Prasanna

The Biography of Famous Personalities of India will tell you about the controversies, the dark sides of a person that you may have never heard of.

Introduction, Family, Education and Career of Mohan Malaviya

Introduction

“I am a Hindu by faith and I mean no disrespect to any other religion”.

An eminent Congressman, Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya was the president of the Indian National Congress during 1909 and in 1918. He represented the whole of India with Mahatma Gandhi in the First Round Table Conference in 1931.

Malaviya popularised the famous slogan, “Satyameva Jay ate” (Truth alone will win). He founded The Banaras Hindu University, which remains as a premier institution of learning in India even today.

Malaviya was bom in an orthodox Brahmin family in Allahabad on December 25, 1861. He was the son of Pandit Brij Nath, a highly respected scholar of Sanskrit of his time.

Malaviya was first educated traditionally at two Sanskrit pathshalas and later sent to an English school. Even during his college days, as a student of the Muir Central College, Allahabad, he took keen interest in public activities. Religion and education were, however, of special interest to him and he dedicated himself to these till the end of his life.

After graduation in 1884, he joined the Government High School at Allahabad as a teacher. Being in government service did not prevent him from participating in political movements and he soon joined the fold of the Indian National Congress.

His very first appearance on the Congress platform at its Calcutta session created a lasting impression and gave him a place in the political life of the country. By his earnest and untiring work, Malaviya rapidly gained ascendancy in the Congress organisation. He was one of the very few individuals who were honoured by the Congress by being elected as its president three times, the first at the Lahore session (1909), the second time at Delhi (1918) and the third at Calcutta (now Kolkata) (1933).

His zeal for public work made him realise the necessity of starting newspapers, particularly in Hindi, for the education of the public. He started the Abhyudaya as a Hindi weekly in 1907 and made it a daily in 1915. He began the Leader, an English daily, on 24 October 1909. Both the Abhyudaya and the Leader rendered valuable service to the cause of national freedom for nearly half a century.

Malaviya took a keen interest in the industrial development of the country and was therefore appointed a member of the Indian Industrial Commission in 1916. He supported the demand for the grant of full Dominion Status to India put forward by Pandit Motilal Nehru.

The Banaras Hindu University (B.H.U.), which was indeed Malaviya’s greatest achievement, will always remind the future generations of the keen interest that he took in the education of the mind and the spirit. It was his deep love for Hindu culture and the spiritual ideas embodied in Hindu religious books that gave birth to the idea of establishing the Banaras Hindu University. The importance that he attached to the economic development of the country made him combine the teaching of science and technology with that of religion.

In 1928, he joined Lala Lajpat Rai, Jawaharlal Nehru and many others in protesting against the Simon Commission, which had been set up by the British to consider India’s future.

In 1933, Malaviya presided over the Calcutta Congress session and defended the Civil Disobedience Movement. Malaviya retired from active politics in 1937.

Malaviya passed away on November 12, 1946.

The Family History

Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya was bom in Laldiggi locality of Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh on 25 December 1861, in a Brahmin family of Brijnath and Moona Devi. He was the fifth child in a family of five brothers and two sisters. His grandfather Pandit Premadhar was a great Sanskrit Scholar. His grandmother was also deeply religious and gracious.

His ancestors originally hailed from Malwa and hence came to be known as ‘Malaviyas’. His father was also a learned man in Sanskrit scriptures and used to recite Bhagvat Katha to earn a living. Among all his siblings, Madan Mohan was the most talented. His birth was considered auspicious as he was bom on a date on which Lord Christ was bom.

The child Madan Mohan was deeply influenced by his family’s economic condition, parental affection and grand-parents religiosity. His life shaped in religiosity, grace and service to the poor and society.

Education

Malaviya was born and brought up in a middle-class religious family. He received his early education in Sanskrit at home and was later sent to a private school.

After a few years of schooling in Sanskrit and Hindi, he was sent to the Allahabad District School and passed his Matriculation Examination. Pt. Deokinandan perfected him in the art of delivering religious discourses.

Malaviya imbibed the spirit of social service at his school. After Matriculation, Malaviya joined the Muir Central College, Allahabad. He studied History, English and Sanskrit in the College for his B.A. degree which he obtained in 1884. While at the college, he came in contact with Aditya Ram Bhattacharya, Professor of Sanskrit, who greatly influenced him and shaped his life and career. He was tolerant and liberal-minded and deeply attached to the religion of his ancestors.

Marriage

As was the tradition in those days, Malaviya was married early, in 1878, when he was about sixteen years of age, to Kundan Devi of Mirzapur. She was the third daughter of Pandit Nanda Ram. At that time Malaviya was pursuing graduation at Muir Central College, Allahabad.

Even after marriage, he continued his educational pursuit doing various jobs as teacher, editor and even practised law. The couple had in due course, five sons and five daughters, out of which four sons, Ramakant, Radhakant, Mukund, Govind and two daughters Rama and Malati survived.

Career

Though Malaviya wanted to pursue an M.A. in Sanskrit, his family conditions didn’t allow it and his father wanted him to take his family profession of Bhagvat recital, thus in July 1884, Malaviya started his career as a teacher in Allahabad District School. In December 1886, he attended the Ilnd Congress session in Calcutta under chairmanship of Dadabhai Naoroji, where he spoke on the issue of representation in Councils.

His address not only impressed Dadabhai but also Raja Rampal Singh, the ruler of Kalakankar estate near Allahabad, who had started a Hindi weekly Hindustan but was looking for a suitable editor to turn it into a daily. Though he was young at that time, Malaviya’s earlier writings and speeches helped him acqui e the characteristics of a journalist.

Thus in July 1887, he left his school job and joined as the editor of the nationalist weekly, he remained there for two and a half years, and left for Allahabad to join L.L.B. He worked in editorial of Hindi daily ‘Hindustan’, English daily ‘Indian Opinion’ and started Hindi weekly ‘Abhyudaya’.

After finishing his Law degree, he started practising Law at Allahabad District Court in 1891, and moved to Allahabad High Court by December 1893. Soon he became a brilliant Civil Lawyer and continued practice till he decided to give up his roaring practice on his 50th birthday and retired in 1913 to serve the country.

When the British Government tried to bring in the Press Act and Newspaper Act in 1908, Malaviya started a campaign against the Act and called an All India Conference in Allahabad. He then realized the need of an English Newspaper to make the campaign effective throughout the country. As a result, he started the English daily ‘Leader’ in 1909 with the help of Pt. Motilal Nehru. In 1910, Malaviya started the Hindi paper ‘Maryada’. He took active control of ‘Hindustan Times’ from Delhi in 1924.

The Biography of Famous Personalities of India will tell you about the controversies, the dark sides of a person that you may have never heard of.

Munshi Premchand’s Literature, Religion and Adaptations of Works

Literature and Religion

Trust is die first step to love.

Munshi Premchand is mainly recognized for his creations that always contained a social message and raised voices against the social evils pertaining to Indian society. His creations brought the era of realism in Indian literature at that time when only fantasy fiction and religious writings were dominating it and act accordingly. The great novelist is ranked among the greatest authors of the 20th century in India.

Thoughts on the problems of literature and religion, particularly the former’s role in countering religious fanaticism and provincialism, were Premchand’s principal preoccupations at this time. He expressed his crystallized views not only to individuals but also to various literary gatherings which were always largely attended. He attended the Hindustani Academy meetings, presided over the Progressive Writers Association’s first conferene, conferred with writers in Delhi, went to Lahore to address the Aryabhasha Sammelan convened by the Arya Pratinidhi Sabha of Punjab on the occasion of its fiftieth anniversary, and, of course, attended the Bharatiya Sahitya Parishad’s meetings.

Premchand did not believe in any formal or ceremonial religion. Nor was he ever interested in going to the temple, the mosque, or the church. Not that he considered it bad for the people to have faith in any religion, but he could not accept for himself the limitations imposed by conventional religion.

“My way of living and my culture are, in fact, a blend of the Hindu and the Muslim,” he said. “The impact of Muslim culture on me is actually deeper than that of the Hindu; I learnt Persian and Urdu from a maulvi long before I started reading and writing Hindi.”

Premchand’s belief verged on atheism. “I don’t know how to have faith in God,” he wrote to Jainendra Kumar. “While you are going towards having a belief in Him in fact are becoming a believer—my doubts are making me an atheist.”

It was not necessary, according to Premchand, to have faith in God. “You may believe in Him for giving you solace in time of difficulty, to fill some vacuum in your life, or to excite your hopes. But religion essentially is a projection of one’s own ‘Self.” To make a fetish of religion and to be dogmatic and narrow-minded, was against his grain.

Premchand believed that literature is a powerful medium to educate people and it showed in his writings. In his later life, he continued to write fictions with social purpose and social criticism. Now a revered author and thinker, Munshi Premchand presided over conferences, literature seminars and received huge applause.

Munshi Premchand chaired the first All India Conference of the Indian Progressive Writer’s Association in year 1936. However, in his personal life he was still struggling to make both ends meet. Munshi Premchand also suffered from health problem paticulaly ‘abdominal problems’.

Despite every difficulty and challenges, Premchand did not abandon writing and embarked on completing his last novel Mangalsootra. The novel still remains incomplete as he died in the middle of it on 8th October, 1936.

After his death, his wife Shivrani Devi wrote a book on him, titled Premchand Ghar Mein (Premchand at home).

In the year 2005, Sahitya Academy established the Premchand fellowship in his honour.

Adaptations of Works

I believe that if man and woman cherish the same ideals and think alike, then the marriage can be complementary to each other’s work instead of being a hindrance.

Munshi Premchand authored over 300 short stories, novels and several number of essays, letters and plays. Many of his works have been translated into English and Russian and some have been adopted into films as well. His first novel Godaan is ranked amongst the finest novels of his era and remains so till this day. His other notable novels are Gabon, Kafan, Poos ki Raat and Bade Ghar ki Beti.

Two of Premchand’s best selling novels—Sadgati and Shatranj Ke Khiladi were filmed by Satyajit Ray. Sadgati (Salvation) is a short story revolving around poor Dukhi, who dies of exhaustion while hewing wood for a paltry favour. Shatranj ke Khiladi (The Chess Players) revolved around the decadence of nawabi Lucknow, where the obsession with a game consumes the players, making them oblivious of their responsibilities in the midst of a crisis.

Premchand’s Seva Sadan (first published in 1918) was also made into a film by Satyajit Ray with M.S. Subbulakshmi in the lead role. The novel is set in Varanasi, the holy city of Hindus. Seva Sadan (House of Service) is an institute built for the daughters of courtesans. The lead of the novel is a beautiful, intelligent and talented girl called Suman. She belongs to a high caste. She is married to a much older, tyrannical man.

She realises that a loveless marriage is just like prostitution except that there is only one client. Bholi, a courtesan, lives opposite Suman. Suman realises that Bholi is “outside purdah”, while she is “inside it”. Suman leaves her husband and becomes a successful entertainer of gentlemen. But after a brief period of success, she ends up as a victim of a political drama played out by self-righteous Hindu social reformers and moralists.

A young Delhi based theatre group, the Actor Factor Theatre Company, staged Kafan in 2010 in New Delhi. It is an original stage adaptation of Premchand’s short story. Kafan is a dark comedy. In the play, puppetry is explored to depict the tussle between two classes and the plight of Budhia, who is caught in the crossfire. Bleakness of hope in the story and awfulness of the father-son duo find a delicate balance. At times the situations break into morbid humour. In the end a wine-house becomes the stage for Ghisu (father) and Madhav’s (son) rebellious dance, defying not only the laws of the land but also that of the Gods.

Oka Oori Katha (English title: A Story of a village) is a 1977 Telugu film directed by Mrinal Sen. It is based on the story Kafan by Munshi Premchand. It is one of the few Art films made in Telugu language.

A film version of Premchand’s novel, Gabon, was released in 1966. Sunil Dutt, Sadhana Shivdasani, Kanhaiyalal and Leela Mishra acted in the film and the music was scored by musician duo Shankar Jaikishan.

Timeline

• 1880 : Born on 31 July in Lamhi, a village near Varanasi (UP)
• 1895 : First marriage at 15
• 1897 : Father died and he had to support his family
• 1899 : Left his village and got a job of teacher
• 1900 : Became assistant teacher at Government district school in Bahraich
• 1902 : Became the headmaster of a school at Allahabad
• 1905 : Shifted to Kanpur as Deputy Sub-Inspector of Schools
• 1906 : Married to child widow Shivrani Devi
• 1907 : First story collection ‘Soz-e-Watan’ was published, confiscated by the British government in 1909
• 1910 : Changed his pen name from ‘Nawab Rai’ to ‘Premchand’
• 1914 : Became a prominent writer in Urdu and then started writing in Hindi
• 1916 : Became the Assistant Master at the Normal High School, Gorakhpur
• 1919 : Published his first major Hindi novel ‘Seva Sadan’
• 1921 : Resigned from his job as his support to the Indian independence movement
• 1923 : Moved to Benares (Varanasi) and established a printing press and publishing house called Saraswati Press
• 1930 : Published a literary-political weekly magazine ‘Hans’
• 1931 : Became a teacher in the Marwari College, Kanpur
• 1934 : Went to Bombay, accepted a script writing job for Ajanta Cinetone and wrote the script for the film ‘Mazdoor’
• 1935 : Moved to Benares and published short story ‘Kafan’ and the novel ‘Godan’ in 1936
• 1936 : Chaired the first All-India Conference of the Indian Progressive Writer’s Association.
• 1936 : Died on 8th October due to prolonged sickness
• 1938 : Last story ‘Cricket Match’ published in Zamana
• 2005 : Sahitya Academy established the Premchand Fellowships in his honour

The Biography of Famous Personalities of India will tell you about the controversies, the dark sides of a person that you may have never heard of.

National Movement Era of Munshi Premchand

National Movement Era

Like timidity, bravery is also contagious.

Munshi Premchand was deeply moved by the events following the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and sympathised with the policy pursued by Mahatma Gandhi.

Premchand in December 1919, was planning to attend the Amritsar session of the Indian National Congress, “I wish to go there. And I think I may have some money to undertake the journey. For the Gujarati edition of Prem Pachisi, I have been offered one hundred rupees. This will be enough to take me to Amritsar. The very thought of discomfort of journey, however, makes me hesitate. Dysentery has immobilised me. And, when I am not well, what fun can I ever derive from the session? I may, in fact, think of running away from there. In a situation like this I should be staying put.”

And, in fact, he did not go to Amritsar-in spite of his deep feelings for the events in Amritsar and Lahore.

“The non-cooperation movement has resulted in great havoc in Lahore,” he wrote to Taj ten months later. “Let us see which way the wind blows.”

When after the autumn session of the Congress in Calcutta and the annual session at Nagpur, Mahatma Gandhi started on a tour of northern India, Premchand was anxiously watching. He was excited. “Gandhiji is due here today,” he wrote to Taj from Gorakhpur.

A raised platform was erected for Mahatma Gandhi in the Gazimian Maidan, and the audience from Gorakhpur and the neighbouring villages that collected there numbered 200,000. Premchand had never seen such a vast concourse of people making their way to hear the Mahatma.

Just recovered from his acute dysentery and still sick, he went to hear the Mahatma, and also took along his wife and his two children. Such attendance by government servants, incidentally, was frowned upon by the government. While his wife took a vow not to use ornaments—in a country where the average income in four and a half annas (28 paise), women had no right to put on ornaments—Premchand became a follower of the Mahatma. “A glimpse of Gandhiji,” says Premchand, “wrought such a miracle that a half-dead man like myself got a new lease of life.”

Within a day or two, Premchand responded to the call of Mahatma Gandhi asking teachers and professors and students to leave the schools and colleges, the lawyers to leave the courts and the government servants to resign their jobs, so as to bring the administration to a standstill.

Knowing fully well that he had passed his FA and BA examinations and had already sent in his admission fee for the MA examination, only with the idea of improving his prospects in the education department, of getting a professorship and retiring on a handsome pension; and well aware that he would lose a total monthly income of about ₹ 125, with little prospect of an alternate employment, Premchand decided to resign.

The conversation took place between the husband and the wife. The repressive measures that came in the wake of the Jallianwala Bagh tragedy had become unbearable. “We knew that each one in the country had to stand together against these laws and measures.” She agreed with Premchand’s proposal to resign because it was the duty of everyone to respond to the call of the times and also because the sudden recovery of Premchand from illness a little earlier had given her a new faith in the future.

Premchand wrote out his resignation and handed it over to the headmaster of the school. Knowing that he had just recovered from illness, and the acceptance of his resignation might mean some difficulties for the family, he insisted that Premchand should withdraw it. But Premchand was firm. “I won’t withdraw the resignation,” he said, “and I shall not be attending the school from tomorrow.”

The headmaster asked Premchand to consult his wife before he insisted on its acceptance. “She has been consulted,” said Premchand, “and in fact she has encouraged me to resign.”

For some six days, it appears, no decision was taken on his resignation. On the seventh day the headmaster himself called at Premchand’s house and asked him what had come over him that, having just recovered from a prolonged illness, he had resigned.

“I don’t want you to be rash,” he said, “and am not willing to forward your resignation.” He thought Premchand might have second thoughts. Premchand, however, was firm and adamant.

“My conscience, Mr. Headmaster,” said Premchand, “does not permit me to serve the Government any longer. I am being forced from my within to resign.”

On February 15, 1921, Premchand wrote to his friend Nigam that he was through with government service and that his resignation had been accepted as from that date. None was more sorry than the headmaster and his colleagues. No less sorry were his pupils, many of whom wanted to leave the school to join the non-cooperation movement.

It was characteristic of Premchand that he tried to persuade them to continue their educational career in the interest of their future. “The path I have chosen,” he said, “is a difficult one. But I am in a position to earn enough to feed myself and my family. You, however, are not so placed in life. If you leave the school without completing your studies, you would land yourself into difficulties.” However, a few of the pupils did leave the school.

But Premchand himself was inadequately equipped to jump into the non-cooperation movement. The only training that he had had was for journalism and book-writing. He toyed with the idea of starting a weekly Urdu paper from Gorakhpur, and again thought of establishing a press for the purpose, and asked for collaboration with Nigam. The old scheme of setting up a printing press was taken out of the shelf, as it were. There was, however, little progress.

He took to the manufacture and popularisation of the charkha, the then principal Congress plank. For this work he joined hands with his friend and publisher, Mahavir Prasad Poddar, who shifted Premchand and his family to his house in village Maaniram, some thirteen miles from Gorakhpur. And to make it convenient for Premchand’s family, he shifted his own also to the same village.

While Premchand would sit at the doorstep of Poddar to supervise the manufacture of the charkhas, Poddar would go to the town of Gorakhpur every day. Returning home he would bring medicine for Premchand, which did the latter some good in due course.

As Premchand’s health shown improvement, the two families shifted back to Gorakhpur again and rented a house where ten handlooms were installed. The charkhas made at the village were also brought to Gorakhpur and sold.

While this work and the scheme for a weekly, in collaboration with D.P. Dwivedi of Swadesh Press, made little progress, Premchand decided to popularise the charkha in Lamhi also. For this purpose he shifted in March 1921 to his village, secured some wood from the local zamindar, got charkhas manufactured and, after explaining their economics and working, distributed them free to the peasants. He also devoted some time to his literary pursuits.

He was writing an article per week for Aaj and also doing sundry work for a publishing house in Benares where his brother was employed. Premchand’s routine consisted of getting up in the early hours of the morning, ablutions, a few snacks and continuous work till mid-day when he would bathe, and then luncheon, followed by rest for an hour. After the rest he would again devote himself to work.

At about four o’clock, he would require some recreation in the form of fondling and playing with children, for whom he would sweep the threshold of his house and collect leaves, straw and sand, to be used for teaching the young children of the neighbourhood new games.

Later in the evening he would talk to cultivators in the village, with whom he would discuss their problems and difficulties. These discussions provided him with material for his “rural classics.” He would also propagate the ideals of swaraj in political and economic fields, specially the implications of the new legislation that might be pending. His aim was also to help the villagers arrive at social cohesion.

Premchand felt, life in the village, was not all that easy. His output of stories declined. He could not write more than two or three a month, bringing him on an average about forty rupees a month. The final draft of Premashram too was not ready yet. It required sustained work, preparing the final copy for the press means as much work as original writing. His frequent visits to Benares involved considerable strain. The revival of the old bickerings between the stepmother and his wife demolished the idyllic picture of the village life that he had painted in his mind. He wished to get out of this atmosphere.

The scheme to bring out an Urdu weekly in collaboration with Dashrath Prasad Dwivedi, had fallen through. His scheme to bring out one of his own was also nowhere near fruition. He had naturally to try for some job. The attempts made were in two directions: for the post of the headmaster of the Marwari High School in Kanpur, and also for the post of the secretary of the Municipal Committee of Benares. While negotiations for the latter were going on, the former was fixed up with the assistance of Nigam and Vidyarthi whose word counted with Mahashe Kashi Nath who worked on behalf of the managing committee of the school.

Within a few months of his resignation from the government school at Gorakhpur, Premchand had thus accepted a job of headmaster—of course, in a non¬governmental school.

He reached Kanpur towards the end of June 1921, leaving his family at Allahabad where a few days earlier, his father-in¬law had expired. He returned to Allahabad, told his wife about his new assignment and, after a flying visit to Lamhi, joined duty. The stepmother wanted Premchand’s family to stay on, but seeing the affairs in the joint household in Lamhi and the advanced stage of pregnancy of his wife, he insisted on the family accompanying him to Kanpur.

It was in his house on Maston Road in Kanpur that Premchand’s second son, Amrit Rai (Bannu), was born a month or so later. Shivrani Devi had a long confinement. Premchand himself was sickly—once he was down with fever for more than ten days followed by an acute attack of dysentery.

Premchand’s illness, however, did not deter him from devoting considerable time to writing. The most important work of this period was the preparation of the final draft of Premashram which, it seems, had been finalised only in February 1922. It monopolised most of his time. Stories conceived, or written, at this time included Mooth, Purva Sanskar, Nag Pooja, Svatva Raksha, Selani Bandar and Adhikar Chinta, etc.

1930 was a year of ordinances in India some nine of them were issued within a short period of six months! These ordinances imposed drastic curbs on the life of the community, in particular, on the functioning of the Press. Suspension of the publication of newspapers, however, gave a fillip to the movement of national liberation. Rumours spread like wild fire. People got agitated and excited. More and more of them came forward to offer satyagraha. The proclamation of martial law was a common occurrence.

“You probably know,” Premchand told Nigam, “that the city is a military camp. If I get arrested or am knocked down, and my soul leaves its earthly abode, please look after those whom I leave behind. You should not rest content with mere expression of pity and mercy. I am saying all this because these days anything is possible.”

Surprisingly, however, the person who got arrested was not Permchand but his wife. Moved to tears by a fiery speech delivered by Mrs. Motilal Nehru at Lucknow, Shivrani Devi joined a band of eleven women who formed a Mahila Ashram to serve the cause of national liberation through mobilising womenfolk. The Ashram soon grew into a very large body with some seven hundred members.

Shivrani Devi was among those elected to the working committee. On November 10, 1930, she was arrested along with six others, on a charge of picketing the shops selling foreign cloth.

An account of her arrest has been recorded by Shivrani Devi in the autobiographical issue of Hans (February 1932). Her close association with the national movement and her incarceration, incidentally, provided her with some themes for short stories.

The Biography of Famous Personalities of India will tell you about the controversies, the dark sides of a person that you may have never heard of.

Hindu-Muslim Unity of Munshi Premchand

Hindu-Muslim Unity

If there were a being in the world whose eyes could look into other people’s hearts, very Few men or women would be able to Face up to it.

Munshi Premchand had a passion for Hindu-Muslim unity, and was, therefore, critical of the fanatically inclined, be they the Muslim mullahs or Brahmin priests. It was from this angle that he viewed the policies pursued by the political parties. Because of his advocacy of Hindu-Muslim unity, Premchand was bitterly critical of the movement for conversion from one religion to the other.

The article, entitled “Malkana Rajput Mussalmanon ki Shuddhi,” was published in Zamana of May 1923. Herein Premchand took up cudgels on behalf of the Muslims who deprecated the shuddhi movement launched by the Bharatiya Hindu Shuddhi Sabha, formed by several sections of the Hindu society, including the Sanatanists, the Arya Samajists, the Jains and the Sikhs.

While Premchand agreed that the shuddhi movement had been originally started by the Muslims, the launching of the shuddhi movement by all sections of Hindu opinion to him signified a grave danger to the Muslims. They had not been afraid of the movement carried on by the Arya Samajists, he said, but apprehended danger in the combined opposition by all sections of the Hindus.

There were many among the Muslims, said Premchand, who were leaving the Congress fold because, according to their thinking, Congress raj would now be synonymous with Hindu raj. This trend, Premchand thought, would, therefore, weaken the movement for swaraj. This being so, the movement which gave spiritual satisfaction to a few individuals, but hurt a large section of the people, should be called off.

The Hindus, he added, were better educated, were politically more conscious, and were greater patriots. Propagation by them of the shuddhi movement, when they had earlier opposed the movement launched by Muslims, was regrettable. Their policy in effect amounted to one of “retaliation.”

While the conversion movements during the Moghul rule were motivated by religious objectives, this shuddhi movement was basically political in character. It was indeed sad, he maintained, that people viewed problems from the communal angle rather than from the national angle: “Hindus thought of themselves as Hindus first and Indians next.”

One of the aims of the movement was to ensure an increase in the Hindu population and a consequent reduction in the number of Muslims. “But numbers never prove anything. Wasn’t England with a smaller population ruling the millions of India?” All that it might lead to was a few more seats for the Hindus in the legislative councils. This gain was hardly worth endangering Hindu-Muslim unity and the prospects of swaraj. Hindu Muslim unity was the foundation of the movement for swaraj. It was a sad thing that the obsession of a few misguided religious bigots was posing a great danger to that foundation.

Premchand posed a few questions to the advocates of shuddhi, e.g. why didn’t they win over these sections of the Hindu society, the untouchables, who were being gradually converted to Christianity, and thus strengthen themselves?

The contention of the advocates of shuddhi that the Malkana Rajput Muslims (from Tonk) had the same traditions, bore Hindu names, observed the same customs, worshipped the same deities, called Brahmin priests for the ceremonies, and did everything that the Malkana Rajput Hindus did—except burying their dead—meant nothing; what was more important was the entry in the old records.

In conclusion, Premchand emphasised that Hindus’ sense of tolerance was proverbial. “Now is the time for showing such tolerance; otherwise, it would be too late.”

The Biography of Famous Personalities of India will tell you about the controversies, the dark sides of a person that you may have never heard of.

Style, Influences and Great Works of Munshi Premchand

Style and Influences

As long as the shackles of wealth and property bind us, we will remain accursed forever and newer attain the altar of humanity, which is life’s ultimate goal.

Apart from being a Novelist and Author, Premchand was also a social reformer and a thinker. The remarkable characteristic of his writing was the reality with which Premchand depicted his characters in the novels. Unlike other contemporary writers, Premchand did not write fantasy fictions, or stories based upon a hero. His novels mainly consisted messages on social evils like, dowry, poverty, communalism, colonialism and corruption and zamindari. Premchand was the first writer of the twentieth century to bring reality in the literature.

Munshi Premchand is considered the first Hindi author whose writings prominently featured realism. His novels describe the problems of the poor and the urban middle-class people. His works depict a rationalistic outlook, which views religious values as something that allows the powerful hypocrites to exploit the weak. He used literature for the purpose of arousing public awareness about national and social issues and often wrote about topics related to poverty, corruption, child widowhood, prostitution, feudal system, colonialism and on the India’s freedom movement.

Munshi Premchand started taking an interest in political affairs while at Kanpur during the late 1900s, and this is reflected in his early works, which have patriotic overtones. His political thoughts were initially influenced by the moderate Indian National Congress leader Gopal Krishna Gokhale, but later, he moved towards the more revolutionary Bal Gangadhar Tilak. He considered the Minto-Morley Reforms and the Montague-Chelmsford Reforms as inadequate, and supported greater political freedom.

Several of his early works, such as A Little Trick and A Moral Victory, satirised the Indians who cooperated with the British Government. He did not specifically mention the British in some of his stories, because of strong government censorship, but disguised his opposition in settings from the medieval era and the foreign history. He was also greatly influenced by the teachings of Swami Vivekananda.

In the 1920s, Premchand was influenced by Mahatma Gandhi’s non-co-operation movement and the accompanying struggle for social reform. During this period, his works dealt with the social issues such as poverty, zamindari exploitation (Premashram, 1922), dowry system (Nirmala, 1925), educational reform and political oppression (Karmabhumi, 1931). He was focused on the economic liberalisation of the peasantry and the working class, and was opposed to the rapid industrialisation, which he felt would hurt the interests of the peasants and lead to oppression of the workers. This can be seen in his works like Rangabhumi (1924).

Munshi Premchand’s influence on Indian literature cannot be understated. As the late scholar David Rubin wrote in The World of Premchand (Oxford, 2001), “To Premchand belongs the distinction of creating the genre of the serious short story—and the serious novel as well—in both Hindi and Urdu. Virtually single-handed he lifted fiction in these languages from a quagmire of aimless romantic chronicles to a high level of realistic narrative comparable to European fiction of the time; and in both languages, he has, in addition, remained an unsurpassed master.”

In his last days, Premchand focused on village life as a stage for complex drama, as seen in the novel Godcn (193G) and the short-story collection Kafan (1936). He believed that social realism was the way for Hindi literature, as opposed to the “feminine quality”, tenderness and emotion of the contemporary Bengali literature.

Great Works

Wealth and compassion are opposites.

Munshi Premchand wrote over three hundred short stories and fourteen novels, many essays and letters, plays and translations. Many of his works were translated into English and Russian after his death.

Novels

Hindi Title – Urdu Title
Devasthan Rahasys – Asrar-e-Ma’abid
Prema – Hamkhurma-o-Ham Sawab
Kishna Roothi Rani – Soz-e-Watan
Vardaan – Jalwa-e-lsar
Seva Sadan – Bazaar-e-Husn
Premashram – Gosho-e-Afiyat
Rangbhoomi – Chaugan-e-Hasti
Nirmala (novel) – Nirmala
Kaayakalp – Parda-i-Majaz
Pratigya – Bewa
Gabon – Ghaban
Karmabhoomi – Maidan-e-Amal
Godaan
Mangalsootra (incomplete)

Short Stories

Several of Munshi Premchand’s stories have been published in a number of collections, including the 8-volume Mansarovar (1900-1936). Some of his stories include :

• Adeeb Kl Izat
• Duniya ka Sbse Anmol R atan
• Bade Bhai Sahab
• Beti ka Dhan
• Saut
• Sajjanata ka Dand
• Panch Parameshvar
• Ishwariya Nyaya
• Beton Wall Vidhwa
• Durga ka Mandir
• Maa
• Ghar Jamal
• Dhikkar
• Dil ki Rani
• Gulli Danda
• Updesh
• Mantra
• Namak Ka Daroga
• Lottery
• Men Pahil Rachna
• Lanchhan
• Manovratti
• Balidan
• Putra Prem
• Boodhi Kaki
• Pariksha
• Shatranj ke Khlladi (Hindi)
• Shatranj ki Bazi (Urdu)
• Hinsa Parmo Dharma
• Ghasvali
• Idgah
• Nashaa
• Kafan
• GuptDhan
• Poos ki raat
• Vidhwans
• Cricket Match

Premchand’s other stories include:

• Abhushan
• Agni Samadhi
• Ala gyojha
• Amrit
• Atmaram
• Bade Ghar Kl Beti
• Chori
• DarogaSahab
• Devi
• Dhaai Ser Gehun
• Dikri Ke Rupaye
• Do Bahanein
• Do Ballon ki Katha
• Doodh ka Damm
• Fauzdaar
• Grihaneeti
• Gurumantra
• Harki feet
• Jail
• Jubos
• Jurmana
• Khudai
• Mahatirtha
• Manushya Ka Param Dharma
• Maryada ki Vedi
• Mukti Marg
• Nairashya
• Nimant ra n
• Pashu se Manushyc
• Prayaschit
• Prem Purnima
• Ram leela
• Samar Yatra
• Sati
• Satyagraha
• Sawa Ser Gehun
• Sewa Marg
• Suhag ki Sari
• Sujan Bha gut
• Swatva Raksha
• Thakur ka Kuaan
• Thriya Chanta
• Udhar Kl Ghadi
• Vajrpaat
• Vimata
• Hajje Akbar
• Sauteli Maa
• Ibrat
• Roshni
• Bhadde ka Tattu
• Nijat
• Mazdoor
• Kazaaki

Translations

Munshi Premchand translated several non-Hindi works into Hindi. These included the writings of Leo Tolstoy, Charles Dickens (The Story of Richard Doubledick), Oscar Wilde (Canterville), John Galsworthy (Strife), Sadi, Guy de Maupassant, Maurice Maeterlinck (Sightless), Hendrik van Loon (The Story of Mankind) and Ratan Nath Dhar Sarshar.

Some of the translated titles include:

Other Works
Film Script :

• Mazdoor (Also did a small role in the film)

Plays :

• Karbala
• Tajurba
• Prem Ki Vedi
• Roohani Shadi
• Sangram

Essays :

• Kuchh Vichar (two parts)
• Qalam Tyag aur Talwar

Biographies :

• Durgadas
• Mahatma Sheikhsadi (biography of Saadi)

Children’s Books :

• Jangal ki Kahaniyan
• Kutte ki Kahani
• Manmodak
• RamCharcha

The Biography of Famous Personalities of India will tell you about the controversies, the dark sides of a person that you may have never heard of.

Life at Bombay and Last Days of Munshi Premchand

Life at Bombay

If brothers don’t help each other in times of need, how do you think life will ever go on?

Premchand, who sincerely believed that there was no medium more potent than the film for the propagation of ideas in a country where the masses were illiterate, was offered ₹ 750 by the Mahalakshmi Cinetone for the film rights of his Seva Sadan; and even though he was warned that the film producers would “disgrace” his novel, his condition was so bad that he had jumped at it. As he said: “If in this grave situation I had not got this amount, God alone knows how difficult it would have been to face the problems.”

But Premchand’s financial position had showed no improvement, and, if anything, it had further deteriorated. He was, therefore, happy when the Ajanta Cinetone of Bombay invited him to go over to Bombay and write scenes for them. The basis of the offer was not salary, but a contract of ₹ 8,000 a year. The Cinetone sent him two telegrams. Premchand’s circumstances were so straitened that either he had to accept this offer, or sell his novel in the open market.

The film company did not insist on regular attendance and he thought he could write whatever he liked and write it anywhere he liked. All that would be required of him was to produce three or four scenes for them, he thought, after a year’s work with the Ajanta Cinetone, he could arrive at an arrangement under which he could write three or four stories for them every year (from Benares) and get about four to five thousand rupees which would help him tide over the financial difficulties of Hans and Jagaran.

Premchand conferred with his wife: “My needs tell me I must go to Bombay. This may be a new experience in life.” Her first reaction to the proposal was adverse, “Your digestion is weak,” she said, “and Bombay’s climate won’t suit you.”

Ultimately, on 31 May 1934, Premchand arrived in Bombay to try his luck in the Hindi film industry. He had accepted a script writing job for the production house Ajanta Cinetone, hoping that the yearly salary of ₹ 8000 would help him overcome his financial troubles. He stayed at Dadar, and wrote the script for the film Mazdoor (The Labourer).

The film, directed by Mohan Bhawnani, depicted the poor conditions on the labour class. Premchand himself did a cameo as the leader of labourers in the film. Some influential businessmen managed to get a stay on its release in Bombay. The film was released in Lahore and Delhi, but was banned again after it inspired the mill workers to stand up against the mill owners.

The film, ironically, inspired the workers of his own loss-making press in Benares to launch a strike, after they were not paid their salaries. Premchand’s Saraswati Press, by 1934-35, was under a heavy debt, and Premchand was forced to discontinue the publication of Jagaran. On the other hand, Premchand was beginning to dislike the non-literary commercial environment of the Bombay film industry, and wanted to return to Benares. However, he had signed a one- year contract with the production house. But he ultimately left Bombay on 4 April 1935, before the completion of one year. The founder of Bombay Talkies, Himanshu Roy, tried to convince Premchand to stay back, but did not succeed.

While in Bombay, Premchand attended the Rashtrabhasha Sammelan held on October 27, 1934. In fact, he delivered the welcome address as the Chairman of the Reception Committee, in which he dwelt on “some problems of national language.”

As these form a part of Premchand’s credo, it is important to mention a few points made by him. Owing to the vastness of the country, he said, India needed a language which could be understood and spoken all over the country in the same manner as German was in Germany and French in France. National language provides a cementing force. Without it the cameo as the leader of labourers in the film. Some influential ‘ businessmen managed to get a stay on its release in Bombay. The film was released in Lahore and Delhi, but was banned again after it inspired the mill workers to stand up against the mill owners.

The film, ironically, inspired the workers of his own loss-making press in Benares to launch a strike, after they were not paid their salaries. Premchand’s Saraswati Press, by 1934-35, was under a heavy debt, and Premchand was forced to discontinue the publication of Jagaran. On the other hand, Premchand was beginning to dislike the non-literary commercial environment of the Bombay film industry, and wanted to return to Benares. However, he had signed a one- year contract with the production house. But he ultimately left Bombay on 4 April 1935, before the completion of one year. The founder of Bombay Talkies, Himanshu Roy, tried to convince Premchand to stay back, but did not succeed.

While in Bombay, Premchand attended the Rashtrabhasha Sammelan held on October 27,1934. In fact, he delivered the welcome address as the Chairman of the Reception Committee, in which he dwelt on “some problems of national language.”

As these form a part of Premchand’s credo, it is important to mention a few points made by him. Owing to the vastness of the country, he said, India needed a language which could be understood and spoken all over the country in the same manner as German was in Germany and French in France. National language provides a cementing force. Without it the country would break up, provincialism become stronger and throttle nationalism, and we would revert to the position which prevailed before the British appeared on the scene in India. It was a matter of deep regret that, except for Gandhiji, none in this country had appreciated and emphasised the need for a national language. He said :

“Those who wish to make India a nation will have to evolve a national language also. The task is so stupendous in magnitude that it is necessary to have all-India organisation which should recognise its importance and think out ways and means to propagate it.”

The most important factor in the development of national language, according to Premchand, was its comprehensibility among the largest number of people, no matter in which province they lived.

Last Days

We all have to die some day. Not very many immortals have shown up in this world.

Premchand, after leaving Bombay, wanted to settle in Allahabad, where his sons Sripat Rai and Amrit Rai were studying. He also planned to publish Hans from there. However, owing to his financial situation and ill-health, he had to hand over Hans to the Indian Literary Council and move to Benares. In 1936, Premchand was elected as the first President of the Progressive Writers’ Association in Lucknow.

Godan (The Gift of a Cow, 1936), Premchand’s last completed work, is generally accepted as his best novel, and is considered as one of the finest Hindi novels. Godan is a well- structured and well-balanced novel which amply fulfills the literary requirements postulated by the Western literary standards. Unlike other contemporary renowned authors such as Rabindranath Tagore, Premchand was not appreciated much outside India.

The reason for this was absence of good translations of his work. Also, unlike Tagore and Iqbal, Premchand never travelled outside India, studied abroad or mingled with the renowned foreign literary figures.

Premchand, in 1936, 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.

Those days, the Book Market was slack. Hans still suffered losses. So did the Saraswati Press. On June 15, 1936, there was no printing paper in the press. In the hot sun and the scorching wind, therefore, Premchand went around the town to arrange for the supply of paper-on credit. When he returned home four hours later, in the evening, he felt exhausted and complained of stomachache. The pain did not subside. It aggravated. He felt uncomfortable and took no food. That night he vomited three times and was bedridden.

Almost all known homoeopathic and allopathic medicines were tried, but his condition continued to deteriorate. Within – a few days, he became so weak that it was difficult for him to stand on his legs. And it was in this condition that he heard the news of Maxim Gorky’s death. Such was the admiration in which he held the Russian writer, that, according to his wife, he could not sleep. At two o’clock in the morning she saw him scribbling with tears in his eyes.

“What are you writing at this hour?” she asked.
“Nothing in particular,” he replied.
“But you are writing something.”

“Yes, there is to be a meeting in the office of Aaj day after tomorrow to condole Maxim Gorky’s death and I must pay my tribute.”

“You are not well. And yet you are busy writing.”
“But I cannot sleep. This tribute must be written.”
“How can you write it when you are not well?”

“But this is very important. It must be done. When one is working at one’s own will, one is oblivious of discomforts. When you consider yourself duty bound to do a thing, there are no obstacles.” He continued to write.

Premchand’s literary work on his sick-bed and his worries about the future of Hans undoubtedly worsened his condition. The doctors had, obviously, given him up. On the morning of October 7, 1936 he had severe diarrhoea. By the time night came, he was already in shear agony and almost dehydrated. Jainendra Kumar was there with him.

“In this condition, Jainendra, people think of God,” said Premchand, uttering the words with difficulty. “I also have been advised to do likewise, but I haven’t yet been able to persuade myself to bother Him.”

He mentioned the burden on his mind—the future of his wife and children, and the future of Hans, its hopes and its aspirations to serve Indian literature. More expressive than his words were his gestures and his eyes. The principal problem worrying him clearly was how to keep Hans going and the vacuum to be left behind, should it close down. The thought that the journal might be closed down was unbearable. He was not prepared to bend and compromise. He wanted someone to assure him that Hans would live.

But Jainendra Kumar could hold out no such hope. Indeed, over this issue, he entered into an argument with Premchand. The latter watched listlessly.

“Press here,” said Premchand, stretching out his arm, at the dead of night, every-one else in the house having gone to sleep. Jainendra pre-ssed his arm.

“Jainendra …” said Premchand.
He did not complete the sentence.
A long pause … and then: “Ideals won’t do.”
“But ideals …” said Jainendra.

The sentence wasn’t completed. Jainendra felt remorseful and guilty for entering into an argument with a man about to die.

“Don’t argue,” said Premchand, turning on his side and closing his eyes once again.

“It’s warm,” he said a little later, “please fan me.”

Premchand was fanned, but he couldn’t sleep. He was in great agony. He did not cry; he only lay with his eyes closed. At three o’clock in the morning of October 8, he told Jainendra to go to sleep.

In a state of half- concisouness later in the morning, he asked for some tooth powder and water to cleanse his mouth. Before these could be brought to him, he could neither move nor speak.

“Won’t you cleanse your mouth?” asked his wife …

Her brother caught her hand and told her he was no more.

It was on October 8, 1936 when Premchand died after several days of sickness.

The bright light that had lit millions of hearts in all parts of India, had gone out. The life of the master storyteller who had given joy and happiness to countless people, who had carried on a ceaseless campaign for political freedom and social reform, who had given a voice to the dumb and mute dwellers of rural India, had become a story himself, and his name has remained a legend for ever.

Premchand’s last published story was Cricket Match, which appeared in Zamana in 1938, after his death.

The Biography of Famous Personalities of India will tell you about the controversies, the dark sides of a person that you may have never heard of.

Premchand Life at Gorakhpur and Return from Kanpur

Becoming Premchand

What people think in their heart gets out, no matter how much they try to hide it.

Premchand (Dhanpat Rai) was transferred to Mahoba in 1909, and later posted to Hamirpur as the Deputy-Sub Inspector of Schools. Around this time, his Soz-e-Watan was noticed by the British Government officials, who banned it as a seditious work. The British collector of the Hamirpur District ordered a raid on Premchand’s house, where around five hundred copies of Soz-e-Watan were burnt. Subsequently, Dhanpat Rai had to change his pseudonym from “Nawab Rai” to “Premchand”.

It was about this time that the identity of the person writing under the name of “Premchand” was revealed to the readers of Urdu journal Zamana as:
“Are the readers of Zamana aware of the fact that ‘Premchand’ is only a pen-name, adopted by our old and esteemed friend Dhanpat Rai, B.A., because of certain special reasons.”

“Old readers of the journal would perhaps remember that its earliest issues carried interesting and absorbing literary pieces by him. We have no hesitation in revealing now that ‘Navab Rai’ and ‘Premchand’ are the two names of one and the same person—Dhanpat Rai. The only difference is that while ‘Navab Rai’ had not graduated,’ ‘Premchand’ has taken his B.A. degree from the Allahabad University. ‘Navab Rai’ was a school teacher, but ‘Premchand’ kicked that job during the non-cooperation movement and, after serving several national institutions, is now engaged in serving national literature as his wholetime occupation.”

Premchand started writing in Hindi, in 1914 (Hindi and Urdu are considered different registers of a single language Hindustani, with Hindi drawing much of its vocabulary from Sanskrit and Urdu being more influenced by Persian). By this time, he was already reputed as a fiction writer in Urdu.

His first Hindi story Saut was published in the magazine Saraswati in December 1915, and his first short story collection Sapta Saroj was published in June 1917.

Life at Gorakhpur

Parents are one’s companions in life but not partakers of one’s karma.

Premchand was transferred to Gorakhpur in August 1916 on a promotion. He became the Assistant Master at the Normal High School, Gorakhpur.

He developed a friendship with the bookseller Buddhi Lal at Gorakhpur who allowed him to borrow novels for reading as a friendly gesture. Premchand was voracious reader of classics in other languages, and translated several of these works in Hindi.

Premchand had published four novels by 1919, of about a hundred pages each. Premchand’s first major novel Seva Sadan was published in Hindi in 1919. The novel was originally written in Urdu under the title Bazaar-e-Husn, but was published in Hindi first by a Calcutta-based publisher, who offered Premchand ₹ 450 for his work. The Urdu Publisher of Lahore published the novel later in 1924, paying Premchand ₹ 250.

The novel tells the story of an unhappy housewife, who first becomes a courtesan, and then manages an orphanage for the young daughters of the courtesans. It was well received by the critics, and helped Premchand gain wider recognition.

Premchand obtained a BA degree from Allahabad in 1919. He had been promoted to Deputy Inspector of Schools by 1921.

He attended a meeting at Gorakhpur on 8 February 1921, where Mahatma Gandhi asked people to resign from government jobs as part of the non-cooperation movement.

Premchand, although physically unwell and with two kids and a pregnant wife to support, thought about it for five days and decided, with the consent of his wife, to resign from his government job.

Kanpur Return

People are so selfish. Those you help are the ones who turn against you.

After resigning from 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.

He established a printing press in 1923, and publishing house in Benares, christened Saraswati Press. The year 1924 saw the publication of Premchand’s Rangabhumi, which has a blind beggar called Surdas as its tragic hero. In Rangabhumi, Premchand comes across as a superb social chronicler, and it shows a marked progress in Premchand’s writing style. It was in Nirmala (1925) and Pratigya (1927) that Premchand found his way to a balanced, realistic level that surpasses his earlier works and manages to hold his readers in tutelage.

Nirmala, a novel dealing with the dowry system in India, was first serialised in the magazine Chand between November 1925 and November 1926, before being published as a novel. Pratigya (The Vow) dealt with the subject of widow remarriage.

Premchand’s novel Gabon (Embezzlement), focusing on the middle class’ greed, was published in 1928. In March 1930, Premchand launched a literary-political weekly magazine titled Hans, aimed at inspiring the Indians to mobilise against the British rule. Hans, noted for its politically provocative views, failed to make a profit. Premchand then took over and edited another magazine called Jagaran, which too ran at a loss.

Premchand moved to Kanpur as a teacher in the Marwari College, in 1931, but had to leave because of difference with the college administration. He then returned to Benares, and became the editor of the Maryada magazine. He published another novel titled Karmabhumi in 1932. He also briefly served as the headmaster of the Kashi Vidyapeeth, a local school. After the school’s closure, he became the editor of the magazine Madhuri in Lucknow.

In the year 1934-35, Premchand tried his luck in Bollywood also as a scriptwriter.

The Biography of Famous Personalities of India will tell you about the controversies, the dark sides of a person that you may have never heard of.

Early Life, Education, Marriage, Career and Life at Kanpur of Premchand

Early Life and Education

My life is simple and rough.

Munshi Premchand was born on 31 July 1880 in Lemhi, a village located near Varanasi (Banaras). His ancestors came from a large Kayastha family, which owned six bighas of land. His grandfather Guru Sahai Rai was a patwari (village land record-keeper), and his father Ajayab Rai was a post office clerk. His mother was Anandi Devi of Karauni village, who could have been the inspiration for the character Anandi in his Bade Ghar Ki Beti.

Premchand was the fourth child of Ajayab Rai and Anandi; the first two were girls who died as infants, and the third one also was a girl named Suggi. His parents named him Dhanpat Rai (the master of wealth), while his uncle, Mahabir, a rich landowner, nicknamed him “Nawab” (Prince). “Nawab Rai” was the first pen name chosen by Premchand.

Premchand began his education at a madrasa in Lalpur, located near Lamhi when he was 7 years old. He learnt Urdu and Persian from a maulvi in the madrasa. When he was 8, his mother died after a long illness. His grandmother, who took the responsibility of raising him, also died soon after. Premchand felt isolated, as his elder sister had already been married, and his father was always busy with work. His father, who was then posted at Gorkhapur, remarried, but Premchand received little affection from his step-mother. The step-mother later became a recurring theme in Premchand’s many works.

Premchand, as a child, sought solace in fiction, and developed a fascination for books. He heard the stories from the Persian-language fantasy epic Tilism-e-Hoshrubo at a tobacconist’s shop. He took the job of selling books for a book wholesaler, thus getting the opportunity to read a lot of books. He learnt English at a missionary school, and studied several works of fiction including George W. M. Reynolds’s eight- volume The Mysteries of the Court of London.

Premchand composed his first literary work at Gorakhpur, which was never published and is now lost. It was a farce on a bachelor, who falls in love with a low-caste woman. The character was based on Premchand’s uncle, who used to scold him for being obsessed with reading fiction; the farce was probably written as a revenge for that.

Marriage and Career

The First condition of marriage between a man and a woman is that both must belong to each other totally.

When after his father was posted to Jamniya in the mid- 1890s, Premchand enrolled at the Queen’s College at Benares as a day scholar. He was, in 1895, married at the age of 15, while still studying in the 9th grade. The match was arranged by his maternal step-grandfather. The girl was from a rich landlord family and was older than Premchand, who found her quite quarrelsome and not good-looking.

Premchand’s father died in 1897 after a long illness. Premchand managed to pass the matriculation exam with second division. However, only the students with first division were given fee concession at the Queen’s College. Premchand then sought admission at the Central Hindu College, but was unsuccessful because of his poor arithmetic skills. Thus, he had to discontinue his studies.

Premchand then got an assignment to tutor an advocate’s son in Benares at a monthly salary of five rupees. He used to reside in a mud-cell over the advocate’s stables, and used to send a big part of his salary back home.

Premchand read a lot during these days. After racking up several debts, in 1899, he once went to a book shop to sell one of his collected books. There, he met the headmaster of a missionary school at Chunar, who offered him a job as a teacher, at a monthly salary of ₹ 18.

Premchand, in 1900, secured a job as an assistant teacher at the Government District School, Bahraich, at a monthly salary of ₹ 20. Three months later, he was transferred to the District School in Pratapgarh, where he stayed in an administrator’s bungalow and tutored his son.

He first wrote under the pseudonym “Nawab Rai”. His first short novel was Asrar-e-Ma’abid (The Secrets of God’s Abode), which explores corruption among the temple priests and their sexual exploitation of poor women. The novel was published in a series in the Benares-based Urdu weekly Awaz- e-Khalk from 8 October 1903 to February 1905.

Life at Kanpur

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

Premchand was relocated from Pratapgarh to Allahabad for training, and subsequently posted at Kanpur in 1905. He stayed in Kanpur for around four years, from May 1905 to June 1909. There he met Daya Narain Nigam, the editor of the magazine Zomana, in which he later published several articles and stories.

During the summer vacation, Premchand visited his village Lamhi but did not find the stay enjoyable because of a number of reasons. He did not find the weather of the atmosphere conducive for writing. Also, he faced domestic trouble due to quarrels between his wife and his step-mother.

Once his wife unsuccessfully tried to commit suicide by hanging. Later, she left home and went to her father’s house, and never returned.

Premchand, in 1906, married a child widow Shivrani Devi, who was the daughter of a landlord from a village near Fatehpur. The step was considered to be revolutionary at that time, and Premchand faced a lot of social opposition.

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

Premchand’s first published story was Duniya Ka Sabse Anmol Ratan (The Most Precious Jewel in the World), which appeared in Zamana in 1907. According to this story, the most precious ‘jewel’ was the last drop of blood necessary to attain independence. Many of Premchand’s early short stories had patriotic overtones, influenced by the Indian independence movement.

His second short novel Hamkhurma-o-Hamsavab (Prema in Hindi), published in 1907, was penned under the name “Babu Nawab Rai Banarsi”. It explores the issue of widow remarriage in contemporary conservative society: the protagonist Amrit Rai overcomes social opposition to marry the young widow Poorna, giving up his rich and beautiful fiance Prema.

Another of Premchand’s short novels, Kishna was published by the Medical Hall Press of Benares. This 142- page work, which satirises women’s fondness for jewellery, is now lost.

Premchand’s story Roothi Rani was published in serial form in Zamana during April-August 1907. The publishers of Zamana published Premchand’s first short story collection, titled Soz-e-Watan also in 1907. The collection, which was later banned, contained four stories which sought to inspire the Indians in their struggle for political freedom.

The Biography of Famous Personalities of India will tell you about the controversies, the dark sides of a person that you may have never heard of.

An Apostle of Peace of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad

An Apostle of Peace

As a child of God, I am greater than anything that can happen to me.

Maulana Azad has been described by many of his contemporaries as an apostle of international amity and peace. He had his conviction in the indivisible unity of man and brought his ideology to human fraternity and fellowship. Long before he became education minister he had expressed his unflinc-hing faith in essential unity of man and held it above all objectives of human life such as religious salvation, economic prosperity, cultural advancement and political emancipation.

His ideology had the support of both Islamic and Hindu World views while he interpreted Islam as a message of love, compassion, brotherhood, and transcending all consideration of race, languages and communities, he observed sense of kinship with the whole world as an essence of Indian-culture and tradition. He viewed it as India’s greatest contribution to the world. Thus naturally the sense of promoting universal mutual understanding of the diverse communities of the world.

Azad’s uniqueness of approach lay essentially in condemning the philosophy of fragmentation in national and regional components and perspectives. He advocated an integrated approach incorporating different outlooks into a composite process “to realize the intrinsic good of man”. His views which he held dear from 1913 found their material expression in 1952 with the publication of his article on “History of Philosophy: Eastern and Western” under the Ministry of Education. The initial expression of the same idea had been articulated by Azad on 13th April, 1913 in Al-Hilal.

Teaching of religion as a subject in government schools was constitutionally disallowed. Azad took upon him the responsibility of providing religious education on healthy lines. Azad in his policy statement pointed out the aim of religious teaching of all religions is to make men more tolerant and broad minded. This idea found its origin in Azad’s theme of Education and religion which he fostered on 13th of Jan, 1941. Azad thought of integrating religious education with syncretic education and thought that the two together make a person complete.

Azad commended UNESCO’s initiatives to exchange classical works of literature around the world. He however felt extremely sad in respects of the feeble contribution of India towards world classics in the recent period of its history. In his opinion, except Sanskrit, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali no other language had made any cognizable contribution to the literature in the world.

Azad also advocated that History and Geography must not be taught as subject to promote unhealthy seeds of discord and disputes, instead these should be taught to bring about better understanding of the diverse conditions in which the various regions of the world lived and survived. This was a departure from the already established thought process where history was used more to cause dissension than to cause amity.

Azad, therefore, advocated providing religious education on very healthy lines. For him religion was a medium for promoting a supreme object of fellowship.

Azad appreciated the Shantam, Shrvam and Advaitam motto of the Vishwa Bharti, the International University established by Ravindra Nath Thakur. This motto of Vishwa Bharti projected the concept of God transcending “All narrow limitations of race, religion and creed”. This concept was contrary to the western thought process where sentiments of narrow nationalism ultra racialism other religiosity and religious fanaticism prevailed in Europe and America.

Some Rare Photographs

Timeline

• 1888 : Born on 11th November at Mecca, Saudi Arabia
• 1890 : Family moved to Calcutta
• 1899 : Started monthly magazine “Nairang-e-Alam”
• 1908 : Visited Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Cairo.
• 1912 : Started weekly newspaper “Al-Hilal”
• 1914 : “Al-Hilal” banned by British Government
• 1919 : Detained at Ranchi
• 1920 : Maulana came on board with the Khilafat movement
• 1920 : Joined the Indian National Congress in January
• 1923 : Elected President of Indian National Congress
• 1930 : Arrested for violation of the salt laws
• 1940 : Elected 2nd time President of Indian National Congress
• 1942 : Arrested with most of the Congress leaders and released after four years
• 1947 : Became the first Education Minister of Independent India
• 1958 : On February 22, passed away
• 1992 : Awarded with ‘Bharat Ratna’ posthumously.

The Biography of Famous Personalities of India will tell you about the controversies, the dark sides of a person that you may have never heard of.

Post Independence Activities of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad

Post Independence Activities

Many people plant trees but few of them get fruit of it.

The process of Maulana Azad’s Educational stewardship found his culmination in his becoming the first ever Education Minister of India. He joined Education Ministry on 15th of January 1947 and continued to serve it for a decade i.e. up to 22nd February 1957.

He endeavoured to transform the department of education, took over the charge of a full fledged Ministry for the purpose of providing direction, content, meaning and philosophy of Modern India’s Education and Culture. An eloquent and effective member of the Nehru cabinet, he took the opportunity to actualize his own ideas on educational reform in the country.

Maulana Azad had earlier worked very hard to bring his own community folk in line with the national upsurge which in his own opinion was to set the stage for a programme of national re-construction on a very sound basis.

Democratization of education was of paramount relevance in Modern India’s Education Policy. India emerged on 15th August 1947 as world’s largest democracy on the face of the earth. Education therefore was meant and conceived to educate the people in the art of democratic living. Maulana himself being a staunch democrat took the challenge as an opportunity of making education as a vanguard of democratic life in India. The promotion and advocacy of new education policy involved three pronged approach :

1. Educating people for democratic citizenship
2. Equalizing of Education opportunities to every Indian Citizen, and
3. Indianising the medium of Education.

The estimated 85% illiteracy on the eve of independence was the most serious impediment in democratizing education. Azad introduced two important reform measures for the purpose of making education free and universal for younger generation of India :

1. Universalising elementary education
2. Launching a nationwide drive for Adult Education

His second major contribution to the objective of democratizing education was equalizing educational opportunities in Indian Society. A society ridden by class and caste disabilities did not permit certain sections of society to even receive education. In the traditional Indian society education was the domain of Brahmins. Shudras were kept aloof of it. Maulana held the state responsible for fighting this discrimination and advocated for providing every individual with what he defined as the means of acquisition of knowledge and self betterment.

On 30th September, 1953 in a Radio broadcast from AIR Maulana Azad put forth the idea of the state obligation of providing every citizen the necessary amount of education for the purpose of personality development. The idea of ensuring certain level of development for all members of the Indian community was itself impossible when the country as a whole had not yet succeeded in universalizing education even upto an elementary stage.

In the implementation of such scheme the most disconcerting factor was the lack of necessary funds with the government of India. The central government did not spend on education more than 1% of its annual revenue. Maulana pleaded with all his eloquence to increase education spending by 10% in line with the practice adopted by advanced states of the West and his tiring efforts yielded the central govt’s budget to gradually increase the education funds from 20 million rupees to 300 million. Maulana felt little relieved that the spending on education during his tenure of Education Minister had increased fifteen times.

Maulana believed most significantly in the expansion base of the educational facilities in India where by all inequalities of caste, class and sex could be overcome. He was successful in framing an official policy of instituting special stipends and scholarships. For students coming from scheduled castes, backward classes and female genera. Women who had been socially discriminated against for a very long time had to be brought into the fold of education as women education alone was considered as an important input for family’s growth. So Maulana first believed in educating women and then extending the educational facilities to the female child.

On May 31st 1948 Maulana Azad remarked at a press conference, “If women take to education, more than half of our problems will be solved. Educated mothers will mean children who can easily be educated.” The chronic problem of the women’s education, Maulana sought to resolve through educational administrators whom he constantly persuaded to adopt measure for equalizing the facilities for female education. He advocated to the constituent assembly of multiplying educational opportunities for Indian women.

The third and perhaps the most important contribution of Maulana Azad was the democratization of education in India in what he termed as higher sphere of knowledge for India’s national life. For the advancement of higher realms of learning and culture. What was needed immediately was the making of the national language or languages as the medium of education. Unfortunate for India that English as a language had already been accepted as it was the most common medium of expression during the British Raj.

Azad somehow believed that none of the Indian languages were adequately suitable for the purpose of the advent of the modern education. Under such circumstances a national government does have the responsibility of developing these languages as a medium of instruction as had happened in other parts of the world where English had been replaced by local language. Such linguistic inadequacies in major Indian languages led initially into acceptance of English as the medium of education. A very bad situation as Indian language alone did not change but also their minds and thought processes will also change in accordance with the ethos of English language.

Maulana Azad, as Education Minister, advocated gradual replacement of English by indigenous language of the people of India. Before the constituent assembly he put forth his plan of a switch over from English to regional languages as the medium of education. At the secondary stage of education he granted five years time for the shift over from English to local language and English to continue as the second major language. However at the high level i.e. post graduate level he argued that English be allowed to be the language of instruction. With regard to Hindi the official link language, Azad always stressed that a shift over from English to Hindi ought not to take place before 1965, a date for the switch over from English to Hindi as laid down in the Constitution of India.

Maulana Azad believed that if university education is allowed indiscriminately to all and a substantive number of graduates and post graduate do not find adequate gainful employment then there is a risk of developing sense of despair and disregard or education. Therefore he believed that the number of graduates and post-graduates who could easily find placement in employment should only be educated at the university.

Azad felt so much seized of the problem that he proposed on 15th of April 1953 a strong agency for universities in India at second educational conference held at New Delhi with representative from Central and State Government. Indian universities had strongly proposed, “The creation of a strong agency which will jealously guard their standard and coordinate their resources and facilities if the universities are to gain their old prestige and become the centre of a new educational awakening.”

Maulana Azad have had the honour of installing such a strong agency on 28th of December 1953 under the name of the University Grants Commission (UGC). There was yet other dimension of the gradually falling standards of education in the country which made a claim on Azad’s attention. The English language enjoying a place as literary language. Any step towards affecting this in any unimaginative and unplanned switch over from English to any other language was bound to produce lowering down of educational standards.

This necessitated appropriate arrangements for the preparation of text books and other referral material in Indian languages. However, Azad continued to believe that English as the medium of instruction at the higher levels to continue as most standard text books of higher learning in discipline of science, humanity and social sciences were in English only.

Another, reference books were in English language. As shift over from English to any other language in the absence of text books in other language would have been detrimental to the growth of science and other subjects. As those educated at the universities had to interact and maintain a permanent link with English speaking countries for seeking knowledge as well as employment. Therefore he conceived a body which would engage itself in preparation of text books. The National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) was conceived by him.

Maulana Azad had observed that the previous system of technical education in India had almost failed to make available to her the necessary type of scientific-cum-technical manpower and expertise. Emphasising the intimate relationship between education and economic development Maulana even went to the extent of expanding the scope of technical education to include industrial education as well and attributed India’s industrial and agricultural backwardness to non-availability of scientifically trained technical manpower in the field of technical and industrial education and therefore recommended that only in exceptional circumstances selected people ought to be sent abroad for higher training than having foreigners been attracted to India for their higher and scientific technical excellence. Maulana’s educational vision was as broad as his life itself.

Maulana Azad could not afford to overlook education for leisure. In his attempt to broaden the outlook and scope of education he even conceived recreational education as well. He strove to bring it in line with the spirit of India’s democracy and her growing national economy.

Azad’s role in broadening the outlook on education in India touched upon improving the quality of teachers. He pronounced that the status of teacher in line with the ancient tradition be upgraded and raised. Also a more comprehensive and detailed educational teacher’s training programme was envisaged by Azad for preparing competent teachers.

Research in education also formed an integral part of Azad’s broad vision of education as he thought that research in education will help improve curricula for teachers’ education. The Central Institute of Education, Delhi was established with a view to promote a central college for teachers’ education. The Central Institute of Education, Delhi was a new name to the Central College for Teachers as originally suggested by the Central Advisory Board of Education in 1944.

Azad was keen to promote teachers’ education in India and he, at a very difficult juncture in national life, pushed the proposal of setting up the Central Institute of Education. The jurisdiction of which extended to the whole of India. Although, initially it was intended with a limited purpose of instituting an institution for research in the field of education.

Azad endeavoured to raise the status of Indian teachers and liberally funded the institutions such as Jamia Millia Islamia and Shanti Niketan for promoting educational research in India. Azad sounded sympathetic to the misery of the conditions under which teachers were working. He never made any discouraging remarks against teachers of any class or region. He valued teachers devotion to their duty and spirit of the service.

Azad was fully confident that professional betterment of teachers will have a corresponding improvement in standards of education and a fortnight before his demise he announced his future plans to improve not only the quality of teachers but the morale of teachers as well at all levels

The stressed need and professed policy to setup technical institutes resulted in prolific rise in the number of technical institutions in India.

In 1947 the number of degree institutions were just 28, in 1955 it had gone up to 43, five additional degree colleges were going to be established in Punjab 1 in MP, 2 in Orissa, 5 engineering colleges, 21 technical schools and three major institutes of technology and higher learning were going to be established by the government of India very soon. This not only resulted in institutional building as it did in the prolific rise of the output of degree holders in India.

In 1947 only 950 degree holders were there, by the year 1955 number had gone up to 3000. The increase had been more than 300%. As far as schools of engineering are concerned, there were 41 engineering schools awarding diploma in 1947, in 1955 this number had risen to 83. Likewise the number of diploma holders rose from 1150 in 1947 to 3472 in 1955 almost an increase of 300%.

Maulana was somehow aware that need based growth of engineering graduates and institutions will not allow a single person to be ever unemployed. However after his departure as Education Minister the subsequent Ministers of Education did not pay heed to this vital point and unemployment grew among engineering graduates. This was in essence technical, scientific and engineering education in India. Contemporary India sincerely owes to Maulana Azad a great deal as it enjoys and occupies a place of intellectual eminence in the comity of nations.

Azad as the first Education Minister of independent India formulated modern India’s first education policy. This was being done after a thorough review of the situation of scientific and technical manpower that it had in the early phase of its freshly acquired freedom. Maulana had a complete understanding of the potential resources of technical manpower of India, while representing India at the World Education Conference at Tehran, Maulana even went to the extent of extending the meaning and scope of the education to encompass individual cognitive development and over all improvement in the quality of life as an important contribution of Education as against education being merely a tool to earn livelihood.

This profound and wider vision of Maulana Azad on education as a basic instrument to change society and improve the development of its citizenry into a positive civil society was no less a contribution to which western philosophy and Philanthropists like Julian Huxley had to kneel down. Maulana’s personality was multifaceted. He was great visionary and worked with yet another visionary Pt. Nehru whose mission had been to build a better healthy and prosperous modern India based on principles of democracy, equality and justice indeed.

Both Maulana Azad and Jawahar Lal Nehru would have been thrilled working together while Maulana was contemplating about laying foundation of technical education, Jawahar Lal was busy improving the backbone of Indian Economy through building up economic resources base through the primary industries like agriculture, energy, steel etc. So in a very few years India had Bhakra Nangal on the one hand, Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI), Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Trombay Atomic Research Centre under the leadership of Homi Jahangir Bhabha.

Maulana was nowhere behind. He was establishing technical institutions and making India technologically sound by establishing HTs in four major states of our nation. Chain of engineering colleges and scientific laboratories of distinctions such as PRL (Physical Research Laboratory), Indian Council for Historical Research, Indian Council for Social Sciences Research. All these institutions were being conceived by the founding father and the first Education Minister of India.

Maulana Azad was among the first few World Education leaders who conceded to the concept of excellence in higher learning, while well realizing need of modernization of syllabi by re-orienting it as per the changing needs of society. He also laid foundations of universal primary and secondary education.

Further Maulana Azad instituted an All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). But the Council’s recommendations to promote technical education immediately would not materialize as Maulana felt the entire responsibility of funding would lie squarely upon the shoulders of the Governments as AICTE would not be able to do much in terms of funding.

The IIT Kharagpur was one of the four technical institutes which was going to be established in first plan phase. In order to develop the technical personnel requirements during the same period Kharagpur in West Bengal had been selected as location for the first higher technological institute considering that 80% of the industries in India were located in Eastern region and 90 to 95% of this 80% were located in West Bengal alone.

A sum of rupees 23 crores was allocated to technical education in the first plan but during that period only rupees 14 crores had been spent. It was the Minister of Education per se did not delay the establishment or utilization of the allocated fund in the first plan as the other projects initiated by the ministry for development of the technical manpower had not been able to take off as the country had not produced by then technical personnel required to execute the establishment of the other four proposed technical institute.

There were 10 degree colleges in Eastern region, 14 in Western, 21 in Southern and only 11 in Northern Zone. Southern India somehow having 21 engineering colleges but not a single technological institute of the kind Kharagpur was. Therefore the need for one such institute was being articulated by Sri TBB Rao who stressed on the need to have a sub-committee of the AICTE in order to make recommendation as to when will the institute of higher technological education would be established in the Southern Region.

It was not out of lethargy but based on firm assessments, Maulana assured the Lok Sabha and the Government of India that Institute of higher technological learning would be established in the second half of the second five year plan phase. Graduates passing out of the Kharagpur Institute of Technology would find employment sooner than they completed their course. Thus comparing the then requirement of the technical manpower. Maulana once said, “USA has six lakhs engineers while India does not have even 60 thousand.”

Maulana knew that a country has to go a long way and he therefore gradually paved his way towards establishment of the four proposed IITs.