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| A performance of Premchand's 'Idgah.' |
At an event to commemorate Premchand's birth anniversary on 31 July, I had the opportunity to see how visible Premchand is in the lives of the youth. His vision, his values still reach to us across the 87 years that separate us.
Premchand (1880-1936) believed in a humanity that escapes us today. He was born and passed on in Varanasi. The name Varanasi was spelt Baranasi in Pali. This gave rise to the name Benares which is also used to denote the same place. Or Kashi, the home of Kabir.
Varanasi is 10 km from Sarnath, where the Buddha preached his first sermon at the Deer park. I breezed through both places in 1999. The energy is mystic. The mantle of spirituality pervades the air. You travel back in time to eternal India.
In stories like 'Idgah' (1933) Premchand describes how a small boy agonizes about what to buy for himself at the fair on Eid. Much to the amusement of his peers he settles on a chimta (kitchen tongs) for his mother because she always used to burn her fingers. The story shows how much concern the boy had for his mother.
In 'Bade Ghar ki Beti' (1921) he shows how the daughter-in-law, though slighted, does not allow the brothers to be split apart and saves the honour of the family. By swallowing her pride she accommodates the eccentricities of one of the brothers, despite physically being harmed.
Death rites are held up for scrutiny in 'Kaffan' (1936) where a woman's wretched life is not worth draping even when she is dead. Premchand brings out the stark inequality between the zamindar and the peasants. However, all is forgotten when husband and father-in-law of the woman fritter away the money away in the bar.
The travails of old age are the subject of 'Boodhi Kaki' (Urdu, 1919). In this story Premchand shows an old mother bereft of succour after willing away her inheritance to her son. The absence of compassion drives the novel. But in one's own time one often behaves in a similar fashion.
With 'Mandir aur Masjid' Premchand dwells on the futility of hatred between communities.
Premchand wrote in an India that was very different from the one of today. In his stories he sought to instill values of respect for one another, tolerance, and the simple way of life. Communities helped one another to pick up the pieces and face the challenges of life.
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