Page 164 - DENG503_INDIAN_WRITINGS_IN_LITERATURE

Indian Writings in Literature

Notes search the house of Hira, because Hira's izzat is his own izzat. During Hira's absence, Hori first
tills and cultivates Hira's fields and then is own, for he asks who else would help Paniya if he did
not. As a result whereas there is plenty in Paniya's house, Hori's own children starve.
Hira is the real cause of all Hori's difficulties. When, however, he comes back, a day before Hori's
death, there is absolutely no difference in Hori's love for Hira. Hori does not see in him the source
of all his troubles, but only as a child as when left by their parents. The intervening 30 years melt
away. He says: "Why weep. To err is human. Where have you been all the time?"
But all these good and noble qualities are of no avail. In spite of them, indeed because of them,
Hori is subjected to a system which provides him with scarcely enough for a bare living. He works
harder and ever harder. At the opening of the book, we find his tender-aged children working at
midday in the hottest month of the year. He lives under conditions of forced and convict labour.
Life for him is no feast; it is not work even. It is a dull heavy tiresome burden. It is a battle which
he never wins. And yet he works, because he must work, because the peasant has always worked.
He is a true "Karma Yogi."
On the one hand, he is buffeted by the inclement forces of Nature. On the other, there is the system
which reduces him to a blind mechanical force, gradually exhausting itself out. He sweats and
toils, so that the fruit of his sweat and toil may be enjoyed by others. He fights others' battles,
others who would stop at nothing short of devouring him. There is not one agency, but there are
many which grind him down. The bureaucracy, the aristocracy and the guardians of religion all
conspire "to eat him up," his exploitation being their common bond.
First, there is the landlord, Rai Sahib. He is a friend. He has retained all the faults of the East and
has grafted on those of the West. During the Congress movement of Civil Disobedience, he courted
imprisonment. He puts on khaddar and claims to be a nationalist. He has literary gifts too and
writes occasional skits. At heart, he says, he is a Socialist, believing in the nobility of manual
labour and recognising the inherent injustice of the present system. But that is theory; in practice he
is not a whit different from other brutish landlords. When the labourers refuse to give "begar," he is
wild with rage. When the mercenary editor of the Bijli voices the grievances of the peasants, he shuts
the editor's mouth with subscription for a hundred copies. He raises 500 rupees from the poor
peasants to be spent on drinks, though the party is in connection with "Dhanush Yagy." Again,
when Hori is fined by the Council of Five he feels that injustice has been done to Hori. He asks the
Council to disgorge the money but….the money goes not to Hori but to the exchequer of Rai Sahib!
There are also the petty officials and the pseudo-nationalist industrialists who suck the peasant's
blood. But, in cruelty, the moneylender is supreme. He is shrewd and clever and would never see
the peasant die, or give up work, or even the village, for if the peasant goes, the moneylender loses
the hen that lays the golden egg. He just keeps him alive.
Hori says there are over half a dozen moneylenders to every one peasant. There is patwari
Pateshwari Shah, there is Jhinguri Shah; there is Nokhe Ram; there is Magru Shah; there is Dulari
Sahuyayin, with her mask of feminine kindness; and there is Data Din, with the sanction of
religion behind him. There are so many of them, for, as Premchand says, money lending is by far
the easiest and the most profitable business.
The system works this way:
Hori took 30 rupees from Dulari. After three years it became 100 rupees. Then a promissory note
was written. After another two years it became 150 rupees. From Magru Shah he borrowed 60
rupees; this has been twice paid over, and yet the loan stands at the same figure.
How cruel the system is shown vividly in a farcical drama staged by the villagers. The peasant
comes, falls at the feet of the Thakur and weeps. The Thakur, after much hesitation, consents to

158 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY