A Journal of Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya

and the train also arrived, but could not
board it. I thought, it would hurt your
feelings.” When the host started giving
the explanation for this misdemeanor,
Premchand replied, “This is what I am
saying-when you didn’t recognize me, in
that case you should have called out my
name. It wouldn’t have lowered my
prestige.”
This is how Premchand was, completely
devoid of pride and glamour. Always deeply
concerned about the problems of others,
but, not his own. This very simplicity
of character is what makes him stand out
as an extraordinary human being- held
in high esteem by people who knew him.
This simplicity is carried forward in his
literary works as well.
It is not a coincidence that the subject
matter of his literary works is the ordinary,
common man full of humbleness. In the
Indian context, this ordinary man is the
peasant. Very early in life, Premchand
understood that the progress of his country
depended on its people. In one of his
essays, “Daure Jajid” published in the Urdu
monthly “Zamana” he wrote: The way things
are changing in the world around, it is
evident that, the coming years will be
dominated by the Peasant and Worker
classes. India cannot for long remain
unaffected by this. Even the highest
Himalayan Peaks cannot prevent it. Sooner
or later, perhaps, soon enough, we shall
witness the people of India, fighting for
their rights. Before the revolution took
place who had fathomed the energy and
strength lying dormant among the oppressed!
It is with this truthful fact in mind
that Premchand wrote Premashram in 1921,
in which peasant characters Manohar,
Balraj, Kadir emerge in a new light for
the first time in Indian Literature.
Premashram is the first voice of dissent
and organized rebellion of the peasant
farmers of Awadh against “Begaar”. Later
the movement against payment of lagaan
gathers strength. In this novel a young
man Balraj, addresses a peasant gathering
in which his oratory creates ripples in
the minds of his listeners—
‘You people laugh as if tenant farmers
are of no value. They are only meant
to pay Begaar Tax to the landlords. But
the newspapers, that I have read, inform
that tenant farmers have made a breakthrough
and emerged as a powerful class
there.’ This was the period when Gandhiji
emerged on the political arena and inspired
millions of poor people residing in the
villages to participate whole heartedly in
the freedom struggle. Premchand is the
first novelist to have portrayed this growing
feeling of nationalism in his novel. It was
in those days that the celebrated poet
Rabindra Nath Tagore’s article “the call
of truth” was published in the “Modern
Review”. Disagreeing with Gandhiji’s Non-
Cooperation Movement, he wrote: ‘‘In the
morning when the bird awakens and soars
the skies in search of food, its wings embrace
the sky, and musical song bursts forth
from its very being”.
January-March 2012 :: 43