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Munshi Premchand ( Hindi: मुंशी प्रेमचंद,
pronunciation ( help· info)) (July 31, 1880 – October 8,
1936) was an Indian writer famous for his modern Hindi-
Urdu literature. He is one of the most celebrated writers of
the Indian subcontinent, [1] and is regarded as one of the
foremost Hindi-Urdu writers of the early twentieth
century.[2]
Born Dhanpat Rai, he began writing under the pen name
"Nawab Rai", but subsequently switched to "Premchand",
while he is also known as "Munshi Premchand", Munshi
being an honorary prefix. A novel writer, story writer and
dramatist, he has been referred to as the "Upanyas
Samrat" ("Emperor of Novels") by some Hindi writers. His
works include more than a dozen novels, around 250 short
stories, several essays and translations of a number of
foreign literary works into Hindi.
Biography
Early life
Premchand was born on 31 July 1880 in Lamhi, a village
located near Varanasi (Benares). His ancestors came from a
large family, which owned six bighas of land. [3] His
grandfather Gur Sahai Lal was a patwari (village accountant),
and his father Ajaib Lal was a post office clerk. His mother
was Anand Devi of Karauni village, who could have been the
inspiration for the character Anandi in his Bade Ghar Ki
Beti .[4] Premchand was the fourth child of Ajaib Lal and
Anandi; the first two were girls who died as infants, and the
third one was a girl named Suggi.[5] 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. [6]
When he was 7 years old, Premchand began his education at
a madarsa in Lalpur, located around 2½ km from Lamahi. [5]
Premchand learnt Urdu and Persian from a maulvi in the
madarsa. When he was 8, his mother died after a long
illness. His grandmother, who took the responsibility of
raising him, died soon after. [7] Premchand felt isolated, as
his elder sister had already been married, and his father was
always busy with work. His father, who was now posted at
Gorakhpur, re-married, but Premchand received little
affection from his step-mother. The step-mother later
became a recurring theme in Premchand's works. [8]
After his mother's death, Premchand sought solace in fiction,
and developed a fascination for books. He heard the stories
from the Persian-language fantasy epic Tilism-e-Hoshruba 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. [9] 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.[8] He 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
this. [8]
After his father was posted to Jamniya in the mid-1890s,
Premchand enrolled at the Queen's College at Benaras as a
day scholar.[10][11] In 1895, he was 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 quarrelsome and not good-looking. [10][11]
Premchand's father died in 1897 after a long illness. He
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 due to his poor arithmetic skills. [12] Thus, he
had to discontinue his studies.
Premchand then obtained an assignment to coach an
advocate's son in Benares at a monthly salary of five rupees.
He used to live reside in a mud-cell over the advocate's
stables, and used to send 60% of his salary back home. [12]
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. [12] He also took up the
job of tutoring a student at a monthly fees of 5.
In 1900, Premchand 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. [13]
Dhanpat Rai first wrote under the pseudonym "Nawab Rai".
His first short novel was Asrar e Ma'abid (Devasthan
Rahasya in Hindi, "The Mystery 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.[14] Siegfried Schulz
states that "his inexperience is quite evident in his first
novel", which is not well-organized, lacks a good plot and
features stereotyped characters.[15] Prakash Chandra Gupta
calls it an "immature work", which shows a tendency to "see
life only white or black".