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Kafan And Other Short Stories-English
147 pages, Paperback
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About the author
Munshi Premchand
1,156 books1,161 followersMunshi 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.
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 - 10 of 10 reviews
November 29, 2022
Not until my mate Abhishek gave me this book did I learn anything about Munshi Premchand. In all honesty, I haven't explored much of Indian literature to recognise the juggernauts that Indians themselves recognise. So I'm glad that he got me this book because as good books often do, it allows me to learn a fair heap about Indian culture.
The short stories written by Premchand touch a fair bit of scope of Indian life - superstitions, religions, marriage, poverty, politics, working in menial jobs, having children. Some of these are issues that are common even in this day and age, where I live in Malaysia, the stories are applicable and echo the migrant workers who come from the subcontinent. Some stories are strictly Indian, especially where the celebration of Holi is mentioned.
Out of all the stories, Kafan is perhaps the most impactful as it frustrates you the most - for the poverty that the father and son experienced, and their propensity to alcoholism regardless of the consequences. It is perhaps nobody's fault that things are the way they are - that society isn't really able to help poor homeless men of lower castes, and in their own manner, that those whose lives are tied to alcohol and poverty cannot escape from it.
The other story that stuck out for me was "The Two Sisters" about a couple of sisters who try to outdo each other in their domestic lives. One sister seem to be worse off than the other, and the other while doing well isn't exactly as it seemed. From my personal experience with observing subcontinental culture, there should be a great sense of pride to have made it in life, though this may be something simple as to have a functional family, but there is always the push to flaunt this - and anything you are doing well in. I think this story carves into that aspect of Indian mentality really well.
Another one that is fresh on my mind is "Fine", where a struggling mother was constantly fined for making small mistakes as a cleaner. One day she had to take her child to work which caused an awkward interaction with her mostly belligerent boss. It is the small struggles of holding to a job and earning meagre salary, that each cent counts towards your family. Though it is a simple story (like most of the stories here), it shows that a little bit of compassion goes a long way. We don't know the struggle of the lady who's cleaning the hallway floors in our office after all.
The edition I was given was by the Maple Press, and I couldn't make out whether it is targeted for those unfamiliar with Indian culture, as there are footnotes to Indian words. I do appreciate this, as I wouldn't have any clue what phag or thakur could be. However, this book is perhaps the worst edited book that I've ever read with tons of misspellings which often interrupts the flow of the story as they are jarring.
The stories are translated from Urdu, but was first published in 1936, way before Indian independence and British presence is still strong. Although there are stories which relate to the interaction with British residents, such as in "Intoxications", the colonial element isn't strong in most of the stories. The book is a good avenue to Indian literature and criminally overlooked.
The short stories written by Premchand touch a fair bit of scope of Indian life - superstitions, religions, marriage, poverty, politics, working in menial jobs, having children. Some of these are issues that are common even in this day and age, where I live in Malaysia, the stories are applicable and echo the migrant workers who come from the subcontinent. Some stories are strictly Indian, especially where the celebration of Holi is mentioned.
Out of all the stories, Kafan is perhaps the most impactful as it frustrates you the most - for the poverty that the father and son experienced, and their propensity to alcoholism regardless of the consequences. It is perhaps nobody's fault that things are the way they are - that society isn't really able to help poor homeless men of lower castes, and in their own manner, that those whose lives are tied to alcohol and poverty cannot escape from it.
The other story that stuck out for me was "The Two Sisters" about a couple of sisters who try to outdo each other in their domestic lives. One sister seem to be worse off than the other, and the other while doing well isn't exactly as it seemed. From my personal experience with observing subcontinental culture, there should be a great sense of pride to have made it in life, though this may be something simple as to have a functional family, but there is always the push to flaunt this - and anything you are doing well in. I think this story carves into that aspect of Indian mentality really well.
Another one that is fresh on my mind is "Fine", where a struggling mother was constantly fined for making small mistakes as a cleaner. One day she had to take her child to work which caused an awkward interaction with her mostly belligerent boss. It is the small struggles of holding to a job and earning meagre salary, that each cent counts towards your family. Though it is a simple story (like most of the stories here), it shows that a little bit of compassion goes a long way. We don't know the struggle of the lady who's cleaning the hallway floors in our office after all.
The edition I was given was by the Maple Press, and I couldn't make out whether it is targeted for those unfamiliar with Indian culture, as there are footnotes to Indian words. I do appreciate this, as I wouldn't have any clue what phag or thakur could be. However, this book is perhaps the worst edited book that I've ever read with tons of misspellings which often interrupts the flow of the story as they are jarring.
The stories are translated from Urdu, but was first published in 1936, way before Indian independence and British presence is still strong. Although there are stories which relate to the interaction with British residents, such as in "Intoxications", the colonial element isn't strong in most of the stories. The book is a good avenue to Indian literature and criminally overlooked.
July 26, 2022
Kafan is going to take you 15 minutes to read. But in those 15 minutes, you will ask yourself 1500 questions. You will question your privilege, your moral standards and would want to think about resetting them. If there's one story,out of the 300 Premchand has written Kafan would definitely come on the top of my list. I don't think there's any book or movie that I have read or seen that would come as close to Kafan when it comes to the nature of the reality itself. If you want to Read one work of Premchand, go and Read Kafan
January 10, 2022
Kafan is a collection of short stories that draw inspiration from real life and highlight many of life's adversities that define human beings and their behaviours. This book delves deep into the psyche of a certain strata of the society who are destined to face more hardships than one can ever imagine and then how those hardships shape them, for the good or bad.
Premchand's writing is famous for bringing out the worst in mankind and going on to narrate what made them so in an astoundingly profound manner. His observation is so shrewd that we not only live the lives of his complex characters but also transform into better individuals if we allow the logic reasoning to settle under our skin.
Munshiji was a man of few words, and these stories arrive at the heart of the plot, in a mature and clever way; which is rare to be found today, without making one feel that it's just a short story. That's the brilliance of his approach and writing. In all these stories, the theme mostly is dark humor, interlaced with family drama and the desperation for better times. It is this particular facet that makes his literature timeless, and relevant through the ages.
If you haven't read his books, I urge you to start here, as these miniscule morsels of his unparalleled knack for what's at the core of life, is much more delectable and lucid than his full-blown novels. For some of you, the language might be tad difficult because Munshiji writes from the minds of the locals. I recommend you keep a translator app handy.
Read his books to taste what ageless literature feels like. It's bound to blow your mind.
P.S.: I read the hindi edition. Translated works are easily available on Amazon.
Premchand's writing is famous for bringing out the worst in mankind and going on to narrate what made them so in an astoundingly profound manner. His observation is so shrewd that we not only live the lives of his complex characters but also transform into better individuals if we allow the logic reasoning to settle under our skin.
Munshiji was a man of few words, and these stories arrive at the heart of the plot, in a mature and clever way; which is rare to be found today, without making one feel that it's just a short story. That's the brilliance of his approach and writing. In all these stories, the theme mostly is dark humor, interlaced with family drama and the desperation for better times. It is this particular facet that makes his literature timeless, and relevant through the ages.
If you haven't read his books, I urge you to start here, as these miniscule morsels of his unparalleled knack for what's at the core of life, is much more delectable and lucid than his full-blown novels. For some of you, the language might be tad difficult because Munshiji writes from the minds of the locals. I recommend you keep a translator app handy.
Read his books to taste what ageless literature feels like. It's bound to blow your mind.
P.S.: I read the hindi edition. Translated works are easily available on Amazon.
March 22, 2022
I remember reading some of the Indian literature during my high school days and used to always be gravitated towards literature from other countries.
But re-reading Indian literature after becoming somewhat of an adult, Munshi Premchand's short stories show a side of the history that was clouded from my perspective. The short stories show the wide range of emotions and ideologies that people had or at least felt in the past history of India, just like the current times. Kind of like a peek into people's minds from back in time. I decided to take it slow and read through the pages of this book thoroughly and well, I feel like that was a good decision.
But re-reading Indian literature after becoming somewhat of an adult, Munshi Premchand's short stories show a side of the history that was clouded from my perspective. The short stories show the wide range of emotions and ideologies that people had or at least felt in the past history of India, just like the current times. Kind of like a peek into people's minds from back in time. I decided to take it slow and read through the pages of this book thoroughly and well, I feel like that was a good decision.
October 1, 2020
This includes atrocious third-grader translations of facile stories that make it a masochistic (but easy) task to read. The only thing that I could probably concede is that the emotional contexts may have been missed.
June 21, 2020
Thank ....
Want to read
July 24, 2020i'm very excited to be read this book.
November 13, 2021
inescapable reality
December 14, 2025
great stories to understand the society setup in pre independence India
August 19, 2021
The dehumanizing nature of poverty is brilliantly captured by Premchand in this work.
How poverty and stratification within the society disempowers and kills the basic human emotions within normal people is the underlying theme of this work.
This was probably the later phase of premchand's life when he became aware of caste related atrocities in a better way.
To see the story in a visual form,one can see the cinematic portrayal of this work by two maestros Mrinal Sen and Gulzar,who made films on this short story in a brilliant form.
How poverty and stratification within the society disempowers and kills the basic human emotions within normal people is the underlying theme of this work.
This was probably the later phase of premchand's life when he became aware of caste related atrocities in a better way.
To see the story in a visual form,one can see the cinematic portrayal of this work by two maestros Mrinal Sen and Gulzar,who made films on this short story in a brilliant form.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews