Munshi Premchand - A great Novelist

On July 31, 1880, Dhanpat Rai Srivastava—also known as Munshi Premchand—was born in Lamahi, Uttar Pradesh, which is close to Varanasi. In the realm of contemporary Hindi and Urdu literature, he stands as one of the most prominent figures. He wrote hundreds of short stories, many essays, and more than a dozen novels in addition to his work as a dramatist and novelist. Several literary works from other languages were also translated into Hindi by him. He started his writing career as a freelance Urdu writer, while being a teacher by trade. 

Born as Dhanpat Rai Srivastav, Premchand was not. His parents were homemaker Anandi Devi and post office clerk Ajaib Rai. He was the fourth kid they had.At the age of eight, his mother passed away, and his father quickly got married again. However, he did not have a strong relationship with his stepmother and as a child, he felt quite alone and depressed. He became a voracious reader after turning to books for comfort.

He studied Persian and Urdu at a madrasa in Lalpur throughout his early schooling. Later on, he attended a missionary school to acquire English.

In 1897, his father also passed away, forcing him to stop his education. In 1895, he wed a woman his grandfather had chosen. At the time, he was only 15 years old and continued his education. He thought his wife was a quarrelsome person, thus they did not get along. Due to extreme dissatisfaction in the marriage, his wife left him and returned to her father. Premchand did not try to entice her back.

In 1906, he wed Shivarani Devi, a child widow. Premchand encountered strong opposition for taking this action, which was at the time seen as revolutionary. These two went on to have three happy and healthy children from their marriage.

A position as an assistant teacher at the Government District School in Bahraich was offered to Premchand in 1900.He rose to prominence as an Urdu writer by the middle of the 1910s, and in 1914 he began writing in Hindi.

In 1916, Premchand was appointed Assistant Master at Gorakhpur's Normal High School. Seva Sadan, his debut novel in Hindi, was published in 1919. Critics praised it, and it helped him become more well-known.

A devoted nationalist, he left his government job to join Mahatma Gandhi's non-cooperation movement, despite having a growing family to support. He was chosen to be the inaugural President of the Progressive Writers' Association in Lucknow in 1936, just a few months before he passed away.

He relocated to Benares (Varanasi) after quitting his work to concentrate on his writing profession. In 1923, he founded Saraswati Press, a publishing firm and printing press, and released the novels Nirmala (1925) and Pratigya (1927). Both books addressed societal concerns that mostly affect women, such as widow remarriage and the dowry system.In 1930, he started a monthly literary-political magazine called Hans.

In 1931, he started working as a teacher at Kanpur's Marwari College. However, he was forced to quit this position due to disagreements with the college administration, therefore it did not survive long. After his return to Benares, he took up the position of editor of the journal "Maryada" and held a brief tenure as the Kashi Vidyapeeth's headmaster.

In 1934, desperate to turn around his deteriorating financial circumstances, he travelled to Bombay and took a job writing scripts for the production company Ajanta Cinetone. He authored the screenplay for the movie "Mazdoor" (also known as "The Labourer"), in which he also had a brief cameo. The video, which showed the deplorable working conditions of the labour class, was prohibited because it inspired workers in numerous enterprises to rebel against their employers.

In April 1935, he moved to Benares from Mumbai, where he released his final two works, the novel "Godaan" and the short tale "Kafan" in 1936.

He frequently described the sad situation of girls and women in his novels in an attempt to raise readers' awareness of the harsh treatment of Indian women at the time. 

As evidenced by the novel Godan (1936) and the collection of short stories Kafan (1936), Premchand devoted his final days to using village life as a setting for intricate drama. He felt that social realism was the better path for Hindi literature than the "feminine quality," tenderness, and emotion of modern Bengali literature. He was unwell in his final days and passed away on October 8, 1936.

In 2005, the Premchand Fellowships were instituted in his honour by the Sahitya Akademi, the National Academy of Letters of India. It is awarded to distinguished individuals from SAARC nations who excel in the sphere of culture.

"Beauty doesn't need ornaments. Softness can't bear the weight of ornaments.

To be successful in life what you need is education, not literacy and degrees.

Trust is the first step to love."
                                       - Munshi Premchand