Born as Dhanpat Rai in British India, he was forced to adopt an immortal name after his collection of short stories was seized by the authorities who found them to be seditious. These stories reflect the struggle of the working class and the oppressed groups under British occupied India and highlighted the freedom movement, which were provocative enough for the foreign rulers. By all standards, it was an assault on free expression. One such collection, translated in Punjabi, bears the title that reads Munshi Premchand’s stories that were confiscated by the British.   

Apart from focussing on the liberation struggle, Premchand, who was among the founding fathers of progressive literature, showcased the richness of pluralist culture of India through his novels and short fiction.  

His work has become even more relevant today under a right wing Hindutva nationalist government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Ever since he came to power in 2014, attacks on religious minorities and political dissidents have grown. So much so, the authors and scholars are being frequently detained and thrown in jails for questioning the power.  

Ironically, Modi is a Member of Parliament from Varanasi, the birthplace of Premchand. It is not surprising to see how he is trying to appropriate the late writer who continues to dominate the literary landscape of the country. Last year, he went to the extent of claiming that he was deeply touched by the stories of Premchand in his radio address to the nation.         

If Modi really means what he says then he should start releasing all the scholars and intellectuals who have been detained by his government for questioning the power. Among them is an 81-year-old revolutionary poet Varavara Rao, who was hit by Covid-19 in jail and a Delhi University Professor GN Saibaba, who is disabled below the waist. The list is long and includes published authors, like Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha. These individuals were arrested on trumped up charges for merely raising voices for the poor and marginalised.  

Also, Modi’s ideology completely contradicts that of Premchand. Whereas Modi wants to transform India into Hindu theocracy, Premchand’s work stands for an inclusive and tolerant society.  

Modi government is behaving no differently than the British rulers who had seized the short stories of Premchand to crush resistance. If he cannot do this, then he should at least stop lying about his feelings in public.  

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Dhanpat Rai Shrivastava (31 July 1880 – 8 October 1936), better known by his pen name Munshi Premchand was an Indian writer famous for his modern Hindi-Urdu literature

With his salt-and-pepper hair, tiny moustache and dhoti-kurta, he looked like my relatives who lived in villages. Premchand was like a nana or a dada telling stories to tiny tots. And he lived a Spartan life. In a letter to his friend, Premchand said that he never craved for bungalows and cars. All he needed was dal-chapati and a spoonful of ghee. Modern doctors would have frowned upon Premchand ‘s love affair with ghee (clarified butter). Like Munni, ghee has also become quite “badnaam” nowadays. But those were good, old days. Cholesterol was unheard of. And nobody bothered about clogged arteries. So, Premchand got away with his shuddh desi ghee and penned heart-warming stories. Most of his immortal stories were written on a broken khatiya (string-bed). Unlike modern writers who produce heaps of trash, writing on laptops in air-conditioned cafes!

Coming back to Premchand’s short stories, they are still embedded in my heart. “Eidgaah” is a story about a poor Muslim kid Hamid who buys a “chimta” for his old grandma because she burnt her fingers when  making rotis. The story is so moving that I shed copious tears every time I read it. Premchand has depicted the child psychology brilliantly. The way Hamid defends his humble “chimta” against fancy toys bought by his friends is heart-rending. And when the story ends, both Hamid’s dadi Ameena and the reader are in tears. Then there is “Raksha Me Hatya” a story about two innocent kids who are so obsessed with protecting pigeon eggs that they finally break them! Noble intentions gone haywire.

“Panch Parmeshwar” is a story about two bosom friends Algoo Chaudhary and Jumman Sheikh and dynamics of village panchayats. Algoo testifies against Jumman when Jumman’s old khala (aunt) accuses Jumman of ill-treatment. The panch (judge) should not let friendship come in the way of justice. In “Namak Ka Daroga”, an honest salt-inspector Munshi Vanshidhar refuses to succumb to temptation, loses his job but honoured in the end by the same Pandit Alopideen who tried to bribe him. And “Poos Ki Raat“. A poor farmer Halku refuses to leave the warmth of fire even when his field is grazed by cattle.

“Shatranj Ke Khiladi” shows the decadent feudal culture of Lucknow. Mirza and Meer continue to play chess as the British forces march into Awadh. The legendary Satyajit Ray made a movie on this story. Ray’s only movie in Hindi.

Premchand himself was a starry-eyed idealist in his real life. Listening to Mahatma Gandhi’s call, he quit his Government job. Premchand married a child-widow Shivrani Devi. His son Amrit Rai called him Kalam Ka Sipahi. Born as Dhanpat Rai, Premchand wrote in Urdu. When the British Govt seized his book Soz-e-Watan, he switched over to Hindi and took Premchand as his nom-de-plume.

Premchand taught me many things. His stories shaped my character. He made me a staunch secularist. I learnt that Algoo and Jumman can be bosom friends despite their different religions. If I regularly attend iftar at my Muslim friends’houses, the Algoo-Jumman friendship inspires me. He sowed in me seeds of empathy with the poor. I always see a Hamid in poor kids. And he taught me to stick to my principles, much like Munshi Vanshidhar, the incorruptible  namak ka daroga. And lessons in simplicity.

A writer who ate simple dal-chapati but strode the world like a colossus. I salute you, Munshi Premchand. Koti – koti naman!

(Mr. Amitabh Kumar Das is a 1994 Batch IPS Officer.)

First published on http://www.themorningchronicle.in
 

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Dhanpat Rai Srivastava, later known as Munshi Premchand was an author, translator, playwright and social commentator. When Munshi Premchand’s birth anniversary on July 31 starts drawing near, many recount the great injustice that the writer had to endure. Often compared to Charles Dickens for his astute observation of his environment, Munshi Premchand had an unparalleled hand on the nerve of the masses. He acquired the title ‘Emperor among Novelists’ but died penniless.
 
He had big dreams for a modern India where inter-caste marriage was not frowned upon and religion didn’t blind humanity. India has been gripped by violence as mob lynchings over suspected cow slaughter continue unabated. What can his last finished novel ‘Godan,’ (The Gift of a Cow,) that was published in 1936, tell us about contemporary India?
 
Godan is a tragic story of a simple and God-fearing man Hori Mahato who longs to have a cow of his own. The cow is a status symbol for the residents of this village where exploitation of the poor is the only religion. His ensuing debt for borrowing a cow, paying bribes to the police to protect his brother who poisoned his cow, the loss of his oxen that were taken by the cow-lender as repayment, his family being outcast for favouring humanity over caste hierarchies and more are some plots of this novel.
 
Read the spectacular work here and see if today’s India is really all that different from the country that was nearing the end of the British colonialism.
 

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