Munshi Premchand
LITERATURE BY MUNSHIPREMCHAND
Munshi Premchand lived from 1880 to 1936 and can justly lay claimto the title of the best Hindi fiction writer ever. He was born on 31July 1880 in a small village, Lamhi, near Varanasi. His parents namedhim Dhanpat Rai. He started writing at a young age. Initially, hewrote in Urdu. Later, he wrote only in Hindi.
Munshi Premchand was the son of a postal clerk. He lost his motherwhen he was very young. Just 7 years. And his at the age of 14, helost his father. With his father's demise, young Premchand took overthe responsibility of earning bread for the family. In the face ofgreat economic hardship, he matriculated. He then found employment asa schoolmaster in small village schools.
While working, Premchand continued his studies and completed hisF.A. (parallel to A-levels) and his B.A. He was keen on doing hisMasters in Literature, but circumstances in life prevented him fromdoing so.
In 1921, influenced by Mahatma Gandhi's call to leave Governmentjobs, Premchand resigned from his schoolmaster's job. He was in direeconomic straits. Yet, he gave up his 23 year old secure iflow-paying Government job. In this decision, his wife willinglysupported him.
For a few months after that, he worked for a private school inKanpur. He could not keep his job, because he was too principled andwas the victim of office politics. He resigned from there and leftfor Varanasi where he taught at the Kashi Vidyapitha for a fewmonths, and edited 'Maryada'. He then left for Lucknow where heedited 'Madhuri'. Both 'Maryada' and 'Madhuri' were literarymagazines with very low circulation and an uncertain future.
In a few years, he shifted back to Varanasi to launch his ownliterary magazine, 'Hans'. Sometime later, he launched 'Jagaran' aswell. But both magazines were loss-making enterprises. At a certainpoint in time Premchand was so heavily in debt because of editingthese magazines, he had to wind up operations and shift baggage toMumbai.
He had come to Mumbai
Munshi Premchand lived from 1880 to 1936 and can justly lay claimto the title of the best Hindi fiction writer ever. He was born on 31July 1880 in a small village, Lamhi, near Varanasi. His parents namedhim Dhanpat Rai. He started writing at a young age. Initially, hewrote in Urdu. Later, he wrote only in Hindi.
Munshi Premchand was the son of a postal clerk. He lost his motherwhen he was very young. Just 7 years. And his at the age of 14, helost his father. With his father's demise, young Premchand took overthe responsibility of earning bread for the family. In the face ofgreat economic hardship, he matriculated. He then found employment asa schoolmaster in small village schools.
While working, Premchand continued his studies and completed hisF.A. (parallel to A-levels) and his B.A. He was keen on doing hisMasters in Literature, but circumstances in life prevented him fromdoing so.
In 1921, influenced by Mahatma Gandhi's call to leave Governmentjobs, Premchand resigned from his schoolmaster's job. He was in direeconomic straits. Yet, he gave up his 23 year old secure iflow-paying Government job. In this decision, his wife willinglysupported him.
For a few months after that, he worked for a private school inKanpur. He could not keep his job, because he was too principled andwas the victim of office politics. He resigned from there and leftfor Varanasi where he taught at the Kashi Vidyapitha for a fewmonths, and edited 'Maryada'. He then left for Lucknow where heedited 'Madhuri'. Both 'Maryada' and 'Madhuri' were literarymagazines with very low circulation and an uncertain future.
In a few years, he shifted back to Varanasi to launch his ownliterary magazine, 'Hans'. Sometime later, he launched 'Jagaran' aswell. But both magazines were loss-making enterprises. At a certainpoint in time Premchand was so heavily in debt because of editingthese magazines, he had to wind up operations and shift baggage toMumbai.
He had come to Mumbai