Munshi Premchand

Munshi Premchand (Born July 31, 1880– Died October 8, 1936) was a famous Hindi Novelist and Story writer of modern Hindi-Urdu literature.

Premchand was born on July 31, 1880 in the village Lamhi, near Varanasi. His Father's name was Munshi Ajaib Lal, who was a clerk in the post office, and his mother's name was Anandi. She was a housewife.

His childhood name was Dhanpat Rai ("master of wealth") while his uncle, Shree Mahabir, a rich landowner, used to call him Nawab (Prince). His early education was at a local madarsa (a muslim school) under a maulvi, where Premchand studied Urdu. Premchand's parents died in his young age - his mother died when he was seven and his father also died while he was sixteen or seventeen and was still a student. now only he was left responsible for his stepmother and step-siblings.

Premchand was married early, at the age of fifteen, to a girl from a neighboring village but the marriage was completely a failure and, when he left the village in 1899, the girl returned to her village. Several years later, in the year 1906, in response to an advertisement in a local paper from a man who wanted to marry off his child-widow daughter, Premchand married a second time to Shivrani Devi. She was a decent lady.

Now we should talk about Premchand's Writing. The main beauty of Premchand's writings is his interesting story-telling and use of a very simple language. His novels presents the problems of the rural peasant classes very Handsomely. Premchand avoided the use of highly Sanskritized Hindi (as it was the common practice in those days among Popular Hindi writers), but rather he used the dialect of the common people (the aam aadmi of India).

Example of His Writing :

"Maasik vetan to purnamasi ka chand hai.......

Upri aay behta hua srot hai jisse sadev pyas bujhti hai..........

Ladkiyan hai ki  ghaas foos ki tarah badhti jaati hai.......

main to kagare ka vriksh hun jaane kab gir padoon.

   -"Namak ka Daroga" (Premchand)

He wrote about 300 short stories and several novels(Upanyas) as well as many essays(Nibandh)  and letters(Patra). He also wrote some great plays(Naatak) and did some translations(Anuvaad). Later, Many of Premchand's stories have been translated into English and Russian Languages.