Premchand--Unsung, Unread Hero

Remember my quest for Indian writing in English? I think it just bore fruition when I picked up a copy of Short Stories by Premchand. Who would have thought that this chap (god bless his soul) with a Hitler-moustache and a docile look writing under the pseudonym Premchand (real name: Dhanpat Rai Srivastava) wielded so much power in his pen?

He wrote not to be called a laureate and to be bestowed a Nobel Prize, nor he wrote to impress the kings with his pseudo paeans, but he wrote to express. He wrote to tell the woes of peasants, of women, and of the poor meted out to them by a society filled with the so-called high-caste Brahmins and money lenders.

Each of his story showcases the tumultuous times in the pre-Independence era. It reflects his own struggle as a teacher trying to make ends meet. His stories show the huge heart of a small man with a very small income, who was moved by the injustice in the society and decided to speak of it through his only weapon-- pen.

A reformist who believed in equal rights for women, some of his stories were considered bold and outrageous. Satyajit Ray went on to adapt some of his work for screenplay.

A simple man who lived and died in abject penury, he was a great writer who lived in the wrong times and died as an unsung hero!