A Journal of Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya

and we rise above religious dogma, and
bigotry which has distorted the Indian
culture. Sapreji wanted the establishment
of a modern society in India which would
not only be free from its smothering
orthodoxy but at the same time would
not be a blind imitation of the west; which
would be modern, yet, Indian. This new
social order would consist of men with
an ever-widening vision.
Sapreji’s contribution also extends to
the field of economics. He established a
philosophical view of economics in Hindi.
In the first decade of 20th Century when
the ‘Pracharini Sabha’ of Kashi decided
to publish a science dictionary in Hindi,
Sapreji was appointed the editor of
dictionary of Political Economics.
According to Sapreji’s biographer “Govinda
Rao Hardikar”, the economics dictionary
published in 1904 contained 2115 Hindi
terms for 1320 English terms of Economics.
This dictionary was published in 1906.
With Sapreji’s efforts economics received
an impetus. In 1904, he wrote a lengthy
article on the trade policy of the British.
His article on “Hartal” was published in
“Saraswati” in 1907 where strike has been
defended. He has written, “Generally, strikes
are highly condemned and the workers
are blamed for paralyzing work in factories.
Although the owners incur great loss and
the workers suffer, yet it can undoubtedly
be stated that, workers have a right to
defend their genuine demands.”
Although, Sapreji had written a book
on economics he did not have it published,
because he found it unsatisfactory, but,
he handed over the manuscript to Mahavir
Prasad Diwedi when the latter was writing
“Sampatti Shastra.” It helped him greatly.
Mahavir Prasad Diwedi has clearly
mentioned in the excrepts that he had
borrowed from Sapreji’s unpublished book.
Hence, the trend of economic philosophy
started by Sapreji becomes, more organized
in ‘Sampatti Shastra’ and this trend is carried
forward by Radhamohan Gokul in his book
“Country’s Wealth” and Parasnath Dwivedi’s
book, ‘Desh ki Dasha’.
Besides being a renowned journalist,
Sapreji was also a man of literature, but
he has not been assigned any place in
the history of Hindi literature.He was a
man of many talents; an eminent essayist,
a skillful narrator and a brilliant critic.
Devi Prasad Verma has tried to throw
light on Sapreji’s contribution to storywriting
in Hindi. He has not only edited
the stories written by him but, in his
preface, has also evaluated his art of
narration. An elaborate discussion on ‘Hindi
ki Pratham Maulik Kahani’ was published
in Sarika. Here Sapreji’s story ‘Ek Tokari
Bhar Mitti’ was considered to be the first
Maulik Kahani in Hindi by some of the
critics. Consequently, Sapreji’s fame as a
story writer was discussed at length. In
‘Chahattisgarh Mitra’ six of Sapreji’s stories
were published between 1900-1901, two
of which were published under the title
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