Munshi Premchand

About Munshi Premchand

Dhanpat Rai Srivastav, who wrote under the pseudonyms Nawab Rai and Premchand, is considered one of the great Indian modern writers. A pioneer of modern Hindi and Urdu social fiction, he wrote nearly 300 stories and novels. Among his best known novels are Sevasadan, Rangmanch, Gaban, Nirmala and Godan. Much of Premchand’s best work is to be found among his 250 or so short stories, collected in Hindi under the title Manasarovar. Three of his novels have been made into films.Premchand’s literary career started as a freelance writer in Urdu. He rose to Mahatma Gandhi’s call to non-cooperation with the British and gave up a teaching job to devote himself to writing. He is credited with being the father of the modern Urdu short story or afsana. In Hindi, he was the first author to introduce realism in his writings and pioneered the new form, fiction with a social purpose. Literature, according to him, is a powerful means of educating public opinion. Premchand died in 1936.