atmosphere conducive for
writing. He also faced domestic trouble due to arguments between his step-mother and his wife.
Premchand angrily scolded his wife, after she tried to commit suicide by hanging herself.
Discouraged, she went to her father’s house, and Premchand showed no interest in bringing her
back. In 1906, Premchand married a child widow, Shivarani Devi, who was the daughter of a
landlord from a village near Fatehpur. This step he took was thought of as revolutionary at that
time, and Premchand faced a lot of social opposition. After his death, Shivarani Devi wrote a
book on him, titled Premchand Ghar Mein (“Premchand in House”).
In 1905, enthused by the nationalist activism, Premchand published an article on the Indian
National Congress leader Gopal Krishna Gokhale in Zamana. He disapproved of Gokhale’s
methods for achieving political freedom, and instead recommended adoption of more extremist
measures adopted by Bal Gangadhar Tilak. Duniya Ka Sabse Anmol Ratan (“The Most Precious
Jewel in the World”) was the first published story written by Premchand’s and it appeared
in Zamana in 1907. According to this story, the most precious ‘jewel’ was the last drop of blood
necessary to attain independence. Majority of Premchand’s early short stories had patriotic
overtones, influenced by the Indian independence movement.
Premchand’s second short novel Hamkhurma-o-Hamsavab (Prema in Hindi), published in 1907,
and was penned under the name “Babu Nawab Rai Banarsi”. It focuses on the issue of widow
remarriage in the contemporary conservative society: the protagonist Amrit Rai overcomes
social opposition to marry the young widow Poorna, giving up his rich and beautiful fiance
Prema. According to Prakash Chandra Gupta, “while containing seeds of his future greatness in
many ways, the novel is still youthful and lacks the discipline which full maturity brings”.
In 1907, Premchand short novel, Kishna was published by the Medical Hall Press of Benares.
This 142-page novel, which satirises women’s fondness for jewellery, is now lost. Literary critic
Nobat Rai criticised the work in Zamana, stating that it is a mockery of the women’s conditions.
During April–August 1907, Premchand’s story Roothi Rani was published in serial
form in Zamana. Also in 1907, the publishers of Zamana published Premchand’s first short story
collection, titled Soz-e-Watan. This collection, which was later banned, included four stories
which were written to inspire the Indians in their struggle for political freedom.
12.1.3 Gorakhpur

In August 1916, Premchand was relocated to Gorakhpur on a promotion. He became the Assistant
Master at the Normal High School, Gorakhpur. At Gorakhpur, he developed a friendship with
the bookseller Buddhi Lal, and borrowed novels for reading, in exchange for selling exam cram
books at the school. Premchand was an enthusiastic reader of classics in other languages, and
translated a number of these works in Hindi.

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