the
man...
His real name was Dhanpat Rai but he is
famous with his pen name of Premchand or Munshi Premchand. He was born
in Pandepur , a village near Banaras (now Varanasi). His father Mushi Ajaib
Lal was a clerk in the Postal Department. Premchand was just eight years
old when his mother died. His grand-mother took the responsiblity of raising
him , but she died soon after that. Meanwhile his father married again
and Premchand was left without the love of his father too.
He was married when he was 15 and was in the
9th grade. His father also died and after passing the intermediate he had
to stop his study. He got a job as a teacher in the Primary School, after
a series of promotion he became Deputy Inspectors of Schools. In response
to Mahatma Gandhi call of non-cooperation with the British he quit his
job. After that he devoted his full attention to writing. His first story
appeared in the magazine Zamana published from Kanpur.
his novels...
Before Premchand; Nazeer Ahmad, Sarshar
and Mirza Hadi Ruswa have written novels in Urdu. But Premchand has a unique
place when it comes to Urdu novels and short stories. He emphasised in
presenting the realities of life and he made Indian Villages his center
of writing. His novels describes the problems faced by the villagers and
poor and what could be the solutions. How the priests, local businessfolks
( mahajan) and the londlords were exploiting the villagers. He also
emphasised on the Hindu-Muslim unity. His famous works include Gau-daan,
Maidan-e-Amal, Bay-waH, Chaugaan etc.
short stories...
It would not be wrong to say Premchand as the
Father of Urdu Short- Stories. Short stories or afsana was started by Premchand.
As with his novels his afsanas also mirrors the society that he lived in.
With a break from the past his charactres are not all good or bad but somewhere
in between. His characters are based on real life people and as in real
life sometime we see a good side or the bad side of the person.
Premchand's style of writing is simple and flowing.
some of his works shows very good use of satire and humour. His later
works used very simple words and he started including Hindi words too to
honestly potray his characters. In the later stages of his life He turned
his attention to Hindi and now Premchand is claimed by both Urdu and Hindi
litterature as their own. His famous afsanas are qaatil ki maaN, zewar
ka DibbaH, gilli DanDa, eidgaah, namak ka darogHaaH, kafan. His collected
stories have been pblished as prem pachisi, prem battisi, wardaat, zaad-e-raah
etc.
[Based on Urdu Adab ki Tareekh by Azeem-ul-haq
Junaidi published by Educational Book House, Muslim University Market,
Aligarh 200202 INDIA]
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[ Picture courtsey of Govt. of India]
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