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Elective English—IV

Notes 3. In Bade Bhai Sahab, Premchand gives an example of our book-oriented and examination-
oriented educational system by portraying the interaction of two brothers.
4. Oka Oori Katha is a 1979 Telugu film directed by Mrinal Sen.

5. A young Delhi based theatre group, The Actor Factor Theatre Company, staged Kafan in
2013 in New Delhi.

12.4 Summary

A pioneer of modern Hindi and Urdu social fiction, Munshi Premchand’s real name was
Dhanpat Rai. He wrote nearly 300 stories and novels. Among his best known novels
are: Sevasadan, Rangmanch, Gaban, Nirmala and Godan.

Munshi Premchand (31 July 1880 – 8 October 1936) was an Indian writer famous for his
modern Hindustani literature. He is one of the most celebrated writers of the Indian
subcontinent, and is regarded as one of the foremost Hindustani writers of the early
twentieth century.

When he was 7 years old, Premchand began his education at a madarsa in Lalpur, located
around 2½ km from Lamahi. Premchand learnt Urdu and Persian from a maulvi in the
madarsa. When he was 8, his mother died after a long illness. His grandmother, who took
the responsibility of raising him, died soon after. Premchand felt isolated, as his elder
sister had already been married, and his father was always busy with work.
From Pratapgarh, Dhanpat Rai was relocated to Allahabad for training, and subsequently
posted at Kanpur in 1905. Premchand stayed in Kanpur for around 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 several articles and stories.

In 1905, inspired by the nationalist activism, Premchand published an article on the Indian
National Congress leader Gopal Krishna Gokhale in Zamana. He criticised Gokhale’s
methods for achieving political freedom, and instead recommended adoption of more
extremist measures adopted by Bal Gangadhar Tilak.

In August 1916, Premchand was transferred 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, who allowed him to borrow 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 several of these works in Hindi.

After quitting his job, Premchand left Gorakhpur for Benares on 18 March 1921, and
decided to focus on his literary career. Till his death in 1936, he faced severe financial
difficulties and chronic ill health.

In 1932, he published another novel titled Karmabhumi. He briefly served as the headmaster
of the Kashi Vidyapeeth, a local school. After the school’s closure, he became the editor of
the Madhuri magazine in Lucknow.
In 1936, Premchand also published Kafan (“Shroud”), in which a poor man collects money
for the funeral rites of his dead wife, but spends it on food and drink. Premchand’s last
published story was Cricket Match, which appeared in Zamana in 1937, after his death.

When it comes to writing Urdu novel and short stories, Premchand definitely has his own
special place. His style of writing novels began as fantasy tales of kings and queens. But as
he became more and more conscious of what was happening around him, he started to
write on social problems and his novels had the element of evoking the feeling of social

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