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गुप्त धन

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This is a Hindi literary classic.

209 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 3, 2016

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About the author

Munshi Premchand

1,156 books1,158 followers
Munshi Premchand (Hindi: मुंशी प्रेमचंद) was an Indian writer famous for his modern Hindustani literature. He is one of the most celebrated writers of the Indian subcontinent,and is regarded as one of the foremost Hindustani writers of the early twentieth century.

Born Dhanpat Rai, he began writing under the pen name "Nawab Rai", but subsequently switched to "Premchand", while he is also known as "Munshi Premchand", Munshi being an honorary prefix. A novel writer, story writer and dramatist, he has been referred to as the "Upanyas Samrat" ("Emperor among Novelists") by some Hindi writers. His works include more than a dozen novels, around 250 short stories, several essays and translations of a number of foreign literary works into Hindi.

Premchand is considered the first Hindi author whose writings prominently featured realism. His novels describe the problems of the poor and the urban middle-class. His works depict a rationalistic outlook, which views religious values as something that allows the powerful hypocrites to exploit the weak. He used literature for the purpose of arousing public awareness about national and social issues and often wrote about topics related to corruption, child widowhood, prostitution, feudal system, poverty, colonialism and on the India's freedom movement.

Several of his early works, such as A Little Trick and A Moral Victory, satirised the Indians who cooperated with the British colonial government.

In the 1920s, he was influenced by Mahatma Gandhi's non-cooperation movement and the accompanying struggle for social reform. During this period, his works dealt with the social issues such as poverty, zamindari exploitation (Premashram, 1922), dowry system (Nirmala, 1925), educational reform and political oppression (Karmabhumi, 1931).

In his last days, he focused on village life as a stage for complex drama, as seen in his most famous work Godan as well as the short-story collection Kafan (1936).Premchand believed that social realism was the way for Hindi literature, as opposed to the "feminine quality", tenderness and emotion of the contemporary Bengali literature.

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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
Profile Image for Mansi.
117 reviews
February 20, 2017
how a righteous man and his son lose their life over hidden wealth. wealth which is never even useful to them. Just the lust and greed to acquire can lead to ruinous consequences.
9 reviews
December 6, 2021
Good stories

Can't say if they meet Munshi Oremchand's standards. Though some them are not set in rural settings but nevertheless are nice to read
Profile Image for Rupin Chaudhry.
160 reviews10 followers
January 15, 2017
I am too dwarf to comment on the works of his genius.
The books is a collection of short stories reflecting the social fabric of from the early 20th century India. The wonderful mix of pure-Hindi with Urdu and little bit of English makes it a difficult and slow read but nevertheless quite captivating.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews

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