Premchand, Renu and Rural India…
It was a muddy sunset(77 years before) and the last rays of the sun were collapsing into the walls of Jamia Millia University Delhi and Premchand was about to leave for Lucknow and suddenly a man comes to him and asks for a brand new story for “Jamia Risala” (Jamia’s literary magazine). Premchand told him that he will send it after reaching Lucknow but the man was in hurry as the materials were about to go to the press. Premchand then cancelled his journey and wrote a story in the same night. The story was “kafan” which is known as one of the great work of Indian Literature. He always stood with his words “main mazdoor hoo jis din na likhoon us din roti khane ka mujhe adhikaar nahi” (I m a worker and don’t have any rights to eat without writing). The characters of “Kafan” Ghisu and Madhav are workers without pay. When madhav’s wife dies after a labour pain, the duo start to collect some money for the kafan. They get enough money and inspite of using the money to buy a kafan for the corpse, they spend whole money in liquor and mutton. The narrative of Premchand in this story is amazing. The shameless act of Ghisu and madhav is a great read. Although PremChand had to face a massive criticism for this story because both Ghisu and Madhav were lower caste but the story should nothing to do with this because premchand was always with the marginalized people. This could be understood by the stories like “sadgati(Ray has made a remarkable film on this)”, “thakur ka kuan” and the novels “rangbhoomi” and godan. Premchand was always with Surdas (protagonist of Rangbhoomi), selia (Godan). Phanishwar Nath Renu was also in the same boat when he wrote a story “Panchlite” It’s a story about a low caste youth who only knows how to operate a patro-max. This man falls in love with a village girl who does not belong to his caste and elopes with her to some unknown place. He comes back to his village after a few month but the panches sit in the Chaupal and do not sanction their marriage as social. They order him to live outskirt of the village. He abides by the decision and constructs his hut in the last boundary of the village. All of sudden, the head of Gram Panchayat dies. The villagers and his family members decide to give a big feast in his memory. A huge number of people from the village and neighbouring villages are invited. Interestingly nobody knows how to operate panchalite. The village elders are now helpless because a feast of such time cannot be organized at night without proper arrangement of light. Now this man is summoned in the Chaupal before the panches. He is said to operate the panchalite but this man put a condition before them, “I will do this job if the panches are ready to accept my marriage as socially sanctioned and also permit me to once again construct my house in the village. “ “I should also be permitted to dine with the village elders”, he concluded. The panches finally takes unanimous decision to admit him with his wife in the village. He is also allowed to dine with the villagers.
Premchand was on his mission.In “poos ki raat” Halku could not survive the cold and sleeps with his dog. In “Iidgaah” Hamid bought a chimta from the mela whereas the other kids were buying toys and sweets. Hamid has limited money for the mela and was very excited about buying some toys from the mela but when he arrives into the mela he recalls that his ammi always used to burn her hand while making chapattis. Hamid rejects his idea of buying any toy and buys a chimta( used to make chapaati). These stories of Premchand are in sync with the poverty lying in the rural idea. It’s simply an amazing work has been done by the writer since Premchand belongs to middle class and wrote for working class.
He also worked as the script writer at Mumbai . He said after his only film Mazdoor – “The director is the all in all in cinema. The writer may be the king of his pen, but he is an ordinary subject in the director’s empire…Idealism creeps into the plots I conceive and I am told there is no entertainment value in them.”
The Gift of a Cow), his last novel, is considered the finest Hindi novel of all times. The protagonist, Hori, a poor peasant, desperately longs for a cow, a symbol of wealth and prestige in rural India. Hori gets a cow but pays with his life for it. After his death, the village priests demand a cow from his widow to bring his soul to peace. The last words of Hori describes the pain of a peasant in India..”Moh to un anathon ko chhorkar jaane me hai jinke saath hum apna kartavya na nibha sake…”The last lines of the play “Godan” still travels in the skies of Gorakhpur….sutli ke chaudah aano se kiya gaya godan..
Presiding over the Progressive Writers’ Conference in Lucknow in 1936, he pointed out the redundancy of attaching ‘Progressive’, for “a writer or an artist is progressive by nature, if this was not his nature, he would not be a writer at all”.
Renu’s pen did not stop over the pains of Bangladesh Refugees and he wrote the story “Romance shunya premkatha ki ek bhoomika” which I think is one of the most underrated work of Renu. It’s a story of Pavitra and his refugee villagers who has now came to India and about to settle. Renu has used the backdrop beautifully for the story where Pavitra could not dissociate herself with the memories of her own “desh”…where kasim has told her on the occassion of Id once that chaand ko to maine ab dekha(I have seen the moon now). But when the riots break up Kasim evolved as a butcher involved primarily in the massacre of Hindu people. Pavitra is now leading the settlement issues ,name of the area and school issues but somewhere she misses her own land like the lines he thinks when kalachand ki maa appologises to her “sab kuchh to mila. Apne desh ka ann chaas baas mach tari tarkaarisab kuchh apne sab kuch jaise apne jumapur gaon me milta tha yahan bhi milta hai hawa paani bhi wahi hai lekin mann ke maanus jaisa koi yaha nahi..mujhe maaf karma didi thakuran tumne ek baar kaha tha yahan bhi saikro kaasim hain.
Phaniswar naath Renu’s “Mare gaye gulfaam” adapted for the film “teesri qasam” ” directed by Basu Bhattacharya …An avid story teller, Renu was also an activist…Renu had written some masterpieces..like “Maila Anchal” & “Parti Parikatha”….TV serial Maila Aanchal was based on his book… those were d days when Tv was not known as an idiot box… Maila Anchal is among three most prominent novels written after the Indpendence which depicts the then condition of rural India Kamla falls in love with the selfnessness of doctor babu. The caste system and the level of politics shown in the book is first understanding of the Indian villages.. More than the content n subject, the best thing of Renu was his visualization n dialogues…this reflects in “Maila Aanchl” and in “mare gaye Gulfaam”While reading his book I always felt as if I m watching a film….like Parti Parikatha’s starting….”melon tak faili banjar ret…jaise qafan odhe hui dharti….the common man’s dialogue.like one in teesri kasam…”jaane kya hai is mahua ghatwarin ki katha me ki dono bail kaan lagaakr sunne lagte hai”…. ..The importance of mahua ghatwaran story in “Tesri kasam” was not used as a tool to create a bonding between hiraman n hirabai… rather the writer wanted us to feel the ambience of the place ..here Renu’s strength lies…telling story of people ..for the people…
Hiraman is a naive but not stupid… When the other gaadiwan asks .kahan jaa rahe ho, Hiraman replies “chattapur pachira” n then tells Heerabai that these people always interrupts.. don’t have other business to do….. are humko kahin bhi jaana hai..tumko jahan jaana hai jao…For me the best story of renu is Thes(hurt.)…. I can’t forget the writers introduction about the protagonist Sirchan “Sirchan moonhjor hai kaamchor nahi” sirchan is blunt,outspoken…. but always an artist. The other remarkable stories of Renu were “laal paan ki begum” and ‘samvadiya”
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
have read kafan, godan and shatranj ke khiladi and others by premchand though none by renu. Will do it now. Recently read Suraj ka satwa ghoda after watching the movie with the same name. Read it. It has different type of story telling as is in the movie
Renu’s Parti Parikatha is one of my favorite novels. He brings the heat and dust of rural Bihar alive in his work. I always thought that Premchand could tell a simple story most effectively while Renu could draw all the complexities of characters and situations together better. Hard to pick between the two though – masters of their craft.
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Digging in to Renu NOW !!!
thanks for this dpankar. Have bookmarked this post
ab kya kahien
renu is psychologically deeper than premchand.
:|
Don’t diss the value of simplicity though. Renu could use a Mahua Ghatwaran (in Gulfaam), a Danta Rakas (in Parti Parikathi) to flesh out the folk tale nature of his stories. And instead of pure internal conflict his stories also brought in class and even caste conflict.
Hey well written piece. I found a good article written on Premchand at SiliconIndia in its publishing section. You can check it out too. http://www.siliconindia.com/register.php?id=KTwAeszh
Dipankar bhai very well written article ^:)^^:)^^:)^
Premchand writings characteristic was his soulful story-telling style and use of simple common man language. His novels describe the problems of the great indian middle class or lower middle class. He generally avoided the Sudh hindi but rather he used hindustani language.
Premchand’s some stories which i liked most are Panch Parameshvar,Namak Ka Daroga,Boodhi Kaki,Atmaram,Bade ghar ki beti etc.
here i am not agreed with you that godan is considered the finest Hindi novel of all times,there are so many better novels than godan in hindi.
@Dipankar,
.
Good post.
Due to too much regional touch in language, it was a difficult task to finish Maila Anchal. I read and finished it just after the demolition of Ram Mandir/Babri Masjid as it was curfew all over the city and nothing to do, but had to stop so many times because so meaning of so many local dialect used in the novel was not clear.
Enjoyed more Parti Parikatha. Thats a story to adapt on screen.
Short stories of Renu are also good read. Panchlet was funny. Salima wala gana, etc always provided smile while reading.
Rajendra Yadav has written in his memoirs that Renu used to write letters to fellow authors pretending he is a woman fan of that author.
And to have a woman fan has always been a pride possession for any male author
Amrit Lal Nagar was another hindi author who used to do it with Bhagwati Charan Verma.
and later yaar log used to pull legs of victim.
funny facets of so big authors:d
Many big critics cum authors term Godan as weak novel of Premchand. but he was not writing as a free author who can imagine in any direction without having any responsibility towards society.
He had ideals and idealism intact in his characters and that may limit an author’s writing. Within those context, he was a master story teller and rightly he is termed as king of novels.
Because Agyeya was not following self imposed idealism hence he could write Shekhar ek jeevani like novel, which is free from any bondage. That novel, in my personal opinion, occupies numero uno among hindi novels. SEJ has everything a great novel should have.
shekhar ek jeevani
no doubt about its numero uno status
another one is ‘nadi ke dweep’
i think ‘nadi ke dweep’ is more layered than SEJ.
nadi ke dweep demand repeat readings.
agyega was great in poetry also.
‘godan’ is weak now.hindi literature has grwon since than.
premchand was the foundation stone.
he deserve utmost respect for that.
but his literature should be left alone now.
renu is more suitable for screen.
:x
Vishrant,
yes “Nadi Ke dweep” is a wonderful novel.
Hindi Literature has not grown beyond Premchand. Subjects of stories might have changed but authors are disappearing fast because now they are turning in to Journalists.
What they see or read that thing they write. Its more like reportage.
Hardly any contemporary has left with good imginative power and a capacity to include idealism in the plot.
I disagree about Premchand . people cant write like him thats why over the years weak authors have tried to sideline him. because if he remains the comparison point then it was difficult for others to make a place in hindi literature.
Characters he created may look simple in comparison to modern men but craft was at its supreme place in his writings.
All old things look out of context but they have to be understood within their contexts only.
Premchand remains still most saleable writer in Hindi literature.
@vishrant & RK
Other novels with numero uno status are chitralekha by bhagwaticharan verma till now best novel on philosophy and psychology in hindi,kya bhulu kya yaad karu by bacchan,aap ka bunty by munnu bhandari,raag darbari by SL shukla,Na aane wala kal by mohan rakesh and Aadha goan by rahi masoom raza.
I think Vinod shukla “Deevar me ke khirki raha karti thi” and shiv rudhra “Bahati ganga” was also multilayed as “Shekar ek jivani”.
@Shatrughan,
yes all the novels you mentioned are very good and represent different faces of Hindi Literature.
Kya Bhullon kya yaad karun, though is one part out of four parts of Autobiography of Dr HariVansh Rai Bachchan.
Hindi Literature is full of good books. and then there are books in regional languages like yayati, Mrityunjay, Chhava etc.
Indian literature is very rich.
@RK,according to me main problem with premchand was his characters was too idealistic and little bit far from real world… renu characters was more real.
@Shatrughan,
Premchand was fulfilling his responsbility towards freedom struggle. Renu was free from any such responsibility.
Moreover when we compare two authors then we must see the volume of works done by them.
Repeatedly good performance is not an easy task.
Many travellers take refuge after 1-2 miles only.
Continous journey and good performance that makes one one of the best.
Comparison has no ending and if real world is the concern then why Renu, we should go to Baba Nagarjuna. His Balchanma and various other books are closed to ground realities and far more real than Renu’s bit romanticized books.
There is always a reference point for everyone.
rk
no second opinion about the craft of premchand.
my point is about content.
it was contemporary. and now it has fallen out of time.
hori from godan is no longer there. he is no longer to be found. this can be said about every character of his.
his literature is more about social life. shekhar ek jeevani is inner happeninngs of a man. that’s why it will remain contemporary for a long long time. premchand’s shatranj ke khiladi is one such story.
maximum of his stories and novels, except one or two, has social life of that time as the main theme. with change to time, they became old.
i should gain some insight about life reading litreature. otherwise what is the point. what insight godan can give me. it is life story of a farmer. why should i read godan. except out of respect to premchand.
and i respect premchand. i mentioned it earlier. he deserve utmost respect.
but should he be read ?
[-(
vishrant (15)
yes Premchand should be read. Its not like Science where all those scientists who worked on periodic table becomes almost irrelevant once Mandelief summarise it.
In art refrence points are different.
and story lies in the style of story teller.
Premchand is just 50-60-70 years old name, people have been reading ramnayana, mahabharata, ram charit manas and many ancient books though characters there dont resemble with present days humanbeing.
We still enjoy Kabir’s saying.
Hori is still there I just met in December. you must visit interior villages and horis will be found in plenty.
Kovlan, Madhvi and kannagi are there no more but Shilapdikaram still generate interest. story is compelling.
What arabian nights can teach? but people watched alif laila.
Premchand is dead but when his character in Namak ka Daroga gives similie of purnamasi ka chand and salary and bribe then its a similie which will work after 1000 years also.
Basic instincts of human life dont change.
Basic tensions dont change their forms may change and great writers have that contents in their writings which connect them with readers and in between they find many things which is connected with life in timeless manner.
If Hori is obsolete for you then Mrinalini or Mehta can be seen around us.
Then also Horis were compelled to sell their land, animals and today also Horis are doing same and even doing suicides.
Its difficult for me to accept that situations have got so drastic change that Premchand’s characters look alien to us.
Best way is to read again something. May be initially a bit detachment and disliking can be there but soon writer will grip you again.
Those who never had read him and they go for reading after knowing his status can vouch for what I am trying to say.
First an interest has to be there else most contemporary writers may also look out of place.
Its so hard to read Salman Rushdi, and he has big name. His craft is utterly boring. He knows a fantastic english but his way of writing does not allow many readers to connect with it.
His one paragraph may end up in one full page, with hundreds of commas. First one has to read his book and then one can connect with him.
On the other hand Paulo’s Alchemist is not having characters belonging to this era but one may enjoy its story telling. If one likes may get something for life also.
But then art is subjective thing and I can understand your position. as you may find my objection odd w.r.t Salman Rushdi.
rk
i agree with you on salman rushdi
i once pick up his book and can not finish even first page.
for me
simplicity is the first and the foremost condition for profoundity.
i pick a book, read first sentence, than its book which get me to read it full. on my own, i never read second sentence. and i am ready to risk something profound, if it presented in a complex manner.
8-|
true that vishrant .. i think ruskin bond is such a writer
@ shatru bhai..”Godan” could not be the best but it has inspired the evolving writers and changed their whole course of understanding the Indian society. If we find some great novels after “Godan” then it’s the foundation which “Godan” has given..It was the first attempt to understand the then Indian society..It’s not that Premchand has written for middle class…He was again the first writer who wrote for the peasants..the lower castes (of course lower class)…yes he could not write on the daily wages workers (i.e mazdoor class)..then y did we blame Premchand for this only…It was the era of 30’s and there should not be many factories.. the concept of trade union came after the Independence..but it’s sad that in 50’s we also don’t have stories on mazdoor class…
@ Vishrant
@ Rk…Mithileshwar is the another author who used to send the letters in reader’s name appreciating his stories..nice recall
@ RK..I think Renu was the first writer who wrote on refugees of east pakistan…The story “romance shunya prem katha ki ek bhoomika” is a single story on that fateful incident..The other is a novel “juloos” that too is an important novel written by Renu..(correct me if i m wrong)..now renu’s period was of post independence..and there were not so much important events happened..so he kept writing stories like “panchlight”..”laal paan ki begum” ” thes”..”sambadiya”…agree that Premchand has ideologies and had showed his responsbilities with their story..the difference lying in writing style… Renu’s writing style is more rooted than Premchand..
Premchand ki kuch kahaniya….
http://munshi-premchand.blogspot.com/
rocking! thanx Shatru
Thanx Dipankar, for the detailed right up.we need more articles like this…This is one of the most important article for the new breed of writers who think they know it all by reading Stephen King and Murakami
i think that
hindi literature is quite vibrant now a days.
new generation of authors is being groomed.
they look promising.
i also think
that there is no connection between hindi literature and hindi cinema as of now.
probably Kamleshwar was the last literary writer who was engaged with cinema.
it is not that
rural india is not presented in modern hindi literature. but it is done by young writers. who was born in village but there education was in city. village boys, who came to city for study.
definitely in literature the village of now is totally different from the village of renu and premchand.
:-l
one of my favourite premchand stories…
pretty relevant..
http://munshi-premchand.blogspot.com/2006/03/blog-post_114221372643514437.html
few months back india today published an interview with Wasim Warelavi. he was asked why he is considered more of a ‘mushayaron ka shayar’. meaning he gives more improtance to mushayaras. and wasim warelavi said that it is only in india that 50 thousand people could gather to listen. and mushayras can continue till dawn. in west poetry is only published.
i have listen Neeraj and bashir badr sitting in front of them.
here you go
http://www.esnips.com/doc/a387cf96-ca92-458d-9f2b-caaf241bfb48/Shekhar—Ek-Jeevani-by-Agyey
www.kavitakosh.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hindi_authors
http://www.anubhuti-hindi.org/
http://www.pustak.org/bs/home.php
http://vaniprakashan.com/
http://www.rajkamalprakashan.com/
http://www.esnips.com/doc/656cf1b9-db2b-4aca-8ffd-1f60b0bac024/Suryakant-Tripathi-Nirala—Ram-ki-Shakti-Pooja
http://www.esnips.com/web/hindisahitya?docsPage=1#files
@};-
kashinath sing ke ‘kasi ka assi’ se ek muhawara
‘ma chu…. duniya, ham bajayein harmuniya’
>:d<
Kashi ka assi se kuch lines…
wow great article!
Premchand has written so many excellent short stories. People have already mentioned them above.
would like to mention ‘do bailon ki katha’…someone should adapt it for an animation, at least for TV.
I also liked Premchand’s Gaban. The way he goes about building the growth of the character of the protagonist (I forgot the name of the character)is brilliant.
@ neeraja..do bailon ki katha has been showed by doordarshan….it once again shows the variation Premchand had..thanx forrrecalling…Gaban is an extension of “namak ka daroga”..u must remember the protoganist pundit alopideen..and the famous dialogue from the story..”maasik vetan pooranmaasi ke chaand ki tarah hota hai jo ghatta hi jaata hai…
@ Vishrant..vasim barelavi is an important name …his one sher is my favorite.
jhooth waale kahin se kahin badh gaye
aur main tha ki sach bolta reh gaya..
and the other one is
tum giraane me lage the tumne sochaa hi nahi
main gira to masla ban kar khada ho jaaunga
saare duniya ki nazar me hai mera ahede wafa
ek tere kehne se kya main bewafa ho jaaunga..
@Neerja ‘(31),
Please search and watch “Heera Moti” Old hindi film having Balraj Sahni and Nirupa Roy in it if you wish to see “Do Bailon ki Jodi” on screen.
@RK and Dipankar
Thanks for the info.
I had read most of his short stories (I believe, Manasarovar series contains all of them) when I was very young. Don’t remember half of them. Will have to read ‘namak ka daroga’ again to see the connection with ‘Gaban’.
wasn’t there a funny one called ‘Motar ke Chheente’?
Mansarovar is divided into 8 books.what a range of stories..Premchand has written countless stories…Has any other writer is close to him ?
@Dipankar,
Jis din soye der tak bhuka rahe fakir.
Premchand said he was like a labourer and if he does not write daily then he has no right to eat.
With such devotion, he is far above other writers, enjoying more comfortable life and writing once in a while. Writing was a Karma for Premchand, a responsibility and not simply a leisurly hobby.
as we see a clear indications of social conflict in Premchand’s writings one has to agree that various social conditions has affected his writings. for instance when Premchand started writing, the poverty reflected in his writings but within a span of time he also writes stories like ” ahimsa parmo dharma” which is a comment on the then religion conflicts within the society..probably it’s first time in literature the relegion conflicts within the society could be observed…Premchand had a very sharp understanding of his time and society….a writer should have good understanding of the society in which he lives otherwise the writing comes out without soul..