Dhanpat Rai Shrivastava Premchand

Dhanpat Rai Shrivastava Premchand (1880 - 1936)

• Sixty-five years after his death Premchand remains the most outstanding figure in twentieth-century Hindi literature. • When he began writing Urdu prose barely existed and Hindi had only recently taken the place of Braj, a major literary dialect for northern India, as the primary literary language.

For Premchand writing was an integral aspect of social and political activism. • He is seen as the first in India to write short stories, that is short realistic fiction centering on social themes. – Stands in contrast with folk narratives and romances.

• Fiction is both a critique of social ills and an instrument of social change.

• Directly involved with India struggle for freedom from British rule. • In 1921 he resigned his government job mainly in response to Gandhi’s anti cultural movement for social change.

• Premchand wrote on social issues like – child widowhood, – prostitution, – exploitation of the peasant by the landlord and on – the freedom movement taking place all around him

• His solutions were idealistic, but his great contribution lies in posing the question at that point in time, and through the medium of novels and short stories which, as noted earlier, had till then been restricted to romance.

The Road to Salvation

What Do We Take Away from their Struggle? • Jhingur vs. Buddhu – what are they like as the story begins? • What experience is important? • Why is this called “the road to salvation?”